Bray Wyatt’s character is hitting its next gear while the rest of WWE appears to be stalling.
The TLC: Tables, Ladders, Chairs pay-per-view gave us our first look at Wyatt, and not The Fiend, in a match. The presentation was one of the few highlights and a step forward for WWE’s most intriguing character. Too bad we can’t say the same thing about some of the company’s other storylines.
TLC was a mostly forgettable, joyless placeholder of a show in which none of the babyfaces in significant feuds went over — outside of the New Day winning and Daniel Bryan’s return. That makes very little sense with 2020 and Royal Rumble on the horizon. It leaves fans having potentially stale-feeling TV from now until the ball drops.
Wyatt and The Fiend, however, is something to still look forward to. Wyatt came out to the cheerful Firefly Fun House music, dressed in his sweater and with the regular blue Universal title. He got some cheers and took selfies with fans — not exactly being feared as a family-threatening monster. All of it, as well as the lack of the red light, created a stark contrast to The Fiend in a way we haven’t seen for one performer since the three faces of Mick Foley.
The match itself was pretty much a nothing, other than watching Wyatt go through “personality changes” and make good on his proclamation that he enjoys pain. Miz, outside of a fast open, never got to put up a fight worthy of a desperate father. Wyatt delivered a Sister Abigail — with no sign of Fiend’s Mandible Claw — from the outside barricade and then in the ring to end it mercifully.
Fiend then appeared on the Titantron — kind of establishing him as a separate string puller of Wyatt. At Fiend’s inaudible request, Wyatt pulled out a giant mallet from under the ring with Miz helpless. The lights started to dim as Wyatt happily yelled, “He’s here!”
Instead of Fiend we got a returning and clean-cut Daniel Bryan, making good on the idea he had his hair pulled out when he was taken under the ring on Smackdown a few weeks back. Bryan took out Wyatt before the Fiend made his other self disappear. It makes it logical Wyatt’s darker side will be used against Bryan.
Bryan needed this level of reset after turning heel and back to babyface again in such a short time. The crowd was immediately behind him, showing WWE needs to put over babyfaces against Wyatt or risk him getting too positive of a crowd reaction.
Thankfully, that match was not the main event. Instead, it was the women’s tag team championship TLC contest. Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch and Kairi Sane really put their bodies on the line in this one with the match very rarely having action in the ring. Though it made for the destruction of plenty of tables and the uses of chairs, fire extinguishers and kendo sticks on the outside, all of it felt a little stale after a night full of them as the match went on. Very few attempts to actually retrieve the titles sucked some of the drama out of the match, and neither of Sane’s Insane Elbow spots coming from the top rope seemed odd. Sane reportedly suffered a concussion during the match. She kept going, but, if true, it certainly could have affected things.
That being said, this match and feud did get one thing right: It turned the The Kabuki Warriors into a monster tag team with weeks of wins against two of the division’s biggest stars. They are fun heels who now give the women’s tag division a legitimate team for others to try to topple.
On the other hand, one heel everyone is tired of seeing — and not in a good way — is Baron Corbin. While some of his TV segments can be good, it never translates once the bell rings. His TLC match with Roman Reigns — one which felt like we’ve seen over and over again from the Big Dog against brawlers like Corbin — was a big disappointment. Except for a few spots, there was no reason for this to be a TLC match other than for Dolph Ziggler, The Revival and Corbin’s security to get involved and deliver the King a meaningless win that felt like the waste of the audience’s time.
WWE at least did the logical thing, as this feud has been about locker room leadership. The rest of the SmackDown roster joined Reigns to brawl in the back and outside the ring with Corbin’s group to send the show off the air. This all needs to end with King Corbin and his court leaving disgraced and humiliated or none of this was worth it at all.
Speaking of feuds that will painfully continue, we likely haven’t seen the last of this Lana-Bobby Lashley-Rusev storyline. Lana interfered to help Lashley win his tables match with Rusev. The lack of crowd involvement — and “Rusev Day” chants — during this match should bother WWE considering all the TV time they have put into this.
Having a TLC match and a ladder match before the tables match — heck, a KFC-sponsored table was also broken — didn’t help. But this feud is sputtering again. Having Lana more active in thwarting Rusev in the match — standing in front of him putting Lashley through a table — might have helped. Either way, this was a step back and one of the worst matches on a show filled with questionable choices.
Other matches
The New Day over The Revival to retain the SmackDown tag team championships (Ladder match)
The New Day wasn’t on the kickoff show! These teams are absolute pros, and they delivered one of the night’s best matches in the opener — a mix of power, grace and ladders. Kofi Kingston’s agility and creativity on the ropes really is a sight to see. He and Big E’s style contrasted so well with the Revival’s before Kingston knocked Scott Dawson off the ladder to grab the belts and win.
Vikings Raiders over The OC by countout retain the Raw tag team championships (Open Challenge)
The countout occurred just as the match was starting to get good. Countouts are great devices to have a reason for return matches, but doing it on a pay-per-view just doesn’t seem right — especially when it became an excuse for someone to go through the KFC-branded table in the aftermath. AEW had a “Cracker Barrel Clash,” but that didn’t seem as forced as this.
Aleister Black over Buddy Murphy
Good, hard-hitting showing from both, but not a showstealer. Murphy ignoring a stunned Black on the outside to put on his opponent’s vest didn’t seem like something his character would do. Establishing that Black’s Black Mass kick can come out of nowhere is important. It’s cool and devastating-looking when it lands, and it was for Murphy in this one.
Humberto Carrillo over Andrade (Kickoff)
These two consistently deliver good matches, and the tension between Andrade and Zelina is good storytelling. It’s just a shame they may get broken up before Andrade holds a title or something of significance.
Biggest Winner: Kabuki Warriors
Biggest Loser: Rusev (honorable mention: The Miz)
Match of the night: The New Day vs. The Revival
Grade: C-