Defrost Reviews – The TLC Trilogy

One complaint right off the bat is that these matches started the trend of awful psychology that see guys setting up furniture for minutes on end instead of trying to win a match. It was a pleasant surprise to see that this was not the issue it was expected to be in the first two matches. In those match it is really only the Dudley Boyz who are guilty of it, and that can be written off as their gimmick. They got the tables in every match. Even matches where using them would be a disqualification. Jerry Lawler still begged them to climb the ladder instead of stacking tables though. The Wrestlemania X-7 match is a problem. There is a ton of guys laying around selling for inordinate amounts of time while the Dudleys set up in inane amount of tables or the Hardys get the ladders in the right places to do their movez off of instead of trying to get the belts. Thinking about it Edge and Christian are the only two who are innocent of dicking around with all the plunder, and in the end always won these matches. Perhaps there is some hidden psychology to that. No, that’s not it. That is just a weird coincidence.

The first two matches begin with guys getting jumped to start wild brawls that eventually bring in all the plunder. You start the fight, the guys with the advantage grab the weaponry, away you go. This formula is even more pronounced in the first TLC match which is 8 minutes shorter than the original Triangle Ladder Match and the match is laid out with a lot of the fat cut out. It is consequently the best match. What is odd is that TLC II has a similar running time, but all the fat stays in. It is consequently the worst match. Not only does it have the most egregious cases of overselling to kill time so a Rube Goldberg device can be erected, but there are run ins galore which serve no real purpose. The first match has the benefit of being first so everything was new and the workers were nowhere near as beat up. Especially the Hardys. The second match took the lessons of the first and was even more of a great match. Then the third with the complaints already chronicled.

Now to the meat of the thing. These matches are about moves and who takes them through what thing. The first match sets the bar. The Hardys are taking bumps onto the ladders from such moves as Jeff with a 450 Splash and Matt, in the best shape of his life, with a moonsault. Christian takes his first bump off the ladder to the floor and you have the famous Jeff Hardy massive swanton in the entry way. That swanton off the huge ladder is a recurring theme. At Summerslam 2000 Bubba Ray moves out of the way, and Jeff takes out interlopers with it at Wrestlemania X-7. Edge’s famous spear at Wrestlemania X-7 is actually the evolved form of a spear where he leapt off the top rope as Jeff Hardy was climbing a ladder at Wrestlemania 2000. Everyone goes through tables all the time and the seesaw spot that killed Joey Mercury is seen. The point is that if you can create a flow with these stunts then it is really something to see, but it can drag.