2014 had been something of a mixed bag as far as WWE pay-per-views but the question remained. Could Tables, Ladders & Chairs (and Stairs…) end the year on a high note or would it ultimately prove to be a disappointment? As it turned out it was more the latter than the former, although it certainly had it’s moments.
The first problem of course is that a TLC pay-per-view flies in the face of wrestling booking logic. A stipulation or gimmick match is only really meaningful if it is a) warranted within a feud and b) a special attraction that isn’t overused and, hopefully, the only match of it’s type on the card. Whilst the WWE did a decent job on the first point (there were at least issues between, say, John Cena & Seth Rollins and Bray Wyatt & Dean Ambrose) five gimmick matches on one PPV is four too many. And this meant that whilst the effort was certainly there from most members of the roster, the overall result wasn’t all that satisfying.
The show proper kicked off with a Ladder Match for the Intercontinental Title between Dolph Ziggler and Luke Harper. Ziggler had made some wild proclamations on Twitter in the build up saying that he would not only steal the show, but be a part in a history making match that would be one of the best ever. It was good, Dolph, but not that good. The two put their bodies through hell in terms of some of the insane bumps and it was certainly a high octane start to proceedings. There remains the feeling for me though that unlike Shawn Michaels in the mid 1990’s, Dolph’s willingness to bump like a loon to get matches over isn’t going to be rewarded with everlasting stardom.
The Uso’s against Miz & Mizdow was pure filler, designed to give the fans a chance to catch their breath, with a DQ finish that did little for either team. The addition of “Stairs” to the PPV title was hardly the WWE’s best creative idea of 2014 but whilst there was the expected outpouring of abuse for the Big Show/Erick Rowan match from fans on Social Media it wasn’t that bad an encounter. I’m not about to suggest it was the second coming of Flair Vs Steamboat but I’ve seen much worse and they did what they could with the gimmick.
Next up was the Tables match between Seth Rollins and John Cena, where Cena’s Title match with Brock Lesnar was on the line if he lost. Of course it’s difficult to believe in any WWE match stipulations anymore, although this actually worked in favour of this one. It wasn’t beyond the realms of possibility that the WWE would overturn yet another match stip AND with the rules meaning Cena didn’t have to be pinned to lose you could have imagined a win for Rollins. Of course he didn’t get it. As ever, Cena overcame the massive odds against him (J&J security, Big Show interfering) to win the day, this time thanks to the return just in the nick of time of Roman Reigns. “Underdog” Cena triumphantly overcoming the odds is nothing new and there was a distinctly over-booked feel about the shenanigans in the match but you cannot deny the effort put into things by both men.
The Diva’s had little chance of following that (again by design to allow the fans to get their breath back) so Nikki Bella and AJ Lee had the usual Diva’s match in front of a largely silent crowd. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t in any way memorable. The talented NXT girls like Sasha Banks and Charlotte are probably better off, creatively at least, where they are at the moment. Even that Diva’s match though was better than Ryback and Kane battling in a Chairs match. Even watched on the x1.5 or x2 speed function this was deathly slow and whilst it’s commendable that unprotected head shots are largely a thing of the past it get a little daft when two men in a chairs match spend ten minutes trying to not hit each other over the head.
Rusev and Jack Swagger had actually been in an entertaining feud leading up to this event, so naturally they weren’t given any gimmicks and, worse still, given less than five minutes to work with. They did what they could and with more time could have delivered something a lot better. We then finished with the Tables, Ladders & Chairs main event between Bray Wyatt and Dean Ambrose. The first problem is that fans had already seen a Tables match, a Ladder match and a Chairs match on the card so this seemed overkill, despite being, feud wise, the one match out of the entire show that most justified a gimmick being attached. Still the sheer effort of both men meant that this was the match of the night and got fans invested in it. It was chock full of insane high-spots and bumps and the only real drawback for me was yet another “creative” ending that left Ambrose looking foolish.
The problems with the show would have been evident to anyone before it even started. The over-booking of gimmick matches is never a good thing and when they are shoehorned in to fit a PPV title rather than being natural progressions in feuds there will always be a problem. That said, you cannot fault the effort of most guys on the card and three good-to-great matches on one WWE PPV (Ziggler/Harper, Cena/Rollins, Wyatt/Ambrose) should by no means be dismissed out of hand. With a little bit of booking restraint applied this could have been a great show. As it is, it hovers somewhere around the middle.
The Blu Ray includes an hour and a half of extras, including the Kick Off match between Gold & Stardust and The New Day, post match interviews with Dolph Ziggler and The Bella’s, and promos and angles from Raw and Smackdown. Little of the extras could be termed “must see” but they do add context to the event and there is some typically entertaining stuff between Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt to enjoy.
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Thank you to our partners, WWEDVD.co.uk and Fetch.fm for providing our review copy of WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs 2014. WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs 2014 is available DVD & Blu-Ray now. You can buy your copy from WWEDVD.co.uk now by clicking here.
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