WWE TLC 2017 5 Takeaways: Finn Balor and AJ Styles Tear Down The House

Photo Source: WWE.com

5. Tables, Ladders, and Chairs…..Or Lack Thereof

For a show that has a title that sounds as violent as TLC does, Sunday’s show, up until the main event at least, was pretty tame. And sure, the eight men in the one TLC match of the night clearly packed enough of those objects into their 35 minutes of mayhem, but why not the rest of the show? There were five other matches on the main card, all of which had at least some animosity attached to them. Why not infuse some of the brutality that TLC is know for into those as well? Come on, the Cruiserweight tag match mixed with some tables would elevated that somewhat pedestrian match ten-fold.

This was the ninth installment of TLC and the preceding eight shows had been loaded with these gimmick matches, and all, with the exception of 2014, were solid cards. Of the eight, every one except for 2013, had a minimum of four TLC matches, or some type of variance of one. Why the lazy booking this year? TLC always gives the superstars a chance to get hardcore and the fans normally eat it up. Heck, even though the proposed Wyatt/Balor match was asinine at best, it would’ve been the culmination of a three month long feud and clearly could’ve used a vehicle to spice it up. But was that going to be a TLC match? Nope, just a good old singles match.

It really was a strangely booked card considering that every other gimmick heavy PPV this year lived up to it’s name. Extreme Rules had three out of the box type matches, Money in the Bank had two briefcase matches, and Hell In A Call hosted two of their own cage bouts. But once again the story telling let down a show that clearly could’ve used a shot of life. Let’s hope the creative team learned from this.