If the WWE Network does indeed launch in the UK at the start of January as suggested – and reportedly that’s the date that was already agreed with Sky when the contract was renewed a few months back – then in theory this should mark the end of PPV in the UK.    Well, as long as you have decent broadband and aren’t deterred by the whole idea of internet streaming – which admittedly still leaves a significant chunk of the audience.  And oddly, TLC isn’t a PPV in the UK – it’s airing on Sky Sports.  So really, UK PPV as we know it ended in November.  Still, you get the point.

This seems to make TLC a suitable place to draw a line under these columns, since, point one, we’re now talking about network specials rather than PPVs, and point two, the current quality of WWE television is so mind-numbing that the build to these shows is more of a chore to sit through than a pleasure to write about.  I’m thinking I might do some Chikara coverage in 2015 instead – much less viewed, but vastly more interesting to write about.

First, though, TLC. A hangover from the days when Tables, Ladders & Chairs matches were recklessly chaotic hardcore brawls, TLC has survived into a more restrained and PG era, where it at least stands out as one of the more excessive gimmick shows of the year.  As against that, the company is still into a multi-month era of turning a blind eye to the fact that WWE champion Brock Lesnar isn’t on TV and isn’t defending his title (because he has a limited dates contract, and they’re saving his defences for the run-up to Wrestlemania).  Inevitably, the result is to give the main event stories a sense of wheel-spinning, because that’s exactly what’s happening..

1.  TLC Match: Dean Ambrose v Bray Wyatt.  Once again, they’re going with the formula of one TLC match, and another three matches with each of the individual elements.  And, for some strange reason, this year also features a Stairs Match.  I can’t imagine who they think is on tenterhooks waiting for a Stairs Match, but if any such person is out there, it’s their lucky day.

This is a rematch from last month’s show.  That time round, the match degenerated into a bunch of TLC spots anyway, in a fairly obviously contrived trailer, before ending in a DQ.  Wyatt’s cult-leader character started out the feud by seemingly trying to recruit Ambrose as a new follower, but Ambrose doesn’t really respond to mind games in the same way that other wrestlers do.  Being a raving maniac, he responds with significant violence and by destroying Wyatt’s favourite rocking chair.  And so This Is Personal.

It’s actually a good match on paper.  Both guys could really use the win here – neither has been booked brilliantly of late, and both could be valuable to the company if they were used effectively – but I’d say Ambrose would benefit more, and Wyatt can move on from a loss to start building up his flock again, after his previous henchmen were split off to go in their own direction. His character needs flunkies.

2.  Tables Match: John Cena v Seth Rollins.  Cena is technically the No 1 Contender for the WWE World Heavyweight Title, and has been for two months now.  At some point presumably Brock Lesnar will show up to actually defend the thing – something that no character seems particularly bothered about, because apparently the company has decided it’s best not to mention Lesnar’s absence, rather than make the best of the situation and use it to put even more heel heat on him.  Seems an obviously wrong decision to me, but what do I know?

With the Authority out of power after losing last month’s Survivor Series main event, we are apparently back to the days of having random bozos in charge of each show.  This is unbelievably stupid too, because it results in the focus for each show being on a guest star of no long-term importance.  Why they don’t just appoint a generic management figure and get the focus back on to the wrestlers, I have no idea.  At any rate, for pretty much random reasons, the stipulation for this match is that if Cena loses, he ceases to be No 1 Contender.  Rollins doesn’t stand to win anything, but then he’s already got the Money in the Bank title shot, so he can challenge for the title whenever he wants anyway.

Well, he could if the champion ever showed up in the building.  On the bright side, with the Authority themselves out of the way, the wrestlers who followed them seem to have remained together as an unnamed heel faction with Rollins as their leader, and that’s a welcome shift of emphasis.

I pretty much take it as read that Cena will win, because he almost always does, and besides, Lesnar supposedly is due to be on the January show.  The match should be fine.

3.  Chairs Match: Ryback v Kane.  The Ladder Match is an old standard.  The Tables Match is silly but it’s a real thing that existed before TLC came along (you win by putting your opponent through an inexpensive table).   But the Chairs Match?  It had to be invented for TLC, to round out the gimmick.  It is never any good, and I certainly don’t expect Ryback/Kane to be the match that changes that.  Ryback presumably wins, because he’s just turned babyface and he’s the rising star, while Kane is a bulletproof veteran who’s surely on his way to retirement in the not too distant future.  There’s not much story here beyond the fact that they were on opposite sides at Survivor Series.

