In a recent episode of his podcast, "The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy," TNA World Tag Team Champion and wrestling legend Matt Hardy covered a range of topics. He discussed the origins of the TLC (Tables, Ladders, and Chairs) match as well as Vince McMahon's vision for the match.
This is what Matt Hardy said, “After the success of the triangle ladder match at WrestleMania 2000 — a week, a couple of weeks later, the conversation starts circulating. And I think Vince had already made up his mind, like, ‘Hey, let’s redo this, but let’s brand it in a more specific way. You know, I think people associate The Hardys with ladders, people associate The Dudleys with tables, maybe we can associate something with Edge and Christian, and we’ll go with the chairs. And we’ll figure out a way to brand this match. It’s all about tables, ladders, and chairs as weapons. And that’s ultimately what we’ll do.’ And then I am still not sure of who officially came up with the term TLC, Tables, Ladders, and Chairs. But as we’ve said now a lot of the last couple of weeks… the fact that Mick Foley branded it with saying, ‘Tables, Ladders and Chairs, oh my!’ You know, that was a huge selling point for that first-ever TLC.”
On the pressure to innovate:
“No doubt. I mean, the bar was very high on these matches.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
