Predicting the match order at TLC 2019

It’s one thing to predict the winners and losers at TLC 2019, but how about taking a guess at the match order on that card?

WWE has announced seven different segments for the main card of this event. Here is my subjective view of how important each of these seven segments rank, ordered from most important to least important.

1. Roman Reigns vs. King Corbin
2. Kabuki Warriors vs. Lynch & Flair
3. Bray Wyatt vs. The Miz
4. Rusev vs. Bobby Lashley
5. New Day vs. The Revival
6. Aleister Black vs. Buddy Murphy
7. Viking Raiders vs. ???

I was initially tempted to rank Aleister Black ahead of New Day’s match, but the addition of the ladder stipulation means New Day’s match should get plenty of time.

Tables matches don’t usually go very long, but Rusev’s storyline has received a ton of focus on television, so I considered ranking it as high as third on this list.

Main event

The main event is going to be one of the TLC matches, which means either Reigns or the Kabuki Warriors. Wyatt’s match against Miz is not for the Universal championship, so it feels more like a mid-card match than a potential main event.

I think the women’s tag titles should close out the night, but considering how much the Reigns/Corbin story has dominated SmackDown television, it looks like a pretty good bet to main event this card.

Opening match

The opening match of the night is usually one of the mid-level attractions with good work rate that doesn’t require a dedicated video package ahead of time to hype it up.

There are two matches on this card that require a ladder to be climbed for victory, and I don’t have either one in the main event, so it makes sense to start the show with one of them. New Day’s match seems like a better fit for the opening match than the Kabuki Warriors, so that’s the one I’m going with.

That gives me the following card:

Segment 1: New Day vs. The Revival
Segment 2:
Segment 3:
Segment 4:
Segment 5:
Segment 6:
Segment 7: Roman Reigns vs. King Corbin

Women’s tag titles

The women’s tag titles are being defended in a TLC match, so there will probably be some distance between it and the other TLC match on the card (Reigns vs. Corbin). Similarly, the women’s tag title match involves climbing a ladder to win, just like the opening tag team match, so there will probably be some distance between those two matches as well.

Placing the Kabuki Warriors in Segment 4 is the ideal slot for spreading out all three of those matches.

That gives me the following card:

Segment 1: New Day vs. The Revival
Segment 2:
Segment 3:
Segment 4: Kabuki Warriors vs. Lynch & Flair
Segment 5:
Segment 6:
Segment 7: Roman Reigns vs. King Corbin

Everything else

The least important matches of the night will probably follow the opening ladder match as well as the women’s TLC match. This means Segment 2 and Segment 5 will go to the Viking Raiders and Aleister Black, in some order. I’ll stick the Viking Raiders in Segment 5, to avoid having two men’s tag team matches at the start of the show. That means Aleister Black is in Segment 2.

The only thing left to do is choosing between Rusev and Wyatt for Segment 3 and Segment 6. I’ll defer to Wyatt’s status as an upper card act and put him in the upper card, therefore he lands in Segment 6.

Finalized card

So here is my final prediction for the match order at TLC, along with guesses on the bell-to-bell match times.

Segment 1: New Day vs. The Revival (15 minutes)
Segment 2: Aleister Black vs. Buddy Murphy (10)
Segment 3: Rusev vs. Bobby Lashley (9)
Segment 4: Kabuki Warriors vs. Lynch & Flair (19)
Segment 5: Viking Raiders vs. ??? (8)
Segment 6: Bray Wyatt vs. The Miz (11)
Segment 7: Roman Reigns vs. King Corbin (20)

These times add up to 92 minutes, which means WWE will probably add another match or two to the card.

That’s my prediction for the match order at TLC 2019. What’s yours?