WWE TLC 2010 - The Miz (c) vs Randy Orton - WWE Championship Tables Match

[Dave]

This match has the potential to be fucking amazing! That being said, it likely wont be.

For some reason, I just cannot see the WWE putting The Miz over Orton clean. There will be, mark my words, some sort of interference by a member of Miz's ever growing entourage that will seal the deal for The Miz... There has to be.

Randy Orton, whether we like it or not, is still the biggest thing in the WWE outside of John Cena and whilst putting The Miz over him would be a great way of trying to get us to think that the Miz would be a great champion, they are likely to go down the route where he will have to scrape by constantly and will use every means possible to keep his championship reign alive (Read: Edge – The Ultimate Opportunist).

For once in the WWE, I would love to see a Champion who can really dominate the competition and you can see that the Championship means everything to him. Not just by the way he cheats to win and rides his luck. But puts on scintillating performances that show us that he is a Champion. Would that be too much to ask?

The match tonight will tell us a lot about what kind of champion The Miz is going to be and I fully expect to see him coming out on top. There is no point in having The Miz win the championship to lose it a month later, that would idiotic. So, for me, The Miz wins due to some interference from his entourage.

 

[LSN80]

I really believe that this is who CM Punk was addressing in his slammy speech for Despicable Me. The person he "didnt forget, and couldnt forgive." That person is Randy Orton. Two years ago, Punk was cost the World Heavyweight Championship by Randy Orton at the Unforgiven 2008 PPV when Orton punted him in the head. As a result, Punk was unable to compete in the Scramble Match, and forfeited the championship.

He and Orton never had a proper feud. They had a one match blow-off on Raw, but it was used as a vehicle to serve for Punk's upcoming feud with William Regal rather then decide anything with Orton. I expect this match to be the beginning of said score being settled, as Punk costs Orton the title with a GTS.

I hope that's not the only story of the match, however, as I believe this match will tell us alot of how Miz can function as a main event performer. I dont expect this to headline the show, as that honor will likely go to Cena and Barrett. But this is a "main event", as its for the championship. Here's hoping we get a good 15-20 minute showing that doesnt lead to him being used as Randy Orton's punching bag, only to get the late assist from Punk.


But anyway, Miz retains the title with an assist from CM Punk.

 

[Long Island Iced WXYZ]

Miz is obvioulsy going to retain here.

They're going to protect Randy Orton the same way they did for Cena at last years' TLC PPV.

I'm actually interested for the first time in a long time about the main event scene on RAW.

Should be an interesting next couple of weeks/months.

 

[LSN80]

I really believe that this is who CM Punk was addressing in his slammy speech for Despicable Me. The person he "didnt forget, and couldnt forgive." That person is Randy Orton. Two years ago, Punk was cost the World Heavyweight Championship by Randy Orton at the Unforgiven 2008 PPV when Orton punted him in the head. As a result, Punk was unable to compete in the Scramble Match, and forfeited the championship.

He and Orton never had a proper feud. They had a one match blow-off on Raw, but it was used as a vehicle to serve for Punk's upcoming feud with William Regal rather then decide anything with Orton. I expect this match to be the beginning of said score being settled, as Punk costs Orton the title with a GTS.

I hope that's not the only story of the match, however, as I believe this match will tell us alot of how Miz can function as a main event performer. I dont expect this to headline the show, as that honor will likely go to Cena and Barrett. But this is a "main event", as its for the championship. Here's hoping we get a good 15-20 minute showing that doesnt lead to him being used as Randy Orton's punching bag, only to get the late assist from Punk.


But anyway, Miz retains the title with an assist from CM Punk.

Well, I was right and wrong in this one.

No CM Punk, at least in this match, which genuinely came as a surprise to me. The finish made it clear why this wasn't the final match of the PPV. They're clearly going the direction with Miz of making him win "creatively" rather than portraying him as someone able to retain on his own one-on-one. Ric Flair, amongst others, was a prime example of a champion who often retained his title through less than convincing ways over the years. They can't go so far with it that Miz is a total complete joke of a champion, but if they walk a fine line, they can anger the auidence by Miz continuing to find ways to retain without scoring a convincing clear victory over a top level contender. He's a vulnerable champion, and to make it work effectively, he has to be seen as good but not as good as the face challenger. A few convincing wins on TV over lesser competition for Miz would help let fans know he's not a total complete joke of a champion.

I enjoyed this match for what it was, and that was to enable to let Miz retain his title without having Orton look weak in the process. The 2 on 1 odds in this enviroment were just simply too much for him to overcome here. The creative first finish with Miz switching Orton with Riley was very creative and painted Miz as an intelligent competitor as well as champion. A solid first title defense for Miz against one of WWE's best competitors. ***/5.

 

[Ferbian]

This was actually a fairly good match that worked very well in making The Miz look good, without hurting Randy Orton in any way. Miz looked like a smart champion, as well as a mean guy that could legitimately fuck Randy over if he got the chance.

Sure Alex Riley had a big part in Miz retaining, twice so to say, but I feel that he could've done it either way, and seemed like he could've done it either way. He might've had the first "victory" through Randy being distracted, but he still put him down decisively, because distractions do happen.

And to put it on top of that, he didn't really need Alex Riley to put Randy through the second destroyed table. Because he could've just as easily speared him off the apron instead.

Either way, this made sense, and Miz retained in a pretty good match. Which in the end is what matters the most for Miz here.

 

[Dave]

I don't know about you guys but I really enjoyed the WWE Championship match last night. Not only was it the safest way to go with the Miz's Championship reign, it was basic wrestling storytelling at it's finest.

Truth be told though, I wasn't really lookijng forward to seeing it happen at all. The Miz and Randy Orton are not two people who seem to hit if off when they are in a feud. The problem is that The Miz is a great mic talent and Randy Orton simply isn't. They may think that they can go down the “I let my actions do the talking route” with Orton but when you put him in a ring with The Miz, a man who can really have flashes of brilliance on the mic, it really shows the inherent flaws in the game of Randy Orton. It was really because of this that it failed to drag me in.

That being said, I thought that they both did a good job of getting the match over and I thoroughly enjoyed how it played out. Did I, and everyone else, see the outcome in advance? Of course we did! But that shouldn't take away from what The Miz and Orton accomplished last night. It was a fine match and a great ending to their feud. The restart had me convinced that Randy Orton was going to pick up the win and that is a strength in itself. The fact that it had us all fooled for a moment was a surprising twist but when you think about it, it makes the most sense. The Miz may have used the ring smarts to get the win but Orton still looks like a Champion.

Time to move on, I think.