Arn Anderson On Why He’s Not A Fan Of TLC Being A PPV, Dangers Of Putting Together TLC Match

In a recent edition of ARN, Arn Anderson discussed why he’s not a fan of TLC being a pay-per-view, the dangers of putting together a TLC match, and much more. You can read his comments below.

Arn Anderson on why TLC shouldn’t be a pay-per-view: “You limit the talent, you limit the creativity of the producer, and the fact is, you can only hit somebody with a chair so many ways. You can only climb a ladder so many ways. You go through a table and break it – OK, it’s broken. Other than just having one, maybe two complete TLC matches – sometimes you can bookend them and have two – but a TLC match, when it was done by the right guys, was so spectacular and so awe-inspiring. If you really built the show with normal matches, and you had one TLC – hell, devote an hour to it and let those guys have full reign of everything that night and it was the only time you saw somebody get hit with a chair, put through a table, or tipped off of a ladder. It could stand alone as a single main event and make that brand special. But when you start breaking it up and have some kind of gimmick in every match, by the end of the night, pretty good chance you’ve seen everything you could possibly do. There are some very creative guys that have been in those TLC matches. And then there’s the danger factor for me, which was always something to consider.”

On the dangers of putting together a TLC match: “For every event, you always have EMTs, you have a doctor, and you have a trainer. I couldn’t complain about the staffing where that’s concerned, because in my day, you didn’t even get a roll of tape. So, you’re talking about the dinosaur age to today. They always had the right personnel there. But the problem is, when you have an injury in one of those matches, or any match for that matter, they’re just putting out a fire. They’ve already occurred. And injuries are gonna happen – I’ve seen guys drop off the apron just to leave and blow their knee out or break their ankle. It’s just a fluke deal, and it’s just accidental. You can do a lot of things to a chair – it’s still a metal chair. When a ladder breaks, it’s steel a metal, steel ladder. And things break, shatter, go different ways, and when they tip over or flip and they’re faulty construction, you don’t know it until it’s too late. If the audience just knew – you’ve gotta be out there and watch these things develop and see things start to get put together and grit your teeth and go, ‘God I hope that ladder doesn’t move. I hope the guys aren’t sweaty.’ There’s a lot of things that can go south on one of those matches.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit ARN with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.