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Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWE TLC 2012

Wwetlc2012

WWE Tables, Ladders and Chairs 2012
December 16, 2012
Brooklyn, NY
Reviewed on February 5, 2015

Change is coming.

Ever since the ”Summer of Punk” last year, WWE has focused on bringing in new and popular talent that also happen to be popular on the internet as well. For the first time, it looks as if WWE is listening to the “IWC” and the “smarks”.

Daniel Bryan, the former Bryan Danielson, is a former World Champion at this point. CM Punk is the reigning WWE Champion and has been for the past 13 months. Antonio Cesaro, the former Claudio Castagnoli, is at the US/IC title level. The Shield, who debuted a month prior in the main event, have one “WWE type” in Roman Reigns, but two IWC types as well in Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins (Jon Moxley and Tyler Black). Perhaps most importantly for this show is Dolph Ziggler, in the main event here against John Cena.

Rest assured though, those old school WWE type talents are still around. Ryback went from squashing jobbers to fighting CM Punk for the title. Sheamus held the World title for most of the year. Kane is still ticking in a fun tag team with Bryan.

But the point is there is tons of talent and for once, the IWC, the smarks, are seeing things their way. And to be honest, their way looks pretty damn awesome.

The Card

Tables Match: #1 Contender to the World Tag Team Championship
Team Rhodes Scholars vs. Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara

This was the last gasp attempt to get Sin Cara over, which was to team with Mysterio.

I don’t remember if both men have to go through tables here, but I am assuming that’s the case.

Sandow and Cody run down the crowd. If you are watching on the Network, the crowd shot at the 6:18 mark would feature me in the middle. Yeah, I’m the goof in the black shirt.

Awesome twisting armdrag for Sin Cara. Moves like that was what go Mistico over in the first place.

Innovative move here. Cody traps Sin Cara’s leg between the steel steps and the ringpost, then drives a table into the steps.

Team Rhodes Scholars win in 9:30. Sin Cara goes for a springboard, but Cody Rhodes runs in and pushes him off the top rope and Cara goes flying into the table. Awesome finish and a great opener to start the PPV. Right team went over too. This might have been the original Sin Cara’s best match in the WWE. He just never got it going. Sandow and Rhodes didn’t beat the tag champs for the belts though.

Nice Shield promo. It’s on glitch old security camera footage, which is a nice touch. It’s also a great promo, as they run down Ryback, Daniel Bryan and Kane. Interesting comment about Ryback being reckless and such, I wonder if that was a semi-shoot there.

United States Championship
Antonio Cesaro© vs. R-Truth

Cesaro had the remixed Malenko music here…which to be honest I think he should bring back.

R-Truth does a crazy man comeback. I do like that WWE never ignored his transition to a crazy man in 2011 when he turned heel.

Cesaro pins R-Truth in 6:39. Neutralizer (which I never really liked as a finisher) gets the win. Back and forth standard match here. Good for what it was. Cesaro cuts a post match promo, pointing out that the fans booing the US Champ is like the fans booing the US. Shame he’d basically be in the same spot, if not lower, two years later.

Ziggler promo. He thinks John Cena is getting preferential treatment. He wonders why Cena gets a shot at MITB when he lost his MITB earlier in the year…and he has nothing on the line. Yeah…that’s a good point actually.

Miz TV. 3Mb are his guests, and they end up arguing with the Spanish announcers. That draws out Ricardo Rodriguez, and 3MB threaten him. Alberto Del Rio basically turns face in making the save. A very effective reason to turn, as it’s been shown that the only person Del Rio really cared about was Ricardo. It would pay off until the Mania feud where Jack Swagger’s involvement killed any heat Del Rio had.

Two other things to point out from this: Miz is a pretty terrible face. And 3MB were awesome. While Drew McIntyre should have probably done better, I would have never guessed Jinder Mahal would work out in any way.

Intercontinental Championship
Kofi Kingston© vs. Wade Barrett

Kofi was beyond stale at this point. He had been doing the same thing for 4 years at this point. As a result, Barrett was getting huge cheers.

Amazing side slam by Barrett, but it was really Kofi’s selling by swinging around that made it awesome.

