The Aftermath – WWE TLC 2009
WWE’s first ever TLC is in the books. WWE’s shocking attempt at actually pushing young talent had mixed results, with Sheamus winning the WWE Championship from John Cena in a finish that none of us could predict, but also with Kofi Kingston losing to Randy Orton cleanly, something that we all feared would happen, but deep down knew it was the route they’d go.
GG:
Thumbs Up
Best Match: Shelton Benjamin vs. Christian
Worst Match: Mickie James vs. Michelle McCool
I didn’t think they were going to give Shelton and Christian enough time to steal the show like they wanted, but they did and this was a tremendous match. What it really cemented in my head is that Shelton Benjamin is the single greatest athlete in WWE and he’s wasting his talent. He needs to go into MMA right now. I thought Christian was excellent too. I was fine with the way they put Sheamus over. I just hope they have a plan for him. I don’t think Randy Orton should’ve won the match and I think they’ve pretty much put Kofi in his place. Such a bad botch job with him these last few weeks. Didn’t care as much for Taker/Batista, but Taker worked his butt off. Big Dave is just too slow. And they needed to pull the trigger on that title change. I thought it worked when it happened and thought it was deflating when they restarted the match. DX vs. JeriShow was pretty good, though you knew beforehand that HHH and Show were going to slow it down and they did. I loved the DX double team spots and the finish was really creative.
What bothered me most about the show is that they were building the Mickie/Michelle match to where Layla would help Michelle, which makes complete sense being that the entire angle is 2 on 1. But then when she didn’t even factor into the pin and Michelle pinned Mickie clean, I was just frustrated. Basically, the skinny people can make fun of the non-skinny people and then get away with it. Idiotic booking.
Big D:
Thumbs In the Middle, Leaning Up
Best Match: Shelton Benjamin vs. Christian
Worst Match: Mickie James vs. Michelle McCool
This was a really fun PPV. I’m not a huge fan of doing more than one or two ladder matches per year and this year we have seen about six. Regardless, the matches on this show were all decent to great for different ways. The main event between DX and Jericho was most certainly more toned down than I expected, but still a fun main. Batista and Taker had probably the worst match that they’ve ever had (and they HAVE had some great ones) made even worse by the overly played-out “restart the match” crutch that they apparently use every other PPV. Sheamus winning at first looked like a botch (I assumed he was supposed to fall through the table on the outside simultaneously), but once I saw the replay I knew it wasn’t. Shocking, to say the least. In addition, Drew McIntryre continued his push and Kofi ended his. Overall though, a fun show, but probably not worth 40-50 bucks. Get the DVD.
