The Tables, Ladders, and Chairs Match (or TLC Match) debuted in the year 2000 as The Hardy Boyz, The Dudley Boyz, and Edge and Christian put on a match so wild and dangerous -- and successful -- that they had to repeat it a few more times over the following year, managing to top themselves every time. Since then, it’s become a WWE staple and now headlines its own pay-per-view event every December.
Over the past couple decades, there have been 25 official TLC matches, which means there are a lot of participants that have been overshadowed or forgotten over the years. Without further ado, let’s take a look at 10 wrestlers you totally forgot got put through a table, hit with a chair, and attempted to climb a ladder - at least, in a TLC match.
10 AJ Styles (2016)
It’s funny when you forget guys that participated in Tables, Ladders, and Charis matches as recently as 2016. That was the year TLC was a SmackDown-exclusive pay-per-view (remember those?) and AJ Styles defended his WWE Championship in a main event TLC match against Dean Ambrose. Their feud at the time was pretty great, and this 30-minute bout is one of the best efforts in the rivalry despite the use of James Ellsworth
9 Rey Mysterio (2010)
The first four-way singles match in the history of Tables, Ladders, and Chairs happened at the 2010 TLC PPV as Kane defended his World Heavyweight Title against Edge, Alberto Del Rio, and Rey Mysterio in his only TLC appearance. It’s one of the more forgotten matches in the history of the match type, which is a shame because it’s a really fun multi-man ladder match, with Edge winning out over the other three men.
8 Kairi Sane (2019)
2019 already feels like a long time ago, so it’s easy to forget that Kairi Sane and her fellow Kabuki Warrior Asuka defended their Womens’ Tag Team Titles against Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch. The match itself is pretty chaotic, but at the time made headlines for Sane sustaining a concussion in the middle of the match.
More memorable is the TLC from the previous year, when Asuka scored a surprise SmackDown Women’s Championship win over Lynch and Flair.
7 Bray Wyatt (2014)
At Survivor Series, Bray Wyatt got a DQ victory after opponent Dean Ambrose attacked him with a chair, setting up a grudge match main event for TLC. The result, running nearly 30 minutes, was a pretty solid effort in what many considered a rather lackluster show. However, it features one of the most ridiculous finishes in history, as Ambrose tried to use a monitor as a weapon, only for it to explode in his face.
6 Jerry Lawler (2010)
On the main event of the November 29, 2010 edition of Raw, The Miz defended his WWE Championship in a main event TLC match against Jerry Lawler on the King’s 61st birthday. Surprisingly, the bout would last more than 10 minutes, but Lawler would lose it due to interference from commentator Michael Cole, setting the stage for a Lawler/Cole WrestleMania match that no one asked for and everyone hated.
5 Baron Corbin (2018-2019)
Most WWE fans these days would like to forget Baron Corbin thanks to a disastrous run as the overexposed boss of Raw, so everything he’s accomplished over the past few years gets forgotten because of his character and booking. It turns out that Corbin took part in three TLC matches, taking on Seth Rollins on Raw in 2018, Braun Strowman at TLC in 2018, and Roman Reigns at TLC in 2019. It only begs the question: what TLC match will he have that fans will forget about in 2020?
4 Ric Flair (2006)
Ric Flair really did everything in wrestling didn’t he? That’s not actually true, but he wrestled for so long that it sure feels that way, as he competed in both TLC and Money in the Bank matches in his later years. In 2006, Ric Flair challenged Edge for the WWE Championship in a forgotten little gem of a match.
This TLC match is pretty historically significant -- it’s not only Ric Flair’s first ever ladder match, but also the first ever TLC match for a singles title.
3 Kurt Angle (2017)
Fans may remember Kurt Angle filling in for Roman Reigns in a one-off Shield match, but it’s easy to forget that it was in a TLC match for the 2017 edition of the PPV. The match is a blast, too, being a three-on-five handicap as Angle teamed with Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins against Kane, Braun Strowman, Cesaro, Sheamus, and The Miz. Shockingly, this was also Kurt Angle’s only ever TLC match, extremely late in the Olympian’s career.
2 Rob Van Dam (2002)
Rob Van Dam was one of the many talents who made ECW a sensation in the mid-to-late 1990s, so he’s a natural for a violent gimmick match like TLC. He actually took part in the fourth-ever TLC match on a 2002 episode of Raw, teaming with Chris Jericho in a four-way for the World Tag Team Titles. At 25 minutes, it’s the longest match on an episode of Raw where every other match was under 10 minutes.
1 Sheamus (2015)
The Celtic Warrior had two appearances in TLC matches so far, and even his 2015 singles effort defending the WWE Title against Roman Reigns is kind of forgotten. It’s not a bad match, as Reigns and Sheamus are pretty suited to one another as bruiser types, but the crowd wasn’t really into it. This TLC match would be overshadowed by the Raw the following night, where Roman Reigns would defeat Sheamus in a great, underrated match to capture the WWE Championship.