One of the strangest cards the WWE has given us in quite some time.  TLC is usually a pretty minor show.  It’s a hangover from the days when hardcore matches – and specifically Tables, Ladders and [steel] Chairs – were regular features in the WWE, something they’ve wisely moved away from in recent years.  It now sits on the schedule as an odd little quirk, with matches somewhat toned down from earlier years.  It’s the December show, and usually marks time before the “Road to Wrestlemania” gets under way with the Royal Rumble in January.

Which made it something of a surprise when, out of nowhere, and with only three weeks of promotion, they announced…

1.  WWE Title & World Heavyweight Title – Tables Ladders & Chairs Match: John Cena © v Randy Orton ©.  Yes, completely out of nowhere, it’s the long overdue unification match between the Raw and Smackdown titles.

It says a lot for the number of screwjob finishes we’ve had of late, that when this match was first announced, the reaction online was pretty much “Well, obviously they’re not going to deliver it.”  A TLC match is basically a ladder match with added weapons, and since what they announced was that both belts would be suspended over the ring, the conventional wisdom was that it would be a rather pointless draw.

That resulted in a follow-up show which bent over backwards to stress that, no, really, they are unifying the titles.  Or at least, one person is going to hold them both, which is not quite the same thing as permanently unifying them.  But despite the sudden and abrupt scheduling of the match, we are now being told in no uncertain terms that this is a massively important, game-changing event.  The company has to be intending to deliver.  Anything else would be madness, even for them.

Having two versions of the world title made a degree of sense back when Raw and Smackdown genuinely had separate rosters, and each needed a title to pursue.  But the brand split has been dead for ages, and the World Heavyweight Title has been so diminished in significance that you can’t really make a case for it as a serious attraction to headline the B-team live shows.  (In fact, the WWE has been experimenting for a while now with running non-title matches in the main event of its live shows, and the sky has not fallen.  After all, even the dumbest fan knows that the WWE title is not going to change hands at a house show.)

If anything, they’ve left it a bit late to unify the titles; it would have been better to do this when the WHC still had a bit more prestige.  Another option would have been to build up to doing this match at Wrestlemania, though that would beg the question of what the Royal Rumble winner would get as a prize instead of the usual title shot.

Still, even if they could have made more of it, clearing away the clutter is a good thing.  The WHC has little inherent value of its own, while diminishing the prestige of the WWE Title. We’re better off without it.  Hopefully they’ll move on to unify the secondary singles titles as well.

While the last few months have been dominated by the Authority (the new favoured name for Triple H and Stephanie), which has largely consisted of them screwing over Orton’s title challengers to the increasing irritation of fans, it looks as though the Authority angle is being reined in to a degree.  Partly, the company seems to have twigged that fans have lost faith in them delivering.  But partly, the Authority’s objection to Daniel Bryan was always that they couldn’t accept him as the “face of the company”.  Since John Cena has been the face of the company for the last few years, they evidently don’t have the same objection to him, so their different attitude makes a degree of sense.  The writers have also at least tried to set up the idea that Orton’s relationship with the Authority is breaking down anyway, so that they might even prefer Cena as champion.

The closing segment of Monday’s Raw ought to ring a few alarm bells for the company.  The idea was to have all the currently active wrestlers who’ve held either title in the ring at the same time, to watch Cena and Orton hand over their title belts in preparation for the match.  Fine in theory.  Unfortunately that list includes Daniel Bryan, and the crowd (admittedly his hometown crowd) chose to ignore the script in favour of chanting for him.  For quite some time.  Live crowds aren’t always representative – they tend to skew more towards hardcore fans – but it’s still a concern when the crowd rejects your main storyline like that.  Interestingly, Cena’s response of working Bryan into his speech was apparently an ad lib – and one of the better promos he’s done in quite some time.

All that being said – I expect Orton to win, with the help of the Authority.  I think the company probably believe that as long as they deliver the title unification, they’ll get away with another screwjob ending.  I also don’t expect wonders from the match, since Cena hasn’t looked 100% since returning from his last injury ahead of expectations, and I don’t see either of these guys being risked in anything too reckless.  And frankly, we’ve seen this pairing an awful lot of times before – it’s not fresh.  Still, it’ll be solid at worst.

2.  Handicap match: Daniel Bryan v The Wyatt Family (Luke Harper, Erick Rowan & Bray Wyatt).
3.  Handicap match: CM Punk v The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns).

Meanwhile, because the Authority have to do something dastardly, we have two separate three-on-one handicap matches, in which main event babyfaces take on three heels at once.  This is idiotic booking; neither the Wyatts nor the Shield should simply be losing clean in a 3-on-1 handicap match, so it’s either going to be a tedious extended beatdown with some hope spots, or a match which is just a pretext for some storyline stuff.

