Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Top Five 12/7/15-12/13/15

1) The New Day: Guess who was the most over act at TLC? Once again, it was New Day. They kicked off the show and competed in the best match of the night. I'm actually planning a Top 100 Matches of 2015 list and, spoiler alert, this match knocked one off the list and joined in. It was a fantastic ladder match, probably the best of the a year that included many good to great ones (Ambrose/Rollins, Finn/Owens, Mania IC Title). The other teams certainly did their part, especially the Lucha Dragons, earning themselves a spot at the bottom of the list this week. Kofi Kingston got to retrieve the belts in his hometown, earning the New Day another successful defense of the belts and a win in a great match.

2) Dean Ambrose: I was completely against the idea of Kevin Owens dropping the Intercontinental Title already. I would have liked him to be booked like a dominant champion until a debuting Sami Zayn dethroned him. Still, if he had to lose to anyone, dropping the belt to Dean Ambrose was the way to go. The guy has been absurdly over since last summer, but lost feuds to Seth Rollins and Bray Wyatt, while also failing to win the Intercontinental Title at WrestleMania. Then he's been relegated to Roman Reigns' little buddy, but has managed to stay popular. Hopefully, this means we'll have a champion that makes the belt seem important, but it most likely won't. The match itself wasn't great, but it is a nice accomplishment for Ambrose.

3) Sheamus:  From what I could tell, the crowd in Boston wanted nothing to do with the main event of TLC. Sheamus and Roman Reigns has been a horribly booked mess. The crowd was shitting on the match, forcing the guys to seemingly try and up the ante, nearly killing each other for a reaction. Honestly, for the first two-thirds of this match, Sheamus looked great. He was a badass that kicked the face's ass in ways that he couldn't come close to in the weeks leading up to the show. He needed help in the end, but still managed to retain the belt in a pretty good match. The biggest complaint is that, once again, Sheamus and the WWE Title were a complete afterthought at the close of the show.

4) Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma: New Japan's World Tag League has dominated the month of December. Going in and looking at the teams involved, I figured Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma would come out as winners. The Finals were this week and it featured them against the the teams with the most points, Tetsuya Naito and EVIL, representing Los Ingobernables. I didn't catch all of the tournament, but was able to see the finals and thought it was a really solid match. Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma won, and now earn an IWGP Tag Team Title shot at Wrestle Kingdom against Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows of the Bullet Club. It's a high profile match for a former IWGP Heavyweight Champion and one of the most popular stars in the company.

5) The Lucha Dragons: The only people on the list here that did not pick up a win in their biggest match are the Lucha Dragons. On Raw, they did defeat the Tag Team Champions, the New Day before repeating that effort on Smackdown. However, at TLC, they competed in a Triangle Ladder Match for the WWE Tag Team Titles and came up short. The reason they make the list is because of their performance. The Lucha Dragons pulled out all of the stops, doing some insane spots. The biggest of which saw Kalisto hit Salida Del Sol off a ladder and through another one, in a spot that will most likely be replayed for years to come among the greatest and craziest spots in WWE history.