13. CM Punk vs. Alberto Del Rio vs. The Miz (TLC 2011)
There is a secondary class of TLC matches that do not quite live up to the standard of the top editions of the gimmick, but were certainly fun to witness on the night that they occurred. You could interchange Punk-Del Rio-Miz with any of the next few entries and be perfectly justified in your argument. Del Rio was a heck of a mechanic, so he brought a different element that had been missing from the stipulation's recent past. Miz has never been a particularly inventive performer, so it was up to ADR and Punk to create something outside the parameters of the typical, "let's just destroy ourselves" mold for TLC. They succeeded. Creativity reigned supreme that night en route to one of those types of matches that you could label as "4-stars" and apply such adjectives as "great" but not "classic." Overall, TLC has been a match type that WWE could book in its sleep. There have not been many that failed to achieve at least some level of critical acclaim and Punk's first major title defense of his second reign as WWE Champion was no exception.
"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.
