We start off with the normal show startup video before Miz reads “The Nightmare Before TLC” hyping up AJ Styles vs. Drew with AJ beating up Morrison dressed as Drew and AJ climbs the ladder before Sheamus comes down and hypes his match with AJ tonight and wants to fight. AJ throws a Christmas tree at him and leaves, but not before getting knocked on his ass. We get a good AJ vs. Sheamus match, with Sheamus showing off a lot more than he normally does – which fits this main event-level push he’s getting again. He uses brawn, while AJ uses his brains and trips up Sheamus on the ropes before stacking him up near the ropes to win. In a nice move just because it was a clean finish, AJ didn’t use the ropes despite being a heel and Sheamus being a face on the ascent – he just flat out beat him fair.
After the match, AJ and Omos team up to trap Sheamus in the ropes before AJ smacks him a few times with a chair. Backstage, a guy offends the Hurt Business by wearing a Riddle hat and eating a bro-nutt from Riddle before Shelton buries the babyface goons. Jeff Hardy and the New Day chat with Riddle, who wants a G4 show called Riddle Me This and since they’re missing Big E, he can be Bro E tonight. Cedric, Lashley, and Shelton face New Day and Jeff with Xavier taking a hell of a beating for a while. Shelton tosses Jeff into a nice Cedric knee for 2. Lashley gets the Hurt Lock on Jeff to end it. Lana and Asuka chat before Lana faces Nia, and gets a big Thunderdome presentation of her tron.
It’s a basic David vs. Goliath match and Lana wins after Nia goes up for a Vader bomb and gets tripped, leading to another stack cradle off the ropes finish. Shayna comes in and tortures her leg with holds before Nia legdrops her leg. Asuka is beaten up by Shayna, but she eventually makes a save and gets beaten up. Elias is mid-ring talking about having visions of Jaxson Ryker. Jaxson says he’s been reborn by listening to Elias’s music. Truth interrupts before the 24/7 crew comes down and Ryker beats them all up and takes out Metalik with a sky high. We get a goofy skit with Miz and Morrison and Keith Lee, leading to him facing both of them in a handicap match. Morrison is put over huge in an Axe-sponsored video. Hey, they’re actually making him look like a star!
Keith uses Morrison as a battering ram on Miz, but they double-team him with a chop block off a catch from the flying chuck to beat him. Okay then, this got no one over. Happy TV show Bray is out to ramble for a bit before Orton adds some life by saying he put Bray down with the RKO, but then HE came into things. He wants to play a game of hide and seek and Bray is cool with that. Mace vs. Ricochet is up and we get weird try-hard promo with Ali and Mace. Mace looks good in there with Ricochet, but T-Bar jumps up and eats a triangle sliding kick by Ricochet. Mace choke bombs him for 2.9. Ali demands that he shut him down and he hits a Time Bomb to win it.
Riddle pitches business ideas to TV show Bray and Riddle wants to teach bro-nouns on the Funhouse, and even happy host Bray can’t stand him. Riddle meets with Bray’s puppets and names one Baby Bro-da and he gets Ramblin’ Rabbit to sign a carrot for his bunny. Shayna is out to face Dana Brooke and it’s announced that Lana is out, and Asuka needs a new partner. Nia beats her up and we get a save from Mandy Rose in black leather. They set up two possible partners for Asuka nicely before R-Truth talks about getting a PS6 because the PS5 is sold out. Truth talks to Huskus and says he looks like spent some time in the pen. Truth things Bray and Huskus are related and then Bray goes to resume hide and seek.
Backstage, Bray finds a dark room with his old rocking chair in it. Randy beats him up and throws him in a box before setting it on fire. THE FIEND comes out and mandible claws him. AJ and Drew come out for whatever a championship ascension ceremony is. They ramble and Drew brawls with Morrison, claymoring him with the ladder. AJ lays out Drew with the forearm and climbs the ladder to hold the gold. Well, that was certainly a way to fill time. Not sure why you’d end with this and not the Bray attack since that was far more memorable, but it is the World title, so I guess that works fine – but the Bray-Orton stuff was good. Sheamus was in theory knocked down a peg, but he’ll probably save Drew at the PPV to help their bond strengthen – so it should even out.
