Tables, Ladders, and Chairs (TLC) matches represent one of the most entertaining and dangerous match types in professional wrestling. It is essentially a ladder match variation but with emphasis on two other weapons: tables and chairs. The goal is to acquire the item (usually championship belts) which starts the match suspended above the ring. A TLC match can be seen as a more complicated ladder match, where tables and chairs, along with ladders, can also be used as legal foreign objects.
The match originates around the tag teams of The Dudley Boyz, The Hardy Boyz, and Edge and Christian. The particular weapons of tables, ladders and chairs were seen as unique to each team's style. The Hardy’s were seen as high-flying daredevils, and a key element to the Dudley Boyz gimmick was their flagrant use of tables as weapons. Edge and Christian became notable for using steel chairs in tandem against opponents.
Edge and Christian were known for their use of chairs in tandem against opponents.
The Origins of TLC
The idea of the TLC match in WWF had its origins in a tag team ladder match for the managerial services of Terri Runnels between Edge and Christian and The Hardy Boyz (Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy), at No Mercy 1999 during the Attitude Era, with the audience giving all four wrestlers a standing ovation at the end of the match. The move catapulted both tag teams to the top of the tag team world.
The three teams would be known for their three respective foreign objects, as well as the hardcore wrestling styles associated therein: the Dudley Boyz often Powerbombed or Death Dropped their opponents through tables during or after matches (usually brought out by Bubba Ray telling D-Von to "get the tables"); the Hardy Boyz, in singles matches, challenged main-event singles wrestlers (such as The Undertaker) in ladder matches, considered at that time to be the "signature match" of the team (as they were both high-flyers, they specialized with high spots, and doing them off the top of ladders amplified their effectiveness), while Edge and Christian developed the "con-chair-to", which involved the two hitting an opponent's head simultaneously, on opposite sides, with chairs.
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The Dudley Boyz were known for their use of tables as weapons.
The First Official TLC Matches
The first official TLC match was contested between these three teams using the weapons that they had made famous at SummerSlam 2000. The second TLC match happened at WrestleMania X-Seven, with each of the three teams joined by a third member who tried to help their team win the match (Matt and Jeff were joined by Lita, who had also been with them for the SummerSlam bout, Bubba Ray and D-Von were joined by their half-brother Spike, and Edge and Christian were joined by Rhyno).
Lita hit Spike Dudley with a chair shot to the head, Christian and D-Von Dudley hung 20 feet in the air, Bubba Ray Dudley and Matt Hardy jumped off a toppling ladder (pushed over by Rhyno) and crashed through 4 stacked tables on ringside, and Edge speared a hanging Jeff Hardy by jumping off a 20-ft ladder. TLC III on the May 24, 2001 episode of SmackDown!
Edge delivers a spear to Jeff Hardy during the TLC match at WrestleMania X-Seven.
In the fourth TLC match on the October 7, 2002 episode of Raw, four tag teams had drawn, as a result of "Raw roulette" (where the match type of every match of the card was determined by spinning a wheel), a TLC match. The match saw defending champions Kane and The Hurricane putting their World Tag Team titles up against the teams of Christian and Chris Jericho, Bubba Ray Dudley and Spike Dudley, and Jeff Hardy and Rob Van Dam.
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Being the veterans that they were to the match itself, general manager Eric Bischoff allowed Hardy, Christian and Dudley to choose their own partners, as their former partners Matt Hardy, Edge, and D-Von Dudley were unavailable as SmackDown! wrestlers. Prior to the match, The Hurricane was taken out backstage causing Kane to defend the titles by himself.
Evolution and Key Matches
On the January 16, 2006 episode of Raw, WWE held its fifth TLC match, the first in over three years. Edge, who was in his fourth TLC match successfully defended his WWE Championship against Ric Flair, who was in his first ever Ladder match of any kind. It was the first TLC match to be held in singles competition and the first to have the WWE Championship on the line.
TLC VI at Unforgiven 2006 saw John Cena winning the WWE Championship from Edge. TLC VII was held at One Night Stand 2008 saw Edge winning the vacant World Heavyweight Championship, defeating The Undertaker and (kayfabe) banishing him from WWE. This was also The Undertaker's only TLC match in his career. TLC VIII at SummerSlam 2009 saw CM Punk winning the World Heavyweight Championship from TLC veteran Jeff Hardy.
Greatest TLC Moments - WWE Top 10
The Tables, Ladders & Chairs Pay-Per-View
In December 2009, WWE introduced TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs as a new pay-per-view event, which included a tables match, a ladder match, a match in which chairs were legal as weapons and, as the main event, a TLC match. TLC IX in the 2009 event pitted Chris Jericho and The Big Show against D-Generation X (Triple H and Shawn Michaels) for the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship.
A year later, at TLC 2010, the TLC match, for the first time, was a fatal four-way of the singles variety (III and IV had been fatal-four-way tag team bouts). The match pitted Edge, Kane, Rey Mysterio and Alberto Del Rio against each other for the World Heavyweight Championship. In the end, Edge won the title. The next year at TLC 2011, CM Punk defended his WWE Championship in a first-ever triple threat TLC match against Alberto Del Rio and The Miz.
