WWE TLC 2016 Review: What we learned, takeaways, future projections

Ladder Match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship

Dolph Ziggler vs. The Miz (c)

What we learned: The biggest thing to come out of this Ladder Match for the Intercontinental Championship is that this rivalry between The Miz and Dolph Ziggler is over.

And again, it’s for the best as this feud has gone on for months and this ladder match was a good way to end things. As far as ladder matches go, I’ve certainly seen better but I’ve definitely seen worse. The pace wasn’t nearly as frantic as I thought it would be at the start of this match but things seemed to pick up as the match went along. There weren’t a lot of big spots here, which I found a little strange in a Dolph Ziggler ladder match, but I still think it told a good story.

The Miz is never going to be the athlete that Ziggler is and the match was kept at a pace where he could keep up and look good and that was accomplished here. Attacking Ziggler’s legs was a nice touch and Miz himself took a couple of nice bumps to boot. And in the end, it was the Intercontinental Champion retaining with no help from Maryse this time, getting the clean win and ending the feud the right way.

What’s next: I really wish I knew where they were going with this thing between The Miz and Daniel Bryan. Is there anybody out there thinking that they’re just saving Bryan for one more match at WrestleMania? But that can’t be the case with Bryan’s health, right? But that’s exactly how they’re building things here, as evidenced by The Miz’s promo after the match. And if you stuck around to watch Talking Smack afterwards, you know that there was even more heat between the two. Or is this just a case of a wrestler getting in the face of an authority figure? Because we’ve obviously seen that before. The thing with that is we usually get some sort of payoff. Whether it was Austin vs. McMahon or Flair vs. Bischoff or Cena vs. Big Johnny, there’s always been some type of physical confrontation. But without Bryan able to get physically involved, it will be interesting to see who the Smackdown Live GM throws at The Miz next. Perhaps the winner of our next match?

As for Dolph Ziggler, he’s just back to square one, isn’t he? I really thought that when he “saved” his career, he’d hang onto the Intercontinental Championship for a little while but now he can’t even challenge The Miz for it anymore. So my guess is he’ll just get thrown in a match here and there and perhaps get a decent showing at the Royal Rumble. Unless they’re going to throw him in the WWE Championship picture against AJ Styles (highly unlikely), this is about all they can do for him right now.