WWE TLC 2011: Will WWE Push the Envelope with Hardcore Event?

WWE's annual TLC pay-per-view is just one week away, and the card is still getting filled out. The main event match is, at least for now, a triple-threat Tables, Ladders and Chairs match for the WWE championship between CM Punk, The Miz and Alberto Del Rio. It is a chance for the company to get back to some of the old school hardcore style that used to be a signature part of the product. 

That is not to say that I want to see a bunch of wrestlers going around and bashing each other's heads with chairs, because there is no reason to do that and risk concussions, but they can take more chances on this show than they normally would. 

Part of the reason that wrestling fans have grown so disillusioned with the current WWE product is because these kinds of hardcore matches have gone soft in recent years.

While I agree with WWE's perspective on the change, it has watered down a lot of the matches that used to sell well because fans knew they were going to see something special. 

We can still see something special because there is more to a great match than just smashing someone through a table, but when you put wrestlers in a TLC match, they expect to see something that they wouldn't normally get on Raw or SmackDown or Superstars. 

And if ever there were an opportunity to get back to being hardcore, it would be on this show. And the main event has all the makings of doing something like that. 

Alberto Del Rio is not a ladder match wrestler. He knows how to do it, and had a great one with Christian earlier this year, but his style does not work in a ladder match. So WWE is going to have to do something to make up for the fact that he doesn't want to do a customary spot in a ladder match. 

Therefore, the onus falls on Miz and CM Punk to try something crazy. Del Rio can go nuts with a chair, though he is not going to hit anyone in the head and we know that no one is going to bleed. 

I would like to see CM Punk try his Randy Savage elbow drop from the stage on to the concrete taking out both Miz and Del Rio. It's not hardcore in the ECW sense, but by WWE standards that is the best we are going to get. 

Yes, I know that Kevin Nash and Triple H are working a match with a ladder and sledgehammer, but I have such little hope for that match that I have no interest in talking about whether they will do anything hardcore in it. 

That match would probably be best served by going old school hardcore, but because both guys are so old and broken down, I can't see them wanting to take any chances. 

Punk and Miz are going to have to bring the anger and hardcore aggression in the WWE championship match because no one else is going to do it on the show.

Don't go in expecting to see it, but don't be surprised if they try something a little more outlandish than we normally get. 

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