WWE TLC 2017

A couple weeks ago, WWE held its annual Tables Ladders Chairs (TLC) PPV. I attended the 2017 TLC show at the Target Center in Minneapolis, MN with a fellow wrestling fan who happened to co-host a now-defunct wrestling podcast with me many years ago. 2017 TLC was the third WWE PPV I attended live, joining the ranks of Bragging Rights 2010 and Wrestlemania XXVIII as the other two I made the trek out to witness. Like the other two, I had to track down the DVD to commemorate the experience, and combining that with the slightly late timing of the latest TLC PPV is what brings us to today’s entry.

I recall being originally ecstatic when I purchased the tickets for the show several weeks before the event. If you consult the history of past TLC shows, you will notice that most TLC PPVs contains four gimmick matches. One where each of the three weapons that make up the TLC acronym are legal, and a fourth match where all three weapons are legal which usually wound up being a much hyped main event. The 2017 version wound up being one of the exceptions where there was only one special match, but at least it was a much hyped handicap TLC match that saw a freshly reunited Shield taking on the team of Kane, Braun Strauman, The Miz and The Bar (Sheamus & Cesaro). I have professed my disdain here before for Roman Reigns (kick cancer’s ass Roman!), but I convinced myself going into the show at least he will be more likable as a Shield member and that with such a disadvantage of a handicap match the bout will likely have a meticulous story arc to it.

I was more skeptical of the only other match that was receiving any hype, a rematch between Finn Balor and Bray Wyatt that was being billed as ‘The Demon’ vs. ‘Sister Abigail.’ Fans were familiar with Balor’s altered persona as ‘The Demon’ where he fancied himself up with face paint and other ancient artifacts to mess with the minds of his adversaries, but this time Bray was promising to unleash his own alter ego to match Finn’s that night with Bray promising to unleash ‘Sister Abigail’ onto the WWE. Hype packages on RAWs leading up to the PPV showed brief glimpses of Wyatt decked out in his Sister Abigail attire and it looked quite hideous…in all the wrong ways possible. I was dreading that this big match between Finn and Wyatt was going involve all sorts of creepy holograms and other mysticism that the Wyatt character specialized in and has busted out on numerous PPVs before that simply do not play well on screen and only tempt me to change the channel. Come the day before the PPV and I get a text from another friend surprising me of a change I did not see coming from a mile away.

By clicking on that link in that text and finding out about Kurt Angle returning to the ring, it lead me to a news story where I discovered Angle would be replacing a mumps-ridden Roman Reigns in the main event. Additionally, Bray Wyatt also came down with the mumps and he would be substituted with freaking AJ Styles for the show to take on Finn Balor in what WWE hyped as a ‘Dream Match’ between the two former Bullet Club leaders in their first ever official WWE clash. All of a sudden my anticipation for both matches exponentially increased and I was now legit stoked for the show! My friend and I had ok seats; we were a fair amount up in elevated seating as you can tell by my included zoomed-in pic of the main event, but still a fair amount away from the nosebleeds. When we found our seats the Kickoff-Show match just concluded between Sasha Banks and Alicia Fox.

Now thanks to the DVD I was able to witness this for the first time since this preliminary match was a DVD bonus feature (along with a limited edition Topps trading card of Sasha Banks!). The two surprisingly put on a good showing in the kickoff show match that saw Sasha win with the Bank Statement submission. I forgot this card transpired when Booker T was still on the announce team and him and Corey Graves were constantly at odds with each other on every telecast to the point where it was apparent to any avid fan that their on-air discourse had real-world heat behind it. An early commentary highlight was in this kickoff match where both Michael Cole and Graves lost it when Booker T compared Alicia Fox to the Missing Link.

Another thing to point out was TLC 2017 emanated several months before WWE started combining the brands for PPVs again. That meant since most of the top stars were packed into the loaded eight-man main event, this opened up some spots for more women and cruiserweight matches than usual on a RAW PPV. The first five of the eight match-ups consisted entirely of women’s and cruiserweight matches. The first official match of the TLC card was Asuka making her much anticipated WWE debut against Emma. Asuka was fresh off a hot undefeated NXT run, and I was presuming this would be a showcase match for the ‘Empress of Tomorrow’ and she would dominate for about 70% of the match before quickly laying waste to Emma. I was surprised to see this match went on for around 15 minutes in a even-steven match with Emma getting way more offense in than I thought for someone going against a debuting opponent getting hyped up as unstoppable. It was still a good match, and Asuka eventually got the win with her Asuka-lock submission. Asuka won a shorter rematch the next night on RAW where Emma still got a surprising amount of offense in, and something must have rubbed the powers that be the wrong way in these matches because just days later Emma was released from the WWE.

Next up was cruiserweight tag team action with Rich Swann and Cederic Alexander besting Brian Kendrick and Jack Gallagher when Alexander pinned Jack with his Lumbar Check finisher. This was fresh off Jack turning heel and beginning to wrestle in a suit for several months. I still miss his umbrella! Alexa Bliss successfully defended her RAW Woman’s title against Mickie James next with a pinfall coming off a DDT. This happened at the hate part of the love/hate/love part of the current Alexa/Mickie dynamic. This match also benefited suffered from a wealthy amount of gonzo Booker T/Graves commentary hijinx.

