Tables, Ladders, Chairs... and Stairs 2014 review

This year's TLC had a tough time of it. Not only did it feature a bevy of matches that didn't follow logically from the previous month's supershow, it also came just three days after NXT's Takeover: R Evolution event (a review of which can be found here). That may have been presented as a lowly Network special featuring developmental talent but it was the best WWE show of the year. Comparisons between the two events are inevitable. Sadly, it was also inevitable that TLC wouldn't measure up.

Following a pre-show on which Big E and Kofi Kingston defeated The Dust Brothers the supercard (which Michael Cole described as WWE's version of a demolition derby) officially kicked off with the Intercontinental championship ladder match. Dolph Ziggler, as the hometown boy, got a massive ovation and immediate chants of "Let's go Ziggler!" at the bell. It helped Harper get some heat too.

Four time IC champ Dolph Ziggler.

The match didn't reach the heights of the famed Razor Ramon v Shawn Michaels ladder clashes or Hardys, Dudleys and Edge and Christian spot-fests but it was a great choice for the opener. They spent the opening minutes throwing ladders at each other, gradually progressing to more impressive stunts. Highlights included a Harper suicide dive (which came close to breaking Harper's arm), a Ziggler drop kick onto a ladder, a Harper power bomb onto a ladder, a ladder-assisted pendulum by Harper, a Ziggler X Factor onto a ladder (which pretty much confirms Ziggler wants a monopoly on all signature moves of former DX members), Harper busting out the Terry Funk special, and, finally, a super kick from one ladder to another by Ziggler. That last was enough to stun Harper long enough for 'The Show Off' to grab the belt for his fourth reign. Both men left bloodied and bruised. They did everything they could to give us a worthwhile match.

The Usos pulled an Owen Hart after that and carried their Slammy awards (for tag team of the year, believe it or not) with them to the ring. They lacked Owen's charm though. Miz pulled the same trick, carrying Damien Mizdow's prestigious LOL Moment of the Year Slammy. Mizdow had a toy version, natch.

As you'd expect the focus of the match was, for the most part, on the antics of Damien Mizdow. ‘The A-Lister’ effectively wrestled a handicap, freeing Mizdow up to lark about and give people what they wanted. Naturally this extended to 'The Awesome One' teasing a tag to Mizdow which he had no intention of making.

Eventually Miz decided he wanted to leave. After grabbing his titles (and his stuntman’s Slammy) Miz sacrificed Mizdow to an Uso dive and then lamped the Uso with a title belt. Yes, they went for a DQ finish and Mizdow never tagged in. This aside it was a decent enough match.

Backstage Seth Rollins recapped The Authority's removal from power and dedicated his match to them. He also mentioned Sting and said he wouldn't leave Cena be until Triple H and Stephanie were reinstated. I imagine this will turn out to be foreshadowing rather than generic heel rambling.

Quality took a dip after that. After the commentary team took a ridiculous look at the "anatomy" of ring steps we were treated to Big Show v Erick Rowan. In, yes, the first ever stairs match. It may very well be the last ever too. Basically it was a stunt match in the vein of table and ladder efforts. But with stairs. As stairs are heavier than chairs and nowhere near as flimsy as WWE’s tables there was little that could be done with them. All the lads managed to muster up was wedging them between ring ropes, stacking them up, and placing them on the announce table. They gingerly bumped into them and the audience got bored. Show won when he used the stairs to pin Rowan down to the mat.

Surprisingly it was the Rollins versus Cena tables match that that followed. Mercury and Noble accompanied Rollins to the ring, allowing their man to control the first several minutes fairly easily with copious interference. Cena, being Cena, got tired of that quickly and disposed of them with a suplex onto a guardrail and, less dramatically, an AA into the timekeeper's corner. That left just the two men officially in the match. Rollins immediately set up tables at ringside and tried to suplex Cena through them. Cena countered and suplexed him back into the ring. Rollins hit a standing Sliced Bread and tried to whip Cena through a table propped up in the corner. Predictably Cena halted that and back dropped Rollins out of the ring.

Look at the state of that briefcase.

'Mr Money in the Bank' returned with his briefcase and gave Cena a walloping with it. Cena kicked Rollins in the head as he was bent over mocking the Five Knuckle Shuffle taunt then tried to AA him through a table, accidentally taking out the referee as he did (oh no!). Rollins landed on his feet from the attempted AA, vaulted back over the table and Cena, and hit an enziguri that just happened to send Cena sprawling onto the table. Rollins headed to the top rope for a Curb Stomp but Cena caught him and AAed him through the table.

Cole announced Cena was victorious but (shock!) the ref was still slumped at ringside. Noble and Mercury returned to clean up the broken table and then gave Cena a kicking. Cena quickly escaped a Shield-esque power bomb and put the stooges through a table with a double AA. Seconds later Cena and Rollins locked up on the apron and leapt through a table at ringside. So much for tables matches being a way to give us a decisive winner without anyone doing the job, right?

Two referees showed up to argue about who'd won. Match official Mike Chioda couldn't decide on a winner so he restarted the match, rendering the entire double finish exercise pointless. Cena and Rollins began hammering at each other and spilled out to the commentary desks, where Cena AAed Rollins onto the English table. It didn't break so Cena got back into the ring to setup up yet another table.

