10 Best WWE TLC Matches EVER - According To Dave Meltzer
Reach For The Stars
Professional wrestling at its very safest is still one of the most dangerous activities the human body can experience, without the potential horrors of a Tables, Ladders and Chairs encounter.
Though it's decreased the actual need for the high-risk match in the first place, kudos to WWE for managing to narrow the carnage down to one night a year. And credit to the organisation this year for managing to arrive at their annual festival of wooden and metallic mayhem without completely over-saturating the gimmick altogether, instead electing to dedicate most of the build-up to the return of The Shield.
Over the last seven years, the event has endured cringeworthy force-feeds of particular weapons into storylines, with 2014's iteration even adding 'Stairs' to facilitate a wretched encounter between Erick Rowan and The Big Show.
Simply loading one match with the wholesale stipulation has always been infinitely preferable. Wrestling Observer boss and stoic pragmatist Dave Meltzer has liberally sprinkled snowflakes for the best efforts, with one contest in particular coming thisclose to the elusive five-star rating he so rarely doles out to anything WWE.
Of course, those stars don't necessarily make stars, but some of these beloved and well-regarded matches absolutely did.
(NOTE: In the event of a tied rating, the most recent match gets preferential treatment. Wrestling evolves at a breakneck pace, and any older contest outperforming a contemporary equivalent is deserving of the elevated status)
10. Bray Wyatt Vs Dean Ambrose (Tables, Ladders, Chairs & Stairs, ***3/4)
Less than three years after this clash, it seems unfathomable that Bray Wyatt was merely ever in a good match, let alone a memorable one, but his TLC '14 feud decider with Dean Ambrose afforded him a rare blowoff victory in impassioned fashion.
Their rivalry had plotted a course tragically similar to how most of Bray's conflicts would progress in the future, with sppoky bullsh*t such as a diversionary hologram distracting Ambrose in a match against Seth Rollins lingering longer than any of their actual battles.
The moments of brutality came from the unhinged Ambrose's willingness to embrace his inner darkness to unleash outer agony. Decimating Wyatt with a kendo stick, he then hit an elbow drop with a steel chair, but an effort to finish the 'Eater Of Worlds' off for good saw him launched through a table on the arena floor.
Wyatt followed up with similarly gruesome attacks with the weapons at his disposal, but Ambrose looked in firm control until a p*ss-poor finish saw him undone by a rouge TV monitor.
Attempting to swing the device at Wyatt's head, the wire disconnected with an inexplicably fiery explosion. As audience brain cells fried alongside his own, Dean was left prone to a match-winning Sister Abigail.