This match was my biggest reason for wanting to watch.

Yeah this match should be awesome. I like Asuka's chances here given some of the foreshadowing from earlier.

I'm really torn who I want to see win this and think they could do good things with basically every combination of outcome. I think I want Charlotte to win and go full heel. Asuka as champ is the worst option as WWE will try getting her to do lots of stupid stuff that doesn't suit her, if they just let her wrestle decent length matches every week she'd be great.

There were no times.

^^^^

Came in as Shield member
Turn and became HHH lackey
Injured and came back as a **** babyface that he remains as

Not necessarily sold on the finish but I think that's the best women's match that I've seen in WWE. The finish has good enough storyline reasons too though so I'm happy.

I figured there were going to be some Raw shenanigans, but thought Nia and Tamina would be involved too. Seems like they're headed for a triple threat with those three now?

I'm hoping Ronda vs. Charlotte at the Rumble, Becky vs. Ronda at Mania. But it could also definitely be a triple threat (which is way worse imo). Either way, great match and a pretty ideal ending.

Or if they go for a tag team match and get Shayna involved.

I would say that I was surprised that their response to "We have a person that's incredibly over" was "screwjob out of the title" but since that's the only way they know how to book faces I'm not.

Got a big ole eyeroll out of me and a feeling of regret for actually turning in for it. Now we have a champion that's an afterthought and the table set for Becky to play 2nd fiddle to Charlotte yet again.

8 man tag on the pre-show FTW!

I get where you're coming from, but this was the best possible scenario for Becky. She goes back on the chase and has a clear, obvious path to a Mania main event, whether it involves Charlotte or not.

I do wish they'd given Asuka more booking momentum prior to this, but it's not like she has a hard time looking like a credible champion in-ring.

Eh, that's the thing though. "Best thing cause shes on the chase" assumes that what I want to see is people I like to consistently fail and have the rug pulled out from under them once they finally succeed. Is it so hard to just like, have a face that people like actually succeed for a bit?

It's the Rusev treatment where eventually you just stop caring no matter how awesome they are.

Plus, I've seen this one happen plenty. The WWE has one person they want to be THE PERSON in the division. That person has been Charlotte since she's come up and will continue being so. The Mania moment will be Charlotte beating Ronda and Becky hoping to be able to raise Charlottes hand after (otherwise she'll just be in the back after being eliminated in the 4 on 4 if that happens or fighting Jax if it doesnt)

I agree with this, but I just don't see this as an example of that. She dropped the title because they have really obvious big plans for her and she didn't really "fail" in any meaningful sense that will stick with fans. It's not a Rusev situation where they're just never going to pull the trigger.

Hope you're right and I'm wrong of course. First ppv in a while cause all the becky segments have gotten me interested again and just a bit flustered by nothing really being different re: over faces

Someone post what happened, purdy peas.

Ronda comes out, pushes Becky and Charlotte off a ladder, Asuka climbs it and wins

Oh, that makes sense. I'm a Becky die-hard and definitely felt the frustration over the last couple of years, but they've been pushing her pretty hard for months and have clearly bought in. And if they hadn't, the crowd reactions would be impossible to ignore. I'm not really worried about her booking going forward.

We're going to get awesome angry Becky promos from this at the very least, and if the crowd momentum keeps up I wouldn't be surprised if it was her moment at Mania, even over Charlotte and Ronda.

Nevermind, twitter to the rescue.

https://twitter.com/wwecritics/statu...056701441?s=21

Is Becky a face?

Another cool scenario is Becky wins Rumble. Chooses Rhonda. In which case, taking the title off her makes perfect sense.

There was never a formal turn, but they gave up on her being a heel after the Nia punch. The announcers are always the giveaway, tonight Corey Graves was criticizing her and Otunga was defending her.

Fell asleep early in the main last night, woke up to watch it in full this morning, and I wasn't a fan. Fell into lots of the same traps as other TLC matches where the psychology ends up being garbage because they have to slowly and inorganically set up table and ladder spots that have no apparent intention toward actually trying to win the match. Feel like I would have been much more likely to enjoy those three facing off in a regular triple threat than a TLC.

Dean Ambrose sucks at wrestling and no amount of sabbaticals or weights is going to change that. Dude is worse than Jinder Mahal and it's absolutely telling that Seth couldn't get anything good out of him.

Thoughts on the PPV last night:

-Main event was incredible. Charlotte is the MVP. The combo of bumps she took and spots she had were insane. Booking was fine, but I felt slightly unsatisfied at the end because the ladder tilt/the girls falling off felt awkward/the bump wasn't executed well. Both of them landed in the ring and basically rolled themselves out of the ring inorganically to facilitate the finish.

-Renee Young on commentary for the Ambrose match was dreadful. How do they not realize how awkwardly dumb it makes her look for calling the match against her husband the way she did? WWE could strike gold just having Renee turn full heel for Dean, having a microphone on her while he's on screen heeling it up would be great if executed well.

-My last favorite thing of the night was WWE unintentionally burying Vince McMahon's return tonight by starting off the promo with: "Tomorrow night.....THE BOSS....is BACK"

I'm sitting there thinking, why the **** do I care about Sasha Banks? Really accentuates how pathetically bad that nickname is.

lol, I will never understand how anyone can have this opinion. Match was boring as ****. It was an entire match of



and then after like 7 seconds of excitement the crowd chants this is awesome bc its AJ & DB so they're supposed to like it. A bad Seth/Dean match that didn't come close to its potential and told a **** story was a more entertaining wrestling match.

Ya agreed. I was saying as the match was going on that they somehow managed to make the IC title an afterthought whilst also not telling a compelling story. This match should have had real emotion and, as you said, intensity to it. Instead it fell kinda flat. It still had some good moments because Seth is great but it should have been so much better.

And ya Renee is terrible. It's not really her fault either. 3 announcers just doesn't work because there's only so much they can do. And I've ranted about this before but I have to say it again, this whole 'make Michael Cole more like a sports broadcaster' bull**** is the heart of the problem. Someone needs to tell him he's not Al ****ing Michaels calling a match asking Graves to break down tactics of a fight and whatnot. J.R never asked Jerry what makes HHH so tough in the ring looking for an analytical answer, he just called the damn match. Everything out of Cole's match is so pathetically obviously scripted it wouldn't surprise me if he wasn't even watching the match. Given that Renee was GREAT on Talking Smack or w/e the **** it was called I feel more than comfortable saying that Cole/WWE announcer strategy is far more to blame than she is.

Doesn't Charlotte v Ronda seem like the most likely WM main event option?

Ya I actually kinda feel for Charlotte, because it's so obvious how this is going to go. She's gonna get backlash simply for not being Becky. She's unbelievable though.