Gimmick Matches

"Well, goddamn. It's a World Wrestling Federation. Why don't we put on some fucking wrestling, Vince Russo? Once in a while? What do you want to do, Holiday on ice with chimpanzees? (Shit, matter of fact, I probably gave him his next Pay-Per-View.)"

— Jim Cornette on Vince Russo

Professional Wrestling employs a number of Gimmick Matches (that is, matches whose rules are different from the standard, one-fall-to-a-finish wrestling match). Often these special matches develop their own tropes.

TNA prefers to call its gimmick matches "concept matches."

A sample of some recurring gimmick matches (and their included tropes), and a number of notable examples of each match:

• 2-out-of-3-falls — The simplest of gimmick matches, this simply means that the wrestlers have a series of matches until one of them has won 2. Sometimes each fall will have its own gimmick from another match type on the list; this is called a Ring Master's Challenge or Three Stages Of Hell (usually dependent on how much garbage is involved). Tropes: This match is almost never decided after two falls; the competitors win one apiece, leading to the third, deciding fall. Usually, if the match ends in two straight falls, then someone is either working a "losing streak" angle or is being buried. The Briscoe Brothers in Ring of Honor developed a reputation for winning these matches in two straight falls.
  • One of the WWF's many rule variances developed around this type of match: originally, a wrestler / team had to win both falls by pinfall or submission for a title change to be valid. This was eventually reverted to a pinfall or submission only being necessary in the final fall.
  • "Two out of three falls" was actually the standard in the very early years of professional wrestling, with "One fall" becoming the norm when wrestling made the jump from "sport" to "sports entertainment". Before this a single fall contest was called a "Lightning Match".
    • It was the catalyst for the creation of the AWA. In 1957, Édouard Carpentier defeated Lou Thesz for the NWA title in a two-out-of-three falls match. However, since one of those falls was won via DQ, there was a dispute among the NWA promoters over who should be the champion, with most promoters recognizing Thesz and other, renegade promoters recognizing Carpentier (and even sanctioning a title change between him and Verne Gagne, who was the one really pulling the strings at the time). After promoter Wally Karbo unsuccessfully lobbied for a title unification match between Gagne and the NWA champion, the two split off and formed the AWA.
    • It was also used as the reason for then-WWWF leaving the National Wrestling Alliance in 1963. NWA Champion Buddy Rogers lost a one-fall match against Lou Thesz, and the WWWF refused to acknowledge the title switch since it wasn't done in a two-out-of-three-falls match. So they went on their own, naming Rogers as the first WWWF Champion.
  • Note that when British Freestyle wrestling was big, back in the '70s and '80s all its matches were best out of three, or as Brian Crabtree (the MC) always put it "Two falls, two submissions or a knockout to decide the winner." Hence the Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch "The Wrestling Epilogue", with a priest and a professor getting into the ring together, "The existence or otherwise of God to be decided by two falls, two submissions or a knockout"^note Followed by a Brick Joke in the ending credits where it is announced that God exists by two falls to a submission. You can see it on Youtube here. Hence also the line in Good Omens "Three rounds, one Fall, no submission" to describe the war between Heaven and Hell. 2 out of 3 remains the standard match in Mexican lucha libre.
    • It was also common for British matches involving an experienced wrestler and a very young newcomer to be "handicap" matches where all it would take for the youngster to win the match was to win a single fall, while the experienced wrestler would have to win two in a row or earn a knockout. This is different to how most modern promotions use the term handicap.
  • The 1991 Tri-State Wrestling Alliance Summer Sizzler II show had a best of three series between Eddie Gilbert and Cactus Jack that amounted to a two out of three falls with other matches in between the falls. The first fall being "falls count anywhere", the second being a "stretcher" and the third being a "steel cage". Usually a best of ___ series is done over multiple shows rather than stretched out over one. In this case it was more a three stages of hell but with more time for the wrestlers to recover from the garbage.
• Tag Team Match — A two man team faces another two man team under the stipulation only one wrestler from each team can be in the ring at a time. A wrestler in the ring usually must tag his partner, most commonly standing on the ring apron behind the ropes, before they can switch places, though in Mexican wrestling a wrestler can also exit the ring to allow his partner to take his place. When one wrestler from a team is beaten, the other team wins. It varies on how long wrestlers have after the tag to switch places, usually between five to fifteen seconds, with the longer times allowing "double team maneuvers" to be performed on an outnumbered wrestler before the referee calls for a disqualification. As previously mentioned, it also highly varies as to what rules apply to participants who leave the ring entirely. Tropes: One wrestler gets cut off from their partner for an extended period of time. Legal wrestlers are forced out of the ring because a referee failed to see a tag. Participants in separate feuds are paired together to tease upcoming matches and allow those involved to interact with someone else, to keep things fresh. Identical wrestlers or wrestlers with identical masks illegally switch places behind the referee's back.
