9 Things That Must Happen At WWE TLC 2017

by John Bills

1. The Shield (More Accurately, Roman Reigns) Prevail

the shield
WWE.com

They couldn’t possibly bring The Shield back in official form just to lose, could they? This match is an almighty mess in truth. WWE realised that the fans were unlikely to buy The Shield going up against a generic trio, so the decision was made to stack the odds against the Hounds of Justice. The Miz, Cesaro and Sheamus weren’t going to cut it, so Braun Strowman and Kane were added to the mix a well. There may well be too much going on for this to be as good as a Shield return match should be.

The end game of all of this seems to be Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar, so it won’t come as a surprise when Reigns picks up the win following a Spear, most likely to Kane. It shouldn’t come as a surprise anyway - this reunion is designed to give Roman Reigns a popularity boost, not to bring Ambrose and Rollins up to his perceived level.

Large portions of WWE’s fanbase may not like that, but it is what it is. Having this match end in any way other than a Roman Reigns pinfall adds unnecessary clutter to the long-term plan. WWE must keep this simple, and that means The Big Dog getting a big win over the Big Red Machine.

The Shield can then be preoccupied in a Survivor Series elimination tag team match, before the road to WrestleMania gets underway in the new year. WWE TLC is unlikely to be the show of 2017, but it could well exceed (admittedly low) expectations nonetheless.

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Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.