All of these guys are good (well, aside from Erick Rowan, but even he’s passable in a team).  But who the hell wants to see a three-on-one handicap match on PPV?  These are Raw angles, not PPV matches.

In the case of Bryan, the angle is that the Wyatts – the creepy southern gothic cultists – are trying to recruit him.  The details are terribly nebulous and he doesn’t seem very interested.  Having him actually sign up is not an immediately promising direction, though if the company is having a real tantrum about the crowd reactions then I wouldn’t put it past them to do it precisely because it’s a bad idea.  The Wyatts, despite being mostly talented, have under performed on PPV, and I don’t see this being any different.

In the case of Punk, the real interest here is that the teases have started for the Shield break-up.  At Survivor Series, Roman Reigns – despite being notionally a baddie – got to be the fighting underdog who came back from overwhelming odds to win the match for his team.  Tensions between him and Ambrose have started.  He’s obviously turning soon, possibly taking Rollins with him (they’re an established tag team, and Rollins was a decent babyface on NXT), so conceivably this is match which the Shield could lose if the idea is for Punk to sneak a win by taking advantage of internal dissension.

Nonetheless, I expect these to be extended storyline angles in the best case scenario.  As PPV matches, I can’t see how they can possibly work.

4.  WWE Divas Title: AJ Lee © v Natalya.  Continuing the neverending feud between heel champion AJ Lee and pretty much everyone who’s on the Total Divas reality show.  This is a rematch from a title match that aired a month ago on WWE Main Event, of all places – a show knocked off for ION which largely consists of generic time-filler matches, though sometimes it provides an opportunity for mid card guys to wrestle full length bouts.

Natalya won that match by DQ, but titles only change hands on pin or submission.  So this is her rematch.  AJ’s held this title since June and it’s kind of run its course – pairing her with Tamina Snuka as a bodyguard hasn’t really taken off, since Tamina has come across as largely ineffectual.  So I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Natalya win here.  They won’t get much time, but it’s one of the better pairings the women’s division has to offer.  (Well, the main roster women’s division.  NXT has some good people in the wings.)

5.  WWE Intercontinental Title: Big E Langston © v Damien Sandow.  Second defence for Langston (that’s ignoring house shows, but everyone does).  There’s not been a huge build-up here – Sandow won a title shot in a throwaway match on Raw, they’re going to fight.  It’s just feeding Langston another mid card opponent.  He’ll win, it’ll be fine.

6.  WWE Tag Team Titles – Fatal Fourway: Goldust & Cody Rhodes © v Rey Mysterio & Big Show v Ryback & Curtis Axel v Antonio Cesaro & Jack Swagger.  A relatively late addition to the card.  Goldust and Cody Rhodes have been a surprising success as tag champions, with Goldust in particular turning in unexpectedly strong performances for a guy who’s been out of circulation for quite some time.  But, since he’s semi-retired, he’s also probably not under a long term contract, and for that reason alone, a title switch wouldn’t completely shock me here.

The tag division is said to be more of a priority these days, and there are certainly a lot more regular and semi-regular teams out there than there have been in a while.  Mysterio & Big Show surely aren’t going to win; they aren’t established as a team, and Mysterio’s injuries mean he’s best used sparingly right now, if at all.  Ryback and Curtis Axel were both affiliated with manager Paul Heyman but weirdly have only started operating as a tag team after he vanished.  Axel is the obvious fall guy here, being the one person nobody cares about.  Cesaro and Swagger – the Real Americans, still doing their Tea Party gimmick – are heels, but Cesaro is clearly on the way to turning, having dusted off his old giant swing spot that worked for him on the indies.  If you thought he dragged it out for an insane length of time in his WWE matches, here he is doing it for Chikara in 2009.

I could see the Real Americans winning here; they’ve got some momentum behind them with their renewed push and giving them the titles might make sense.  Most likely, though, this is intended to be a fun undercard match where the champs retain by pinning the ever-hapless Curtis Axel.

7.  Kick-off match: Dolph Ziggler v Fandango.  Seriously, whose dog did Dolph Ziggler kill?  He was on the verge of main eventing a few months ago, and now he’s doing the pre-show matches against a novelty wrestler?  Given the way Ziggler’s career is going, I assume Fandango wins.  The actual match will probably be fine.

Worth getting?  Not an issue if you’re in Britain, because it’s airing on Sky Sports.  Would I pay for it otherwise?  No.  They’ve managed the odd trick here of putting a bunch of wrestlers I really like in two handicap matches I have absolutely no interest in seeing.  I’ll watch it for free, but I wouldn’t pay for it.