  • Easily the most common of all gimmick matches, tag teams are hardly even considered a gimmick any more, and for a while it was common for promotions to establish tag team titles before any other kinds of belts or divisions(such as Super World Of Sports, X-LAW, Chikara and WAVE). Mexican fans couldn't get enough of tag teams, to the point that UWA introduced a trios division, while AAA came up with a mascot division where a smaller wrestler teams up with a larger wrestler using a derivative of his gimmick (or the other way around), and a mixed tag team division where a man must team with a woman.
  • In Ring of Honor, the Mexican style of entering without a tag so long as your partner has exited the ring is called a Scramble Match, though they have an added stipulation that in multiple team scrambles, tags become very important because anyone can tag out anyone. Tags also are unneeded under "Dragon Gate Rules".
  • Tornado Match — The much simpler but much less common counterpart where all team members are allowed in the ring at the same time. Many of the more "extreme" gimmick match variations turn tag team matches into tornado matches when added onto them, however.
  • Relevos Australianos — a three on three at minimum match where each team has a captain and victory is achieved either by eliminating one team's captain or by eliminating all of a captain's teammates. Despite the name, it is more commonly seen in Mexico than Australia.
    • Los Payasos Tricolor, commonly seen in Mexican feds such as AAA, all have the same masks and ring gear, distinguished only by their color. Non eliminated Payasos became infamous under relevos Australianos by continuously changing their color during the match, essentially forcing the opposing team to beat every last one of them to win.
  • Gate Of Heaven — Three stages of hell, applied to tag team matches. Started in Dragon Gate, with the first fall being a strict tag team match with two referees to make sure tags actually happen. Second fall, Dragon Gate rules. Third fall, if necessary, tables, ladders and chairs are now legal.
• Iron Man — This match goes on for a predetermined length of time^note often, though not always, one hour, and continues even if a wrestler scores a pinfall, submission, or other decision; instead, each decision counts as a point, and the wrestler with the most points in the end wins. Tropes: Like the 2-out-of-3 falls match, this one usually ends up tied until the closing minutes of the bout. At any point when it is not tied (until the closing moments) the face is always behind. In the event of a tie, it either ends in a draw or the match will go into sudden death overtime where the next wrestler to score a decision wins. Sometimes if it is tied at the bell, everyone is confused, Calvinball kicks in, someone wins and the loser complains. The Ultimate Submission match is a variant of the Iron Man match where only submissions count for points.
  • The first Iron Man match in WWE history at WrestleMania 12 completely subverts the concept of the Iron Man with Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart going the distance and lasting the full 60 minutes without a pinfall before Shawn Michaels wins the match in overtime.
  • In one ROH match heel World Champion Bryan Danielson took the lead within the last 30 seconds — giving his opponent no chance to even the score.
  • At Bound For Glory 2005: AJ Styles fought Christopher Daniels for the entire match without a single point earned by either man, until Styles finally gained a pinfall with 2 seconds left for victory.
  • The more common variation (this match is very rare) is the heel wrestler taking a big lead, then the face wrestler racing to either tie the score or force overtime. In the most famous Iron Man match to actually feature pinfalls, The Rock was racing to tie the score against Triple H; as he was WWF Champion at the time, he would retain his title in the event of a draw (a convention which has been retained since).
  • Thunder Queen — Used in All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling: Two teams of four. Individual members have one five-minute Iron Woman match each (20 minutes total), followed by a 40-minute tag team Iron Woman match. The team with the highest total amount of pinfalls/submissions wins.
  • Yoshimoto Ladies Pro Wrestling Jd(Jaguar Yokota's promotion prior to the Athtress program) had the LSD (Long Strong Distance) gimmicks for pretty much any multiple fall match, with LSD1H being the "standard" one hour time limit ironman match. LSD could be applied to anything though, and was to many of the other gimmick matches on this page. The hour number could very well be half or even the entire length of the show(LSD2H Tag Team Weapons Death Match) and Sudden Death almost always applied to draws.
  • Defiant Wrestling had a version of the Iron Man match called Ups and Downs match, created by wrestler and youtuber Simon Miller for his match against Nathan Cruz. It follows the same rules as any regular Iron Man match, but it adds being sent to ringside via throw over the top rope as another scoring method.
• Rounds — The match has a set time limit with preset breaks where the wrestlers must cease all contact and return to their corners to rest, in mimicry of boxing. Like the Iron Man match, each pin fall or submission counts as a point, with the winner being the wrestler with the most points at the end of all the rounds.
  • Rounds tend to be an unpopular gimmick, with The American Wrestling Federation's attempt to revive them in the USA instead nearly killing it off for good there. The format has remained somewhat popular in some regions such as the UK, however. When it was known as Impact Wrestling, TNA, which has a sizable British following, made an attempt to revive the format in the States with its Grand Championship.
