7. TLC 2012 - 177k worldwide, 75k domestic
Top Matches: John Cena vs. Dolph Ziggler (ladder); Big Show vs. Sheamus (chairs); The Shield vs. Kane, Daniel Bryan, & Ryback (TLC)Awesome matches: Shield vs. Hell No & Ryback, Dolph Ziggler vs. John Cena
Great matches: Big Show vs. Sheamus, Rhodes Scholors vs. Rey Mysterio & Sin Cara, Kofi Kingston vs. Wade Barrett
Lame: Diva's Battle Royal, Antonio Cesaro vs. R-Truth, Eve vs. Naomi, 3MB vs. Alberto Del Rio, The Miz & The Brooklyn Brawler December can be a rough month for domestic PPV buys. When you look at average 2006-2012 domestic buys, December finishes dead last at 110,000 domestic buys average, more than 10k below September/October. ( The one exception was 2013 because WWE tried to juice buys seriously with the the Randy Orton/John Cena unification match.) After a surprise debut at 2012 Survivor Series (121k domestic buys, 209k worldwide buys) new WWE stars The Shield made their official PPV match debut as legitimate competitors as they teamed up against Team Hell No (Kane and Daniel Bryan) and rising star Ryback. The headline match for the show was the battle between another rising star, Dolph Ziggler, and WWE megastar John Cena. While both matches delivered, fans didn't buy this event. Why? Daine Pavlowski had some good points in
his article. Perhaps it was fatigue - Sheamus/Big Show for the World Heavyweight Championship had already been on both Hell in a Cell and Survivor Series PPV. Perhaps it was missing star power - WWE Champion CM Punk absence was out of action following a Ryback attack (actually, he had knee surgery). Perhaps it was the stipulations - the six-man match promised spectacle but no titles were up for grabs. Perhaps it was timing - with the Rock returning at Royal Rumble fans just saw this as a "can skip" show. And they did.
TLC 2012 Verdict: Watch it! TLC PPVs rarely fail to deliver and this is no exception.