Big Show returned to put a stop to that. Then he teased choke slamming Cena through a table. It seemed designed to rub our noses in the fact that Cena and Show would have been natural opponents for this show (see here for more on this). The choke slam didn't happen. Instead ‘The Giant’ was distracted by the music of Roman Reigns, he stormed through the crowd (to a healthy response), cracked Show with a Superman punch and speared him through a table. Rollins got a Superman punch too, then took an AA through a table to give Cena the victory.

As table matches go it wasn't bad. What it lacked in spots it made up for in interference, which is a viable way of making these sorts of things exciting. That said it didn't really do Rollins any favours. Even with The New Stooges and 'The World's Largest Athlete' watching out for him he couldn't get the win. The Reigns interference did little to offset that. He was very portrayed clearly as a man not in Cena's league.

After some pointless babble from Alex Riley and Booker T we were shown Byron Saxton interviewing the Bella twins. Nikki declared AJ was jealous of her. Brie said she was sick of people judging their relationship. Basically they're back together and we need to deal with that. No logical plot developments here. Move along.

Nikki Bella: too fabulous to sweat this match.

Nikki dominated the match. Brie was pretty much a non-factor for the most part, which was a pleasant surprise. The match was dull, with another finish designed to show us Nikki goes for the cheapest win possible: as Brie was being sent backstage (for her first real bit of interference in the match) Nikki pulled a bottle from her sock, sprayed AJ with it, and then hit the Rack Attack. 

Tom Phillips then had a chat with Roman Reigns. ‘The Empire’ stumbled over his words, then briefly forgot his words, then told us he was officially entering the Royal Rumble. If he didn't take acting lessons while he was off he should have done. If he did they didn't have any effect.

The chairs match between Kane and Ryback was boring and clumsy. 'The Big Guy' pinned Kane via Shellshock. That was followed by the United States title match. They didn't go for as long as they did in their Battleground or SummerSlam matches. This was perhaps because it was a rehash and Rusev needed to be shown to have improved since August. He won after Swaggalag passed out in The Accolade.

Then a Royal Rumble ad aired, focusing on the WWE title match that will take place between challenger John Cena and champion Brock Lesnar. Odd considering the match had been confirmed less than an hour before. It's almost like wrestling's fixed.

Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt had the honour of closing the show. For the second month in a row the hype video made the rivalry look far more layered, interesting and entertaining than it has been. WWE's production team earned their money with that one. Ambrose sauntered to the ring with a ladder slung over his arm, a ladder he lobbed at Wyatt as soon as the lights came on after his entrance. They brawled in the aisle, over to the announce area, and into the audience.

They finally entered the ring several minutes into the bout. Ambrose introduced kendo sticks and chairs. Not to be outdone Wyatt punched Ambrose off the top rope through a table set up at ringside, then used the kendo stick himself. In time ladders were used too. But none of it really meant anything. They were progressing through WWE's established hierarchy of weaponry to escalate the stakes but they were doing it because it was expected, not because it made sense for the story the match was telling. This is not to say the pair were going through the motions because they weren't. It's just that they didn't have a sufficient number of ideas for the gimmick and time they had.

One of many elbow drops.

The big tricks (if you can call them that) they had were saved for the final third of the bout. 'The Lunatic Fringe' twice leapt off a ladder to elbow drop Wyatt through a table. Wyatt came back with a flash Sister Abigail back in the ring. Ambrose responded with Dirty Deeds. When that failed Ambrose grabbed Jeff Hardy's Super Tall Ladder™ and propped it up near the announce desks. Wyatt, who'd had several minutes of recovery time, attacked Ambrose with a chair, only to get laid out on the good old Spanish announce desk. Which Ambrose elbow dropped him thorough, obvs.

The ending came straight from the Wacky Finish Handbook. Ambrose rolled Wyatt back into the ring and grabbed a TV monitor which was plugged in beneath the ring (it's standard practice for WWE to have televisions showing their live pay-per-view stashed below the ring according to Maggle Cole). When he ran across the ring with it to thump Wyatt it "shorted out", causing some sparks and a small amount of smoke to puff out near Ambrose's ear. 'The Eater of Worlds' got up and scored with another Sister Abigail for the win.

The match would have benefited from being ten minutes shorter. They didn't have the material to fill half an hour and they couldn't keep the fast pace needed to hold attention for that long. Credit to WWE for putting them on last though.

TLC wasn't awful but it was the worst WWE pay-per-view in a while. Opener aside nothing stood out as particularly good. But it was at least more rewarding than the average RAW, and considering the emphasis WWE place on TV over pay-per-view nowadays that should probably be chalked up as an accomplishment. Coming so soon after Takeover: R Evolution, to which it couldn't measure up, definitely didn’t help either. It makes you wonder why WWE is sticking with the approach that led them to TLC when the approach that led to R Evolution has proven far more creatively satisfying. It's time for them to get out of their rut and so something new. The NXT formula writ large is the way to go.