• Ladder Match — There are no pins, submissions, countouts, or disqualifications in this match; instead, an object (usually a championship belt) is hung 10-15 feet above the ring, and ladders conveniently placed outside the ring. To win, a wrestler must retrieve a ladder and climb it to take possession of the object. Several variations exist: in a TLC match, tables and chairs are added to the ladders outside the ring, and in a Full Metal Mayhem match, chains are added to the standard TLC arsenal. Tropes: Expect lots of use of the ladder as a weapon, lots of jumping off the ladder, and lots of Ladder Tipping. At one point, the wrestlers involved will race up opposite sides of the same ladder; this inevitably culminates in a fist-fight at the top of the ladder. Sometimes, these matches are called ladder matches, TLC, Full Metal Mayhem, etc, but the object is pinfall or submission and the items are simply available as weapons.
  • Origins of the ladder match are disputed with most crediting their innovation in 1972 to Dan Kroffat of Canada's Stampede Wrestling, though Kendo Nagasaki, who later introduced them to World of Sport in the UK, may have came up with the idea independently around the same time.
  • At King of the Ring 1999, Vince and Shane McMahon cheated in one of these by having the prize retract towards the ceiling whenever their opponent, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, tried to grab it. The McMahons ended up winning.
  • King of the Mountain is a TNA-exclusive variant. In essence, it is a reverse ladder match (you must take the title belt from the ring announcer and hang it from a hook, by climbing a ladder). But before you can do that, you must first pin one of your four opponents. And when you are pinned, you have to spend 2 minutes in a penalty box outside the ring.
  • WWE has the Money in the Bank Match, originally at WrestleMania, later with its own PPV. Anywhere from six to ten wrestlers compete at once, and the prize being hung above the ring is a briefcase containing a contract which the winner can use to get a world championship match anytime he or she wants within one calendar year of winning it.
    
    Almost every time the contract has been cashed in, the one doing the cashing won the title, usually by doing so right after the current champion has taken a nasty beating from a previous challenger and is in little to no condition to fight back. Fewer were the times where the briefcase holder announced his cash-in, and fewer were also the times when the briefcase holder didn't win the match. Most winners of the Money in the Bank match have been heels, this is for the obvious reason that the typical scenario of cashing in on a worn-out (possibly even unconscious) champion is a very Heel-ish tactic. In fact, the person being cashed in on is even more likely to be a face than the briefcase holder is to be a heel.
    • At Money in the Bank 2020, it held the men's and women's Money in the Bank matches at the same time and was called the Corporate Ladder Match. The match was held at Titan Tower (WWE's headquarters) where the contestants start at the ground floor and had to fight their way up to the roof, where there was a ring with the briefcases suspended above it. Even though there were two separate prizes, the men and women sometimes fought each other instead of ignoring each other. In the women's match, the briefcase also contained the actual belt instead of a contract, as Becky Lynch was going on maternity leave.
  • In a complete parody of the concept, a Dramatic Dream Team actually has had wrestlers compete against ladders. Huge props to the wrestler for the awesome one-man job, which included the ladder performing a hurricanrana on him. The DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship that anyone or anything can win has been held by three different ladders. And then, for its 1,000th championship, the title belt itself became the champion.
  • Extreme Rules 2014 had a parody called the WeeLC Match, with tiny ladders, chairs, tables, and even midget referees and announcers to accommodate the midget combatants Hornswoggle and El Torito. The object was pinfall or submission. To the surprise of everyone, what was supposed to just be a stupid comedy match turned out to be genuinely entertaining, with both wrestlers doing a really solid job and their companions 3MB and Los Matadores taking some sick bumps, getting the crowd fully invested.
• Steel Cage Match — The ring is surrounded by a chainlink fence cage; you must win by pinfall, submission, or escaping the cage (either by exiting through the door, or climbing over the top^note {Sometimes the door is padlocked after the wrestlers enter, so that climbing out is the only way to escape. Well, unless something ridiculous happens like a wrestler getting bodyslammed through the floor of the ring and escaping under the cage. Yes, WWE has actually ended a cage match in that manner.}; this stipulation was popularised by the WWF). In traditional WWE cage matches the ONLY win method is escape, but post territorial era matches usually ignore this as the drama of someone slowly climbing up gets old after awhile. Tropes: Good or bad, nobody tries for the pin, submission, or outside the door victories until they get desperate; everybody tries to climb over the top first. A wrestler perched on the top will often give up his impending victory and instead jump back into the cage with a splash, elbow drop, or some other high-risk move.
  • The earliest cage matches on record happened in Atlanta Georgia in rings surrounded by chicken wire to keep interference out/competitors in. As time went on, wire was swapped out for steel bars and eventually bars were swapped out for chain link fencing, which was easier to carry and much, much less unpleasant to bump into.
  • Ring of Honor would create a variant called the Scramble Cage with wooden platforms atop each corner of the cage specifically to facilitate such back-into-the-ring dives.
