TLC 2017 - Full Results

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Sasha Banks def. Alicia Fox (Kickoff Match)



MINNEAPOLIS — First, Alicia Fox claimed she didn’t really tap out to Sasha Banks, that the ref robbed her.

Then, she jumped Banks backstage after she was submitted again and shoved an official to the ground for good measure.

Unfortunately for Alicia, the third time was not the charm, as the former Divas Champion cried uncle once again in her third tilt with The Boss, this time on the WWE TLC Kickoff.

The persistence that got Alicia to the dance didn’t fade away in the slightest, however, which meant that Fox had another strong showing against the four-time Raw Women’s Champion. Foxy administered a textbook tilt-a-whirl backbreaker on the outside and a pair of her gorgeous Northern Lights suplexes in the effort, punctuated only by the occasional temper tantrum when Sasha refused to stay down.

But Sasha, who demanded the third tilt after Alicia’s backstage attack, showed no mercy against her erratic enemy. Even though Fox nearly netted a count-out victory with a late surge, The Boss made it back at the count of nine, writhed free of another tilt-a-whirl attempt and wrenched her opponent down into the Bank Statement.

With such a definitive outcome this time around, it’s hard to imagine Alicia having a leg to stand on if she decides to protest this one.
But that doesn’t mean she won’t give it a try.

Asuka def. Emma



MINNEAPOLIS — Asuka’s much-heralded Raw debut has come and gone in very impressive fashion, as The Empress of Tomorrow snuffed out Emma’s spotlight moment in what turned out to be a near-flawless performance by the undefeated former NXT Women’s Champion.

Credit where credit is due, however: Emma’s placement in the bout was definitely earned.
The veteran Superstar both demanded respect for months and outwitted her entire division to get to WWE TLC, and a match with Asuka is about as prestigious a measuring stick as there is in WWE.

After a rough opening, Emma managed to soften Asuka up on the outside and found success by bending the rules, using a handful of Asuka’s hair to slam her into the mat and bow her over the ropes in the Tree of Woe.

Like the video game boss you could never beat, though, Asuka seemed to regain energy the more punishment she absorbed, and the former 523-day NXT Women’s Champion turned the match into a mugging in short order.

The Empress of Tomorrow administered a gruesome hybrid of an ankle lock and a German suplex that was so effective it forced Emma to again play dirty, tossing Asuka off the apron with a fistful of hair.

But when Emma tried to seal the bout, she was met with a kick to the face that bounced her off the ropes, straight into a merciless Asuka Lock that earned the tapout victory for The Princess of Tomorrow.

Emma may, indeed, have helped start the Women’s Evolution.
But now its perfect specimen is here with the top of the food chain in sight.

Cedric Alexander & Rich Swann def. Gentleman Jack Gallagher & The Brian Kendrick



MINNEAPOLIS — The Brian Kendrick has said for a long time that 205 Live could benefit from his wisdom, but he and Gentleman Jack Gallagher might just have been taken to school by Cedric Alexander & Rich Swann at WWE TLC.

That’s an impressive turnaround given the rough couple of weeks Alexander & Swann have experienced.

Despite both claiming recent individual wins against Gallagher (Cedric via pinall; Swann via disqualification), the two 205 Live standouts have incurred the wrath of The Gentleman and The Brian Kendrick, who motivated Gallagher to ditch his genteel demeanor for something significantly more sinister.

Gallagher and Kendrick were thoroughly embarrassed over the last week by their foes, so they didn’t waste any time trying to put Cedric & Swann on their heels.

Cedric & Swann instead took to the air in an opening sequence that left the instant-replay guys with an embarrassment of riches, but Kendrick & Gallagher still managed to isolate Swann for a stretch when the match settled.

Unfortunately for Gallagher, his insistence on baiting Alexander came back to haunt him when Swann finally reached his partner, who hit the ring like a human tornado and forced Kendrick to bail out his partner.

The former WWE Cruiserweight Champion managed to lock Alexander in the Captain’s Hook, at which point Swann descended from on high with a Phoenix Splash to break the hold.

Swann and Gallagher took each other out with a Rich Kick and a headbutt, respectively, and Cedric swooped in with a ruthless Lumbar Check to Kendrick for the win.

It was organized chaos at its finest, but with respect to the meticulous Mr. Kendrick, sometimes the best game plan is to throw a plan out the window.

Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss def. Mickie James



MINNEAPOLIS — Mickie James did everything she was supposed to do at WWE TLC.

She came ready to fight, brought a chip on her shoulder, and even embarrassed Alexa Bliss by chasing her away and slapping her, erm, biscuit butt, when she tried to flee.

And it still wasn’t enough to make her the Raw Women’s Champion.
Alexa still holds that distinction despite the all-world efforts of James, who (in a stroke of irony) was originally brought back into the fold as Alexa's ally during Little Miss Bliss’ days as SmackDown Women’s Champion.

