Where's the T, the L and the C from TLC?

[The Legend]

I have to say as the card looks right now for TLC I'm highly disappointed. First of all, there's only been five announced matches for the show and two of them (the handicapped matches) would appear better for RAW than a PPV because they will be highly gimmicky and awkward to make it a good contest with three guys facing one.

But my biggest problem with the show is that the reason TLC has been my favorite gimmick PPV doesn't appear to be happening this year. I like that under the banner of the one match and the one PPV we always got four distinctly different matches with varying rules and styles. As it looks right now they won't be having a ladder match or a tables match or a chairs match (OK this one was always pretty gimmicky and bad).

I'll hold out hope that on SD or at some point before Sunday night they'll announce gimmicks to some of their already announced matches, but I could end up really disappointed by Sunday. Personally, I'd like to see Big E vs Sandow changed to a tables match and even let Natalya and AJ battle it out in a ladders match (I think they could pull it off). Not sure what they'd do with the chairs match, unless they added it to one of the handicap matches.

[Settee]

They should have at least a ladder match on the card, a tables match would be cool too but I really don't care about a chairs match.

[Hanley!]

I dunno, I disagree with having TLC or Hell in a Cell or any of these new gimmick pay per views generally. It just lessens the impact of the gimmicks and makes everything very forced and predictable.

The way they broke down TLC made it a bit more interesting in theory, but it never really worked in execution. For a couple of reasons. First of all, chairs matches didn't exist before the pay per view was invented and they're not an interesting concept. X versus Y in a chairs match, to me looks less appealing than X versus Y in a regular match. So what's the point?

The second problem is that TLC matches and ladder matches are the same. They leave some extra stuff around the ring in a TLC match, but the rules aren't any different. You win the belt in the same way, and the tables and chair shots and everything are still legal in regular ladder matches. So you're just using the same gimmick twice in one night. Where's the fun in that?

I do think it's perfectly okay that TLC matches exist. It's a marketing gimmick - it suggests more violence and spots will take place than in a regular ladder match. There's an implication to that name. But put one on the same pay per view as a regular ladder match and you've just managed to make one of the best wrestling stipulations going sound boring in comparison. That's not helping whoever has to work that match.

Maybe I'm over-thinking it, but in my old-school mind, I'm perfectly fine having one big gimmick match on the pay per view, because that's how things used to be anyway.

Though I will say that I agree the handicap matches are a lame idea. Definitely sounds more like something that should be on Raw. I guess pay per views can start to seem a lot like Raw when you have so many close together.