  • TNA, somewhat predictably, came up with a ludicrous variant where the participants have to fight into the cage. The company also has an entire PPV (Lockdown) dedicated to having every match inside their "Six Sides of Steel" cage.
  • AAA, WCW and TNA have also used a "Thunder Cage", specifically based on the Thunder Dome of Mad Max.
  • CMLL, which has very few gimmick matches, does concede with an annual Cage of Death, in which multiple luchadores enter the cage and have to fight their way out, with the last one out having to give up his mask or shave off his hair.
  • Japanese garbage feds such as FMW, W*ING and IWA Japan are known for the Barbwire Cage Death Match, in which escape is still possible, but discouraged by the presence of barbwire on the climbable walls, forcing wrestlers to cut themselves if they try to get out. In JD Star, Krow and Fang challenged Tag Team Champions The Bloody and Yumi Ohka to this stipulation on the correct assumption Ohka would have trouble with it.
  • Ken Shamrock has hosted professional wrestling matches in his mixed martial arts training facility "The Lion's Den", which naturally uses a multi sided cage rather than a squared circle wrestling ring.
  • Leva Bates proposed an "Arkham Asylum" cage match at SHINE 9, where the loser had to leave in a straitjacket (the restraining device, not the submission hold). The following year, Mr. Anderson and Samuel Shaw would have the "Straight Jacket" match to be nationally televised, but did not include the cage in TNA.
  • A variation called the Fight Pit Match removes the ring ropes and turnbuckles before lowering the cage, and the cage has a catwalk on the top to allow the wrestlers and referees to comfortably walk and fight along the top. The only way to win is submission or the opponent being unable to answer a ten count like in a Last Man Standing Match.
  • AEW's cage matches do away with the "escape the cage" stipulation altogether, with victory only being possible by pinfall or submission. The cage is also much, much taller than the average (supposedly 20 feet) which leads to some spectacular leaps from the top.
• Tower of Doom — also known as a Triple Decker Cage Match in WCW because that's exactly what it is, three cages stacked on top of one another. Typically the central cage is divided into two rooms housing two teams of wrestlers. Pin falls and submissions only count in the ring on the bottom cage, so the teams will fight each other to reach the bottom, or in some cases, to force the opposition to the bottom where they can be eliminated.
  • There has also been a variation where two wrestlers start at the bottom and race to the top for a dangling title belt, similar to the ladder match. This served as the climax for WCW's 2000 movie, Ready to Rumble, and eventually, the triple threat match between David Arquette, Diamond Dallas Page, and Jeff Jarrett for the WCW Championship at WCW Slamboree 2000.
• Hell in a Cell — a WWE signature match; this variant of the Steel Cage match involves a larger cage which Jim Cornette admits to stealing from (or "researching" from) a Memphis territory, that includes the majority of the ringside area in its confines^note Though WCW did a couple matches with a cage around ringside that predated HIAC, including the infamous "Chamber of Horrors" match in 1991, and also has a roof, a la Dusty Rhodes's war games. Escape rules don't apply; the match ends only via pinfall or submission, and usually only in the ring. In earlier matches, big falls from the side or top of the cage were fairly commonplace (most famously, by Mick Foley), but these have been toned down due to safety concerns.
  • HHH pinned Chris Jericho on top of the Cell at Judgment Day 2002. This was the only time someone had been pinned on top of the Cell.
  • The infamous Hell in a Cell between Mick Foley and The Undertaker at King of the Ring '98 involved Foley taking two big falls: once getting thrown off the top of the 16-foot cage into the Spanish Announcers' Table, and then (while badly injured from that first bump) getting chokeslammed through the roof of the cell. Until WWE started toning things down for safety reasons, attempts to replicate the "Holy Shit!" Quotient of that match were common. ^note Although popular belief is that Mick wasn't supposed to go through the roof, hence the ever so brief "Oh shit, did I just kill Mick?" reaction from Undertaker.
  • There was also a HIAC derivative between Al Snow and the Big Boss Man at Unforgiven 1999, which was infamous for all the wrong reasons. The "Kennel from Hell" consisted of a regular steel cage inside the bigger cage, with "vicious attack dogs" in the cell portion. Thus, the wrestlers supposedly couldn't leave the ring cage without getting mauled by the dogs. But the "vicious" dogs did nothing but pee and poop around the ring, hump each other and bark at each other, making the match an even bigger joke than the stupid premise would have suggested.
  • Big Japan Pro Wrestling had a variation of Hell in a Cell with a scaffold. The ring was covered in thumbtacks and "Japanese kenzans".
  • WCW had their own version of Hell in a Cell in 1999-2000, called "Caged Heat".
