By Jason Powell

Dot Net Members are listening to the 82-minute audio review of the WWE TLC pay-per-view that Chris Shore and I recorded late last night with notes on Mark Henry's injury. They are also listening to recent exclusive interviews with Bobby Lashley and Shawn Daivari. Join us on the ad-free version of the website by signing up for membership now via the Prowrestling.net/amember/signup.php.

WWE TLC Hits

C.M. Punk vs. The Miz vs. Alberto Del Rio: One of the best WWE pay-per-view main events of the year. Ricardo Rodriguez took the insane bump of the night and one can only hope that he'll be rewarded with a nice pay day. Kudos to whomever came up with a way to use handcuffs that didn't result in a huge groan moment. I never had any doubt about the outcome of the match, yet there were no dull moments, nor did the predictable outcome hurt my enjoyment of the match. If you didn't see this show, this match is worth going out of your way to see. Awesome performances by everyone involved and it was about as violent as you can get in WWE these days.

Daniel Bryan wins the World Hvt. Championship: An unexpected surprise. I remain concerned that they went with Bryan because they didn't want to follow through on having him in the World Title match at WrestleMania 28. I hope I'm wrong about that. Obviously, the move was made in part because of Mark Henry's injury, but I still fear that Bryan will have a short reign and won't be in the title picture by the time the biggest show of the year rolls around. I hope I'm wrong about that. Either way, his fans can enjoy this moment while it lasts.

Zack Ryder vs. Dolph Ziggler: One of the best opening matches on WWE pay-per-view this year. For that matter, the match would have fit in nicely later in the show. Ziggler continues to be a bumping machine, and Ryder more than held up his end of the match. It was a rabid Ryder crowd. If he starts getting this type of reaction on a regular basis, then my concerns over the character not connecting with the casual fans will be proven to be ill founded. It was a great touch to have Ryder's father in the crowd and Ryder's post-match celebration was great. As hard as it's been for Ryder to reach this point, the real work begins in terms of keeping himself over now that his character accomplished what he set out to do.

Randy Orton vs. Wade Barrett: A good tables match in that the wrestlers made good use of the table stipulation by teasing some near finishes. Barrett still doesn't seem to be connecting with the fans. WWE did a lot of damage to him once Nexus peaked and it's going to take time for him to get his mojo back. I just wonder whether the creative powers will acknowledge this and show patience.

Triple H vs. Kevin Nash: A minor hit simply because the match exceeded my low expectations. I have no idea why WWE decided to reintroduce Nash as a key player in the first place, but I appreciated the effort that both men showed. The big blown spot at the end with Nash taking the Pedigree before Triple H even went up for the move was really bad, but the match served as a fitting end to their feud. Nash seems to have indicated that his WWE in-ring career is over, and that's definitely for the best. The live crowd loved Triple H, while Nash didn't seem to have any real heat, which led to some dead crowd moments because they didn't seem him as a relevant star.

Air Boom vs. Primo and Epico: A good tag match. They had the tough assignment of following up the Ryder vs. Ziggler match and they managed to pull it off nicely despite it being an unadvertised match. I'm not sure where Air Boom goes from here, as they desperately need a real heel team that the fans take seriously to feud with.

Beth Phoenix vs. Kelly Kelly: Beth was finally portrayed as a dominant Diva. Kelly's screaming has annoyed me in the past, but it worked well here as her job was to go overboard in selling the punishment she was taking. A solid five-minute Divas match. Phoenix tweeted about Kharma after the show, so let the speculation begin that Kharma will be back from maternity leave in time for WrestleMania 28.

Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler: The two-man booth worked so much better than the crowded three-man booth. Cole also showed up armed with good information. I could have done without the cameras racing to show Cole's pained expression after Ryder won the belt, but Bryan getting in Cole's face after he won the belt was a nice touch. I still find it insane to have a heel play-by-play voice, but the two-man booth didn't leave me wanting to mute my television sound like the three-man booth with Booker T does.

Overall show: A pleasant surprise of a show. There were several matches that looked good on paper, but even those exceeded my expectations for the most part. The issue going into the show was that it didn't look like it was going to be newsworthy. I expected a rather predictable show without title changes. Rather, WWE surprised us with the World Hvt. Championship changes and the U.S. Title change. WWE closed out 2011 with one of their more entertaining pay-per-view events of the year.

WWE TLC Misses

Big Show vs. Mark Henry: An understandable letdown. As I reported during the pay-per-view last night, Henry was working with a groin area injury, so that explains the slow pace and short length of the match. It doesn't explain the awkward finish. Show punched Henry and then sold a hand injury since Henry had been targeting that hand. By the time he covered Henry, I don't think anyone in the building thought the match was going to end there. I don't mind surprise finishes, but this one was flat. By the way, you had to be suspicious that Show was going over when he brought up his nine-year World Title drought in his good pre-match promo.

Cody Rhodes vs. Booker T: WWE dropped the ball going into the match by not making Booker's return to the ring feel special. This should have been treated like a major happening. The company went to great lengths to give Booker an excuse for losing by having Cody attack him twice. I enjoyed the match while it lasted, but Booker coming up dizzy after the Spinaroonie made Booker look like a dope for even performing the crowd pleasing stunt. I hope they get a full match with no nonsense at the Royal Rumble.

Sheamus vs. Jack Swagger: A worthless squash match. The live crowd liked Sheamus, but not enough to care about his match with glorified Raw brand jobber Jack Swagger. It's a shame that WWE doesn't do more with Swagger. Here's hoping they realize that the fans don't take anything he does in the ring seriously anymore. He applies the ankle lock and the crowd sits on their hands because they know that just about everyone out of the roster will roll out of it.

Teddy Long's Santa skits: As if the racial tension between Long and Hornswoggle wasn't odd enough, we were also subjected to horny Teddy trying to score with the Bella Twins. And just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, Teddy actually invited Jack Swagger to sit on his lap. These segments were just bizarre and added nothing to the show.

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