Kofi Kingston retains the title by pin in 8:39. A close Trouble in Paradise wins it for Kingston. Pretty disappointing result, although Barrett would win the title soon enough anyway. Match was solid. That’s never been the problem with Kingston afterall.

A pretty good start to this PPV so far.

We get CM Punk in his own personal skybox! Promo time!

It’s a brilliant promo. Punk states that his 392 day world title reign is just the beginning. Shame that wasn’t true.

Tables, Ladders and Chairs
The Shield vs. Ryback, Kane and Daniel Bryan

This came about as this was to be Punk vs. Ryback for the WWE Title, but as Punk explained, Ryback injured him two weeks ago and he couldn’t compete.

This would be the Shield’s first WWE match.

Action packed from the start. Ryback gets some boos, some cheers and some Goldberg chants.

The beauty of the Shield: everything they did gelled like they were a team. They save one another. They control the ring together. All that stuff. It’s why they ended up being so effective.

Reigns gets propped up against a ladder and receives a dropkick from Daniel Bryan. Imagine how WWE fans would feel about that now!

Ryback had the advantage a bit…but the Shield has taken over. Triple powerbomb through the Spanish announcer’s table to Ryback!

Bryan nearly gets decapitated by a table side that was propped on the top rope. Ouch!

Double superplex off the table that was on the top rope! Kane makes the save!

They try to superplex Kane, but Kane just shoves Rollins off the top to the floor!

Chokeslam to Ambrose on an open chair! My god!

Reigns spears Kane through the barricade. It’s just awesome spot after awesome spot here.

Curb Stomp to Bryan on an open chair! I don’t think that was Rollins’ finish yet though.

Ryback is back!

The Shield get the advantage on Ryback too, and beat him down the entry way. They get Ryback on a table and Rollins climbs a 15 footer. Ryback comes to though and catches Rollins…and sends him flying though a stack of tables!

The Shield win when Roman Reigns pinned Daniel Bryan in 22:46. Roman Reigns hits a top rope powerbomb through a table on Bryan, and Ryback can’t get back in time to make the save. Just wow. Incredible match, incredible debut for the Shield. My 2012 Match of the Year. An action packed 22 minutes for sure. Ryback and The Shield looked great.

Diva’s Championship
Eve© vs. Naomi

Naomi won a pre-show battle royal for this title shot. Kaitlyn and Eve had been feuding, and Eve cost Kaitlyn the battle royal earlier.

Eve retains by pin in 3:07. Spinning neck breaker wins the match for Eve. Better in some ways than the standard Divas match as Naomi did some flippy fake outs, although she also botched a jump to the top rope and a leg lariat in the corner. It was still passable.

Chairs Match: World Championship
Big Show© vs. Sheamus

This was a pretty awesome heel run for the Big Show, and to be honest I wasn’t expecting it at this point. At Survivor Series, Sheamus hit Big Show with 30 chair shots, setting up this match.

Slow start, but crowd wakes up when Sheamus begins to beat the crap out of Big Show with a chair…then slams him!

Vader Bomb from the Big Show with a chair on top of Sheamus. Wouldn’t that hurt Show more?

Sheamus his White Noise on two open chairs on Big Show! Ouch. Sick move.

Big Show retains by pin in 14:17. Big Show gets a giant sized chair and the chairshot wins it. Silly, but I think that’s a good creative finish actually. Match wasn’t too bad either, even if it was a bit slow. Definitely was the end of the Sheamus run as an elite-top guy though. Big Show would continue his effective heel run and put over ADR huge on Smackdown…in a match that should have been at Mania.

AJ Lee is apologizing to John Cena for screwing something up. The Barclay’s Center is dying for an AJ heel turn with Dolph winning tonight for sure.

3 Man Band vs. Alberto Del Rio, The Miz and ?

This match was set-up earlier. Miz announces The Brooklyn Brawler as the surprise partner. I mean, it’s fun because we’re in Brooklyn and he gets a good pop.

Del Rio with an awesome suicide dive out of nowhere to McIntyre.

Del Rio, Miz and the Brawler win when Jiner Mahal submitted in 3:24. “Brooklyn” Crab for the win. Just a fun cool down match before the main event.

