WWE TLC 2018: 10 Things We Learned

10. Less Is More

TLC 2018
WWE.com

Stick the two Kickoff matches onto the main card and fans in San Jose witnessed a full 14 matches on Sunday night. That's 1999-2000 WCW-era levels of overload, and it was a bit too much. Let's run down the list and take a look at exactly how many were essential to the show before it went live on air.

Of the 14, only Daniel Bryan's WWE Title defence against AJ Styles, the Triple Threat Women's TLC headliner and (possibly, although it ended up playing before sporadic "boring" chants) Seth Rollins' quest to retain the IC Title against Dean Ambrose seemed marquee. Literally everything else could easily have taken place on Raw or SmackDown.

The most glaringly inconsequential were bouts like The Bar's SmackDown Tag-Team title defence against The New Day and The Usos, Ronda Rousey vs. Nia Jax, Natalya vs. Ruby Riott and Rey Mysterio vs. Randy Orton. The talent worked hard, but all four were house show fodder, not pay-per-view classics.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.