WWE TLC 2017 Results: Highlights, Analysis, and Grades

Photo Source: WWE.com

AJ Styles vs. Finn Balor

Result: Finn Balor defeated AJ Styles via pinfall

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

First off, MICHAEL COLE JUST SAID THAT BOTH STYLES AND BALOR ONCE LED THE SAME FACTION. Shots fired!

All kidding aside, the crowd was 110% correct in chanting “THIS IS AWESOME” before anything even happened. And once it did get started, it was most certainly awesome from the onset.

Hey, let’s be real, folks: It doesn’t matter what I write here, it won’t do this match justice. So rather than run down everything in a play-by-play format, I’m just going to mention how great the match was in general.

Judging from what we saw, and the style the match took, I’m guessing that this match was both called on the fly, and had less backstage producer input than most WWE matches. Styles, even in his short WWE career, has earned the trust of the higher-ups (aka Vince) to basically do what works for him. And if he was summoned last minute from South America, how much time could he have had to work things out with Balor and, say, Dean Malenko?

No, this was basically an indie match in front of a WWE crowd, on a WWE stage. Things were fast-paced, intense, and had very little down time. Both guys got their “stuff” in, and it was a crowd pleaser from bell to bell. For a last minute match, you couldn’t ask for anything better.

Finn taking the victory is absolutely the right call here, too – especially if he’s out there as The Demon. Styles is great and all, but this is a Raw pay per view, and The Demon is (in kayfabe) the most powerful entity in WWE. Plus, once SmackDown kicks off on Tuesday, commentary can always blame the lengthy commute Styles had from Argentina on the loss.

Either way, it was a hell of a match.