WWE’s final pay-per-view event of the year is TLC: Tables, Ladders, and Chairs. Drew McIntyre plans to continue his WWE Championship until 2021 when he defends against AJ Styles for the first time in a TLC format. Kevin Owens gets his first shot at the Universal Championship since losing that title three and a half years ago when he challenged Roman Reigns – a match that TLC rules say should also be played.
One of the rarest match types in WWE history also returns when “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt takes on Randy Orton in a “Firefly” inferno match. Kane was involved in all five previous iterations, starting with a 1998 game against The Undertaker. In the first four games, the win condition was to set your opponent on fire. In the latest version with Kane vs. Wyatt at SummerSlam 2013, which was referred to as the “Ring of Fire” match, it was contested as a standard no-DQ match with flames around the ring.
Three title fights round off the map. Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler will defend the women’s tag team titles against Asuka and a partner of their choice after Lana was removed from the game on Monday night. Sasha Banks brings her SmackDown Women’s Championship on the line for the second time in a week and a half against Carmella. Eventually, The New Day will defend the Raw Tag Team titles against Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin of The Hurt Business.
Follow us all night as Tim Fiorvanti cuts off all action on TLC as it happens.
Game is underway: SmackDown Women’s Championship: Sasha Banks (c) def. Carmella
Sasha Banks blocked the bank statement to force a tap on Carmella. Complete summary to come.
Results
TLC match for the WWE Championship: Drew McIntyre (c) def. AJ Styles and The Miz
Drew McIntyre was one of the rocks WWE held its own on in 2020, and it is only fitting that McIntyre will continue to hold the most iconic title in pro-wrestling as the 2020-2021 calendar moves.
The twists and turns on the way on Sunday night in the TLC pay-per-view opening game seemed to question that possibility, but McIntyre insisted, defeating both his planned opponent AJ Styles and The Miz, who made money in the bank’s briefcase late in the game to further dramatize the proceedings.
It was a brutal, violent game from start to finish. From the moment McIntyre Styles sent a blistering, open-handed blow that sent him tumbling outward from the top turnbuckle, the tone was set. Tables, ladders, and chairs were used to accentuate the violence, and even when certain weapon-based movements failed, such as when Styles tried to hit a Styles clash on a ladder, McIntyre increased the stakes with a Future Shock DDT.
However, Styles sure did manage to target McIntyre’s leg over the course of the game and further damage it with two calf breaker submissions – one with a ladder and one with a chair. McIntyre returned to the game by throwing a chair in Styles’ face as he leapt from the top turnbuckle toward him.
McIntyre had apparently won the match when he snatched Styles halfway up the ladder and pushed him out of the ring through an outside table. But then The Miz and John Morrison made their move. Miz bombed McIntyre, cashed his briefcase, and made it a triple threat match.
But even if Styles and McIntyre were out, Styles’ equalizer, the giant Omos, came in.
When Miz climbed the ladder with a grin on his face, Omos reached up, snatched Miz off the ladder and carried him to the top rope like a small child before throwing Miz out of the ring and through his own table. When Morrison tried to get revenge, he broke a steel chair over Omos’ back and Omos did not flinch. Omos chased Morrison up the ramp and took them both out of the game.
Now that Miz was gone, Styles and McIntyre fought on a ladder for a few minutes. In the final fight, Miz set up a second ladder and a three-way war in the sky began. Styles fell, Miz was pushed off a ladder, Styles jumped back on the ladder, Styles forearm shots dropped McIntyre to the ground.
The Miz stopped Styles from taking the title just long enough for McIntyre to use one ladder to push the other ladder (and both men) up, with Styles falling out over the top rope. A claymore to The Miz, and McIntyre climbed the ladder on one leg to keep his title.
What’s next: It’s easy to be frustrated that the money in the bank’s briefcase is going to be wasted this year, but a few more losses on the balance sheet make cash-ins less secure going forward, which is likely a positive shift.
McIntyre and Roman Reigns are unlikely to lose their respective titles anytime soon, so this is taken into account as well. McIntyre and Styles may have one more chapter where The Miz gets involved in this particular fight. The Miz and Morrison is unfortunately back in first place.
Big E, Daniel Bryan, Chad Gable and Otis def. King Corbin, Shinsuke Nakamura, Cesaro and Sami Zayn
Big E overwhelmed Sami Zayn by leading his teammates Chad Gable, Otis and Daniel Bryan to an eight-man tag team victory. WWE
Any match that brings together six of the best bell-to-bell wrestlers in the world is a good thing, and while it happened in a preshow eight-man tag team match, it was still fun to do see. It was hard not to imagine a real-life match between a combination of Daniel Bryan, Big E, Cesaro, Sami Zayn, Shinsuke Nakamura and Chad Gable, but that’s a discussion for another day.
The highlight of the game may have been Gable’s slower, deadlift-roll-through German suplex on Cesaro, but the main driving force of the game was Big E and Zayn’s conflict for the Intercontinental Championship. Big E eventually grabbed the Pinfall win over Zayn and set him up for a real title shot in the near future.
What’s next: Outside of the Intercontinental Championship game, Otis and Gable’s team is picking up speed. After a rocky year for Otis, something fresh is good news.
Still to come:
TLC match for the Universal Championship: Roman Reigns (c) versus Kevin Owens
Firefly Inferno Match: “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt versus Randy Orton
Women’s Tag Team Championships: Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler (c) against Asuka and TBD
Raw Tag Team Championships: The New Day (Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston) (c) versus the injured business (Cedric Alexander & Shelton Benjamin)