That gave the challenger some familiarity with the champion’s move set, and her veteran abilities quickly showed that Alexa might have bitten off more than she could chew when she tried to frame James’ veteran status as an old lady trying to relive her glory days.

James’ three consecutive kip-ups each time Alexa slammed her onto the mat were certainly a far cry from geriatric, to say nothing of the savage elbows and pinpoint kicks that James thought would carry her to Title No. 7.

What Mickie perhaps didn’t count on was that Alexa would resort to dirty tactics, but the champ did just that, nearly yanking James’ arm out of its socket before focusing exclusively on a torturous array of shoulder submissions.

Despite being clearly hampered by the injury, James transitioned seamlessly to using both her educated feet and her good arm, pausing only occasionally for a high-risk maneuver like a top-rope dropkick.

The bout got so intense that the WWE Universe thought for a moment that tables were going to get involved.
But inches from the brink, it took only one quick sequence by Bliss — yanking Mickie face-first into the turnbuckle and striking with a DDT — to put the match away.

And even though an emotional James could barely hold back her tears in a post-match interview, she promised the WWE Universe this wouldn’t be the last time she contended for a Women’s Title.
It’s tough not to believe her; As the chant goes, she’s still got it.

Enzo Amore def. Kalisto to become the new WWE Cruiserweight Champion



MINNEAPOLIS — The ‘Zo Train is back on track.

Enzo Amore, who just three weeks ago was Public Enemy No. 1 among the Cruiserweights, is once again Team Purple’s big enchilada after dethroning WWE Cruiserweight Champion Kalisto at WWE TLC.

A lost voice left Muscles Marinara uncharacteristically muted during his pre-match intro, but he made his intentions loud and clear with a sounder-than-expected game plan of cat-and-mouse with the champion.

The cat quickly caught up, of course, and Kalisto had Enzo on the run after a suicide dive to the outside, but The Certified G turned the match around by tripping the champion up on the ropes, sending him jaw-first into the turnbuckle.

While Kalisto tried to tee up Amore for his elaborate offense, Enzo kept things simple, wrenching Kalisto to the mat and gaining ground with punches and kicks.

At one point, The King of Flight slammed Enzo face-first into the turnbuckle and threatened to open up the playbook, so Amore slammed the back of his head into the turnbuckle and went high with the DDG.

Kalisto was on the edge of a monster run for almost the entire match, so Enzo went back to his ethos of working smart instead of hard, grabbing hold of the apron while Kalisto dragged him into the middle of the ring.

With the ref busy replacing the apron, ‘Zo jabbed his thumb into Kalisto’s eye and quickly administered the JawdunZo for the win.

And unlike the last time, he wasn’t remotely interested in crediting anybody else for this championship win, thanking himself instead of the WWE Universe for his two-time titleholder status during a post-match interview.

Give Enzo this: He won the title all by himself.
How he went about winning it is a matter for debate, but until Kalisto breaks his silence, the now former champion will have to stare at the scoreboard and wonder what went wrong.

“The Demon” Finn Bálor def. AJ Styles



MINNEAPOLIS — The dream match between AJ Styles and Finn Bálor was surrounded by some of the more unusual circumstances in WWE history.

But the unexpected became the unbelievable in a first-time-ever, one-night-only exhibition that had the WWE Universe screaming “This is awesome!” at full throat before the bell even rang.

Given the storied and occasionally shared history of the two Superstars, it’s difficult to dispute that unabashed excitement.

The Demon has one of the more spotless records in WWE — Bálor’s alter-ego has only been defeated one time, and never on WWE TV.

But Styles, who traveled 18 hours from SmackDown LIVE’s tour of South America to cross brand battle lines and compete at WWE TLC, clearly had no intention of being another foregone casualty of the first-ever Universal Champion.

As such, The Phenomenal One wasn’t just unfazed by Bálor’s otherworldly presence, he gave The Demon more of a fight than, perhaps, he was expecting.

But The Demon, too, had an answer for almost everything Styles threw at him.
The entire match wasn’t so much a cavalcade of big moves and near-falls as it was a chess match, with each Superstar slowly whittling away at the other’s defenses.

The war of attrition eventually broke out into a brawl on the outside so intense that The Demon got in the referee’s face to stop the count when it seemed as though AJ would be unable to return to the ring.

(Who’s going to argue with that?)

Styles repaid Bálor’s hesitation by double-legging him over the announce table, but The Demon was almost at full-pitch at this point, and there was little The Phenomenal One could do to stop him.

He did slow him down with a top-rope Pele Kick and hurricanrana, but a missed 450 Splash opened the door for Bálor to rocket Styles across the ring with a running dropkick and close the door with an incredible Coup de Grâce.

