6 Ups And 10 Downs From WWE TLC 2019

Downs...

10. A Minor Gripe

It’s hard to take a swipe at the SmackDown Tag Team Championship ladder match, which was a highly entertaining contest, but still, just one grumble that would be easy to fix.

What’s the goal of a ladder match? Beat your opponent(s) so badly that you can climb the ladder to retrieve the title(s). So whenever you see someone doing something other than that, your antennae go up.

During the match, everyone was taken out, leaving only Big E standing. With one ladder standing, he went a retrieved a second and set it up. Then his slugged down a reviving Scott Dawson. Then he grabbed a third ladder, and slugged Dawson again. He set up a ladder bridge, which would come into play shortly thereafter.

But the point remains. If Big E had time to grab two ladders, why didn’t he just climb the already set-up ladder and retain the tag titles?

Setting up these big spots are tough in ladder matches, but these are pros: they’ve got to disguise it a little better than having everything grind to an absolute halt while you wonder what they’re doing. Thankfully, it was the only really down spot of an otherwise fine match, but it was really noticeable.