WWE TLC live results: AJ Styles vs. Dean Ambrose

Tonight, SmackDown presents WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs from the American Airlines Center in Dallas, TX. 

The pay-per-view will be headlined by a TLC match for the WWE World Championship with AJ Styles defending his title against Dean Ambrose. This could be the blow off match for a feud that started back in the summer. 

Becky Lynch and Alexa Bliss will face off once again for the Women’s Championship, this time in a tables match. This could be Bliss’ final chance at the title after already losing to Lynch in Glasgow. 

Bray Wyatt & Randy Orton have a chance at the Tag Team Championship as they take on Heath Slater & Rhyno. The Miz will defend his Intercontinental title against Dolph Ziggler for the final time — this time in a ladder match. Finally, Nikki Bella takes on Carmella in a no DQ match, and Baron Corbin faces Kalisto in a chairs match. 

***

10-man tag match: Apollo Crews, American Alpha & The Hype Bros defeated Curt Hawkins, The Ascension & The Vaudevillains

This is the pre-show match. Mauro Ranallo, JBL and David Otunga are on commentary. Tom Phillips is backstage, for now.

The first few minutes was a showcase for the good guys until they did a comedy spot where each guy took turns tossing one of their opponents out of the ring. The heels worked over Chad Gable after a network commercial break until Jason Jordan made a hot tag and ran wild. He hit an Olympic Slam, leading to a Kurt Angle reference by Ranallo. The faces all hit moves to clear the ring allowing American Alpha to pick up the win with Grand Amplitude on Simon Gotch. Match was about 12 minutes.

Renee Young plugged John Cena as an upcoming host of SNL and called it a huge career milestone.

Time for the main show. Tom Phillips has joined commentary.

WWE Tag Team Championships: Bray Wyatt & Randy Orton (w/Luke Harper) defeated Heath Slater & Rhyno

Big cheers and “Randy” chants for the Wyatt Family. Rhyno started the match and Ranallo mentioned this was the first time this team has started that way. Slater tagged in and the Wyatts quickly took control. After Rhyno made the hot tag, Orton saved Bray from a shoulder tackle, and Harper saved Orton from a Gore. Bray distracted Rhyno with the crab walk and Orton suddenly hit an RKO for the win. Wyatt Family are the new tag champs. Big crowd pop. Match was only about 6 minutes. (Edit: Should mention that Orton and Wyatt let Harper hold the belts after the match, and they all seem to be on the same page.) 

Backstage, Dean Ambrose told Dasha Fuentes that James Ellsworth is resting at home keeping his chin up. Or maybe his spirits. Ambrose would like to say it’s an honour getting into the ring with AJ Styles, but Styles likes to take the easy way out, and there’s nothing easy about getting hit with a ladder or crashing through a table. Ambrose likes the violent nature of TLC, and like a good friend of his once said, tonight will be hard times.

Elsewhere, AJ Styles told Renee Young he knows exactly what to expect tonight. He admitted Ambrose can be hard to keep down, but Ambrose will stay down long enough to watch Styles pull down his WWE Championship. (Both guys received mixed reactions from the crowd.)

No DQ Match: Nikki Bella defeated Carmella

Nikki won in 7-8 minutes with the Rack Attack 2.0. Not much of a match but they had good crowd heat. Nikki used a disaster kick off the barricade and sprayed a fire extinguisher at Carmella leading up to the Rack Attack.

Afterwards, Carmella informed Nikki that she wasn’t the one who attacked her at Survivor Series, but rather, it was Nikki’s friend from Total Divas, Natalya. The commentators didn’t believe it. JBL figured it was someone from Raw.

Funny enough, this was followed by a commercial featuring Natalya helping a fan pick out an engagement ring for his ladyfriend.

Backstage, Fuentes asked Daniel Bryan about the upcoming IC title match, and said Bryan must want Miz to lose. Bryan said that was true, and the crowd laughed. Bryan said it’s simply because Ziggler is a better representative of the championship. Miz interrupted. He wished it was Bryan in the ring tonight instead so he could push Bryan off the ladder. He told Bryan to enjoy the match.

Intercontinental Title Ladder Match: The Miz (w/Maryse) defeated Dolph Ziggler

Maryse remained at ringside but never got involved. Otunga repeated his line about Miz  having the same athletic ability as Justin Bieber. There were dueling chants of “Let’s Go Ziggler” and “Let’s go Miz.”

