WWE TLC 2016: 10 Awesome Moments
5. Baron Corbin Sends Kalisto 6ft Deep
Anticipation levels weren’t exactly high for Baron Corbin vs. Kalisto last night. Chairs matches are rarely anything more than rudimentary hardcore bouts with contrived set-up spots to shoehorn the chairs into the action, and their feud has lacked in heat. Corbin vs. Kalisto was SmackDown’s sleepiest storyline heading into TLC, but they were somehow able to work one of the night’s best matches.
It was a classic David vs. Goliath format, with Corbin producing the best performance of his WWE career thus far. It helps that Kalisto is so great as an undersized underdog, but The Lone Wolf looked like a brute last night, and his schoolyard bully tactics are finally paying dividends. This was a real coming out party for a man who’s struggled since transitioning to the main roster, and the match produced a number of awesome moments.
Whittling it down to just one is tough. There was Kalisto hitting a seated Senton on a pile of chairs and Corbin sending the former Lucha Dragon to the shadow realm with a mid-air chairshot later in the match, but Corbin’s brutal Deep Six takes the top prize. Kalisto tried a dive to the outside, but Corbin caught him out of the sky and showed brutal power in planting him on the floor, rubber-stamping the progress he’s made as a performer.