MITB Briefcase on the Line: Ladder Match
Dolph Ziggler (MITB) vs. John Cena

Storyline here: AJ Lee was the General Manager of RAW, but resigned because of allegations of an affair with John Cena. Even in traditional terms no idea why Cena would be the face here. Ziggler and his girlfriend, GM Supervisor Vickie Guerrero were trying to put the screws to Cena. Vince McMahon got Vickie to make Cena vs. Ziggler in a MITB Ladder match (way to give up Dolph there Vickie). So here we are.

Ziggler just looks like a superstar here.

Cena slightly messes up a monkey flip. Of course the fans are all over him for that.

Ziggler locks Cena in a sleeper, but Cena carries Ziggler up the ladder. Unfortunately for both, Cena passes out, and both go flying off and crash through a table. Cool spot.

Ziggler climbs the ladder…but Cena ends up pressing the ladder AND Ziggler over his head. Ziggler escapes. Another really cool spot there.

One of the worst looking hurricanranas I’ve seen into a table by Cena. Somehow it worked though.

Vickie Guerrero comes out with a chair…but AJ takes out her using all Cena moves, including a Five Knuckle Shuffle.

Dolph Ziggler wins in 23:16. Cena climbs the ladder…but AJ turns and pushes the ladder down! Ziggler runs in with a superkick to finish off Cena. AJ flashes a crazy smile, then skips off as Ziggler wins to a huge reaction. Great main event here with the right result. Ziggler looks like a real superstar here and SURELY WWE would capitalize on him in 2013.

Of course, that didn’t actually happen. Cena actually got his win back on RAW that luckily no one remembers. Ziggler put on a great show in the Rumble, but Cena won that. Big E. Langston got involved in the AJ/Ziggler pairing, and at first was just the muscle. After Ziggler cashed in MITB and won the World Heavyweight Title, the crowd was solidly behind him. Then it all went downhill with an ill-fated double turn with him and Del Rio, then Big E. turned on him as well. That feud went nowhere, and suddenly Ziggler was back in the US Title scene. It was really a shame. Had Ziggler cashed in on new WWE Champ Cena, he’d be cemented today as a top guy (assuming he didn’t lose, of course).

The Ziggler story kind of defines this show overall. TLC 2012, without considering anything else, is a great show. Everything was pretty good, and the big matches were great. But long term…nothing other than the Shield mattered. Ziggler went back to midcard status after a pseudo-top run. Sheamus has been trending downward ever since. They didn’t know what to do with Ryback past the next few months, and an ill-fated heel turn followed. Again, only the Shield really kept going and became big stars.

Big, big stars.

Final Grade: A-

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWE Royal Rumble 2012

RoyalRumble2012

WWE Royal Rumble 2012
January 29, 2012
St. Louis, MO
Reviewed on April 19, 2014

Background: The Summer of Punk is in full gear…but sadly it already lost some of it’s luster (really, once HHH pinned Punk at Night of Champions the angle was never the same). While based off the guys holding all the belts (your champs after TLC 2011: Punk, Bryan, Ryder, Rhodes, Bourne, Kingston), we all knew The Rock was coming back soon and John Cena would be in the Mania main and HHH and Undertaker would be back. A lot of change that ultimately didn’t matter and the WWE didn’t really feel all that different until Wrestlemania XXX (and we need to wait and see how that turns out). The Summer of Punk kicked off the Reality Era…but some storylines remained old and dated. I was all for Kane coming back with the mask and all, but it already turned out to be rather comical. The result of the John Cena-Kane feud was the exact opposite of The Rock vs. Mankind in early 1999.

Anyway, the Royal Rumble is one of the most fun events in the WWE calendar year, but last year WWE took a misstep with the 40 man match. This year though the roster is WAY too thin for something like that to work, so back to 30 we are.

We are in a period where change was clashing up against the old guard. Let’s see how the Rumble works through that.

The Card

World Heavyweight Championship: Triple Threat Steel Cage
Daniel Bryan© vs. Big Show vs. Mark Henry

Story: Henry and Show had feuded over the title in 2011. After Show finally won it at TLC 11, Bryan cashed in for the belt. This made Bryan a heel. Bryan hasn’t established “YES!” yet and was a legit heel here.

