Wrestle Review: Holiday Bash Submitted by Andy Sullivan on 12/19/2020 at 02:33 PM
Usually when someone gets their butt handed to them in as many consecutive weeks as Kevin Owens has, it means they find a way to win their match that Sunday. That will not be the case at TLC. In fact, I was even surprised they gave Kevin a title match. Let's go through the card, shall we?
Randy Orton will face The Fiend in a firefly inferno match. That stipulation was just announced. Add elements of the firefly funhouse match Fiend and Cena had at Wrestlemania with an inferno match. That should be wild! In WWE history, there have only been four Inferno matches. The last one took place in 2006 and saw Kane burn MVP for the victory. The previous inferno matches were: Undertaker vs Kane, Unforgiven 1998, Undertaker vs Kane, February 1999, Triple H vs Kane, Smackdown 1999, and Kane vs MVP, Armegeddon December 17, 2006. This will be the first inferno match that won't involve either Undertaker or Kane. The Fiend has to win this match or risk becoming more watered down than he already is.
New Day defending the Raw tag titles against The Hurt Business members Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander: I'd honestle like to see Shelton and Cedric win the titles here. First, it'd put some gold back in the Hurt Business. Second, and something I'd like to see, it'd give Cedric another major championship in WWE(yes, I'm counting the cruiserweight title).
Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler defend the women's tag titles against Asuka and a mystery partner. I swear, if it turns out to be Lana anyway...I wouldn't be shocked to see Rhea Ripley get called up to purgatory, I mean Raw. Plus, just imagine a tag team of Asuka and Ripley! If that guess is correct, we see new champs. If it's Lana, we don't.
Sasha Banks defends the Smackdown women's title against Carmella Sunday night. I honestly see Carmella winning the title. Sasha has already held the title longer than I figured she would. If Sasha were to retain, doesn't that pretty much end the feud? If Carmella wins, we have a rematch at, say, Royal Rumble or something.
In one of the two TLC matches of the evening, Drew McIntyre defends the WWE Championship against former champion AJ Styles with Edward James Olmos or whatever his name is. This match, as most TLC matches are, will be chaos. Drew should retain here.
Roman Reigns defends the Universal Championship against dead man walking, I mean Kevin Owens. Honestly, does anyone think Owens has a chance here? Plug in the Jey Uso factor ie being Roman's lackey, and it's an obvious retention for the head of the table. Ironically, he'll put Owens through a table or two to win this.
In closing of my TLC review, I'd like to ask this: what happened to the chairs match? The ladder match? The tables match? I remember once upon a time where they had a few tables matches, a chairs match, and capped it off with some TLC matches for the titles. Times change.
I'd like to end my column this week by congratulating Cody and Brandi Rhodes on the upcoming birth of their child. What a wonderful time of year!
