The Shield and Kurt Angle Stand Tall at TLC

WWE broke out all stops in the main event of TLC on Sunday night at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

Following the news on Friday that Roman Reigns was unable to compete at the show, Kurt Angle was announced as a last minute substitute for Reigns in the match. This marked Angle’s first WWE match since 2006, and he entered the arena alongside Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose in full Shield attire. Dean and Seth had gifted Kurt Roman’s vest earlier in the night.

The smile on Kurt’s face was priceless.

Throughout the early part of the match, Angle didn’t take any slams or do anything risky. He was solely the “designated hitter” for the Shield, as Michael Cole put it, wielding a chair at Cesaro, Sheamus, Braun Strowman, Kane, and The Miz. Throughout this early part in the bout, the Shield dominated.

Then Angle took his first slam, a running powerslam from Braun Strowman through a table on the outside. Afterward, they played up Kurt’s neck injury history as medical personel tended to him and hauled him off to the back.

With Angle out and the odds stacked even more against them, Rollins and Ambrose took a beating for the majority of the rest of the match outside of some brief comebacks. The story then started to become some dissension on the non-Shield team, with Kane and Strowman having some heat and ending up fighting. This resulted in Strowman going through the announce position floor up near the ramp via a Kane choke slam.

Kane even ripped the line of chairs hanging from the ceiling down, slamming down on the fallen Strowman in the process. However, Strowman eventually fought back, turning on all of his teammates. By this point, a garbage truck had been brought out since Miz had promised the Shield would be hauled away like garbage. Instead, the team all ended up throwing Strowman in there, and the truck compacted, teasing that Strowman had been crushed in the process. You read that right, Strowman was allegedly murdered in front of a live crowd, which makes the banning of Seth Rollins‘ curb stomp look more than a little ridiculous.

Eventually, Kurt Angle‘s theme came on and he made a dramatic return to the ring like Willis Reed in the NBA Finals (look it up on YouTube kids). At this point, he broke out all of his wrestling moves, nailing Angle Slams on the entranceway and in the ring. He also took some falls in the ring, including the Skull Crushing Finale (which he kicked out of).

In the end, Miz took the fall for the team. Rollins gave him his high knee, Ambrose gave him the Dirty Deeds, and Angle followed that up with an Angle Slam. All three men then hit the triple powerbomb on Miz, with Angle mimicking Reigns, to achieve victory.