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Despite his recent claims to the contrary, WWE Champion CM Punk has been showing the wear and tear of working a brutal schedule as the flag bearer for the largest pro wrestling company in the U.S. That took the form of a knee injury that required surgery not long ago, knocking him out of the TLC pay-per-view (PPV) and his planned main event title defense against The Ryback.
That led to questions of how WWE would A) replace him and B) who would step into the headlining spot.
The answers ended up being a six-man tag team tables, ladders, and chairs match with Ryback and Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan and Kane) taking on The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Roman Reigns), and that same match.
It's been odd that since it was announced, WWE hasn't really made clear what match would close the show scheduled for this Sun., Dec. 16, 2012, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, but last night on Monday Night Raw, commentator Michael Cole made mention of this match by referring to it as "the main event of TLC."
When reading the match preview on WWE.com, it also says something similar:
Despite the unfortunate circumstances that will hold up a Punk vs. Ryback showdown, the new Tables, Ladders and Chairs Match that Mr. McMahon announced via an official statement and that will be decided for the first-time-ever by pinfall or submission was, in a way, fate. After all, in a pay-per-view dedicated to pain and unpredictability, who better to headline the event than six Superstars hell-bent on complete and utter destruction?
And there you have it.
It's an interesting decision to go with a match like this with multiple unproven draws in lieu of simply bumping up the John Cena vs. Dolph Ziggler ladder match for the SmackDown Money in the Bank contract, or even the Big Show vs. Sheamus chairs match for the world heavyweight championship. In a recent poll, 40-percent of you Cagesiders believed Cena vs. Ziggler should main event the show, as opposed to 35-percent in favor of Ryback/Hell No vs. The Shield and 17-percent in favor of Show vs. Sheamus.
Who would have ever thought that Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Roman Reigns' first official PPV match on the main WWE roster would come in the main event?