TLC 2016

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 174 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 1
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: February 6 2017

(Thanks to Fetch Publicity for arranging this review.)

TLC 2016 rounded off the Pay-Per-View year on the SmackDown side, a year where the blue brand has completed a remarkable comeback from being an almost ignored show to WWE's most entertaining and logical weekly programme. TLC also served to culminate several lengthy rivalries, all of which combined with some high-quality action to deliver a really good event for WWE fans.

The show opens with a basic, television-esque battle for the SmackDown Tag Team Titles between Heath Slater & Rhyno and the team of Randy Orton & Bray Wyatt, which existed more to further the Orton-in-the-Wyatt-Family storyline. Next up, we have a No Disqualification bout between Nikki Bella and Carmella which, whilst fairly short, draws a line under their feud which began in August, whilst also setting up the subsequent Nikki-Natalya rivalry.

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TLC 2016 coming soon on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Provided By: Fetch Publicity

The following story is courtesy of Fetch Publicity ...

With tables, ladders, and chairs surrounding the ring and the WWE World Championship suspended high above, AJ Styles heads into his first TLC match defending the title against "The Lunatic Fringe" Dean Ambrose. The rivalry for the Intercontinental Championship reaches new heights as The Miz defends his title against Dolph Ziggler in a Ladder Match. The women of the blue brand get their chance to shine when Becky Lynch defends the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship against Alexa Bliss in a Tables Match. Plus more!

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TLC 2013

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 186 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 1
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: March 31 2014

Unlike recent TLC PPV events, the 2013 edition featured just one match containing the elements of tables, ladders and chairs. This helped to make the main event of the card stand out, but as an overall programme for the DVD, the show feels inferior to previous TLC PPVs, and in fact that does prove to be the case, despite some entertaining matches.

Beginning with the headline bout, the TLC match between John Cena and Randy Orton to unify the WWE and World Titles is an enjoyable battle, carried by the high stakes for the victor; it doesn't come close to matching the thrills and spills of past TLC matches but, considering the participants, this was an inevitability. From an in-ring standpoint, the best match is the WWE Tag Team Title four-way, which has an electrifying final section (it's elimination rules, so I won't say which teams were remaining at that point).

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TLC 2014

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 183 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 1
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: March 23 2015

The final card of 2014, TLC already feels like a distant memory. Since the show took place, we've had the somewhat unwanted return of The Authority, Daniel Bryan coming back and Roman Reigns receiving a ton of abuse which calls into question his status as WWE's next top star. Mind you, that's not to say that TLC 2014 isn't up to scratch, because there are some enjoyable matches on show at this, erm, show.

The event peaks early with the Luke Harper-Dolph Ziggler Ladder match: whilst not one of the all-time classic matches of this genre, it's very exciting and surprisingly brutal, and is one of the better Ladder matches in WWE from the last few years (it also benefits from Ziggler's hometown crowd in Cleveland, Ohio providing a great atmosphere during this bout). Next, The Miz and Damien Mizdow battle The Usos in a match which isn't as must-see as Miz' gimmick would have you believe, but features another hilarious performance from his stunt double Mizdow.

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TLC 2015

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 183 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 1
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: February 22 2016

(To read a full event review of WWE TLC 2015, click here.)

TLC 2015 occurred at a time when the WWE product was at a pretty low level. A combination of absences for top talent, poor casting in main event situations and generally dull writing meant that TLC was predicted to be a catastrophe of an event. Fortunately, though, the wrestlers delivered on the night, and the show closed with a memorable angle that temporarily reduced the fan hatred towards Roman Reigns, all of which makes this a pretty entertaining wrestling DVD to watch.

The opening three-way tag Ladder match between The New Day, The Lucha Dragons and The Usos widely surpasses expectations, and features an incredible Salida Del Sol by Kalisto which was arguably the most memorable spot of the entire year in WWE. The subsequent Ryback vs. Rusev bout suffers from an uninteresting plot whereby Ryback looks like an idiot for repeatedly falling for Lana's attempts to make out that The Big Guy had injured her. As for Alberto Del Rio vs. Jack Swagger: their Chairs match was as good as you could expect, and given the staleness of both men's characters at this point (even though ADR had only returned to WWE two months prior), it's a pleasant surprise, even if the "CM Punk!" chants put a dampener on it.

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WWE TLC 2013

Image Source: Bleacher Report

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Genre: Wrestling
Produced By: WWE
Format: Pay-Per-View
Date: December 15 2013
Location: Toyota Center, Houston, Texas, USA
Attendance: 14,120

The fifth annual Pay-Per-View event dedicated to the objects known as tables, ladders and chairs (oh, my!), TLC 2013 took on an additional level of importance due to the significance of its main event. For the first time in over 11 years, there would only be one World Champion after TLC was all said and done, and the man who would receive this honour would be decided in a championship unification match between reigning WWE Champion Randy Orton and recently-crowned World Heavyweight Champion John Cena, rekindling their old rivalry (or rivalries) in - yes! - a TLC match. Who would win this historic match to become the undisputed WWE World Heavyweight Champion? We would have to wait and see.

