5 Ups And 7 Downs From WWE TLC 2020

5. Fighting From Underneath

This is not meant to knock AJ Styles, who is every bit a serious world title contender. But Drew McIntyre spending a good chunk of their TLC match fighting back from a knee injury was just too much.

WWE clearly has spent all of 2020 to convince us the McIntyre is the nearly invincible world champion, save for one hiccup with Randy Orton earlier this fall. He’s toppled Brock Lesnar, beaten Orton three times, defeated Big Show and Bobby Lashley, and battled Roman Reigns to the limit.

But then AJ attacked Drew’s knee and the champ spent half the match rolling around on the mat grabbing his leg. The match itself wasn’t bad, but if we were going to have a match with McIntyre having to fight from underneath for so much of it, then someone like Omos or Miz should have gotten involved sooner. Or maybe actually have Styles assault McIntyre’s knee last week instead of chairshots to the back to set up the injury for the TLC match.

Instead, this just felt like the WWE formula for a TLC match pitting a smaller heel against a larger face – chop him down to size and control a lot of the contest.