WWE TLC 2017: Tracking the Evolution of the Traditional TLC Match

On August 27, 2000, WWE debuted a gimmick match that became one of the most popular and carnage-inducing bouts of the modern era—but the origins of the Tables, Ladders and Chairs match date back further than the inaugural brawl.

As WWE prepares for the 20th such match at Sunday's TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs pay-per-view, when The Shield takes on Braun Strowman, Kane, The Miz, Sheamus and Cesaro, it only feels right to take an in-depth journey through one of the more destructive matches in the company's arsenal.

To find the origins of the TLC match, we have to go back to the end of the last century, when WWE's Attitude Era was approaching the peak of its popularity. This was a time when WWE did not wholly dominate the wrestling landscape, with professional wrestling revolving around the Monday Night War between Vince McMahon's company and World Championship Wrestling.

With both companies doing all they could to push the boundaries in order to capture fans' imaginations, it was perhaps no surprise that WWE changed the landscape of tag team wrestling forever at No Mercy in October 1999.

If there was one thing WWE always did better than WCW, it was tag team wrestling. Arguably the most underrated cornerstone of WWE's success throughout that period, it was at No Mercy when The Hardy Boyz and Edge and Christian produced one of the greatest ladder matches in history.

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With all four participants producing some incredible death-defying stunts involving ladders, it came as no surprise that the audience collectively rose to applaud the performers post-match. What's easily forgotten amid what would follow is that the prize that night was not the tag titles but the managerial services of Terri Runnels. However, she would have much less of an involvement in what happened next.

Suddenly, Edge, Christian, Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy were in the forefront of WWE audiences' interests. The following night on Raw, they would lay out their respect for one another—but as The Hardy Boyz moved forwards, they did so with a team who would play a defining role in the first TLC match.

With ladders checked off, Matt and Jeff faced The Dudley Boyz in a tables match. Again, the bout received critical acclaim.

With hardcore wrestling very much a thing at that time too, it made sense for WWE to try to maintain the interest in the tag division by pitting all three teams in an electrifying match at WrestleMania 2000, when they competed for the tag titles in a Triangle ladder match.

As the tag division continued to soar in popularity in the months following that contest and with summer approaching, WWE took the bold step of unifying all three teams again. But this time, the stakes were much higher.

This was when WWE officially gave birth to the Tables, Ladders and Chairs concept. Edge and Christian were the "chair men" of WWE, using chairs whenever they could. The Hardy Boyz loved diving off ladders. The Dudley Boyz, as we know, were infamous for their use of tables. It made sense when Commissioner Mick Foley threw them all together.

Running almost 15 minutes in length, the company basically broke off all the rules to allow Edge and Christian, The Dudley Boyz and The Hardy Boyz to put their bodies on the line in the name of entertainment. They delivered.

In reviewing the show for Bleacher Report, Justin Watry wrote: "Nobody was talking about the undercard. Few were talking about the upper card. However, everybody was talking about the epic first-ever TLC match."

He was right. It was the standout match on a pretty lacklustre card. 

Jeff Hardy sacrificed himself through a table as Bubba Ray Dudley just evaded danger. Bubba would then fall off a ladder through a plethora of tables stacked high in the air before Lita interfered to attempt to hand Matt and Jeff victory. As Cageside Seats' C.J. Bradford wrote: "TLC 1 was balls-to-the-walls from bell-to-bell."

However, with Jeff holding the belts but dangling high in the air, he was taken out by Edge and Christian, allowing the duo to make history and win the inaugural TLC match. It was by far the highest-rated match on the card, with renowned journalist Dave Meltzer scoring it 4.5 stars (h/t the Internet Wrestling Database).

Buoyed by the interest and hype that match created, the company rolled out the concept again at WrestleMania X-Seven the following year. Again, Edge and Christian won, and it was clear the gimmick had a permanent place on the WWE calendar.

That match is perhaps the most memorable of the early TLC bouts for two spots in particular: Jeff Hardy's huge Swanton Bomb off of a ladder on to Rhyno and Spike Dudley, and Edge's infamous spearing of Jeff through a ladder while Hardy hung in midair.

Amazingly, it was not even limited to pay-per-view in its initial moments too. Just seven weeks after WrestleMania, the same three teams were joined by a fourth, Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit, for a TLC match on SmackDown. This time, however, Edge and Christian would not prevail, with Jericho and Benoit this time winning the tag team titles.

Curiously, though, it took four years for the match to return to WWE screens, but when it did, it was with a bang. The bout finally reached singles competition, with Edge beating Ric Flair on an episode of Raw in January 2006 to retain the WWE Championship.

Edge also featured in the next two TLC matches—with his defeat to John Cena at Unforgiven 2006 undoubtedly the best of that trilogy. It ended as Edge took a huge Attitude Adjustment from a ladder through a table to allow Cena to claim the WWE Championship, but it was a match littered with huge moments. Whereas the initial years of TLC were all about telling stories during matches, this contest set the trend for what would follow in the coming years.

As the match received more and more outings, WWE noticeably tried to increasingly push the boat out in terms of spots and segments. Proof of that is perhaps best evident in Jeff Hardy's hair-raising bout against CM Punk at SummerSlam 2009.

That night, and perhaps inevitably given Hardy's involvement, both men put their bodies well and truly on the line. Hardy repeated the trick of TLC II by producing a death-defying Swanton Bomb through a table—but while he missed in 2001, he hit Punk flush this time around. 

Tag action returned to TLC after a nine-year hiatus in 2009 when D-Generation X beat Jeri-Show, with the likes of The Miz, Rey Mysterio and even Jerry Lawler making their TLC debuts in the contests that would follow.

CM Punk is the only wrestler to have had more than one TLC contest with a perfect record in the match type, with his three wins from three attempts only beaten in terms of victory numbers by Edge, who won five from his seven TLC bouts.

Credit: WWE.com

Punk's second and third victories sandwiched The Shield's debut in the concept in 2012—and that group will return to the match on Sunday to officially kick off its reunion tour. However, two of The Shield's members have wrestled in singles TLC matches, with Dean Ambrose's effort against AJ Styles at the TLC pay-per-view in December 2016 arguably the best of those.

There are other notable moments when it comes to the history of the TLC match—perhaps most notably Randy Orton's unification of the WWE Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship at TLC 2013. The one many fans will want to avoid too much of a detailed reference to is the WeeLC bout between El Torito and Hornswoggle at Extreme Rules. It is fitting that it is the shortest TLC match in history, at little over 10 minutes in length. It is comfortably the worst.

But of the previous 19 TLC matches, that is the only blemish on its storied history. In almost 20 years of trying, WWE has rarely held a bad contest when one of the company's most feverous stipulations is thrown into the mix. It's odds-on TLC No. 20 falls into the same category as the majority of those before it.

When one looks over the history of a particular type of WWE match, you can see a clear difference between the first and most recent contests in its history in terms of skill, entertainment and hype. Such is the carnage Tables, Ladders and Chairs provides, this is one of those rare occasions when the inaugural bout stands up neatly to the rest. Long may that continue.