After Fandango surprisingly beat Dolph Ziggler on the pre-show (which doesn't say much for Ziggler's career prospects right now), TLC 2013 opened with CM Punk taking on The Shield in a 3-on-1 handicap match. What a difference a year makes: in late 2012, Punk as WWE Champion allegedly used The Shield to ensure that the title remained around his waist, with Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose making their official WWE in-ring debut in a phenomenal TLC match opposite Ryback and Team Hell No at the 2012 TLC event. One year on, in the first match on the show, Punk was now fighting the Hounds Of Justice all on his lonesome. Punk vs. Rollins and Punk vs. Ambrose were the better parts of this match, which provided a good start to the card. That isn't a knock on Reigns at all; it's just because Punk's wrestling style complements that of Rollins and Ambrose more smoothly. The big man had his moments to shine too, although his momentum was halted by a fairly serious eye injury suffered during the match. This may or may not been orchestrated as it partly contributed to the finish of the match, which saw Reigns accidentally Spear his Shield partner Ambrose, leading Punk to get Roman out of the ring and pin Ambrose to get the against-the-odds victory.

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WWE TLC 2015

Image Source: F4W Online

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Genre: Wrestling
Produced By: WWE
Format: Pay-Per-View
Date: December 13 2015
Location: TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Attendance: 14,903

Christmas can often be a time when high expectations result in an anti-climax, but it can also be a time when minimal hopes result in a pleasant surprise on the day. The latter applied to WWE's Xmas-time PPV event, TLC. On paper, the card wasn't the worst ever assembled, but the lack of star power in recent weeks (for a variety of reasons), a flat build-up and generally lacklustre writing from the WWE creative team all combined to almost make one feel like you were an idiot for actually wanting to see the show. Fortunately, the harshest critics were left with egg (or egg nog, since it's almost Crimbo?) on their faces, as the event delivered several worthwhile matches, a bonkers spot in the opening contest, and a closing scene which might have finally turned Roman Reigns into the next top babyface that WWE desperately wants him to be.

Unfortunately, WWE didn't help itself in the Kick-Off show, or rather with its presentation. After a month in which the company has been savagely buried by many, and with TLC almost annoying fans by its mere existence (fans at the NXT shows in the UK even booed TLC promo videos), you would think that WWE would want to really get fans back on its side from the get-go. Instead, for the second supercard in a row, the live feed cut out for the WWE Network at the beginning of the pre-show, and this time it was almost halfway through the hour-long preview programme before most fans (myself included) were able to see what was going on. That it happened once at Survivor Series was perhaps an accident; twice in a row suggests a major production mishap somewhere. This simply must be remedied, more than any other creative aspect of WWE TV; not only does it spoil one's enjoyment of said shows, but it reduces fan confidence that the feed will work, and with Royal Rumble up next and WrestleMania looming, the last thing WWE needs is an internal error to cause fans to opt out of watching supershows via the Network.

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WWE TLC 2014

Image Source: Beyond Media Online

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Genre: Wrestling
Produced By: WWE
Format: Pay-Per-View
Date: December 14 2014
Location: Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Attendance: 14,000

The final WWE supercard of 2014, TLC has traditionally been one of the strongest Pay-Per-Views over the last few years. And it proved to the case here as we had a very enjoyable show, and an improvement on TLC from 2013.

(Author's note: Since TLC 2014, the WWE Network has launched in the United Kingdom, meaning that the pre-PPV Kick-Off shows can now be viewed in the UK. Therefore, I will now be able to cover the KO bouts in more depth going forward; in the case of TLC 2014, the Kick-Off match saw The New Day defeat the combo of Goldust and Stardust.)

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The Ladder Match

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 539 Minutes
Certificate: 18
Number Of Discs: 3
Studio: Clear Vision Ltd/Silver Vision
Released: September 17 2007

Prior to this release, match compilations of specific stipulations had been rare. The Ladder Match began a successful series of format-based DVDs, but it also set a very high bar (no pun intended); The Ladder Match is all about action, and this release is one of the best WWE DVDs ever.

Beginning with a Stampede Wrestling bout between Jake Roberts and Big Daddy Ritter (Junkyard Dog), the first WWF/WWE bout is Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels from 1992 (originally released on a 1993 video called Smack 'Em Whack 'Em). The landmark Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon match from WrestleMania X is surprisingly not here (it would be on the sequel), but their SummerSlam 1995 rematch is featured and is a classic in its own right. We then see Triple H and The Rock put on their best match to date at the time at SummerSlam 1998.

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