• Ultimate X — a TNA signature match; essentially a "ladder match without the ladders"; instead, two cables are strung across the ring (forming an "X" pattern), and the object (normally a championship belt or a large red "X") is placed where the cables meet. To claim the object and win, one must climb the turnbuckles, and then climb hand-over-hand across the cables to reach the object. Its flaws, however, are brought to the spotlight during the few times that the title or X has actually fallen. In the first match, officials had to stop the match and re-hang the belt twice. In a later match, a wrestler caught the X, and officials declared the match over, with a rematch immediately signed for a later date, this time with the X literally chained to the cables. Tropes: Like the ladder match, two wrestlers will often end up racing across the cables from opposite ends, and end up fighting in the middle. Like the steel cage match, a wrestler who has the victory within grasp will often give it up in order to do one spectacular move off of the high cables.
  • In one version of this match, Team 3D actually did use a ladder to cheat and win the match.
• WarGames: The Match Beyond — a signature match of defunct promotion WCW; the WarGames match started with two rings, side-by-side, surrounded with a steel cage, and two teams of four (originally five, including the managers of The Road Warriors and The Four Horsemen in the original NWA WarGames) wrestlers each. One wrestler from each team starts the match. After five minutes, one team (determined by coin toss) gets to send another man in, making it two-on-one. Two minutes later, the other side gets to send a man in. The two teams alternate sending men into the cage, every two minutes, until all eight men are in. At this point, "the match beyond" officially begins. Up until this point, there is no way to end the match; after this, the first team to make one of their opponents submit is declared the winner. TNA has a variation of this match with only one ring, calling it Lethal Lockdown. Tropes: The heels nearly always win the coin toss, making sure that the faces are a man down (and thus, the underdogs) going through the majority of the match. This also increases the drama when the faces are able to even the odds after every advantage period.
  • When announcing the Elimination Chamber, Eric Bischoff stated that he'd drawn heavily on WarGames to create the match concept.
  • Ring of Honor does a one-ring version called Steel Cage Warfare and used CZW's Cage of Death(which is unrelated to CMLL's) for another variation. ROH is also notable for, during the ROH vs. CZW feud, performing the only variation of WarGames rules ever in which the babyface team won the coin toss.
  • Speaking of CZW's Cage of Death, it's a variation on the WarGames format with a little bit of Bunkhouse Stampede thrown in for good measure. The competitors showcase their best Garbage Wrestling while avoiding touching the floor (which either involves being thrown over the top of the cage or crashing through the wooden boards between the two rings)
  • The "Big Japan CZW Crisis Big Born Cage of Death Death Match" electrifies the cage walls.
  • WSU had a match named "War Games" that took place inside a steel cage. It was a team of three vs three. One member of each team would start off and a new one would enter the ring every two minutes (beforehand there was a coin toss to decide which team would get a new member first). Once all six were in the ring the only way to win was for one member to say "I Quit" on behalf of the whole team. The match wasn't done again for another six years because of a notoriously dramatic ending - one of the participants was threatened with a machete and one of her teammates forfeited the match to save her.
  • WWE brought back the WarGames format to WWE NXT in 2017, dedicating one of their TakeOver PPVs to it. This was closer to a WarGames match In Name Only, ironically incorporating aspects from the Elimination Chamber which had itself been inspired by WarGames. There was a totally different 3v3v3 format where one member of each team started in the two rings while the other 6 men were confined in cages outside the rings and randomly released to reinforce their starting man after a countdown. Additionally, the cage was open-topped to give the wrestlers more room for high-flying maneuvers without banging their heads, but any wrestler who left the cage would forfeit the match for his team, to retain the "no escape" aspect of the original. The first pinfall or submission won it. Despite the changes, the revived WarGames was considered a smashing success and was brought back again next year to similar acclaim (although this time with the more traditional 4v4 with one man entering at a time format), now a staple of NXT. The third installment in 2019 saw WWE do a Women's WarGames match. The 2020 Women's War Games match marks the second time in history that the face team gained the advantage in a War Games match (with Shotzi Blackheart defeating Raquel Gonzales in a match to determine who would have the advantage). Ironically, despite having secured the advantage, the faces promptly lost. 2022 saw the match arrive on the WWE main roster for the first time, with two matches (one women's and one men's) being contested at that year's Survivor Series (branded as Survivor Series WarGames).
  • MLW actually trademarked the WarGames name due to it having no active rights holder, as WWE left the name dormant after its purchase of WCW and MLW used it for its 2003 and 2018 shows with the name, and also used an open-topped cage for both shows. However, in 2018, WWE acquired the rights to the WarGames name from MLW for its NXT TakeOver events, which led to MLW to create a variation called War Chamber, the only difference being that it used a single ring cage and barbed wire would be placed on the top of the chamber.
