Welcome to another eWrestlingNews Question of the Day!
Oh boy, I’m back on this bandwagon again. But once more, WWE has pushed my buttons, so I’m posing the question to everyone else.
If you didn’t catch wind of it, the upcoming “Tables, Ladders, and Scares” match between Tony D’Angelo and Oba Femi for NXT Halloween Havoc has now been converted into a pinfall stipulation.
What does this mean? Well, functionally, they took a ladder match—because that’s all that a TLC match ever was—and they removed the one thing about it that makes it stand out from any other No Disqualification match, which is that you win by climbing the ladder and retrieving a title belt, briefcase, or something else.
My question for you today is “Is TLC the most pointless gimmick match that serves no purpose other than to be yet another entry in the laundry list of renamed No DQ matches like Street Fight, No Holds Barred, Good Ol’ Fashioned Donnybrook, and so on?”
Remember to answer with your response in the comments below.
As far as my answer…
YES! IT IS! Good lord, this annoys the absolute hell out of me, and I was really hoping that would change under Paul Levesque’s regime, but it seems like it’s going to continue.
It doesn’t irk me when WWE takes a No Disqualification idea and gives it a different nickname to fit a specific theme…most of the time.
For example, if you’re going to have people brawl on Christmas, calling it a Miracle on 34th Street Fight and tailoring the weapons to be based around that aesthetic is fun. The same goes for the Trick or Street Fight. But it requires actually doing something to dress it up, if you’re not going to have ANY rules be different.
By that, I mean Falls Count Anywhere is certainly a different match than a Last Man Standing match, and both are different from how a Triple Threat is inherently no disqualification by default. You can’t pin outside the ring in a regular No DQ match; only Falls Count Anywhere. They don’t do the 10 count to a finish in anything but Last Man Standing. While they may function very similarly, they are not the same match.
But TLC has only ever been three things: a ladder match (ie, climb and retrieve to win) that happens to also put more emphasis on chairs and tables just for the kayfabe sake of it, or a No DQ match that only focuses on those three just for the kayfabe sake of it, or a No DQ match that focuses on those three and anything else, which means there is absolutely nothing at all different from what the Devil’s Playground match will be!!!
WWE has so many interesting ways they can do gimmick matches. Why they choose to have events like Halloween Havoc, which frequently seems to fall under this problem of having a series of matches that are exactly the same, but given a different name, is beyond me. You mean to tell me nobody in any creative capacity in this company can remember any of the other gimmicks when it comes to that wheel?
Why aren’t D’Angelo and Femi wrestling in a steel cage to keep out the rest of The Family? Last Man Standing would have worked perfectly fine for this to prove which one has the best ability to withstand punishment. Hell, this could have been a mobster-based gimmick thing with D’Angelo trying to give him cement shoes, a Casket Match, anything.
Instead, there will be nothing at all different from the main event, other than that WWE is already showing its cards by saying the North American Championship fight will be the one that happens to have the ladders and tables, while Trick Williams and Ethan Page will end up fighting with those dumb kendo sticks they use in every single match now to replace the standard chairs.
What a huge disappointment for an event that has so much potential to play around with the Halloween theme and create some fun, exciting, and interesting gimmicks, only to cop out with the least amount of effort save for just having regular matches.
What do you think? Drop your thoughts below!