***

Results summary:

Dolph Ziggler defeated Luke Harper for the Intercontinental championship
The Miz and Damien Mizdow defeated The Usos
Big Show defeated Erick Rowan
John Cena defeated Seth Rollins
Nikki Bella defeated AJ Lee
Ryback defeated Kane
Rusev defeated Jack Swagger
Bray Wyatt defeated Dean Ambrose

Tables, Ladders, Chairs... and Alternate Universes

At the end of last month’s Survivor Series it looked like things had been set up for an interesting TLC pay-per-view. Looking at the card we’ve ended up with I wonder where it all went wrong. And, to be clear, something definitely has gone wrong, because tonight’s show is not what’s “best for business.” It doesn’t come close to being what’s “best for business.”

I mean, they’re doing John Cena versus Seth Rollins in a tables match, with the stipulation that Cena will lose his world title shot if Rollins wins. I’m sure it will be a decent enough match but there’s little to get excited about with it. The same goes for Harper versus Ziggler. The less said about Kane v Ryback, Big Show v Erick Rowan, and the revival of the Swagger v Rusev feud the better.

This isn’t the worst show WWE could be putting on. But it’s not the best either. I understand that they want to just keep things ticking over until doing the really important stuff at Royal Rumble but they could have done that and presented a better card. Completely disregarding continuity between pay-per-views does nothing for anyone.

Why didn't they give us this beard battle?

Harper and Rowan are the obvious guys to mention at this point. As I’ve written before, they got a promising reception when they squared off with one another at Survivor Series. It made me think that people could be convinced to emotionally invest in a singles match between them, and the exchanges they had made me think they could actually make a match work.

In addition to that both have recently been “set free” by Bray Wyatt, giving them a logical plot reason to clash: they each want to prove they can be the breakout star of that group. Like a sort of sibling rivalry thing, without them being actual siblings. Harper has become one of the go-to heels for WWE since his return. Facing a man of a similar size would have allowed him to demonstrate that he could do something other than throw Dolph Ziggler around and it would have allowed Rowan to progress by association.

It could have been for the Intercontinental title but I think that would have been a step too far. It’s not that Harper’s not a credible champion, but I think the title would be better attached to someone else on the roster. Specifically Ziggler or Rollins. With WWE champion Brock Lesnar absent from television (until he rocks up on RAW after TLC, anyway) the IC champ is the top title holder. That status, emphasised or not, could have helped to boost the standing of Ziggler or Rollins because they’re already positioned as guys close to the top. On Harper the IC title looks like a middle of the card prize. On Ziggler or Rollins it would have been given an enhancement that would have lasted once the WWE championship returned.

There have been plenty of Harper v Ziggler bouts since Survivor Series so it’s obvious WWE isn’t shy about giving us that match. They could have easily had ‘The Show Off’ regain the Intercontinental title in one of those meetings. Done in the right way it could have drawn the Harper v Ziggler series to a close, leaving Ziggler to defend his title against Seth Rollins. In fact it could have even had Rowan interfering, adding to the necessity to have a Harper v Rowan match and keeping Harper strong in defeat. Ziggler v Rollins in a ladder match is a more attractive proposition to pretty much anyone. It would have made both men and the championship mean more, and would have stood more chance of shifting some tickets for the show.

These changes would have left both John Cena and Big Show free. Which is fine, because they were set up as opponents at Survivor Series when ‘The World’s Largest Athlete’ punched Cena in the jaw. A Cena v Show match is not the most exciting thing in the world but it would at least have a reason for happening and keep Cena from harming the momentum of a Rollins or a Harper or a Ziggler. They could even have kept the tables match stipulation, which is (I think) a match they’ve never done in any of their many previous meetings.

Better than Kane v Ryback.

Although it wasn’t directly hinted at at any point a Rusev v Ryback match would have made a great deal of sense. Rusev is undefeated and unsubmitted. Since returning at the end of October ‘The Big Guy’ has been (sloppily) pushed as a dominant babyface, similar to his run in 2012. Although Rybers had suffered pinfall losses he was being presented as “back on form” and could have been built up after Survivor Series as a contender to Rusev’s US championship.

In fairness it’s unlikely that a Ryback versus Rusev match would be as good as a Swagger versus Rusev match. But it would be something new for pay-per-view and wouldn’t be such an obvious re-tread of a rivalry wrapped up just four months earlier. Ryback stood a better chance of convincing people he could defeat ‘The Super Athlete’. Swagger has shown that he can’t get the job done.

It’s also worth noting that Rusev doesn’t generally get the credit he deserves for being able to put together a good match. He’s not afraid to sell, his offence is always on target and looking good, and Ryback can, when the stars align, put on a decent showing. They may have been able to do a better match than expected, especially if they’d been afforded a shortcut-enabling chairs match stipulation.

Tag match, playa!

If creative had really wanted to push the boat out they could even have tweaked the Divas scene. Since failing to regain the championship from AJ at Hell in a Cell Paige has done nothing but work a limp series opposite sometimes-face-sometimes-heel Alicia Fox. With the Bellas reuniting (for reasons still not revealed) at Survivor Series a segment could have been set up where the sisters attacked AJ and Paige came out to even the odds. A Bella twins versus Paige and AJ Lee match would have been a far more interesting prospect than another Divas title match added to the show as a token gesture. It would have allowed for some actual story to be injected into the women’s division too, especially with if they’d stuck with AJ and Paige being uneasy allies working against common foes.