  • All Elite Wrestling finally inaugurated its own version of WarGames (known as "Blood & Guts" in a snarky response to a comment Vince McMahon made about the kind of product WWE wouldn't be producing) in 2021, a year after the originally-planned match had been cancelled by the COVID-19 Pandemic in favour of the Stadium Stampede cinematic match. Ironically, the rescheduled match still featured the Inner Circle, but rather than being the heels facing The Elite, they ended up as the faces opposing The Pinnacle instead. The match followed the traditional WarGames setup (although the roof on the cell was significantly higher than the WCW version and there was a slightly extended apron around the two rings leaving more room between the ropes and the cage walls), albeit with a 5v5 format to accomodate all members of both teams, and the match could only end by "submit or surrender". The Inner Circle lost when Sammy Guevara surrendered to try and stop MJF from throwing Chris Jericho off the top of the cage (the two men having previously escaped the cage when Tully Blanchard stole the cage key and let MJF out), only for MJF to throw him off anyway^note leading to a noticeable Special Effects Failure when Jericho landed on a really obvious crash pad that had been unconvincingly tarted up to try and look like steel flooring.
• Battle Royal — A match with a large number of participants (usually 20, but see Royal Rumble below) begin in the ring. The winner is the last man standing. Player Elimination is being thrown from the ring and landing on the floor outside (usually over the top rope, though Diva battle royals sometimes only requiring having exited the ring). Tropes: The biggest wrestler almost never wins, but it usually takes three or four (or sometimes ten or more) guys to eliminate him.^note  This trope was averted when this gimmick match was born in the 1970s; André the Giant specialized in winning them. Also expect at least one elimination by someone who's already been eliminated (or occasionally by somebody who's not an actual participant). There will also often be one wrestler who's universally hated by faces and heels alike, who everybody teams up to eliminate immediately.
  • WCW's World War 3 is a 60-man battle royal spanned across three rings. After 40 of the 60 entrants were eliminated the remaining 20 would be combined into one ring,^note The very first one had everyone crowded into one ring when there were 30 people left, at which point WCW realized that you can't fit 30 people into an 18' x 18' ring, Lex Luger just said "screw it" and wandered around ringside until there was room to get into the ring. This would be changed the following year, though WCW only did 3 more of them before finally getting the hint that the WW3 match was a stupid idea that didn't draw at which point standard battle royal rules applied.
  • WCW also held the Lethal Lottery and Battlebowl. The Lethal Lottery was a series of tag matches with the teams chosen by "random" draw, the winners earning the right to participate in Battlebowl. Battlebowl was a two ring double elimination battle royal, where to be eliminated you have to be thrown out of ring #1 (either to the floor or into ring #2) at which point you move to ring #2, getting thrown out of ring #2 eliminates you from the match. The last two men in each ring would face each other to determine the winner. WCW would occasionally hold other two ring battle royals throughout their history, mostly just as filler on shows that already had a WarGames match (see above).
  • TNA, somewhat predictably, came up with a ludicrous variant—the Reverse Battle Royal—where the participants have to fight into the ring.
  • ROH On HD Net combined this with tornado match, as the prize in the battle royal was a tag team title shot, encouraging the established teams to work together throughout.
  • Royal Rumble — WWE's signature variation of the Battle Royal has 30 wrestlers^note 20 in 1988, expanded to 40 in 2011 but back to 30 in 2012, and 50 in the 2018 "Greatest Royal Rumble" event in Saudi Arabia (which was separate from the main annual Royal Rumble). with a twist: It starts with two wrestlers in the ring, and a new wrestler is added every 2 minutes, Although it has had 1, 1 1/2 and 2 minute intervals, the actual timing of the entrances varies on how "into" the match the crowd are. An entire pay-per-view event is built around it, and since 1993 the winner gets a shot at one of the two top men's titles at WrestleMania, which is held approximately two months afterwards. It started out as a men-only event, although four women have entered the men's match; in 2018, a women's Royal Rumble match was added using the same rules, with the winner receiving a shot at one of the two top women's titles at WrestleMania.^note In the second year of the women's Royal Rumble, Nia Jax entered both the men's and women's matches, and scored eliminations in both. Tropes: Expect one of the first two wrestlers to last to the final four. If there's anybody that the evil boss has spent the last month trying to keep out of the match, watch him (or her); that wrestler will be the one to win it all. At one point, a dominant heel will go on an elimination spree but not actually win the match. Also, entrant #30 rarely wins, despite the obvious theoretical advantage to entering last (though #30 has been the most common winning entry number, with 5 victories, and 13 winners have entered at #27 or later, though there's been 9 winners that entered #3 or earlier too). Only John Cena, The Undertaker, Triple H, Brock Lesnar, and Cody Rhodes have done so, and it can be said Cena's win was more because of the element of surprise — this was Cena's return from an injury months ahead of when it should even have been possible for him to be cleared. Notably, the Royal Rumble is considered by many wrestling fans to be the greatest match type in all of wrestling and one of the biggest highlights of WWE's yearly calendar.
