WWE TLC 2015: Ranking All 6 Pay-Per-Views in Show’s History
By Carl Gac
WWE TLC 2009
The first ever TLC based pay per view was one of the best, with a list of big stars pulling good matches out of the bag, at what was an overall poor time creatively for the company. With the ECW title, the World Heavyweight title, the WWE Championship, Tag Team titles, Intercontinental title and Women’s championship all defend at the event.
The opener was a highly underrated match, featuring Christian defending his ECW title against Shelton Benjamin in a ladder match. Both men are somewhat overlooked in the annals of history, but Christian was one of the innovators of this match style in recent day WWE while Benjamin is one of the best pure athletes in the history of the company, this was never going to disappoint. I’ll never forget the ending of the match, with Benjamin, laid out across a ladder between the ring and announce table Christian hit a frog splash on him, breaking the ladder and leaving Benjamin in a heap on the floor. With his opponent out Christian made his way to reclaim his belt.
Following that with a solid Intercontinental title match won by Drew McIntyre against defending champ John Morrison, a decent Women’s title match between Mickie James and Michelle McCool and a very different to what we currently know Kofi Kingston losing to Randy Orton’s RKO.
The top three matches on the night included a good outing between WWE Champion John Cena and Sheamus, a match in which the Irishman would win his first WWE Championship in a hard-hitting battle. The Undertaker faced Batista for the World Heavyweight Championship in a chairs match while it looked like Batista had won the belt, the match was restarted by Teddy Long after a low blow, which would lead to a chair shot and Tombstone to allow Taker to retain his belt.
The main event was a star-studded affair, pitting the Unified WWE Tag Team Champions Chris Jericho and Big Show (Jeri-Show) against the reformed Degeneration X of Shawn Michaels and Triple H in a TLC match. It ended in inventive fashion with a win for D-X. After Big Show had destroyed all the ladders around the ring, in the hope that Jericho would be able to sit on his shoulders and grab the belts, it was Triple H holding half a ladder while Michaels climbed up to get his hands on the gold.
At a time when things weren’t at their best for WWE, this was a breath of fresh air. Some decent matches, some interesting finishes and the debut title win for Sheamus in a surprise loss for John Cena.
Next: No. 1 WWE TLC 2012