The rest of the card seems promising enough without any changes being made. Wyatt and Ambrose being in a TLC match makes sense. The New Day lads clashing with Goldust and Stardust is, if nothing else, a desperately needed fresh match. With a spot free on the main show that match could have been bumped up from the pre-show. The tag title match has had more storyline progression than anything else on the show thanks to the involvement of Naomi. It’s the most admirable thing WWE have done over the last three weeks.

I don’t think this proposed card (summarised below for simplicity and ease) would have been the absolute best thing ever. Nor do I think it would have been the best possible Tables, Ladders, Chairs… and Stairs show possible. But I do think it would have offered more than what WWE have cooked up.

***

Proposed card summary:

Bray Wyatt v Dean Ambrose in a TLC match
Dolph Ziggler v Seth Rollins in a ladder match for the Intercontinental championship
Erick Rowan v Luke Harper
John Cena v Big Show in a tables match
Rusev v Ryback for the United States championship
The Bella twins v Paige and AJ Lee
Damien Mizdow and The Miz v The Usos for the tag team championship
The New Day v Goldust and Stardust

Tables, Ladders, Chairs... and Stairs 2014 preview

Remember a few months ago when Jack Swagger and Rusev had some surprisingly enjoyable matches on pay-per-view? Don’t worry if you don’t because TLC’s going to feature them in another match against one another. WWE’s creative team apparently enjoyed Swagger versus Rusev so much that they've decided to revive the feud, despite it being drawn to a logical conclusion just four months ago at SummerSlam.

This, in a nutshell, is what's wrong with TLC. Not Rusev versus Swagger specifically. That will probably end up being good. No, what's wrong is that there’s very little thought being put into the show as a whole.

On the one hand it could be argued that with Royal Rumble next month WWE should be hoarding their fresh matches and thoughts for then. It is, after all, their second biggest show of the year and the starting point of their annual hot period. But that's not an argument I agree with. A monthly special event is one of the key selling points of the WWE Network. Making these shows worth people's time should be a high priority. Because there will be subscribers only in it for the pay-per-view savings, and if the shows aren’t very good sooner or later those people will be driven off. They're unlikely to unsubscribe before Royal Rumble, or ‘Mania, but they could still leave in the long run based on a string of uninspiring shows, to which TLC could contribute.

The other main reason I disagree is that WWE employs enough people to churn out a sufficient number of monthly wrestling-applicable ideas. They have dozens of people working for them from wrestling and TV production backgrounds. Putting together a satisfying pay-per-view card each month should not be a difficulty for them.

Aside from Rusev v Swagger we have Ambrose v Wyatt, Ziggler v Harper, and Cena v Rollins rematches. We also have Kane v Ryback, not a rematch (at least not a recent or memorable one) but also not particularly exciting. The most interesting brand new match TLC has to offer is The Miz and Damien Mizdow defending the tag titles against the Usos, and even that’s being generous because both teams were involved in the same four-way match last month.

So, let’s run through those in order. Rusev v Swagger seems like a safe bet for a Rusev win. Swagger fell to him at SummerSlam and has done nothing of note since. It’s a step back for ‘The Super Athlete’, but one that is presumably only happening because WWE doesn’t know what to do with him before he gets booked strongly in the Royal Rumble. I can’t see any reason Swagger would win this.

Ambrose and Wyatt’s Tables, Ladders and Chairs match could be excellent but it’s not a guaranteed thing. Their singles match at Survivor Series wasn’t the electrifying exchange that was expected and their rivalry as whole has not come close to what it could have been. Instead of two rising stars talking about how beating the other can set them apart and help them move closer to the top, or Ambrose wanting revenge on Bray for costing him his feud-closing Hell in a Cell match with Seth Rollins, we’ve had stuff about Ambrose’s jailbird father and Wyatt teleporting around arenas. Oh and pumpkins and ambulances have been used too. A thematic mess and a creative shambles in other words. It feels like a chance to give two men who should be considered future headliners a classic programme has been squandered.

On the plus side the main reason their Survivor Series match wasn’t all it could have been is that it was booked as an extended advert for their TLC collision. They were working towards a shmoz without wanting to give too much away. Without such (peculiar) restrictions at TLC they should be able to do something better. Plus the Tables, Ladders and Chairs gimmick itself is generally worthwhile and tough to get wrong.

An Ambrose win seems likeliest. Wyatt doesn’t have to take a pin or submission to lose and Ambrose did the honours at Survivor Series, albeit by DQ. WWE might deviate from their formula of keeping things even but it’s not likely.

Dolph Ziggler v Luke Harper is a match I’d be looking forward to more if they hadn’t had so many matches on RAW and SmackDown over the last month. Harper’s great as a wild-eyed madman and Ziggler takes a great bump. They’re excellent together. Making it a ladder match seems a bit odd, but it at least adds something new for them to work with, and of every match on the card I think they’re the guys who could do most with a ladder.