    • Also expect to see a former WWE star/legend to make a one-time appearance (though this can sometimes lead to more appearances or even a full-time return afterwards). Such notable examples include Honky Tonk Man in 1998 and 2001, Mr. Perfect in 2002 (who was one of the last four in the match), "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka in 2008, Kevin Nash and Booker T in 2011, Road Dogg in 2012, The Godfather in 2013 (lasting all of five seconds), The Hurricane in 2018 and Jeff Jarrett in 2019. The first women's match in 2018 saw legends such as Vickie Guerrero, Jacqueline, Lita, Beth Phoenix, and Trish Stratus participate.
  • Defiant Wrestling's version of the Rumble, the 30-man rumble has the same rules as the regular Royal Rumble, but eliminations can also be done via pinfall or submission.
  • MLW has a variation called Battle Riot which is basically the same as Defiant Wrestling’s version, except they feature 40 participants instead of the usual 30.
  • Lucha Underground had an event called Aztec Warfare which used the same entry rules as the Royal Rumble (two wrestlers start in the ring and another one comes out at regular intervals until all contestants—in this case, twenty—have entered) but elimination was by pinfall or submission and anything goes. This plays into the more high-flying style of most of the competitors by allowing them to dive out of the ring for high-impact offensive maneuvers without eliminating themselves.
  • All Elite Wrestling debuted the Casino Battle Royale at its inaugural Double or Nothing event in 2019. This match involves 21 wrestlers, but has dramatically different entry rules from the traditional battle royal. It starts with five wrestlers in the ring, with five more entering every 3 minutes thereafter until 20 have entered. The 21st and final wrestler enters alone 3 minutes after the last group of five enters.
• No Disqualification - neither wrestler can be disqualified, allowing for weapons and outside interference. Falls must be made in the ring. There is less emphasis on the use of weapons. Countouts are often still in effect. Rope breaks apply.
• No Holds Barred - like a no disqualification match, but there are no countouts, and there's a greater emphasis on the use of weapons. The name of the match stems from its original premise, wherein illegal attacks (eye rake/gouge, low blows, straight chokes, closed punches, etc) and banned wrestling moves are made legal.
• Extreme Rules - a match conducted under "ECW rules". There are no countouts or disqualification, and the referee's only role is to count pinfalls, acknowledge submissions, and uphold rope breaks. Functionally similar to a no holds barred match.
• Street Fight - like a no holds barred match, but rope breaks don't apply. Participants sometimes compete in "street clothes" as opposed to wrestling gear. Weapons are improvised from the surroundings or brought by the participants themselves. Weapons are commonly of the "street" or hardcore-lite variety, such as trash cans, street signs, and kendo sticks.
• Falls Count Anywhere - a match where pinfalls and submissions can happen in any location. As such there are no countouts by default and no disqualification is also added so that the participants can exploit their surroundings. Unlike a hardcore or street fight match, it's not uncommon for the action to spill onto backstage areas, outside arenas and even the actual streets (some promotions such as ECW and LLF have managed to halt traffic with these matches).
  • Parking Lot Brawl — Like falls count anywhere, but restricted to a parking lot, or something similar.
• Hardcore Match - like a street fight match, but pinfalls and submissions can happen in any location. Use of weapons is even more emphasized. Aside from "street" items, weapons associated with the match include common household items and tools, objects that can pierce and tear flesh like barbed wire and thumbtacks, and even fire has been known to be used. As such, the match can be known for its extreme violence and often referred to by the perjorative "garbage wrestling".
  • Deathmatch - an extremely violent variant of a hardcore match, these are stipulation matches that revolve around barbaric foreign objects which are used to induce heavy bleeding and severe physical punishment. Aside from barbed wire, thumbtacks, and fire, other staple weapons include nails, glass (intact panes or broken), light tubes, explosives, and even animals such as scorpions and piranhas.
  • WWF did a one-time variation of a hardcore match where they rented an entire arena and then...didn't sell tickets (instead broadcasting the match to a filled arena elsewhere^note This was Halftime Heat, a WWF event that was going up against the Super Bowl, so they had to play their best hand). This was called the Empty Arena match and was basically a Hardcore Match but without the audience, allowing The Rock and Mankind to brawl all through the audience area that would normally be filled with people. Mankind won the WWF Championship by pinning The Rock using a forklift and a pallet (hey, his shoulders were down) and this match was never used again (due to the prohibitive cost-usually a promotion will later sell tickets for later matches in that same arena and show the empty seat match to fans on a screen or something...or just use an arena they own).
    • One of the earliest and best-known examples of the Empty Arena match occurred in 1981, when Jerry Lawler faced off against Terry Funk at an empty Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee.
    • One of the worst received uses of the empty arena match was done for the "New" AWA pilot in 1989. This was because Greg Gagne lied and used a green screen of crowd footage with piped in noise.
  • For a short period in the 90s, WWE set up a rule where the Hardcore Championship title was always up for grabs, 24/7 (or at least, whenever the Hardcore Champion was on camera). In essence, if you could, by hook or by crook, get the Hardcore Champion on his back, put your hands on him, and get a referee to issue a 3-count, you won the title.
