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TLC 2018 was a pay-per-view that many did not expect to blow them away, as WWE put little time and effort into making most of the narratives on the show and allowing them to reach their full potential.
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While certain programmes such as the Smackdown Live Women's Championship triple threat match, Daniel Bryan's defence as WWE Champion, and Dean Ambrose's quest to destroy Seth Rollins are matches that people had looked forward to, the disastrous booking from the creative team outweighed their good booking decisions on this show.
Which left the show riddled with many unfortunate mistakes, so let's go through what mistakes WWE made at the TLC pay-per-view.
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#1 A waste of a thrilling concept
The opening match to TLC 2018 was Elias vs Bobby Lashley in a ladder match.
As you know the point of a ladder match is to retrieve a title or Money in the Bank contract, and when you think about some of the classics in the past, legendary matches such as Razor Ramon vs Shawn Micheals, Shawn Micheals vs Chris Jericho or anything with Jeff Hardy comes to mind.
However, this match between Elias and Bobby Lashley was probably the most unnecessary match in a ladder match in history, as the point of this match was to climb the ladder and grab Elias' guitar which sounds really stupid and it was.
This was a waste of the ladder match as another feud on the show should have been given this concept.
#2 A Royal Rumble spoiler
The Royal Rumble match has a special place in the memory of every single wrestling fan, as it is possibly WWE's, most lucrative gimmick, as it generates excitement, anticipation and most importantly it brings life back to the WWE.
And one of the most exciting things about the Royal Rumble matches is the mystery of who is going to be the last entrant in the match, well the 2019 Royal Rumble won't have you wondering who is the number 30 entrant as WWE told us at TLC 2018.
R-Truth and Carmella faced Jinder Mahal and Alicia Fox in the final of the Mixed Match Challenge season two, and the winner of the match would get the chance of being the 30th entrant in the men's Royal Rumble and women's Royal Rumble match, and those superstars are R-Truth and Carmella.
While Truth and Camella are fun additions to Smackdown Live, there is no way they should be the 30th entrants in the Royal Rumble; only time will tell if WWE will go forward with this.
#3 All too familiar
The New Day, The Bar and The Usos are teams that have faced off against each other more times than fans can actually remember, and that should have been reason enough for WWE to realize that these superstars don't need to wrestle each other again at TLC 2018.
And it showed here in this match, as the match these three teams crafted is what we have seen a hundred times in the past, and while these three teams can't have a bad match it seems like now they cant have a fresh match as they have done it all.
WWE should have injected a team such as Sanity into the Smackdown Live Tag Team Title match, as something new is needed here to make things interesting.
#4 Another rematch
Daniel Bryan's heel run as WWE Champion has been great to watch, as the man has finally got the chance to drop his tired face gimmick and revert to his old heelish persona which is the reason why he became popular in the first place.
And while Bryan's programme with AJ Styles is not era-defining in any way, most were just looking forward to these two men tearing it up in the ring at TLC 2018.
And for the most part, Styles and Bryan did just that, as they crafted a technically sound match that you would expect, but it felt like something was missing, as this match ended via a countered roll up which saw Bryan escape with his title.
This could mean that these two are not done and a rematch is probably in WWE's plans for Bryan and Styles, while there is no issue with seeing Bryan and Styles go at it again, WWE's need to stretch out every single main event feud over a span of many months is destroying the momentum of their champions.
As Styles reign as WWE Champion saw him face his opponents multiple times until it got stale, and now it seems Bryan is heading in the same direction.
#5 Drew falls to Balor
No offense to Finn Balor, but Drew McIntyre losing to him at TLC 2018 was a huge mistake, as Drew is definitely the bigger star in the making than Balor.
While McIntyre vs Balor was an alright match, no one expected it to be anything more than the Scottish Psychopath steamrolling through Balor while adding more credibility to his character.
And even though McIntyre's loss came due to a distraction by Dolph Ziggler, McIntyre losing twice in a span of a few weeks is a silly move by WWE, as this is a man that needs to be built up as an unstoppable badass.
And by losing to superstars like Ziggler and now Balor is just baffling when considering WWE has big things lined up for McIntyre, while Balor and Ziggler won't reach their full potential again in WWE.
#6 Strowman vs Lesnar again
You know what the truth is that Braun Strowman has been ruined by WWE to the point it useless trying to make him a big prospect once again.
After losses to Brock Lesnar on many big occasions, Strowman's credibility took a hit every single time, and now it seems that is most likely going to happen again.
As Strowman returned at TLC 2018 to beat Baron Corbin in a segment that did not really click, which means at the Royal Rumble 2019, Strowman will face Lesnar for the fifth time.
It seems like this should be Strowman's time to hold the Univeral Championship right, well, that doesn't seem likely as rumors suggest Lesnar will hold the belt all the way to Wrestlemania again, and why would WWE drop Lesnar as Universal Champion?
Lesnar is the most recognizable star in combat sports and you be sure that he will be main eventing Wrestlemania next year, and that leaves Strowman in the same position he always is in, the bottom of the ladder.
#7 Ambrose vs Rollins disappoints
Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins' match at TLC 2018 was probably one of the most disappointing matches this year, and that is the fault of WWE.
As this era-defining feud was handled with such laziness that fans revolted against it, but WWE didn't listen, as they turned Ambrose from this era's Stone Cold Steve Austin to a germaphobe who was cosplaying as Bane.
And it showed in this match, as these two men looked terrible in the ring and that is a shocker, as their classics from 2014, all the way up to 2016 was some of the best matches of the year.
This narrative between Ambrose and Rollins felt boring, sloppy ridiculous and most importantly it lacked emotion. WWE wasted a chance to rebuild Ambrose a heel and make Rollins a bigger babyface, while Ambrose won the IC Title, after a terrible storyline that produced a disappointing match, who really cares?
