On December 16, the WWE will put on their 10th annual TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs event in San Jose, California. While the event is scheduled, the card is still a work in progress and has yet to be announced.
With that said, the TLC pay-per-view often features a myriad of matches involving, you guessed it, tables, ladders and chairs.
In order to win a tables match, one competitor must successfully put their opponent through the table. To win a ladder match, one of the competitors in the match must climb the ladder and retrieve whatever item hangs overhead—usually a title of some kind. For a chairs match, it’s normal rules, but chairs are allowed to be used, so a competitor wins by pinfall or submission.
Here, we’ll take a look back at the history of tables, ladders and chairs — which dates back to 2009.
TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs History
2009
At the first TLC event, the promotional poster featured The Undertaker and Edge. The event consisted of Raw, Smackdown and ECW branded superstars on an eight match card, with the main events being John Cena versus Sheamus for the WWE Championship and D-Generation X against the Big Show and Chris Jericho.
Sheamus and DX won those matches. Also, Drew McIntyre defeated John Morrison to win the Intercontinental Championship. There was one match type each for tables, ladder, and chairs and the DX match was one that had all three parts to it.
2010
With ECW done and gone, we had just Raw and Smackdown superstars in 2010, a trend that lasted until 2016. The main event of this match featured Cena against Wade Barrett in a chairs match, with Cena winning. The Miz also defeated Randy Orton in a tables match to retain his WWE Championship.
On the same card, John Morrison defeated Sheamus in a ladder match to become the No. 1 contender for Miz’s title.
2011
With 9,000 people in attendance in Baltimore, Maryland, the main event was a triple threat tables, ladders and chairs match featuring CM Punk, Alberto Del Rio and Miz. Punk was the champion heading into the match and retained his title. Also, a notable match on this card featured Triple H and Kevin Nash in a sledgehammer match — one of Triple H’s signature weapons.
2012
From the Barclay’s Center, WWE had two main event matches in the 2012 edition of TLC. Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan and Kane) and Ryback took on, and lost to, The Shield (Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose) in a TLC match.
Also, in a ladder match, Dolph Ziggler defended his Money in the Bank contract successfully against John Cena. In the immediate aftermath of the match, Ryback challenged CM Punk for his title, but the Shield interfered.
2013
With the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship unifying, Randy Orton defeated John Cena in a TLC match. This card also featured two 3-on-1 handicap matches with the Wyatt Family dominating Daniel Bryan and Punk beating The Shield.
2014
While this was still a TLC event, this is the only time in the event’s history that “stairs” was annotated in the title. On this card, the WWE Championship was not defended and instead, the main event was Ambrose versus Wyatt in a TLC match, which Wyatt won.
Cena also took on Rollins for his No. 1 contender shot at the WWE Championship. However, Cena was able to win even with Jamie Noble in Rollins’ corner.
2015
Live in Boston, Massachusetts with Reigns as the cover boy for the promotional posters, Reigns was also in the main event against Sheamus. The match was a TLC match in which Sheamus won and defended his championship.
There was also an eight-man elimination tag-team table match with the Wyatt Family taking on the ECW Originals — Bubba Ray Dudley, D-Von Dudley, Tommy Dreamer and Rhyno.
Ambrose also won the Intercontinental Championship from Kevin Owens.
2016
With the brand split in full effect, Smackdown was given the rights to the TLC PPV event. There were seven matches on the card, culminating in AJ Styles against Dean Ambrose in a TLC match, during which Styles successfully defended his WWE Championship.
This would also be the card in which Alexa Bliss would defeat Becky Lynch in a tables match for the Smackdown Women’s Championship. Additionally, Wyatt and Orton teamed up and defeated Heath Slater and Rhyno for the Smackdown Tag Team Championships in under six minutes.
2017
With Smackdown having the event the year before, Raw was given the reins to host the TLC event in 2017.
What was most interesting about this card wasn’t so much the matches, but the circumstances surrounding the card. Both Reigns and Wyatt were unable to compete due to serious medical issues. However, that didn’t stop the show as Kurt Angle filled in for Reigns as a member of The Shield against Miz, Braun Strowman, Kane, Cesaro and Sheamus in a 5-on-3 TLC handicap match.
Angle also got the pin on Miz to win the match after Kane turned on Strowman, releasing several chairs onto him. This was the only match of any kind featuring tables, ladders or chairs.
Only two championships were featured on the card with Enzo Amore defeating Kalisto for the Cruiserweight Championship and Alexa Bliss defeating Mickie James to retain her Raw Women’s Championship.
This card was also the main roster debut of the highly lauded and hyped Asuka, who defeated Emma via submission in just over nine minutes.
One of the other important matches featured AJ Styles and Finn Balor.
At this time, Styles was a Smackdown superstar, but due to Reigns and Wyatt being out, they booked a storyline involving Balor and Styles.
In this match, Balor appeared as his demon persona and defeated Styles in what was a nearly 20-minute match.
They both showed mutual respect for one another after the match doing their “Too Sweet” hand gesture — something they did back when they wrestled in Japan and were members of the Bullet Club stable.
2018
It’s not yet known what superstars will be a part of the December event. However, we do know that, like all of the other PPV’s in 2018, both brands will be participate.