Note: Mark Henry was reportedly injured here. Apparently he was getting pissed a Vince for making him wrestle. I call bs on that. I mean he was injured. But I’m sure the Rumble and Mania payoffs were just fine for him.

Big Show was an energetic face here, and it actually worked for him for a while.

Daniel Bryan chants. I guess he was getting cheered afterall.

Smart booking early on with Bryan trying to be sneaky and escape whenever possible.

Henry yelling at a ref to close that door was epic.

Tornado DDT on Show from Bryan!

Daniel Bryan wins in 9:08. Weird finish. Show Kos Henry, but Bryan breaks up the pin. Bryan runs up the cage but Big Show is on his tail. This ends up with Bryan hanging from Big Show’s arm…then finally dropping to the floor. I guess they were going with the Bryan is a fluke champion angle…which is ridiculously lame. Right guy went over, but the match and finish sucked. A lot of people thought the finish was a botch.

We get some career review of Cena. How can anyone care? I mean we know he’s John Cena, WWE legend/icon already. Whatever.

Eight Diva Tag Team Match
Natayla, The Bellas, Beth Phoenix vs. Eve, Tamina, Alicia Fox, Kelly Kelly

Matching attires for the heels!

Eve was actually a pretty good wrestler.

Hey Kelly, how about when you do a flying headscissors you don’t let go of the scissors before the bump?

Kelly with the standard fly into everyone else on the floor spot.

Team Phoenix wins when Beth pins Kelly. Actually a good finish where Beth hard tags one of the Bellas, tells her to get out of the ring and Glam Slams Kelly. Anyway, nothing special here, I guess it wasn’t horrible or anything. Certainly not good though.

Big Johnny wheels Zack Ryder into his office or something, and Ryder’s back isn’t broken anymore. Kane had chokeslammed him through the stage on RAW. This whole feud was awful…but could have worked had Ryder actually pinned Kane at the end. Big Johnny was being nice just because his job was in jeopardy and HHH was gonna fire him the next night…which didn’t happen cause of Undertaker.

Kane vs. John Cena

Huge boos for Cena. Good thing that video earlier worked.

Five minutes and a chinlock. Woo.

Totally forgot about the Claw! Awful idea for a finisher.

Double Countout in 10:56. Do I even need to explain why this finish is horrible? Kane beats the hell out of Cena in the back, then finds Ryder. Tombstone to Ryder. Eve cries. Cena’s back. Chokeslam to Cena. Kane standing tall at the end was actually nice, but otherwise, horrible all around.

Really bad start to this PPV. Thank goodness it is the Rumble, so the Rumble can save it.

Now a Rock video. Yay?

Brodus Clay vs. Drew McIntyre

Clay had just debuted as the Funkasauras. I liked it at first, but this got old by Mania.

Clay pins McIntyre in 1:05. What the Funk for the win. Nice waste of PPV time.

WWE Championship
CM Punk© vs. Dolph Ziggler

Story: Really Punk vs. Big Johnny. Laurinaitis was intending to screw Punk at the Rumble until he was informed he might be fired as GM of Raw. He was the ref for this, but decided to become a side ref instead.

Ziggler had been a hot heel as it was though.

Laurinaitis forces Vickie Guerrero to the back.

Damn Cole saying Johnny was a better worker than Booker T. Using the word worker was what was surprising there.

Punk with some great mockery of Ziggler.

Ziggler actually trips Punk on the top rope and Punk takes a back bump. That was a little nuts to be honest.

Fameasser countered into a spinning powerbomb! Nice by Punk! Hell nice by both.

Punk beats Ziggler three different ways, but Laurinaitis misses it for legit ways (well the 3rd one was questionable). Punk calls Johnny “clownshoes”, which is awesome.

GTS into a Fameasser! Crazy false finish that the fans bought hook, line, sinker.

CM Punk retains by pin in 14:33. GTS for the win. Ref and Big Johnny make the count. Great match, absolutely saved this show so far. Furthered the storytelling. For anyone who thought it buried Ziggler…look at the rest of Ziggler’s 2012. He looked great.

Royal Rumble

Most people’s favorite match of the year. Money favorite this year is on Chris Jericho, who just returned all cryptically with the end of the world stuff.

