Instant Reaction - WWE TLC PPV
By Benjamin Tucker, PWTorch TV specialist

Overall Score - 5.0

One of the biggest faults of Mick Foley's legendary career is that the man often suffered the most for bumps that are quickly forgotten. The damage from being tossed onto padded "electrical equipment" at the 1999 Royal Rumble garnered a large reaction from the live crowd. Foley landing with a sickening thud onto bare concrete barely registered at all. Generally speaking, painful bumps do not equate to spectacular bumps, and arguably all dangerous maneuvers can be modified in some way to both excite the crowd more and better protect the individuals in the ring. TLC's opening match between Dolph Ziggler and Luke Harper was a sickening reminder that yes, sometimes there should be a limit to what a wrestler puts his body through.

The effort that Ziggler and Harper put into their match is unimaginable. I argue it was too much. While I cannot speak for either man, their bodies at the end of the match told the story. Ziggler's head was lacerated, as was one of his fingers. He had been smacked over the head accidentally by the metal ladder nearly a half dozen times in the match. That pales in comparison to Luke Harper, who suffered a cut below one of his arms, had a lacerated cheek, a severely cut head wound, and a giant bruise hidden by his loose shirt. These two men went to war in dangerous spots that nearly left Harper with a broken arm and Ziggler, a man with a history of serious concussions, out of commission again.

Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon's legendary ladder matches were brutal, but they were not reckless. Ziggler and Harper treated the ladder like a cushioned ball, tackling each other with it for no regard for each other's safety. Ziggler did not have enough time to brace for any of his falls; in one instance he presumed to be able to reach the ropes, only to fall flat on his face in the middle of the ring. His leap from one ladder on the edge of the ring to Harper in the center was incredibly rushed and led to both a bad hit for the big man and an awkward climb towards the belt. If the match could have been given time to breathe with spots being executed at a deliberate, safer pace, Harper and Ziggler would arguably not be dealing with a great portion of the pain they are currently facing. Bumps like Ziggler being powerbombed on a ladder generated the same reaction as Harper being super kicked and gingerly lying down on the metal contraption.

I love ladder matches. I also love the safety of wrestlers. It is wrong for a wrestler to "lay it all on the line to grab the brass ring" when neither Ziggler nor Harper will be getting any extended time off to lick their wounds. Careless matches such as this also set the bar too high for the rest of the "extreme" matches on the TLC broadcast, desensitizing the viewer to the product. Big bumps that retire wrestlers at 40-years-old do not lead to brass rings; a mixture of telling stories, solid technical skills,and a connection to the crowd do (along with some faith from management, of course). With improved pacing, selling, and safer spots, the opening IC Title match could have been a classic. Instead, it was two men literally killing each other in a cringe worthy car wreck of a match that should remind viewers that the wrestling business is still in dire need of evolution and evaluation.

The rest of the show delivered about what you would have expected from TLC, albeit with much more plunder being used than initially perceived. Cena vs. Rollins told the best story of the broadcast, with Rollins using his goons to continuously get Cena's guard down. Reigns's return was also well-received, unlike his oddly-paced backstage promo.

The Wyatt-Ambrose main event was also relatively strong until the finish, which saw Dean Ambrose defeated by an exploding television. I'm not sure what TVs the McMahon family buys, but I can assure you that the typical TV does not explode when the HDMI is unplugged. While Ambrose comes out relatively unscathed (not even Steven Hawking could have theorized that the monitor was loaded with gun powder), the heat from the match goes away from Wyatt and towards Creative for constructing such a heinous finish that made the previous 20 minutes of Ambrose destroying Wyatt feel worthless.

The rest of the card felt extraordinarily underdeveloped. The Tag Title and Divas matches were treated as if they were on Raw, and Ryback-Kane never got out of first gear, despite Ryback being pummeled with the chair an inhuman number of times. Rusev's U.S. Championship defense proved to be less memorable than expected when a drunk fan being ejected from the building took the arena's attention away from the action (photos of the altercation on my Twitter account @BTuckerTorch).

NXT was an incredible event that only featured one or two moves that could be perceived as being unsafe. TLC's opening match was full of them, and didn't manage to even come close to topping Thursday's delightful main event. More attention needs to be paid to wrestler safety. If I'm going to be disappointed by a WWE PPV event, then I at least want to feel reassured that the talents involved aren't two steps away from committing manslaughter.

Questions? Comments? Reactions? Find me on Twitter @BTuckerTorch, where I talk about wrestling and... stuff!

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