I’m going to predict they’ll have the match of the night and Ziggler will regain the IC title. Considering the recent positioning of him as the number two guy he needs the win, and as with Wyatt v Ambrose, Harper can lose a ladder match without being “weakened” by taking a pin.

The Cena v Rollins match is, in fairness, not as familiar as it could be. They’ve had one singles match on TV in the last several months and that ended in disqualification. They’ve met in tag matches over the last few weeks, but that’s not quite the same as loading up on singles matches between them. The trouble is that while they’re not wrestled much (on TV at least) they’ve interacted a lot. So much so that it feels like they’ve had more matches than they actually have.

But then, who else was Cena going to face? Big Show was the only other realistic option and while it would have made sense to go with him I can’t really argue their match would have been better than something involving Seth Rollins. This is another example of the December PPV having the unenviable task of having to kill time before Royal Rumble (apparently the December leading into the Rumble is out of the question), and suffering from not being able to having access to any of the protected storylines that will begin there.

Two things are noteworthy about this match. Firstly, Cena will lose his number on contendership status should he lose. Secondly, it’s a tables match and Cena has a history of not doing especially well in those (it’s a handy way for him to lose without losing). It could be that the plan is to have Cena lose here and give the Rumble match with Lesnar to somebody else. Perhaps doctors have told WWE Daniel Bryan will be ready for a return by late January. Or maybe someone’s finally cottoned on to the fact that they haven’t done Orton v Lesnar since both became major stars over a decade ago. A Cena loss is what I’d like to see here. Pretty much anyone else challenging Lesnar would interest me more than Cena facing him for a third time in six months.

Kane and Ryback’s match will be the pits. If it’s not positioned as a toilet break something will have gone wrong somewhere. ‘The Big Guy’ should win.

Team Miz versus the Uso brothers should be a good match. Everyone loves Mizdow’s antics and WWE has a good story going on with Miz holding him down. There’s also the Naomi thread that’s been introduced over the last few weeks. ‘The A-Lister’ has apparently seen something in her and Jimmy Uso, her husband, has taken exception to this. So there’s a good chance Naomi will cost the Usos the straps, likely in a by-accident-on-purpose kind of way, and join up with Miz for the bounty of Hollywood opportunities he can offer her.

Not mentioned above, we have AJ Lee challenging Nikki Bella for the Divas championship. For those keeping track this will be the sixth pay-per-view in a row to feature AJ in the Divas title match. That’s pretty impressive considering she’s lost the title twice during that time. The show’s pretty crammed so they probably won’t get much time. Hopefully they’ll get longer than the handful of seconds they had at Survivor Series though. I imagine Nikki will retain. An AJ win isn’t impossible but it’s hard to see what it would achieve to put the belt on her so soon after she last lost it.

Finally there’s Erick Rowan versus Big Show in a stairs match. The stairs in question are the steel ones from the ring corners. Personally I’m disappointed they’re not meeting in a chairs match. That would have given Show the opportunity to bust out his XL chair from TLC 2012.

But that’s not what we have. What we have is a man who turned on John Cena at the last pay-per-view, almost costing Cena his job, facing a big lad with a fondness for cuddly toys, Rubik’s cubes, and Renee Young, and who has an upside-down Sheamus face. Survivor Series showed that Rowan could get the crowd to respond to him when squaring off with Luke Harper. Hopefully he knows how to make them do the same against someone else. I’m not going to get my hopes up though. Something tells me this match will be an eyesore. Big Show will probably win, just to make it that little bit worse.

TLC doesn’t look like the worst WWE supershow of the year (on reflection that was probably Battleground, for the record) but it also doesn’t look as though it’s going to be particularly satisfying. Still, there are only six and a half weeks until Royal Rumble! That’s something to look forward to.

***

Predictions summary:

Dean Ambrose to defeat Bray Wyatt
Seth Rollins to defeat John Cena
Dolph Ziggler to defeat Luke Harper for the Intercontinental championship
The Miz and Damien Mizdow to defeat the Usos via Naomi shenanigans
Nikki Bella to defeat AJ Lee
Big Show to defeat Erick Rowan
Rusev to defeat Jack Swagger
Ryback to defeat Kane

Swamp Thing

When the Wyatt Family first appeared in WWE in May 2013 it was clear who the big singles success of the group would be. It would be the man the faction was named for and the man who had been positioned as its star in the introductory vignettes. It would be Bray Wyatt.

Luke Harper and Erick Rowan seemed destined to become a solid part of WWE’s on-again, off-again tag team division. It was Wyatt who, after rebounding from a shambolic debut feud with Kane, wrestled Daniel Bryan in a singles match at Royal Rumble and John Cena at WrestleMania. Rowan and Harper may have been at his side during the excellent six man tag match opposite The Shield at Elimination Chamber but while ‘The Hounds of Justice’ were shown to be equals amongst themselves it was very clear that ‘The Eater of Worlds’ was the star and leader of his team.

Later in the year it would be Wyatt who challenged for the vacant WWE championship in a ladder match at Money in the Bank. Harper and Rowan wrestled in the opening match against Jimmy and Jey Uso, which they lost. They were in the same spot with the same team a month later at Battleground and lost again. They didn’t get to wrestle at SummerSlam at all and by the time Night of Champions rolled around they, along with Bray, had disappeared from television.

