What are your tastes in a TLC match? Your palate should have been exposed to enough varieties, by now, to have allowed you to develop a preference. If what has drawn you to the TLC concept has been violence and innovation, then CM Punk vs. Jeff Hardy might not be the right match for you. Again, we go back to the earlier discussion of there being a more diverse set of criterion to evaluate gimmick matches. A quick history lesson to accentuate the point: HBK and Razor, followed by Rock and HHH, introduced us to a Ladder match as a stipulation that made a ladder an interesting prop to use in telling a story, while Edge, Christian, and the Hardys proceeded to add a new wrinkle by delving into a display of wrestling's hardcore visual artistry. In the combat arts, HBK-Razor was a Pacino flick, while the tag team bout was one of Van Damme's action movies. Punk vs. Hardy was the most psychologically sound of all TLC matches, with its focus not on creating mayhem through its stunts, but on creating drama through its interactions between rivals. Of course, it featured Jeff Hardy throwing caution to the wind, so it also had a balance. Take out the ending with Taker returning and you've got a borderline masterpiece.
"The Doc" Chad Matthews has written wrestling columns for over a decade. A physician by trade, Matthews began writing about wrestling as a hobby, but it became a passion. After 30 years as a wrestling fan, "The Doc" gives an unmatched analytical perspective on pro wrestling in the modern era. He is a long-time columnist for Lordsofpain.net and hosts a weekly podcast on the LOP Radio Network called "The Doc Says." His first book - The WrestleMania Era: The Book of Sports Entertainment - ranks the Top 90 wrestlers from 1983 to present day, was originally published in December 2013, and is now in its third edition.
Matthews lives in North Carolina with his wife, two kids, and two dogs.
