Live News & Notes From Last Night’s WWE TLC PPV

Credit: Zim and prowrestling.net

Great new building, great crowd here tonight. I would estimate at or above 10,000 fans in attendance. Hot crowd all show and being New York, the crowd was much more behind the heels than most other markets would be. It made for a very fun night.

The dark match saw Brooklyn’s own JTG go over David Otunga with his Shoutout version of the Slingblade. Meh.

A classy move on WWE’s part to toll the bell 26 times for the victims of the Connecticut school shooting tragedy. A slight buzzkill, though.

For the opening tag match, the heel Rhodes Scholars were cheered more heavily than Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara were. Fans love mocking Cody Rhodes’s mustache and just love Damien Sandow. Pretty awesome bump on the finish too, unexpected from present-day WWE.

Lots of fans in attendance were cheering Antonio Cesaro, as much of R-Truth’s magic seems to have worn off. Pretty typical match but Cesaro actually seemed to get a solid pop on the finish. Still not a huge fan of his generic anti-American gimmick, but as I discussed with someone tonight, I feel like he’ll be able to modify his character and bring in more of “Claudio’s” move set to make him a main eventer in WWE.

I’m not sure how it came across, but Dolph Ziggler had the crowd in his palms during his backstage promo. He’s quickly establishing himself among the best quick promo guys in WWE.

MizTV on a pay-per-view? The crowd was not big on this at all, especially considering it was the third edition this week after Raw and Smackdown. 3MB as guests? On MizTV on a pay-per-view? Travesty.

The Alberto Del Rio turn was interesting and the crowd didn’t hesitate cheering him when he came to Ricardo Rodriguez’s aid. What didn’t seem right, however, is that in the same show as Del Rio turns babyface, he is friendly and willing to team with former opponent and also freshly-turned face Miz. It just seemed awkward, like several weeks of build and explanation were skipped over.

Again, the pro-heel crowd was much more behind Wade Barrett than the babyface Kofi Kingston, who received nothing more than polite applause from anyone over 10. He is definitely missing something that is keeping him from taking that next step, I just can’t quite place it.

The six-man TLC was off the hook. Constant action, big spots, and the right finish. Seth Rollins has been made by taking that bump, and Ambrose was very impressive in the ring, albeit slightly cartoonish when selling. Daniel Bryan is so incredibly over with the fans. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard such loud “Yes!” chants live, even during its peak. There were boos from the ladies and kids, and half sighs of relief and half sheer adulation from the smart fans. Great match with intense crowd investment.

Eve took on Naomi for the Divas title, and most people didn’t care. Eve’s gimmick of getting photographed posing with the loser is a good heat builder though.

Sheamus vs. Big Show was an absolute dud. The best part of the match was the whole arena singing “Olé” orchestrated by a fan in a Nexus shirt on the other side of the arena and me in my El Generico shirt on our side. The finish came when Show used a big chair on Sheamus? Whatever. Ole!

Not sure how it came across on screen, but the Brooklyn Brawler got a nice pop from the crowd. I’m sure none of the kids had even heard of him, but it was a harmless three minute match. I’m more thrown off by the hesitation-free teaming of new babyfaces Del Rio and Miz.

Most people I spoke with thought the six-man TLC was the match of the night, but I absolutely loved the main event. The crowd was super hot for Dolph Ziggler and the usual kids and ladies for John Cena. That made for an awesome hot match environment which the performers met with an equally hot match. Emotional ups and downs had the crowd invested 100 percent and reacting for everything. I’ve tried to remain objective with this report, but I will admit to fully losing my voice cheering when AJ turned on Cena. I think kids may have felt robbed, but their reaction was drowned out by the all out frenzy that erupted amongst Ziggler fans.

Overall, a really solid fun show that fully met my expectations. The hot crowd really made the live experience great and I hope it translated to TV.

More importantly however, I believe that WWE made all the right booking calls tonight. I easily could have seen them having Ryback run through The Shield or Cena taking Ziggler’s briefcase, but they refrained. They put on an entertaining show and didn’t do anything to immediately throw themselves off track. I would call TLC a success and definitely recommend a replay to anyone still unsure. Thanks for reading along, until next time…

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