Lovely upside-down Sheamus face there.

Now here we are a couple of months later and Luke Harper is the new Intercontinental champion and Erick Rowan is heading towards a pay-per-view match with Big Show (a spot which historically signals that WWE has interest in someone). Two months ago I would have said Rowan had done nothing to distinguish himself as someone who merited a singles spot and that Harper would benefit from staying as part of a team before getting split off for a singles career.

But the split has worked better than could have been reasonably expected. The crowd reacted to Harper’s IC title win over Dolph Ziggler, to the pair’s showdown during the Survivor Series main event, and to the Rowan and Show confrontation and Harper’s match against Dean Ambrose on RAW. In fact both men have been accepted so smoothly that it seems strange WWE has opted not to go with Rowan versus Harper at TLC.

This said the situation is still jarring. WWE didn’t actually do much to get either man ready for their new roles, and both still look as though they’re associated with Wyatt. In a matter of weeks Rowan went from a big, creepy dude with an unhealthy interest in Renee Young and cuddly toys to a stand-up dude willing to help out happy chappy John Cena and confront big bad bully Big Show.

But, like I say, the Survivor Series crowd seemed pretty taken with him. I think at least part of the reason for that could be that he performed some impressive moves that hadn’t really been emphasised before (his choke bomb and spinning heel kick, most notably). If he can work out when to employ those and similar moves during his matches I think there’s a good chance he’ll keep the audience’s interest.

Meanwhile nothing much had been done to make Luke Harper look like a contender to the most prestigious active title in the company. At the end of the November 10 RAW he smacked Ziggler around and the following week he beat him after interference from Jamie Noble, Joey Mercury and Seth Rollins. That was it. A decent enough return for sure, and a nice way to give the character some edge, but not the best way to show that he’s a potential (and future) champion.

Luke Harper has eyes.

It made him look like someone who jumped a babyface, got rewarded for it, and then won a title more through shenanigans than on his own merit. That sort of booking can work. It’s done wonders for Rollins, for example. But it doesn’t seem like the sort of thing that should be done with a guy like Harper. He should be a bruiser who muscles people around, not a guy who gets his first WWE title via shady tactics.

It’s not really done much for the title itself. Previous champ Dolph Ziggler had had the gold on and off since SummerSlam. In those three months he’d treated the title like it meant something to him and defended it in some top notch matches. There may not have been quite as much variety during his reigns as there could have been but things were at least going in the right direction. On ‘The Show Off’ the title felt like it meant something.

Being on Harper doesn’t negate all of that but it does undo some of it. Ziggler is a far more prominent WWE personality and him having the title gave it a rub. That it wasn’t Seth Rollins who showed an interest in beating him for it tells us that the title is beneath him, and it shouldn’t be. A character like Rollins should want the IC title because he’s all about bragging rights and being the future. As much as I like Harper him winning the Intercontinental gold set the title’s progress back. The right change was from Ziggler to Rollins.

But on the whole I think WWE has handled the Wyatt Family split well. I still think it was premature and the three had more to offer as a faction than as separate entities, but at least they’ve been made relevant. In fact, so far it’s been Bray Wyatt who’s struggled the most, thanks to the limp material he and new rival Dean Ambrose have been given to work with. I still think he’ll be the biggest success of the three long term, but in a way it’s nice to see Rowan and Harper finding their footing before him. It speaks to their ability to survive and gain support within the often self-contradictory WWE system.

That RAW Recap 24.11.14

Survivor Series was neither a good advert for the WWE Network or a satisfying experience in its own right. But it did leave me with the impression that good work had been done setting up the next few weeks of TV leading into December’s TLC pay-per-view. 

The main event featured a crowd-pleasing tussle between former teammates Luke Harper and Erick Rowan, saw Big Show betray John Cena when the chips were down, and ended with the debuting Sting playing a role in The Authority being banished forever (until they come back). Elsewhere on the show Miz and Damien Mizdow captured the tag team titles, Brie and Nikki Bella seemed to have reconciled, an assortment of babyface Divas scored a clean sweep over an assortment of heel Divas, and Adam Rose continued to have problems with a man he pays to follow him around in a bunny costume. There was stuff there that could have been built on.

Why has this reunion happened?

After Survivor Series it looked as though Big Show versus John Cena and Luke Harper versus Erick Rowan would join the already confirmed Dean Ambrose versus Bray Wyatt on the TLC card. It also seemed likely that Sting would be installed as the new on-screen authority figure. Show v Cena having yet another televised match didn’t seem appealing but there would have at least been logic behind it. Meanwhile Rowan v Harper, which I was initially sceptical about, actually held a bit of appeal after the response they got from the St Louis crowd.

While I’m not a fan of Sting I understand why he’s been hired. With plenty of WCW programming available via the Network and him being prominently featured in the advertising for the new WWE2K15 Sting’s actually more relevant to the company now than he would have been five years ago. And, for some reason, people still seem willing to pay to see him. At 55 he’s obviously not going to wrestle much so the obvious thing to do is put him in a GM spot that allows him to appear every week (or most weeks) and become involved enough in storylines to set up a match or two, probably for Royal Rumble and WrestleMania.

