Rasslin’ Roundtable for WWE TLC 2016

Features, Top Story

Tonight is a WWE Smackdown Brand PPV – TLC 2016!

Here is the Pulse Wrestling crew’s previews and predictions!

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Tables, Ladders and Chairs Match for the WWE World Title
AJ Styles (c) vs Dean Ambrose
Spain: Styles has been getting a bit of a kicking from both Ambrose and Ellsworth over the last few weeks, and whilst AJ did win back a little prestige this week, he managed to lose it all by the end of the night. I think Styles is going to be a really huge asset for SmackDown, and I could conceivably see him holding onto the title until WrestleMania, so I’m calling it a hard-fought win for AJ Styles.
Winner (and still WWE World Champion): AJ Styles

Sam P – Styles has to win to redeem some sort of credibility after about 25 losses to the ultimate pipsqueak, James Ellsworth. The Chinless Wonder will obviously have some sort of impact in the match, but will he cost Ambrose? Probably.
Winner: AJ Styles

Widro – Should be a great match but the finish will likely involve James Ellsworth either way.
Winner: Styles retains

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Tables Match for the WWE Smackdown Women’s Title
Becky Lynch (c) vs Alexa Bliss

Spain: Alexa Bliss has been one of the great post-brand extension surprises. I’d not had much experience with her since before she showed up, but her role as number one contender has been solid. The thrill of a Tables match, as we’ve seen from Sheamus’ first World Championship reign, is that it can be won due to the smallest misstep, but I think we’ll see Becky cement her reputation as Women’s Champ with a clean win after weeks of Bliss getting the better of her.
Winner (and still WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion): Becky Lynch

Sam P – I love Bliss. I want to put her in my pocket and keep her, but it’s a smidgen too early for her dominant reign as Blissful Leader Of All.
Winner: Becky Lynch

Widro – The Raw Women’s Title has been a hot potato but Becky has been dominant. I think that continues
Winner: Lynch

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No Disqualification Match
Nikki Bella vs Carmella

Spain: This is a tough one to call. Nikki is definitely the wronged party, but Carmella needs a win to remain relevant in a roster of talented women. Seeing as Carmella probably isn’t the one who laid out the Bella, it seems justified that she should take a win back from Nikki, and a No DQ match will give her a fair chance to do that.
Winner: Carmella

Sam P – Why have a no DQ match if someone isn’t going to intervene? Will it be a returning Eva Marie? Or will it be Natalya? Or a returning John Cena? Imagine. Either way, we need a resolution to the question of who attacked the Bella Twin at Survivor Series.
Winner: Carmella

Widro – No DQ seems to indicate some kind of interference, I could see Eva Marie or someone coming down.
Winner: Carmella

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Ladder Match for the Intercontinental Title
The Miz (c) w/ Maryse vs Dolph Ziggler

Spain: We’ve been promised that this is the final chapter in all of this, which does put a different spin on things. Miz has been great as Champion: the guy can command the hate of an arena at will, but I feel like having to watch Maryse win the match for him again would be a bit tired. By the same token, we’ve seen Ziggler get his hard-won victory once before too, and surely you can’t do that twice in one feud. Right? On a blind guess, I think Miz is going to win it. I’d like to see him get a clean victory, but that’ll never happen.
Winner (and still WWE Intercontinental Champion): The Miz

Sam P – One of the best feuds of the year being laid to rest. It would be a surprise to see the belt change hands again so soon, and The Miz deserves immense credit for the sterling work he’s putting in, so…
Winner: The Miz

Widro – Another title change seems unlikely and Miz is better as champ right now
Winner: Miz

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Chairs Match
Kalisto vs Baron Corbin

Spain: I can’t fucking believe you’re making me put any confidence in Baron Corbin, WWE. In a perfect world, he’ll demolish Kalisto in minutes and start on the road to becoming a psycho monster heel, but I just see this as another boring chapter in this man’s incredibly boring career. I also predict that I will continue to hurl withering abuse at the guy until either I have a heart attack or he hangs himself.
Winner (in the loosest possible sense of the world): Baron Corbin

Sam P – Shane McMahon will replace Corbin last minute to take the loss. Jokes. I’d like to see Corbin utterly annihilate the luchador with an unnecessary amount of chair shots, and either be handed a TKO win, a KO win or be disqualified for excessive force in a Nikki Cross tribute.
Winner: Baron Corbin

Widro – Really don’t understand coming back to this match again but Corbin doesn’t seem likely to lose
Winner: Corbin

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WWE Smackdown Tag Team Titles
Heath Slater & Rhyno (c) vs Randy Orton & Bray Wyatt

Spain: Let me be completely clear: I would love nothing more than to see Slater and Rhyno beat Wyatt and Orton. More than Curt Hawkins dying in some sort of tragic autoerotic asphyxiation accident; more than Baron Corbin’s bullet-riddled corpse being discovered next to evidence placing him at the centre of a worldwide matrix of paedophiles. But, as much as I pray for all of that to happen every night, none of it’s going to. Bray Wyatt is finally going to get some gold around that tubby waist of his, giving Randy the ability to hurt him even more when he eventually plunges the knife into the fat man’s back.
Winners (and new SmackDown Tag Team Champions): Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton

Sam P – WWE have done the impossible. They’ve got me invested in Randy Orton again. It’s been a solid decade since I gave a solitary rat’s ass about The Viper, but somehow the Wyatt Family have given him a welcome home and it just fits. This of course means he’ll turn on Bray to hand Beauty And The Mean Beast victory.
Winner: Heath Slater & Rhyno

Widro – I think we’ll see a title change here, Slater and Rhyno have cooled off and the Wyatt family angle needs some complexity.
Winner: Orton & Wyatt

Jonathan Widro is the owner and founder of Inside Pulse. Over a decade ago he burst onto the scene with a pro-WCW reporting style that earned him the nickname WCWidro. Check him out on Twitter for mostly inane non sequiturs