4.  WWE Tag Team Titles: The Miz & Damien Mizdow © v Jey Uso & Jimmy Uso.  Miz and his doppelgänger flunky Damien Mizdow make their second (televised) defence of the tag titles against the Usos.  There’s actually a degree of story here, with Miz winding up Jimmy Uso by offering to use his Hollywood connections to help Jimmy’s wife, but that’s about as far as it goes.  Oh, and they’re already starting the build to Miz becoming jealous that everyone likes Mizdow more, though hopefully they’ll keep that as a slow one.

The tag division is not overburdened with obvious challengers for the Mizzes, so I imagine they’ll want to get a couple of months out of this one at least.  That means the champions retaining in circumstances that justify a rematch – either the heels cheat to win or they get DQ’ed.  The Usos are pretty good and the Mizzes’ act is generally fun (though the company’s been overplaying it a bit of late), so I can see this being decent.

5.  Stairs Match: Erick Rowan v Big Show.  Erick Rowan used to be in the Wyatt Family, but they just kind of broke up for no particular reason, because that’s how WWE writing works these days.  His new gimmick seems to be that he’s an idiot savant, and for no particular reason again, he’s suddenly a babyface.  We’re not even really trying any more, are we?

Anyhow, this sounds awful.  The stairs in question are the ring steps, which make a nice satisfying noise when you hit people with them, but aren’t exactly the least cumbersome weapon in the world.  Quite how this is going to an improve an already unpromising match between ageing giant Big Show and the less impressive member of the Wyatt Family, I cannot begin to imagine.  Rowan presumably wins, because he’s just broken off on a solo career.

6.  WWE Intercontinental Title: Ladder Match: Luke Harper © v Dolph Ziggler.  The other member of the Wyatt Family has kicked off his solo career by winning the Intercontinental Title.  In typical WWE style, he has immediately started losing all his matches.  (He’s defended the thing on TV three times, all of which he lost by disqualification.)  Given the way their minds work, though, I suspect he retains here, because Ziggler seems to be getting one of his periodic half-hearted pushes.  And if he’s going to be on the fringes of the main event, he shouldn’t be carrying a mid card title, and therefore he should lose to the mid card champion.  Seriously, that’s how they think.

The actual match should be very good, though.  Harper and Ziggler are both talented, Ziggler will probably work very hard to make this look spectacular, and Harper is a good base for things like that.

7.  WWE United States Title: Rusev © v Jack Swagger.  Didn’t we do this match in the summer?  Yes.  Yes, we did.  And now we’re doing it again, although this time with the US Title on the line.  Will Swagger recapture the US title for the United States this time?  No, no of course he won’t, because Rusev’s long winning streak is not going to be beaten by anyone other than a main eventer.  Roman Reigns would be my bet, when he returns from injury and needs some immediate momentum.  Again, though, the actual match ought to be fine.

8.  WWE Divas Title: Nikki Bella © v AJ Lee.  Automatic rematch after Nikki won the title last month.  Remember they did a match between Nikki and her sister Brie, where if Brie lost, she had to be Nikki’s servant for a month?  Well, the pay off for that was that Brie just turned heel and joined up with her sister again anyway.  And that made no real sense, but so it goes, because it’s a mid card feud.

Nikki has to be the heavy favourite here.  For one thing, she only just won the title, and there’s no point trading it straight back.  For another, AJ is married to CM Punk, who is no longer with the company, and who has just given a couple of very incendiary interviews criticising, among other things, the company’s approach to protecting the health of their performers.  Even the WWE (probably) isn’t stupid enough to do anything that would be interpreted as on-air retaliation for something like that, but when AJ wasn’t sensibly in line to win in the first place, well, it’s unlikely that this changed their minds.

It’ll be a five minute filler and I don’t expect it to be anything more than average.

9.  Pre-show match: The New Day (X & X) v Goldust & Stardust.  The New Day is a repackaged trio of Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods and Big E, who now have gospel music for their entrance, and are Very Positive.  This actually works better than you might think, because the WWE could use a few straightforwardly uncomplicated babyfaces.  Part of the gimmick is that in tag matches, they don’t announce who’s wrestling until the last moment.  With typical booking stupidity, they were given a lengthy build-up and almost immediately after their debut got plonked in a tag team gauntlet match where they got pinned in three minutes.  Wonderful.  (Is it really so hard to figure out that they should plough through most of the teams before getting screwed out of the win?)  At any rate, they’re feuding with the Dust brothers, spinning out of that gauntlet, and they should have a perfectly solid match here.

Worth getting?  It’s not a PPV so it’s academic.  There are quite a few matches here that should be decent, a few which sound deeply unpromising, but nothing with any real storyline momentum behind it.  It’s a gimmicky time-filler show, but given that most people aren’t being expected to pay for it, it’s probably going to have enough good stuff to be worth recording.