Oh yeah, I forgot Enzo Amore was still with the WWE for a few more months at this point in the WWE. Remember Enzo as the top villain of 205 Live and the dreaded faction of evil he headed up that was known as the ‘Zo Train’? It is probably for the best you did not, but I will because I had the fortune of witnessing him recapture his cruiserweight title against Kallisto here. It was an OK match with some noticeable lulls due to Enzo’s lack of cruiserweight prowess, but Enzo got the win with his unique finisher I never caught the name of which was the only thing I really ever dug from his WWE run. The ‘Dream Match’ took place next and AJ Styles and Finn Balor stepped up and delivered a MOTY-calibur spectacular! This was awesome to relive on DVD with all the exhilarating exchanges and the climatic near-falls before Finn Balor walked away with the win after hitting his Coupe de Gras for the pin!

The crowd was red-hot after this bout so naturally they needed a little bit of an unwind before the big TLC main event. A couple times throughout the night, WWE’s favorite drifter, Elias attempted one of his vintage concerts where he would sing and trash talk the crowd only to have Kurt Angle’s storyline son Jason Jordan cut him off and pounce him with fresh produce to the crowd’s delight! Comissioner Angle promptly rewarded his son for interfering in Elias’s performances with a PPV payday and an impromptu match. This match was as awkward as I remembered and was filled with lots of odd collisions and lengthy rest-holds. After several agonizing minutes Jordan got the win with a surprise roll-up. I came to discover later that widespread speculation was these two were instructed to have a dud of a match to calm down the crowd from the AJ/Finn match so the audience could save their energy for the main event. Well….it worked. On a quick side note, I hope rumor is not meant to be believed and that Jordan did not suffer career ending injuries at the beginning of 2018 because he was finally starting to come into his own and get comfortable in his character that took quite some time for Jordan to get a groove with. He has been out for nearly a year now, and I can only hope to see him recover from his injuries and reunite with his on-screen father!

After 11 years away from a WWE ring, we got to see Kurt Angle’s return to WWE action for the first time since 2006 when he teamed up with Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose to take on Kane, Braun Strauman, The Miz, Cesaro & Sheamus in a TLC match in the main event! Seth & Dean even made Kurt an honorary Shield member before the show and bestowed upon him the trademark Shield riot gear so Angle fit in with the group as they made the iconic Shield entrance through the crowd. This match told a fantastic story in three parts. The first part was The Shield saying screw the odds and taking whatever the opposition threw at them where Ambrose & Rollins put away Braun & Kane through both announce tables simultaneously early in the match to the crowd’s pleasure and Angle proving he still has it by unleashing his lethal German Suplexes. Part two is the numbers game catching up with the Shield with Miz leading the charge in laying waste to the Shield and knocking Angle out for medical attention.

All hope looked lost for The Shield until miscommunications between Kane and Braun lead to the group turning on Braun and literally throwing Braun into a garbage truck Miz brought out intended for the Shield but instead wound up containing Braun and complete with atrocious garbage truck disposal sound effects on the PA system in person, but actually came across decent on the DVD. The numbers game was 4-on-2 for Miz’s ensemble and the Shield looked on the precipice of defeat until Kurt Angle’s theme gloriously erupted over the speakers to the crowd’s approval and he lead a comeback which culminated in Kurt, Dean and Seth all hitting their individual finishers on Miz before all three teamed up for the Shield Powerbomb for the pin on Miz! I got everything I wanted out of this match with it telling an intricate story and taking advantage of many tables, ladders and chairs throughout. Even though I was kind of bummed we only got one weapons match instead of the usual four on a TLC PPV, by having this one weapons match on the show it made every spot involving the weaponry mean that much more.

Setting aside my blatant bias for Reigns at the time, I got a lot more out of this match by seeing Angle’s surprise WWE return, and the fact that it had this in-depth match built around his each and every move made it have far more impact. I once again got to give props to AJ and Finn for delivering a standout match and made me feel that we came out of the show with a much better bout than what WWE originally had in mind. The women’s and cruiserweight division stepped up to have a (mostly) gratifying opening and mid-card matches with the only real stinker of the night being Elias/Jordan and that was by design! I still have great memories of my friend and I originally thinking this was going to be a so-so PPV with hopefully a solid spectacle of a main event, but it would up delivering so much more! My friend and I left the Target Center that night in good spirits and I recall us stopping for a late night slice of pizza on the way back at Pizza Luce as we quizzed each other on if we could still remember the final match at every Wrestlemania in order. What a way to end a WWE PPV that had a bizarre set of circumstances around it that resulted in one of WWE’s best PPVs of 2017. If you somehow missed this show then by all means make haste and watch it in on the WWE Network!

Past Wrestling Blogs

Best of WCW Clash of Champions
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3
Biggest Knuckleheads
Bobby The Brain Heenan
Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes
DDP: Positively Living
Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials
ECW Unreleased: Vol 1
ECW Unreleased: Vol 2
ECW Unreleased: Vol 3
Eric Bishoff: Wrestlings Most Controversial Figure
For All Mankind
Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection
Impact Wresting Presents: Best of Hulk Hogan
Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story
The Kliq Rules
Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman
Legends of Mid South Wrestling
Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story
Memphis Heat
NXT Greatest Matches Vol 1
OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History
OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History
Owen: Hart of Gold
RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
Scott Hall: Living on a Razors Edge
Sting: Into the Light
Straight Outta Dudley-ville: Legacy of the Dudley Boyz
Straight to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology
Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder
TNA Lockdown 2005-2016
Top 50 Superstars of All Time
Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season
True Giants
Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns
Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe
War Games: WCWs Most Notorious Matches
Warrior Week on WWE Network
Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition
Wrestlemania 28-Present
The Wrestler (2008)
Wrestling Road Diaries Too
Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money
Wrestlings Greatest Factions
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2017