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WWE TLC 2017


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Biggest disappointment was not getting to see more of Drew Gulak's slides...

 

Gulak is an absolute highlight for me each week - his delivery and comic timing on his lines are fantastic and genuinely make me laugh. I also thought his feud with Mustafa Ali and the 2 out of 3 falls match they had a couple of months back was great. Excited now for the match they are building to with Tozawa.

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If it wasn't clear already, AJ Styles is a miracle worker. In the past year, he's caused me to greatly enjoy matches with Dean Ambrose, Kevin Owens, and Finn Balor, which I thought was impossible.

 

Asuka having a competitive match with Emma in her debut on the main roster is kind of annoying, but that's just how WWE does things. My bigger concern going forward is that she'll end up being Flanderized. Like, once Vince discovers she does hip attacks, they'll center everything around her ass like with Jack Gallagher and his umbrella. I do find it amusing that they redid the WM29 Undertaker storyline to determine her opponent when at the time it was considered such an awful idea that the writer who came up with it was basically fired on the spot.

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Michael Cole also wasted no time in pointing out that Asuka "just likes to have fun out there!" She'll be cutting promos in no time making silly jokes & being treated like Nakamura on Smackdown. Whom also debuted in a match where his opponent got way too much offense when they'd been a glorified jobber lately, much like Emma. Seems really counter-productive. I like Emma and wish WWE did more with her but that wasn't the time. That showcase should have been to make Asuka a star on the main roster. That match did a helluva lot more for Emma than it did Asuka.

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For a while, this was the most watchable WWE PPV in a long time. Enjoyed the two women's match a lot, although Asuka should have been put over much more strongly and the fact they played the "old" card for James is beyond stupid. The tag cruisermatch was very fun too.

 

Didn't watch Enzo & Elias matches, because life is short.

 

AJ Styles vs Finn Balor was legit great, and yet another proof Styles is one of the greatest ever. Balor really should binge watch every Great Muta match ever, because the Demon character is a bunch of cool looking paint and nothing more.

 

The main event was like a fun clusterfuck of a match that turned so-bad-it's-good in a WCW 95/96 way (glad I'm not the only one who had Uncensored flashbacks), then the whole Kane kills Braun thingy happened and it became legit offensive. When you put the ratio of TV Time / terrible matches-angles-pushes together, Glen Jacobs has to be the all-time least enjoyable wrestler ever. Why the fuck is he on a PPV main event at 50, and getting the best of fucking Braun ? Anyway, Kane is one the worst ever and then the match became just awful and stupid as opposed to fun and stupid. Then Kurt Angle came back, as every guy who has to be carried back half-dead always does (how lazy can the booking get at this point with this shit ?) and at least they sent the fans home happy. I guess overly bloated garbage brawls are the brand new thing now, it's like a 1998 revival mixed with self-conscious epic or something....

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I understand why they thought to use Kurt Angle in that spot to appease the fans, but I don't know. There's still something really absurd and off-putting about the booking to me. Nothing says badass, renegade band of brothers like your boss opting in to participate and play on your team when the chips are down, am I right?

But it is what it is. Questionable booking aside, the matches were fun and the show was entertaining enough overall. These PPVs (or special events, or whatever) are absolutely a whole lot easier to enjoy when they're all I follow.

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I'm probably slightly lower on the Styles/Balor match than most people, but overall I thought from top to bottom this show was decent and wasn't at all a chore to sit through, which it very well could have been with the last minute alterations. Only gripe really is the Asuka match. I know people above have mentioned this, but it just beggars belief that they didn't think her coming in and destroying the division wasn't the way to go. Booking aside, I'm sure Graves was this close to slapping the taste out of Cole's mouth while they were commentating. "All Asuka wants to do is entertain the crowd!" :blink:

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Gosh my stream was awful for this show. 3 or 4 times it just sjipped a minute (for example, I completely missed Rollins and Ambrose climbing the ladders, it skipped from Kane an Strowman laying on the tables to the crash through the tables), and after these skips some 30 seconds or so were shown two times. This happened mostly during the main, and it really put me off. didn't watch it live but On Demand.

 

Other tan that, AJ is GOAT.

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Styles/Balor was fantastic. I don't think it was hard to predict it would steal the show, but man.... it stole the show.

 

Both women's matches were really quite good.

 

Overall the show was quite good... up to the main event

 

The main felt like it lasted 4 hours. I get that they were trying to book around a lot here, but that was not my cup of tea at all. Hats off to them for doing what they had to do, but.... pass

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I mean, other than the garbage truck spot what was really all that bad in the main event? I know that's an "other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?" situation, but I felt that the match up to that point was as good as could be hoped given the situation.

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I mean, other than the garbage truck spot what was really all that bad in the main event? I know that's an "other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?" situation, but I felt that the match up to that point was as good as could be hoped given the situation.

For me, it just drug on and on. It didn't grab me. It started hot and then really lacked a flow that grabbed and kept my attention. Of course all the nonsense kept it just fine, but not really for the right reasons. Again, I think they were working some massive obstacles and my hat is off to them for doing what they had to in that context.... but it just wasn't my thing. There were fun spots, but just the whole of it felt meandering and smoke and mirror (or overbooked) matches just usually aren't my thing.

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Full review is on my blog.

 

I was one of the people who criticized Nakamura/Ziggler for not being a good enough showcase for Nak, but I didn't have the same criticism for Asuka/Emma for two reasons: first and foremost, Nak/Ziggler was a dull, heatless match and this one wasn't. Ziggler/Nak didn't have great chemistry, while Asuka/Emma do, so, debut or not, the fact that it was a good contest helped. Second, Ziggler getting too much offense on Nak was hurt by the fact that Ziggler didn't do anything special or different to up his game against the debuting, super-hyped killer (this idea of not really reinventing himself when he "reinvents himself" is a recurring bad pattern for Dolph). Here, though, Emma was clearly wrestling with aggression and strategy that, maybe because she's not typically featured, we haven't really seen out of her. Yes she shined a lot - but I didn't find it to be to the detriment of Asuka the way Ziggler's work against Nakamura bore the daylights out of just about everyone and took away from Nakamura's aura. Asuka got a hard-earned victory against an opponent that put up a better fight than expected but the end result was a really good, hard-hitting, intense match. If the same were true of Ziggler/Nakamura, I could defend it there too - but that match stunk and this one didn't.

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I mean, other than the garbage truck spot what was really all that bad in the main event? I know that's an "other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?" situation, but I felt that the match up to that point was as good as could be hoped given the situation.

 

Watch it again. Take a liquor shot for every single chair shot. Then, after doing that, try to reply on here post-match what the number of shots was. :P

 

Even if you get rid of the garbage truck crap, the stretcher job crap, the Kane crap... the actual match itself was still the shits. Kurt looked like he was completely done physically. The match didn't make any sense or have much structure. It was just a garbage brawl featuring too many people where the brawling all looked pretty bad. And it was too long.

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I loved the main event. And what I liked the most was that it was the only match with tables, ladders, and chairs. I hate when they did these shows where they hamfist in the gimmicks into almost all the matches, one match is a chairs match, another is a tables match, etc. I dig that it was just all put into an insane and fun main event.

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