Even at this level, game recognizes game, and The Demon helped Styles to his feet in a rare show of humanity before sharing a “Too Sweet” in the middle of the ring.

It was a fitting conclusion to a match between two Superstars who were both slightly more than man, and WWE TLC was all the more extraordinary for it.

Jason Jordan def. Elias



MINNEAPOLIS — Fun fact: Before WWE TLC, Elias had only lost two singles matches, both to Finn Bálor over the summer, and merely one of those was via pinfall. And even though Jason Jordan handed Elias only his second definitive defeat at WWE TLC, it must have felt a lot more like that for the sinister songsmith, who goaded Raw General Manager Kurt Angle into letting him perform after claiming he was moved by the spirit of Prince to play a song in Minneapolis.

Elias’ evening was a nightmare from the jump, as both of planned sets throughout the evening were cut off by Jordan, who pelted Elias with produce while he tried to sing.

That led to an impromptu match, and Jordan was absolutely surgical in his dismantling of his foe; it took a running knee that sent JJ face-first into the turnbuckle to open up any kind of offense for Elias.

The brutal balladeer took full advantage of that opening, trapping Jordan in a torturous abdominal stretch.
But Jordan took the bout back into his own hands, hoisting Elias into a double-leg takedown position and charging him into every turnbuckle he could find.

A knee to the head and a toss into the turnbuckle gave Elias his last gasp, but Jordan reversed a suplex attempt into a roll-up for a three-count. However, given that Elias had a shoulder up beyond the ref’s field of vision, expect Elias to have some hard-to-dispute sour grapes on this one.

Kurt Angle & Raw Tag Team Champions Dean Ambrose & Seth Rollins def. Intercontinental Champion The Miz, Cesaro, Sheamus, Braun Strowman & Kane (3-on-5 Handicap Tables, Ladders and Chairs Match)



It wasn’t just the vest, or the fact that he entered the ring through the crowd with Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins.

Kurt Angle, acting as an “honorary member of The Shield” in his first WWE match in 11 years, proved as natural a fit for The Hounds of Justice as the sidelined Roman Reigns in the epic 5-on-3 Handicap Tables, Ladders & Chairs Match that pit the impromptu trio against the all-star squad of The Miz, Cesaro, Sheamus, Braun Strowman & Kane, helping guide the brothers in black to a winning effort in the chaotic match.

Despite being on the short end of the contest’s handicap, Angle leaned heavily into the first of his legendary Three I’s (“Intensity”) in his early offense while Ambrose & Rollins threw caution to the wind by leaping off of ladders with a Frog Splash-elbow drop combo that drove Strowman and Kane through the announce tables.

Angle singlehandedly took his opponents apart with suplexes to Miz and Cesaro and an Ankle Lock attempt to Kane, but rust still turned The Olympic Hero into the de facto weak link of the group.

That made him ripe pickings for Strowman, who thinned The Shield’s ranks by hitting him with a Running Powerslam through a table that brought out a crew of trainers to take Angle to the back.

With a 5-on-2 advantage, the only thing that could have stopped Miz’s crew at this point was themselves — and it seemed like that would happen when Kane accidentally blasted Strowman with a chair, setting off an intense showdown between the two dominant big men.

Miz quickly got his team back on track, bringing in a garbage truck to literalize his pre-match promise to treat The Shield and Angle like “garbage.”

Ambrose & Rollins managed to fight out of the truck’s bed and prepared to take Kane out with a double suplex through a table, which Strowman quickly broke up … and The Big Red Machine paid Braun back by chokeslamming him through the stage and releasing a deluge of chairs from the ceiling onto him.

Strowman soon stirred to life, but with a loose cannon among them, The Miz, The Bar and Kane had no choice but to throw The Monster Among Men into the garbage truck, close the bed on him and have him driven away.

Still sitting pretty at 4-on-2, The Miz and his cohorts were all but certain to walk away victorious, with The Big Red Machine inches from Tombstoning Ambrose into the dirt.

And then Angle returned with a glint in his eye and ice in his veins.
The four-time WWE Champion singlehandedly dismantled The Bar with a pair of Angle Slams — Cesaro’s through a table — while Ambrose & Rollins took Kane out with a double Spear through the barricade.

The Miz, now left alone with his General Manager, showed unexpected grit by administering a Skull-Crushing Finale for a two-count and then escaping an Ankle Lock.

But when the Raw Tag Team Champions returned to circle The A-Lister, what came next was all but a foregone conclusion: Ripcord Knee, Dirty Deeds, and Angle Slam, followed by a ring-shaking Triple Powerbomb with Angle covering Miz for the pinfall.

Seventeen years to the day after winning his first WWE Title in this same building, Kurt Angle has returned, and in a match where Ambrose & Rollins vowed to go out on their shields, your Olympic Hotel-Echo-Romeo-Oscar instead rode to glory on his.

Oh, it’s true.