10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About The TLC PPV

7. An Amazing Show...And A Business Failure (TLC 2012)

In the six-year history of the TLC event, no show has matched up to 2012's edition, at least from a critical perspective. Though WWE Champion CM Punk was suffering from a knee injury and was unable to compete, the company made up for his absence with two marquee matches that delivered in every way. Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, and Seth Rollins made their in-ring debuts in a wild TLC match against Daniel Bryan, Kane, and Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler defended his Money in the Bank briefcase against John Cena in the ladder match main event. Both bouts were classics, and the show closed with a compelling hook - AJ Lee, who had been one of the company's most popular babyfaces, turned on Cena to help Ziggler retain his MITB contract. For all of the levels on which the show was excellent, though, it didn't translate to business - at 175,000 buys, it was the lowest-purchased TLC of the pre-Network era. While many fans may have been disappointed that Punk wasn't able to compete, a more likely culprit for the failure was WWE's inability to book Ziggler as a threat to Cena leading into their match.