The 2010 TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs was the second annual TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event took place on December 19, 2010, at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. It was the last TLC held under the first brand split, which ended in August 2011, but was reinstated in July 2016.
Seven matches were contested at the event. In the main event, John Cena defeated Wade Barrett in a Chairs match. Other prominent matches included The Miz retaining the WWE Champion against Randy Orton in a Tables match, Edge defeated defending champion Kane, Rey Mysterio and Alberto Del Rio to win the World Heavyweight Championship in a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match, and in the opening bout, Dolph Ziggler retained as the Intercontinental Champion against Jack Swagger and Kofi Kingston in a Triple Threat Ladder match.
Production
Background
In 2009, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) introduced TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs as a gimmick pay-per-view (PPV) that replaced their previously annual December event, Armageddon. The concept of the show was based on the primary matches of the card each containing a stipulation using tables, ladders, and chairs as legal weapons, with the main event being a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match. WWE scheduled a second TLC event for 2010, thus establishing the show as an annual event for the promotion. It was scheduled to take place on December 19, 2010, at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas and feature wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brands.
Storylines
TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs featured professional wrestling matches involving different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines that were played out on World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) television programs. Wrestlers portrayed villains or heroes as they followed a series of events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.
The main rivalry from SmackDown involved Kane against Edge, Rey Mysterio, and Alberto Del Rio for the World Heavyweight Championship. In October, Edge was named number one contender for the World Heavyweight Championship. In his quest for the title, Edge abducted and psychologically tormented Kane's father Paul Bearer. At the previous pay-per-view, Survivor Series, Edge failed to claim the World Heavyweight Championship after the match ended in a draw via double pinfall. With Edge still in custody of Bearer, he continued to taunt Kane leading to a match on the December 3 episode of SmackDown. Edge beat Kane and as a result, determined the stipulation to be a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match (a match type that Edge helped pioneer) for the World Heavyweight Championship. The following week, Edge fools Kane when he mistakenly pushed another dummy, only to be revealed that it was the real Paul Bearer, injuring and written him out of the storyline. Then the week after, General Manager Theodore Long added Rey Mysterio and Alberto Del Rio, who were previously in a rivalry themselves and scheduled to be in a Chairs match against each other, to the World Heavyweight Championship match making it a Fatal 4-Way Tables, Ladders and Chairs match. That same night, Kane rampaged into the stadium to hunt down Edge but the Smackdown roster prevented the chaos.
The main rivalry from Raw involved The Miz against Randy Orton for the WWE Championship. After Orton successfully defended the WWE Championship against Wade Barrett on the November 22 episode of Raw, The Miz cashed in his Money in the Bank contract to face Orton immediately afterward and defeated Orton for the WWE Championship. On the December 6 episode of Raw, Orton tried to use his rematch clause, but the Anonymous Raw General Manager said that The Miz did not have to defend the WWE Championship that night, but would instead defend it at TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs, with The Miz choosing the stipulation. After interfering in Orton's match with The Miz's apprentice, Alex Riley, The Miz decided that the stipulation would be a Tables match.