Classic Match: LayCool vs. Beth Phoenix & Natalya (Tables Match), TLC 2010

RondaRousey.com’s Classic Match series takes a closer look at significant and super cool matches from wrestling history.

One of the most highly-anticipated matches on WWE’s upcoming 2018 TLC pay-per-view is a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match for the SmackDown Women’s Championship: Becky Lynch (c) vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Asuka. As the first match for this championship with this stipulation, it will be another notable moment in WWE’s Women’s Evolution. With this in mind, our Classic Match this week is one that planted the seeds for women competing at a high level at TLC, LayCool (Layla and Michelle McCool) vs. Natalya and Beth Phoenix in the first-ever Divas Tag Team Tables match at TLC 2010.

Going into this match, the audience was hot to see mean girl duo LayCool get their comeuppance. Since McCool and Layla had started tagging together in the summer of 2009, they had controversially bullied Mickie James for her weight, cheated to help each other win championship matches, and declared themselves co-champions (eventually unifying the soon-to-be-retired Women’s Championship and the Divas Championship).

After over a year a dominance, it looked like LayCool had finally met their match in the form of Natalya, whose prior wrestling experience and technical ability also set her apart from most of the other women in WWE. Natalya beat both Layla and McCool in a handicap match for the Divas Championship at Survivor Series 2010, but that wasn’t the end of their feud. LayCool attacked her after the match, and Beth Phoenix made the save to start what would become a long-term alliance. Phoenix had her own unfinished business with LayCool, with their feud earlier in the year (which included the infamous “Extreme Makeover” match) having been cut short when “The Glamazon” had to take time off to recover from an ACL injury.

The new team of Natalya and Phoenix quickly showed they were on the same page and ready for a fight. Their opponents first protested about having to wrestle such a dangerous type of match, then said Phoenix and Natalya wouldn’t even be able to get them on the table. The duo that would come to call themselves the “Divas of Doom” took that last part literally. On an episode of SmackDown, they psyched out LayCool by bringing them a wrapped gift that turned out to be a table painted pink with caricatures of the former co-champions as witches.

When the bell rang at TLC, Phoenix and Natalya quickly showed they were serious about inflicting physical as well as psychological damage on their opponents by delivering a pair of bodyslams. They quickly set up their custom table in the corner and Phoenix picked up both opponents in an impressive double fireman’s carry to end the match early, but LayCool managed to escape.

As commentary observed that “LayCool needs to turn this into a two on one matchup if at all possible,” Layla and McCool did just that. They gained the upper hand outside the ring and managed to isolate Natalya. They soon set the Divas Champion up for what would have been a devastating and dangerous Faith Breather through a table—one of the ones without their faces on it—only for Phoenix to save her partner. LayCool kept their momentum going for a while, but Phoenix blocked Layla’s attempt to suplex her through a table. McCool knocked the table out of the way when her opponents were ready to send Layla through it, and it continued to look like the match could go either way.

Again, it looked like this match had definitively turned in favor of Natalya and Phoenix when Natalya got McCool in position for her sharpshooter. Then when Layla tried to break the submission, Natalya maneuvered both of LayCool on top of each other to lock on a double sharpshooter, which she pointed out in her Behind the Match video about this bout had “never been done before and has never been done again by anybody” except the “Queen of Harts.” McCool actually tapped out, but nope, this type of match could only end with someone going through a table.

Phoenix and Natalya psyched each other up to deliver the winning blow, but the celebration turned out to be premature when LayCool were able to again isolate Natalya and set her up on the top rope, this time for a double superplex. Phoenix was knocked off the apron when she tried to break it up and Natalya managed to push them off of her and onto the table, but the match couldn’t end yet because the table remained intact. However, a splash soon sent LayCool through the wood and to the canvas to win the match for our heroes.

Like many women’s firsts in WWE before the Revolution/Evolution era, the first Divas Tables match was short and not very technically complex. However, it was an important first step towards the more extreme matches women wrestlers can have in WWE today, including on this year’s TLC card.

You can watch this match in its entirety along with the rest of TLC 2010 on the WWE Network.