TLC Live Notes

01.03am

Interesting opening gambit - ECW title match and all babyface effort aiming to steal the show.

Still no ECW commentary team it seems - Cole, Lawler and Striker. Makes sense, I guess.

01.29am

Enjoyed that opener, although there were quite a lot of setup spots where you could see one man was getting to where he needed to be.

Interesting to see Christian getting patched up (sort of) for the blood flowing and then the crowd chanting for the blood to increase!

Christian's retention makes sense. He has done almost all he can in ECW now - he is crying out to brought onto another roster - Smackdown I would think.

01.40am

Great moment. Morrison went for Starship Pain and grazed his opponent, and rather than insist it was devastating, Matt Striker called that it only just connected. Then, looking for a pin, Morrison got two before the ref spotted a foot under the ropes. Good continuity and logic.

01.42am

Wow, and thats it - title change. Odd finish to the match, as Morrison took his belt off for apparently no reason - I thought he was going to smack McIntyre with it, but he simply threw it down, distracted the ref, allowing Drew to poke his foe in the eye and then plant him with the double arm DDT.

01.44am

Teaser for Raw's Slammy awards. "What will be the Match of the Year?" Oh, that's a tricky one........

01.45am

Oh, another awesome moment - for us Brit fans anyway. A confident new IC champ Drew McIntrye is interrupted by Sheamus, who says he will also win gold tonight. Two mainstays of the UK scene for years on the up and on the TV - great stuff.

01.47am

Time for more title action, as it's Mickie v Michelle.

01.50am

Side note - I know I hardly hide the fact that I think Striker is great, but what I like about him tonight is that he is being really heelish, defending every heel action, but doing it intelligently. I genuinely would have Grisham and Striker on Raw. I really would.

01.56am

Realistically that's the wrong result (Michelle retained), but I'll give them credit, it was a better match than I'd anticipated. The story was very well told, with Mickie out for revenge and the jock girls belittling their rival. I'd like to have seen Mickie win, and so would the crowd by the sound of it - their sigh when Mickie rolled Michelle up for a near fall was the loudest reaction in a girls match I have heard in ages.

02.01am

Nice Sheamus and Cena video package. Cena's line "You impress me, but not for one second do you intimidate me" was money.

02.06am

Did Striker just say that the last champ born outside the US was Yokozuna? How about Bret? How about Edge? If you include the World Title you've got (whisper it) Benoit and The Great Khali.

02.22am

TLC - The Lucky Charm?

02.23am

Wow - Sheamus is the champ! That's shocking, I have to say, although I did consider it due to the position of the match in the middle of the show.

The downside was that it wasn't the best match. In fact it was quite sluggish and rather the slow. The end in particular seemed to take forever to come, and it didn't make Sheamus look amazing.

Nice post-match touch, as Cena took, it appeared, a shard of the broken table - it has to be Cena v Sheamus next up, which I assume is the Royal Rumble. (I'm actually a little annoyed that Sheamus won't be in the Rumble, unless there is a change of plan before that.)

02.29am

Batista v Undertaker next. DX v Jerishow for the main event, then, I guess.

02.32am

Still a few cheers for Batista. I think they should change his ring music, it's upbeat babyface music. I'd have something slower and more menacing.

02.52am

Hmm. I didn't care for that particular. If you didn't see it, Batista won after hitting Taker with a low blow and a chair shot to the head, before Teddy Long ordered the restart because of the low blow. Taker swiftly hit the tombstone and won.

The thing is, why didn't Long come out and make the McIntyre/Morrison match start again? That had a misdemeanour behind the ref's back - not very fair on Morrison.

The match itself wasn't great. Like the Tables match with Sheamus and Cena, I think the stipulation actually hindered the wrestlers. They have affected the matches negatively.

03.25am

Orton overcomes Kofi, and again I enjoyed that without it being outstanding. There have been a couple of intricately put together matches tonight. The story to that one was really good, with a few moments in it which made you sit back and say wow, namely Orton's dropkick when Kofi was coming from the top rope to the floor.

It puts Orton in a strong position again, and I'd suggest he'd go into the Rumble now, claiming he wants to win it again. Kofi, I'll say again, is going to win Money in the Bank at Wrestlemania.