For some reason all of this was dropped on RAW. Cena seemed perfectly happy to let Show’s attack slide. ‘The World’s Largest Athlete’ was confronted by Erick Rowan, while Rowan’s predicted dance partner for TLC clashed with Dean Ambrose. After that match Ambrose had a generic set to with Bray Wyatt, just to remind us that they don’t like each other and that we should all be very much looking forward to their needless Tables, Ladders and Chairs match at TLC.

Cena instead spent his evening teaming with Dolph Ziggler, arguably the standout performer of the previous evening, to face Seth Rollins, Joey Mercury and Jamie Noble. Because why not? In all honesty that match did make sense considering how long Rollins has been the protected, untouchable bad guy for but coming at the end of a show filled with blunders blunted its effectiveness.

And this was emphatically a show of blunders. In addition to the apparent abandonment of Rowan v Harper and Cena loling off Show’s KO punch to the face Kane was demoted from Corporate Kane to Concessions Kane, Nikki and Brie wholly failed to provide a reason as to how their feud (which, let’s not forget, started in the womb) had been settled, nothing noteworthy was done with the most popular undercard performer of the last three pay-per-views, Damien Mizdow, Adam Rose and The Bunny did the same thing they’d done at Survivor Series, nothing happened with the Divas division even though practically all of them had been involved in the same match the night before, and somebody, for some reason, thought it would be a good idea to bring back the Anonymous RAW GM gimmick rather than use Sting, who failed to appear at all.

The Concessions Kane gimmick had potential, mostly because ‘The Big Red Machine’ has such a bizarre history that they could have played up to the idea that he has to serve food for a living now without ruining the character. Instead of doing some genuinely amusing stuff with the idea they had Kane interacted with special guest Larry The Cable Guy and Santino in a series of painfully unfunny skits. They culminated with Ryback attacking Kane and Kane running away. That would indicate that we’ll be getting Ryback v Kane at TLC, a disappointment considering they could have been teasing Ryback v Rusev instead.

Proud to be from somewhere other than America? Then you're a heel.

The thing is, Rusev was busy participating in a segment in which he had to swear allegiance to the United States of America, despite being a hero of the Russian Federation. The idea here seemed to be that this was fair punishment for Rusev daring to join Team Authority and attempting to help them win the night before. He’s made a few negative comments about the USA, certainly, but that’s because he’s been getting booed on a weekly basis for nothing more than being a proud Russian (or possibly Bulgarian… it fluctuates). His anti-American feelings are, at this point, completely understandable.

So, yes, Rusev was booked as a babyface. Again. But because he’s committed the crime of not being born in the US he got treated like a heel by the crowd. He was confronted by Jack Swagger and the 66-year-old former Iraqi sympathiser Sergeant Slaughter. We’ve already seen Rusev face Swags on PPV twice. Hopefully this doesn’t mean he’ll be facing Slaughter at TLC.

The GM situation was the worst aspect of the programme.

The show opened with The Authority wandering out. This directly contradicted the stipulation of the Survivor Series main event: if they lost they would be gone forever (unless Cena decided they could return for some reason, which he hadn’t done here). They’d lost so they should have been gone. They certainly shouldn’t have been allowed to go to the ring. But they did anyway, and it once again reminded everyone that stipulations in WWE do not mean anything.

I understand why this was booked. Triple H and Stephanie had to go out and get humiliated one final time by surprise guest Daniel Bryan. Taking the Authority plot as a whole this made complete sense. The group was formed as a response to the popularity of D-Bry. Throughout its fifteen month lifespan he was their main foe. Bryan needed to be there at the faction’s downfall (and even if this doesn’t turn out to be the end of The Authority it was presented as if it were) to tie things together.

Bryan on promo duty is not best for business.

After kicking Tripper and Steph out Bryan spent the evening awkwardly participating in segments that required him to do a lot of talking. Which isn’t his strength. I love me some Bryan ‘Daniel Bryan’ Danielson but I don’t want to see him saying more than a few words. If he has to be used in a non-wrestling role he should appear sparingly. The best thing they could have done here was have Bryan chase off Triple H and Steph and then call it a night with him. Having him booking matches did him no favours. Vinnie Mac could have come out and done that instead.

I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Bryan being RAW’s special guest GM was a way of trying him out for the role longer term. That would explain why ‘The Stinger’ wasn’t revealed as the new matchmaker. The Anonymous GM could have been written in as one of two endings, the one used if Bryan didn’t perform well enough throughout the show. Unlikely I know, but not an impossibility.

I can’t understand WWE’s logic for this show. It wasn’t just that they seemed to be going in a different direction to the night before, it’s that they didn’t commit to this new direction. Nothing was announced for TLC. We’re now in a situation where they could theoretically pick up the Survivor Series plots next Monday. Whatever they end up doing for TLC they wasted a week here. Post-PPV RAWs typically get higher than average viewing numbers and with Survivor Series available for free there was a good chance that viewing number would be higher still. Putting on a compelling show should have been a priority. A good programme could have encouraged some new viewers (and I’m sure the free Network stunt meant there were some) to watch again next week and made TLC look like a can’t-miss event.

