7 PPV Quality Main Events WWE Gave Away For Free

3. TLC3 (SmackDown, 24th May 2001)

Vince McMahon Stone Cold Steve Austin Eric Bischoff
WWE

Famously told they'd be working one of the company's most dangerous matches as they entered the building that night, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, The Hardy Boyz, The Dudley Boyz and Edge & Christian threw caution to the wind with WrestleMania-level gusto for their unadvertised SmackDown main event.

A storyline punishment for the new champions after their victory over Triple H and Steve Austin the prior Monday, the match actually gave the company an opportunity to reset the board after 'The Game' suffered his devastating quadricep injury.

All three challenging pairs had just weeks earlier dazzled in an identical environment, albeit with the right level of promotion and stature the contest deserved. 'TLC2' was one of the finest matches on the company's all-time greatest ever pay-per-view, with Edge's famous spear to a hanging Jeff Hardy living forever through various WrestleMania highlight packages and Network archive retrievals.

It never stood a chance of being held in similar regard, but Jericho's ladder-assisted redo of the spot with Edge was just one of the suicidal bumps taken by the eight men on occasion that simply didn't warrant it. Like the Canadian pair's victory over Austin and Hunter, the match also remains quietly concealed thanks to Benoit's unforgivable sins.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett