We wondered if Braun Strowman would be healed enough from his elbow surgery to wrestle Baron Corbin in their scheduled match at tonight’s (Sun., Dec. 16, 2018) WWE TLC pay-per-view (PPV) at the SAP Center in San Jose, California. Rumors suggested he wouldn’t be ready, and then said maybe he would, and then maybe not. Considering the stipulations — a victory would mean a Universal title shot against Brock Lesnar at Royal Rumble for Strowman and Corbin being fired as acting General Manager of Raw — one would think they would figure something out.
Corbin had promised to simply have his crooked referee, Heath Slater, simply count Strowman out and that would be that. Except Braun showed up, with a microphone in hand, and used logic and reasoning to work around all this. He mentioned that, well, there are no disqualifications in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match. That means Strowman could just have someone else do all the heavy lifting.
That brought out Apollo Crews, Finn Balor, Chad Gable, and Bobby Roode. Finally, Slater ditched the referee shirt — again, no DQ — and then literally everyone teed off on Corbin, who tried to simply leave.
That’s when Kurt Angle returned.
He, too, put shots in on Corbin, who had no one there to help him. Bobby Lashley and Drew McIntyre, who had been in his corner for weeks helping him out, were nowhere to be found. In the end, Slater put the referee shirt back on after everyone hit their finish and Strowman simply put a boot on top of Corbin to get the pinfall.
Corbin has been ousted as GM of Raw.
Strowman gets his title shot at Royal Rumble.
Angle is back.
All is right in the world?
Get complete TLC results and coverage of the entire card here.