That they didn’t use Sting was probably the most puzzling thing of all. We all know he’s with the company now. We just don’t know why. Finding out isn’t enough to keep me hooked. I can’t imagine it will be for many others.

An Absence of Reigns

Perhaps the biggest news going into last weekend’s Night of Champions extravaganza was that Roman Reigns was rushed to a Nashville, Tennessee hospital after experiencing severe pain in an abdominal hernia he was working through. When doctors looked into it they discovered a second, more serious hernia that they had to operate on immediately. As a result of the operation Reigns will miss an estimated six weeks of ring time (the several months WWE claimed during Night of Champions is a fib to make Reigns seem superhuman when he returns early). Gaining retribution on that dastardly Seth Rollins will have to wait for another day.

It’s obviously a frustrating setback for Reigns, who had been involved in storylines involving lead heel faction The Authority for some time and was expected to continue receiving preferential treatment to prepare him for bigger and better things next year. The good news is that it’s nowhere near as bad as it could have been. Assuming he doesn’t suffer any further medical worries he should be back in plenty of time for Survivor Series, meaning he’ll have missed just two supershows. He won’t come close to missing Royal Rumble or WrestleMania.

Gone (for now) but not forgotten.

It could even be argued that this injury is a blessing in disguise for Reigns. Generic performances at SummerSlam and over the last month on TV, along with his lack of improvement in the interview department, have soured a number of people on him. His increasingly obvious status as the recipient of the next megastar push hasn’t done him any favours either. As things were going it was looking as though Reigns was in line for fan backlash at some point. A break from TV should help with that, giving people a chance to miss him and want to see him again. That wasn’t going to happen if he’d stayed on TV, and he would have stayed on TV had he not been injured.

It also gives WWE the chance to plan a memorable reintroduction for him (even though he’ll barely have been away long enough to merit one). The right return could set Reigns up as the hero WWE wants him to be seen as. Build up a bad guy for Reigns to vanquish upon his return. Someone we’ll want to see Reigns get his hands on and rough up.

There are three guys I think could fill that role. The first is Rusev, who’s been on a tear for the last six months. The first man not named John Cena to hand ‘The Super Athlete’ a beating will become a massive star. But while Rusev’s a possibility he’s not a sensible choice. WWE would be better served saving Rusev’s first defeat until next year so that they can use it as a hook for WrestleMania 31. Frittering it away to make Reigns look good would be a short term move. Happily it’s not something I think they’d consider seriously.

A far more logical candidate is Seth Rollins. He’s the man who Reigns was involved with when he disappeared from TV and the man who took a count out win over Reigns at Night of Champions. He’s also slipped into the orbit of John Cena. While that’s not an ideal place for a rising star to be in it does at least mean Rollins is involved with the company’s leading man. Were he to gain a victory, even a tainted one, over Cena he would look a bigger deal for when he loses to a returning Reigns. Targeting him would be logical for ‘The Roman Empire’.

But the real obvious man for Reigns to go after upon his TV return is Triple H. They met in two six man tag matches at Extreme Rules and Payback and they’ve been involved in a number of staring contests and beatdowns since. Like Rollins he fits the bill of being a heel everyone wants to see take a beating, but he has the added positive of being a big name who can give Reigns a rub by association.

Is it too much to ask for WWE to use their pay-per-view schedule to their advantage and announce an eight man elimination tag match for Survivor Series? An Authority team of Triple H, Seth Rollins, Randy Orton and Kane taking on Dean Ambrose a returning Roman Reigns and two other faces would be an exciting, logical and worthy semi-main event or show closer. One of the “two other faces” would almost certainly be Cena, because not only do WWE feel compelled to have him in every main event possible but he’s also actively moved into a feud with Rollins. That wouldn’t stop WWE building a couple of guys up through storyline interactions with The Authority though. Dolph Ziggler would be an ideal choice.

The point of that Survivor Series match would be to reintroduce Reigns as an unstoppable powerhouse. Holding his identity off until the night would be a nice idea but probably a bit pointless in practice. It would be a pretty easy guess (and would invite speculation that Daniel Bryan would be the fourth face, earning Reigns boos if he appeared unannounced). A return on the post-Survivor Series RAW would be ideal. Holding Reigns on the apron with The Authority desperate to keep him out of the match for as long as possible would be a good story, and would allow for the other faces to be picked off, leaving Reigns to explode through all of his opponents as the final babyface.

Having the match come down to Triple H and Reigns for their respective teams would be logical. So would Reigns losing via shenanigans of one form or another, setting up a singles match at the TLC pay-per-view in December. Reigns being booked too strong would encourage those boos I mentioned earlier, and running through every member of The Authority would certainly fall into the booked too strong category.

Having Reigns return from this injury and get straight into a plot opposite The Authority is the best direction WWE could take. It would keep his profile high and he’d be unlikely to hear boos opposite them. A strong showing at Survivor Series followed by a clean win over Triple H at TLC would set Reigns up nicely for the Royal Rumble win everyone expects but few, right now, seem to want.