Team Rhodes Scholars def. Rey Mysterio & Sin Cara

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – In the opening match of WWE’s TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs Sunday night – the first-ever WWE pay-per-event to emanate from Brooklyn’s brand-new Barclays Center – Team Rhodes Scholars vanquished Rey Mysterio & Sin Cara, as soundly as the English defeated their opponents in the Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896. Or something like that. 

The fact is, Damien Sandow & Cody Rhodes, though arrogant, pompous and condescending, have shown a great deal of resilience. The pair earned the right to face Mysterio & Sin Cara in a Tables Match after winning a Fatal 4-Way tag team bout this past Monday on Raw. And they certainly made the most of the opportunity, besting their masked rivals to earn a title match against WWE Tag Team Champions Team Hell No. ( PHOTOS)

After insulting the entirety of tonight’s host city, Sandow & Rhodes managed to squeeze their egos into the ring. During the bout, Team Rhodes Scholars dominated early, each man holding one end of a table and attempting to break it over their opponents. When that didn’t work, the two set up tables outside the ring in preparation for a punishing Mysterio & Sin Cara.

Instead, the luchadores ignited a flurry of offense against their rivals, but Sin Cara appeared hindered after his leg was smashed by the steel steps earlier in the match. The battered limb would prove crucial later on when Sin Cara climbed to the top rope. When it looked as if he would leap atop Sandow, Rhodes rushed over before he could and toppled the masked Superstar. The fall sent Sin Cara backward, crashing into one of the tables set up outside the ring and allowed Team Rhodes Scholars to notch the win.

And now, in the wake of their victory, the next challenge awaiting Sandow & Rhodes will be Team Hell No. Can the so-called Intellectual Savior of the Masses and his mustachioed compadre continue to ace their in-ring exams? Or will Kane & Daniel Bryan put an end to brain trust?