TLC 2016 marks the 8th time WWE has run this event that features at least one eponymous TLC match as well as matches that single out the table, ladder and chair aspects of the show's name.
A Tables match is the only match that hasn’t been the main event of a show, although Sheamus did win his first WWE Championship by defeating John Cena in a tables match at this event, but a TLC match for the Tag Team Championship was the main event.
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There have been 7 TLC PPVs, and those shows have seen, as their main events, 5 TLC matches, one Ladder Match and one Chairs match. They have mostly been good matches, but obviously, some have been better than others.
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Here are the rankings, from worst to best, of the 7 main events in TLC history.
#7 John Cena def. Wade Barrett - Chairs Match, TLC 2010
The second-ever TLC event saw the culmination of the rivalry between John Cena and The Nexus, a team led by Wade Barrett.
Even though he had done nothing but make them look inept, Cena was somehow stuck as a member of the team and was even “fired” from WWE after losing a match to Randy Orton thanks to Wade Barrett not being an impartial referee in a WWE Title match.
Also read: 10 of the greatest Tables, Ladders and Chairs matches in WWE History
Cena made Barrett look like an idiot for weeks until he was hired back, and then made Barrett look like a bigger idiot by dominating the Chairs match that Barrett himself challenged Cena to have. It was a boring match with the obvious “Cena wins” outcome.
After the match was over, which served as a metaphorical burial of Wade Barrett and The Nexus, Cena actually buried Barrett under a gigantic pile of chairs, thus solidifying the metaphor with a literal burial.
#6 Sheamus def. Roman Reigns - TLC Match, TLC 2015
The most recent iteration of the Tables, Ladders & Chairs PPV saw Roman Reigns try, and fail, to regain his WWE World Heavyweight Championship from Sheamus.
The previous month at Survivor Series saw Sheamus cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase to rob the title from Reigns, who had just won a tournament to crown himself as the new champion.
This was a heatless rivalry that the audience didn’t care about, as it featured a cold-as-ice Sheamus, who was still drowning in a failed heel run, going against Roman Reigns, the man that WWE was doing everything they could to push as the superhero good guy, but were failing miserably.
Nobody wanted Sheamus to win and nobody wanted Roman Reigns to win, so this was just a match that people have already forgotten.
#5 Bray Wyatt def. Dean Ambrose - TLC Match, TLC 2014
Remember that time Dean Ambrose was too stupid to unplug a TV monitor and then it somehow exploded in his face, causing him to lose a match? That defied all logic, didn’t it? Yeah, well that’s how the Lunatic Fringe lost this match in the main event of TLC in 2014.
This was essentially a No Disqualifications match with tables, ladders and chairs strewn about ringside, as the finish could only come via pinfall or submission since there was nothing to fight over in order to be hung above the ring.
The two men were embroiled in a feud dating back to October’s Hell in a Cell PPV (the infamous Bray Wyatt hologram) that made its way into early 2015. It was filled with a myriad of okay, but not great, matches, and this was one of them. There was nothing particularly memorable about it outside of the dumb TV monitor blowing up in Dean’s face.
#4 D-Generation X def. Jeri-Show - TLC Match, TLC 2009
In one of their many ill-advised returns in the mid-late 2000s, Triple H and Shawn Michaels had once again teamed up and started making poop jokes. Most of what they did outside of the ring in their returns was garbage and embarrassing, but in-ring they had some very entertaining matches.
After defeating Randy Orton’s cronies, Legacy, in a good feud that spanned the summer and fall, DX earned a shot at the Tag Team Championship, then held by Chris Jericho and The Big Show.
By way of being Triple H and Shawn Michaels, they were able to be the main event of the show, even though John Cena defended his WWE Title against newcomer Sheamus and The Undertaker defended his World Title against Batista.
It turned out to be a strong match, which was generally the case during this go-around for DX. They ended up winning the Tag Titles from Jericho and Big Show and eventually lost them to Big Show and his new partner, The Miz.
#3 Dolph Ziggler def. John Cena - Ladder Match, TLC 2012
The main event of the 2012 edition of TLC was a one-on-one Money in the Bank ladder match, with John Cena challenging Dolph Ziggler for the contract that he had won fair-and-square.
They had a back-and-forth match that everybody was sure John Cena would win, thanks to AJ Lee, who had spent the year messing with Cena, Daniel Bryan and CM Punk before eventually choosing to back Cena, Ziggler took down the briefcase and was declared the winner.
Lee, who appeared to be skipping around the ring to celebrate Cena’s victory, instead pushed over the ladder, allowing Ziggler to nail a superkick to put Cena out. He would climb the ladder and retain his briefcase.
This spelt the end of the Vickie Guerrero-Dolph Ziggler partnership and led to Big E becoming Ziggler’s bodyguard, so there are some memorable events that came from the conclusion of this contest as well.
#2 CM Punk def. The Miz & Alberto Del Rio - TLC Match, TLC 2011
This was the first title defence of CM Punk’s historic 434-day reign as WWE Champion. He was already embroiled in a feud with Alberto Del Rio, and The Miz found himself involved after essentially complaining about not being in the title match and getting lucky by defeating Randy Orton by count-out in a qualifying match.
He was coming off the end of a successful run with R-Truth as his tag team partner, which essentially ended when they were sacrificed to The Rock and John Cena a month earlier at Survivor Series.
The bad guys spent a lot of time teaming up on the WWE Champion, including keeping him handcuffed to a ladder and later the turnbuckle, both of which Punk had to destroy in order to free himself and continue defending his title.
This was a very creative match, with the men using all three of the weapons all over the ring and ringside area, and even Del Rio’s personal ring announcer got involved. Not only was he the man who handcuffed Punk to the ladder originally, but he also got his comeuppance by being pushed off a ladder inside the ring and through a table on the outside.
The champion eventually prevailed to continue the early days of his long title reign.
#1 Randy Orton def. John Cena - TLC Match, TLC 2013
At the end of 2013, WWE decided, for whatever reason, that it was finally time for the pair of World Titles to be reunited to create one unified top championship for the company.
In order to try to add intrigue to the usually good, but flat, final pay-per-view offering of the year, they used the show’s namesake match as the contest to determine the promotion’s sole champion.
The two men had an extremely brutal match, which was the second-to-last of their long rivalry (the final one was a rematch for the new unified WWE World Heavyweight Championship the next month at the Royal Rumble PPV).
It ended when John Cena, who had been handcuffed to the turnbuckle, had to undo the middle rope in order to climb the ladder and stop Orton from claiming the pair of championship belts.
Even though he used the turnbuckle and ropes as a weapon when he climbed, it turned out to be Cena’s downfall, as Orton pulled the ropes (that Cena was still tethered to) to pull Cena down, in a brutal-looking spot, into the corner of a table.
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