Miz placed a ladder on Ziggler in the corner and did the Bryan running dropkicks, but Ziggler tossed the ladder at him. Miz smashed Ziggler’s knee into the ladder a few times, then wrapped his leg around the ladder and applied the Figure Four. Ziggler actually tapped but of course it doesn’t matter.

Ziggler fought back and tried a superkick, but his leg gave out and Miz hit a skull crushing finale into the ladder. Miz went up the ladder to grab the title, but Ziggler pulled the ladder out and Miz was left hanging. Ziggler then smashed the ladder into Miz, who fell down awkwardly on his leg.

A one-legged Ziggler tried hopping up the ladder, but Miz caught him and hit a slingshot powerbomb onto a ladder (which was placed between the ropes in the corner of the ring). They set up two ladders side-by-side and each guy climbed up. Ziggler headbutted Miz off the ladder and seemingly had the match won, but Miz jumped up and ran back up the ladder to kick Ziggler twice in the nuts. Ziggler collapsed and Miz grabbed the belt. Miz retains. Nothing spectacular, but a perfectly fine match that went about 24 minutes.

Immediately afterwards, Miz dedicated his victory to Daniel Bryan and wanted to give Ziggler a participation award. He called Ziggler and everyone in Texas a loser. “I win.”

Chairs Match: Baron Corbin defeated Kalisto

Corbin won in 12-13 minutes. Kalisto wears short trunks now instead of tights. Corbin had been wearing a t-shirt to wrestle the last few weeks, but not tonight. Corbin set up a bunch of chairs in the ring, which led to Kalisto hitting a seated senton on Corbin onto the chairs. Kalisto tried a dive to the outside, but Corbin countered into a Deep Six. Kalisto came back by hitting a hurricanrana off the barricade and a running dropkick into the barricade. Kalisto tried a move off the top, but Corbin smoked him with a chair and hit End of Days on a pile of chairs for the win. Corbin yelled at the announcers afterwards.

Backstage, Fuentes asked Natalya about Carmella’s accusation. Natalya wished Becky Lynch luck on her match tonight, calling her a great representative of the division. She blew off Carmella’s accusation and called her a liar.

Phillips quickly plugged Roadblock (a Raw show) and then plugged the Royal Rumble.

Women’s Championship Tables Match: Alexa Bliss defeated Becky Lynch 

Bliss won the title in a 15 minute match. The crowd liked Lynch, but it wasn’t much of a match thanks to the table gimmick. They fought on the apron, when Bliss slipped out and powerbombed Lynch through a table on the outside. Fuentes tried to interview Lynch afterwards, but Lynch told her she didn’t appreciate having a microphone shoved in her face right now. She didn’t blame the interviewer, she was upset at herself.

WWE Championship TLC Match: AJ Styles defeated Dean Ambrose

Both guys got strong mixed reactions, but Styles comes off like a superstar. There was a point during the match where Styles worked over Ambrose and an “A.J.” chant broke out.

AJ Styles retained in about 31 minutes with help from James Ellsworth.

Among the highlights were Ambrose suplexing Styles on top a bunch of chairs, where Styles took a crazy flip bump, and Ambrose putting a ladder on top of the announce table to hit a diving elbow on Styles through another announce table.

Before any of that happened, a hole ripped in Styles’ tights in an unfortunate area. Ambrose went up the ladder but Styles nailed him with a Phenomenal forearm. They fought back and forth until Ambrose used an airplane spin to splat Styles into the ladder.

With Ambrose outside the ring, Styles followed by somehow hitting a moonsault reverse DDT to off the apron. Styles placed Ambrose on a table outside the ring and proceeded to hit a crazy springboard 450 splash through the table.

Styles began climbing the ladder, when zombie James Ellsworth (wearing a neckbrace) began walking to the ring. Styles immediately attacked him and set up for Styles Clash off the steel steps, but Ambrose intercepted and hit Styles with Dirty Deeds on the steps.

Ambrose had the match won. He knocked Styles off the ladder and had his hand on the belt, when Ellsworth suddenly pushed the ladder and Ambrose crashed through two tables on the outside. Styles slowly climbed the ladder and grabbed the belt for the win. Great match.