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At TLC 2012, The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Roman Reigns) fought Ryback and Team Hell No (Kane and Daniel Bryan). This was the first TLC match to contain teams of three and was the first TLC match for everyone involved except Kane (competing in his third). At TLC 2013, WWE Champion Randy Orton defeated World Heavyweight Champion John Cena in a TLC match for both the WWE and World Heavyweight titles. Orton won to become the first WWE World Heavyweight Champion.
At Extreme Rules (2014), a "WeeLC match" was contested between El Torito and Hornswoggle, the first TLC match to involve midget wrestlers and the second to be decided by pinfall or submission. At TLC 2014 Bray Wyatt defeated Dean Ambrose in the 17th TLC Match.
TLC 2017 marked the 20th TLC Match. Originally scheduled to feature the reunited Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Roman Reigns) against the team of The Miz, Braun Strowman, Kane and Cesaro and Sheamus, Reigns was removed from the match due to a legitimate illness. Kurt Angle replaced Reigns, making the match Angle's first in WWE since 2006. This was the first handicap TLC Match and the fourth decided by pinfall or submission.
On the December 10, 2018 episode of Raw Seth Rollins defended the Intercontinental Championship in a TLC match against Baron Corbin. A few days later, TLC 2018 marked the first women's TLC Match, as Becky Lynch lost the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship to Asuka in a match also involving Charlotte Flair.
On the NXT: Halloween Havoc special on October 28, 2020, Io Shirai retained the NXT Women's Championship against Candice LeRae in a renamed TLC match-a "Tables, Ladders and Scares match"-renamed to fit the social celebration of Halloween. This match used ladders painted black and orange, and tables painted asphalt black with body chalk outlines on them.
List of TLC Matches in WWE History
Here is a list of all the TLC matches that have taken place in WWE history:
- Edge and Christian vs The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff Hardy) vs The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley) - Event: Summerslam (2000). Edge and Christian won.
- Edge and Christian vs The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff Hardy) vs The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley) - Event: Wrestlemania X-Seven (2001). Edge and Christian won.
- Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit vs Edge and Christian vs The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley) vs The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff Hardy) - Event: Smackdown (May 24, 2001). Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho won.
- Kane vs The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and Spike Dudley) vs Christian and Chris Jericho vs Jeff Hardy and Rob Van Dam - Event: RAW (October 7, 2002). Kane won.
- Edge vs Ric Flair - Event: RAW (January 16, 2006). Edge won.
- John Cena vs Edge - Event: Unforgiven (2006). John Cena won.
- Edge vs The Undertaker - Event: One Night Stand (2008). Edge won.
- CM Punk vs Jeff Hardy - Event: Summerslam (2009). CM Punk won.
- D-Generation X (Triple H and Shawn Michaels) vs Jeri-Show (Chris Jericho and Big Show) - Event: TLC (2009). Triple H and Shawn Michaels won.
- The Miz vs Jerry Lawler - Event: RAW (November 29, 2010). The Miz won.
- Edge vs Kane vs Alberto Del Rio vs Rey Mysterio - Event: TLC (2010). Edge won.
- CM Punk vs The Miz vs Alberto Del Rio - Event: TLC (2011). CM Punk won.
- The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Roman Reigns) vs Team Hell No (Kane and Daniel Bryan) and Ryback - Event: TLC (2012). The Shield won.
- CM Punk vs Ryback - Event: RAW (January 7, 2013). CM Punk won.
- Randy Orton vs John Cena - Event: TLC (2013). Randy Orton won.
- El Torito vs Hornswoggle - Event: Extreme Rules (2014). El Torito won.
- Bray Wyatt vs Dean Ambrose - Event: TLC (2014). Bray Wyatt won.
- Sheamus vs Roman Reigns - Event: TLC (2015). Sheamus won.
- AJ Styles vs Dean Ambrose - Event: TLC (2016). AJ Styles won.
- Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Kurt Angle vs The Miz, Braun Strowman, Kane and Cesaro, and Sheamus- Event: TLC (2017). Ambrose, Rollins, and Angle won.
- Seth Rollins vs Baron Corbin - Event: RAW (December 10, 2018). Seth Rollins won.
- Baron Corbin vs Braun Strowman - Event: TLC (2018).
- Asuka vs Becky Lynch vs Charlotte Flair - Event: TLC (2018). Asuka won.
- King Corbin vs Roman Reigns - Event: TLC (2019).
- Asuka and Kairi Sane vs Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair - Event: TLC (2019). Asuka and Kairi Sane won.
- Io Shirai vs Candice LeRae - Event: NXT Halloween Havoc (2020). Io Shirai won.
- Drew McIntyre vs AJ Styles vs The Miz - Event: TLC (2020). Drew McIntyre won.
- Roman Reigns vs Kevin Owens - Event: TLC (2020). Roman Reigns won.
- Brutus Creed and Julius Creed vs Angel Garza and Humberto Carrillo - Event: NXT Halloween Havoc (2023).
TLC in Other Promotions
In other promotions, the TLC match has quite the following, appealing to a niche market within professional wrestling. However, the term "TLC" itself was trademarked by WWE, thus other promotions give different names to these types of matches despite having an identical setup.
One example of a variation of the TLC match is the Tables, Ladders, Chairs, and Canes match. This match is a TLC match with the addition of Singapore Canes. TNA Wrestling used a variation of the TLC match called "Full Metal Mayhem" as a bout between Jeff Hardy and Abyss at Against All Odds 2005.