Sunday, December 13, 2009

12/13/09 TLC

Christian vs. Shelton Benjamin (Ladder; ECW Title): ***1/2

Drew McIntyre vs. John Morrison (IC Title): **3/4

Michelle McCool vs. Mickie James (Women's Title): **1/4

Sheamus vs. John Cena (Tables; WWE Title): **1/2

The Undertaker vs. Batista (Chairs; World Heavyweight Title): **

Randy Orton vs. Kofi Kingston: **3/4

Triple H & Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho & The Big Show (TLC; Unified Tag Team Titles): ***3/4
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Match of the Night: Triple H & Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho & The Big Show (TLC). TLC won out over the ECW Ladder match for two reasons: (1) more original spots and (2) better crowd reaction.

Trash of the Night: The Undertaker vs. Batista (Chairs). It was a decent effort, but the restart finish all but sealed its fate as trash of the night. Sheamus/Cena would have nabbed TOTN honors from me, but then Taker/Batista came along.

MVPs: The veterans had their moments (see Christian/Shelton and DX/JeriShow), but newcomers Drew McIntyre and Sheamus get a special nod for winning their first titles in WWE.

Analysis: Shelton/Christian was great. Nice sick spots from Shelton, while not as much from Christian. it was clear to me that Shelton was the star. Ladder-split-in-two spot has been done several times before, so not as many points from me as one may think. It was a great effort, though, and while I think the two of them did not necessarily steal the show in the end, it came close.

Drew wins the belt? I'm not sure if I agree totally with doing that, but it's good to elevate a young star's career. It was a pretty standard match in my book, nothing overly spectacular. Maybe a few more points for the Morrison Flying Chuck on the outside and McIntyre's foot under the bottom rope.

McCool/Mickie was a surprisingly good match. Nice aggression shown, and the crowd got into it at the end. Good tease with Mickie looking like she would win with the rollup. Actual finish was a bit weak. I mean, just a kick to the head wins it? Hopefully there's more to this, because it's actually one of the few Diva storylines existing right now -- actually, it's really the only noteworthy one (sorry Maryse/Melina).

Sheamus winning over John Cena? Wow. I can guarantee people betting on Sheamus won a TON of money tonight. I was pretty much like the rest of the WWE Universe: in complete shock at the finish. The match was good for what it was, but did it really deliver for me? Not totally. I liked some of the tease spots, but the match lagged A LOT. I definitely grew restless with the slow pace, and I'm pretty sure a bunch of the crowd boos in the match were not only because people hate Cena (X-Pac heat) and Sheamus (gimmick heat). I think if more tables broke (with the opponent moving out of the way), that would have been a better showing. After all, a person must put the opponent through the table on an offensive move; putting oneself through the table doesn't count.

Taker and Batista were going pretty good, in my book, until the weird "restart" finish. It basically made a passable match that much crappier. So this is what happens when you have two 40-year-olds battling it out and HBK is not one of them. The match is...meh.

Orton and Kingston had a decent match. The storytelling was great before the match, and kept going strong throughout the match. Kofi has definitely established himself as a force even with the loss.

DX vs. JeriShow was awesome. There were innovative spots, and the crowd reaction was great. Big Show breaking two ladders was impressive. Jericho cracking his head on the table at the end (when he should have gone cleanly through) and the innovation on trying to retrieve the tag belts (Jericho climbing on Show and DX using half a ladder) really stood out and made it better than the ladder match, in my opinion.

Overall, it was a solid show. Two matches stood out (Ladder and TLC), and Kofi continues to impress in his feud with Orton, even in defeat. But let's face it, the night was also about two newcomers -- Drew McIntyre and Sheamus -- getting their first taste of gold.

Overall Rating: ***1/4

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