There was a gimmick for this Rumble…ANYONE can enter. Remember that.

#1 is The Miz. I think he lost a match to end up here.

Miz promo. Gonna prove everyone wrong tonight. I would have marked. We are literally at the Miz’s last great days here.

#2 is Alex Riley. Hard to believe this was a main event duo at this point last year. Sorry, but Alex Riley sucks.

Riley is gone. Whatever.

#3 is R-Truth! Just getting the Miz’s rivals out of the way I see.

#4 is Cody Rhodes!

#5 is Justin Gabriel.

#6 is Primo!

R-Truth is gone!

#7 is Mick Foley! Finally time for some fun.

Foley’s knee is shot, that run wasn’t pretty. Huge Foley chant!

Foley gets rid of Primo.

#8 is Alberto Del Rio. Wait…a broken down car comes. It’s Ricardo! Amazing!

Ricardo goes after Cody!

Foley and Ricardo send Gabriel out.

Ricardo does all the ADR mannerisms. Good stuff.

#9 is Santino! Even more nuttyness.

Some weird rolling from Ricardo and Santino. What? Santino sends Ricardo out.

Cobra vs. Socko!

#10 is Epico. Yay?

Foley with his 3rd elimination! Bye Epico.

Miz and Cody break up the Cobra vs. Socko war.

Santino and Foley are out thanks to Rhodes.

#11 is Kofi Kingston. Got a Riddler theme going here.

#12 is Jerry Lawler! Really fun so far.

Cody quickly dumps Lawler out. Gotta like Rhodes getting rid of all the fun entrants.

#13 is Ezekiel Jackson.

#14 is Jinder Mahal. Must mean Khali is soon.

#15 is The Great Khali. There goes Mahal. Jackson is gone too from Khali.

#16 is Hunico.

#17 is Booker T! Cole is upset!

Kofi with an awesome spot of handstanding on the floor and avoiding elimination. This started a trend.

#18 is Ziggler.

#19 is Hacksaw Jim Duggan! Crowd is HOT for Hacksaw!

Duggan, Khali and Booker are all gone.

#20 is Michael Cole!

#21 is Kharama! Huge surprise!

Lawler and Booker pull Cole out.

Muscle Buster to Ziggler!

Kharama gets rid of Hunico…but Ziggler takes her out.

#22 is Sheamus. Time for the serious portion of the Rumble.

Good bye Kofi.

#23 is Road Dogg! Hard to believe he’d have a tag title run in his future still.

#24 is Jey Uso. Did not care about the Usos at this point.

#25 is Jack Swagger.

#26 is Wade Barrett.

#27 is David Otunga.

#28 is the hometown Randy Orton. Huge pop.

There goes an Uso and Barrett. Poor Barrett.

#29 is Chris Jericho! No one knows who #30 is.

Otunga is gone.

#30 is Big Show. Huge groans from the crowd. Very disappointing #30.

Swagger is gone.

Show just dumps Rhodes and Miz. Horrible.

Show, Sheamus, Orton and Jericho.

Orton gets rid of Show, Jericho gets rid of Orton. Best possible scenario there.

Sheamus wins the Rumble in 54:55. They have a great match for five minutes before Sheamus Brogue Kicks Jericho off the apron for the win. Fans were 70-30 for Jericho here…but Sheamus got a good pop for the win, probably because it was pretty damn surprising he’d win when Jericho was the smart money. There are two trains of thought for this Rumble: Not good because of the thin roster and amount of silliness, or really fun with a good finish. And I am with the latter. I’ll take fun and a good finish as long as there was no ridiculous stupidity involved. I do think what holds it back from being a top tier Rumble is the first argument, but this is very good, no doubt about it.

So….

First half of the show blew. Absolutely blew. It was D quality. But then Punk and Ziggler had what had to be an A world title match, and the Rumble was a solid B+.

Historically Sheamus would win the title…but how he did it killed him. It also made Bryan. And Punk-Johnny continues. We also say Ziggler shine again in a PPV title match. So some historical significance, even if not a lot.

Tough to call. Can’t be in the As obviously, too much crap. B+ is even pushing it due to the lack of history and again, the first half was crap. So…

Final Grade: B