WWE TLC 2019 Results: Winners, Grades, Reaction and Highlights | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors
Mia Lopez The united front of women's tag team champions The Kabuki Warriors forced friends-turned-enemies Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch to set aside their differences in pursuit of revenge, finality and gold.
The challengers took the fight to the champions, avenging weeks of torment and frustration at the hands of Asuka and Kairi Sane.
The Empress of Tomorrow cut off the babyfaces' onslaught but soon found herself sent face-first into the ring post. Sane's attempt to send chairs raining into the ring failed miserably, leading to Flair and Lynch chasing her under the ring.
It backfired as the heels teamed up to drop Lynch head-first on the steel chairs. From there, they placed The Queen in a desk chair and trapped her with a kendo stick. From there, they wore her out with kicks before dumping her over.
The champions tied Lynch to a ladder with a cargo rope, essentially eliminating her from the bout. The champions scaled the ladder, looking to retrieve their prize, but Flair re-emerged and unloaded with kendo-stick shots. Asuka and Sane recovered and beat The Queen down at ringside and sent her into the steps.
The Pirate Princess tried for the Insane Elbow but caught the knees of Lynch, who fought through the ropes. She joined Flair in a major ass-kicking of the heels in a spirited comeback.
Lynch threw caution to the wind, dropping a leg from the middle rope, onto Asuka and through a table at ringside. The babyfaces tried for a double suplex to Sane through a table, but the 2017 Mae Young Classic winner countered with a DDT. She followed up with an Insane Elbow to The Man that failed to break the table. Flair returned the favor, delivering a powerbomb to Sane through another table.
The heels again wrestled control of the match and set up an extra-tall ladder in the ring while Lynch and Flair laid in a heap at ringside. The babyfaces capitalized on a delay and fought back into the match, but it was for naught as Asuka powerbombed Flair through a table, leaving The Man to fend for herself.
Lynch climbed toward the titles, but Asuka used the rope that had been tied around the Raw women's champion to tip the ladder and eliminate her from the contest. The Empress of Tomorrow retrieved the titles, making it two years in a row that Asuka has stood tall with gold to end the show.
However, it wasn't quite the end as a massive brawl spilled into the arena and ended with Roman Reigns spearing King Corbin onto a mass of competitors.
The Kabuki Warriors defeated Lynch and Flair
This was so disjointed, messy, and ugly at times that it was impossible to grade it any higher than a C. There were more than a few spots that looked downright dangerous and others that highlighted performers not on the same page with each other.
With that said, the nature of the match brought a realness to it, an unpolished and car-crash element that made it the polar opposite of every other formulaic contest WWE would produce.
Asuka winning for her team, at the expense of Lynch, would seem to set up a match between the two at Royal Rumble in January for the Raw Women's Championship. A year ago at the same show, The Empress of Tomorrow defeated The Man to retain the blue brand's title. She clearly has Lynch's number, a story management can play up as it builds to the match.
Why the outcome of the match needed to be immediately overshadowed by the Reigns-Corbin brawl is a mystery only those in power understand. What better way to kill The Lone Wolf's heat than by having The Big Dog get his own back by night's end.