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It's that time of the year between WWE's final big show of 2019 and their first big show of 2020. Many fans drop off after Survivor Series and pick the storylines back up following The Royal Rumble in January, so this is the time when many stars will go on hiatus and others who have been waiting in the wings can finally make their return.
Whilst TLC is technically WWE's final pay-per-view of the year in just two weeks time, Survivor Series and The Royal Rumble are classed as two of the company's "Big Four" events, which means there are some fans who tune in just for the big pay-per-views and then pick up where they left off later in the year.
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This week, the fall out from NXT's victory in the battle for brand dominance at Survivor Series was the main topic of conversation which lead to several interesting storylines heading into TLC.
#4. The Authors of Pain
The first return of the week was The Authors of Pain, who were spotted at the beginning of Monday Night Raw when Seth Rollins was addressing the WWE locker room.
Over the past few weeks, AOP have been spotted in backstage vignettes, but haven't returned to the ring since Akam suffered a leg injury back in January. Monday night saw the two stars step into the ring against Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins, the two men who they assaulted backstage last week.
As ever, Akam and Rezar dominated the former Tag Team Champions and picked up a huge win heading into TLC. Later in the night, the two men went after Kevin Owens in the main event match of the night but didn't attack his opponent Seth Rollins, which has led many fans to believe that AOP and Rollins could be set to work together in the coming months.
#3. Matt Hardy
Matt Hardy was another shocking returnee on Monday night since he took on Buddy Murphy in what was a controversial match. Murphy is set to step into a feud with Aleister Black since the former Cruiserweight Champion is one of the only stars who have been bold enough to knock on his door.
Aleister Black decided to come out and brawl with Buddy after the match instead. The former NXT Champion has been sidelined with a knee injury in recent weeks, which is why he was demoted to cutting promos backstage. He was seen after Murphy knocked on his door last week and it's assumed that the two men will now collide at TLC after this week's brawl.
This week on Raw, it was something of a warm-up match for Murphy as he dominated Matt Hardy throughout and was able to defeat him with three hard-hitting knees. Many fans believed that Hardy was knocked out after a clean knee to the face when he was on leaning on the middle rope since Murphy didn't hit his Murphy's Law finisher and instead covered Hardy following his third knee strike to the face.
#2. Elias
This week's episode of Friday Night SmackDown featured some interesting build towards the upcoming Starrcade show, but it also saw some interesting returns. Sheamus was one of the men whose return was advertised, but he didn't actually return, unlike Elias.
The Drifter has been missing from WWE TV since the week before Clash of Champions when it was revealed that he had suffered an ankle injury and was unable to compete against Chad Gable in his King of the Ring Tournament match.
Shane McMahon took his place and lost to Gable after he forced him to tap and Kevin Owens called it as a submission win since he was the special guest referee, which later lead to a match between McMahon and Owens on FOX's premiere of SmackDown.
Gable came up short in the King of the Ring final the night after Clash of Champions and Elias remained sidelined until this week when he was seen singing backstage as part of a segment with Drake Maverick and Dana Brooke, where the former 205 Live General Manager was attempting to get a kiss under the mistletoe from the WWE Diva with Flex Appeal.
#1. Alexa Bliss
The WWE Universe hasn't been graced with the presence of The Goddess since Hell in a Cell when she and Nikki Cross lost their Women's Tag Team Championships to The Kabuki Warriors. The former Women's Champion reportedly asked for time away from the company and was announced to be making her return at Starrcade tonight earlier in the week. In her absence, Alexa Bliss was drafted over to the SmackDown brand along with her partner Nikki Cross.
In order to set up tonight's four-way match for the Women's Tag Team Championship which pits The Kabuki Warriors against Sasha Banks and Bayley, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville and Nikki Cross and Alexa Bliss, The Goddess had to return on SmackDown.
Cross was able to defeat Deville in a one-on-one match before Mandy Rose climbed into the ring and Fire&Desire began the beatdown on the Scottish star, Bliss then took this as her cue to make her return after more than a month on the sidelines and save her friend from the numbers game.
Hopefully, this means that the WWE Universe will now see more of Alexa Bliss as part of the SmackDown Women's Division moving forward into the TLC pay-per-view.
Ex WWE writer blasts Liv Morgan HERE