  • A variation is the Bunkhouse Brawl, where weapons are strewn around the ring. Usually things like 2x4s, loaded gloves, or baseball bats. Raven made this match his specialty during his time in Ring of Honor and TNA; his personal version was called the Clockwork Orange House of Fun Match.
  • The WWF did a variation of a no disqualification "empty arena" contest called a "Dungeon Match", where Owen Hart challenged Ken Shamrock to come to his basement (AKA the legendary Hart Family Dungeon) for a fight.
  • Vintage Dragon introduced his own variation of the Bunkhouse Brawl in Vendetta Pro he called a Holiday Havoc match, featuring gift wrapped weapons around the arena, in the hands of fans and beneath a Christmas tree. There had been earlier variants of this though, such as Future Of Wrestling's Xtreme Xmas match where all the weapons were under a tree.
• Animal Death Match — An old fashioned "death match", going back to the carnivals before the establishment of professional wrestling's territorial system or even professional wrestling promotions proper, though they continued well into the National Wrestling Alliance's decline in the 1990s; a human wrestler has to wrestle megafauna of a different species. In North America this was/is usually a bear, while in Asia this was/is typically a crocodile. While there are no reports of competitors dying in these matches, a bear named Smokey did manage to get loose and kill a non combatant in between shows, causing these matches to be mostly phased out by the 2000s outside of the most hardcore independent promotions. Tropes: The non human often has a leash around its neck to keep it in the ring and away from spectators. The referee usually does a fast count on the non human as soon as its shoulders are down. The human wrestler usually bolts from the ring at the bell, regardless of the decision.
  • St. Louis wrestler Al Szasz, and his wife, Chicago wrestler Ada Ash, billed as "The World's Strongest Man and The World's Strongest Woman", became famous for taking on alligators and bears in the ring.
• Inferno Match — Sometimes called a "Ring of Fire" match. Fire surrounds the ring, usually just under the bottom rope; the first person to catch on fire loses. Dramatic spots of trying to push a resisting opponent closer to the flames are common. Tropes: If the Inferno Match is someone's "specialty" they are bound to lose, particularly if they're the one wearing the most protective clothing. Invariably all that gets set on fire is a boot or a glove, since anything else would be far too risky in reality (incidentally, while we're on the subject, let's give props to WWE wrestler Montel Vontavious Porter, who took the match-losing burn from one of these on his back — granted, he was clothed there, but it still takes balls).
  • A variation, the Human Torch match, has the same victory condition, but the ring is not surrounded by fire.
  • The man who's most commonly associated with this match in WWE, Kane, has only won one of them (against MVP, as mentioned above). It's treated as "his specialty" because his gimmick has a strong association with fire.
  • Big Japan Pro Wrestling has the Fire Stone Death Match, where instead of fire, the ring is lined with electrified space heaters wrapped in barbed wire.
  • At Summerslam 2013, Kane and Bray Wyatt had a Ring of Fire match where the ring was surrounded by fire, but the object was pinfall or submission. Kane lost when Bray's two henchmen managed to put out some of the fire, allowing them to enter the ring and beat Kane down. This was somewhat closer to the roots of the ring of fire concept, as first used in Carlos Colon's CSP/WWC.
  • At TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs 2020, "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton had a "Firefly Inferno Match" where instead of the ring being surrounded by fire, the fire was on the barricades, giving them more freedom of movement as they could leave the ring. The object was still to set your opponent on fire. Similar to MVP, Wyatt, who was wearing a jacket, took the match-losing burn on his back. The two continued to brawl after the winner was declared, with the still burning Fiend chasing Orton back to ring where Orton knocked him unconscious with his RKO finisher, after which he doused Fiend's prone body with gasoline and set it on fire. ^note (Because there was a virtual (i.e. no live) audience at Tropicana Field, where the event took place, the WWE was able to take advantage of production techniques to allow Bray Wyatt/The Fiend to quickly move from the ring and ring technicians replace his body with a lifelike mannequin without it being shown on camera (to the pay-per-view audience) or to the virtual audience.)
• Bra & Panties Match — Two female wrestlers (or more likely, two non-wrestling pieces of eye candy) get in the ring and "violence" ensues until one of them is stripped of all clothing save their underwear. Used to be an "evening gown match" or a men's equivalent "tuxedo match" until the mid 90s Attitude era of the WWF and was traditionally limited to valets and managers until that same era saw full time wrestlers participate in them. Tropes: Typically the heel loses and is humiliated by it, fleeing the ring trying to cover up, and then the victorious face willingly strips down anyway and parades around the ring for the (usually male) fans to enjoy.
  • In Mexico, and regions that follow its lead, Lucha de Prendas refers to any match where luchadores might lose any clothing other than their masks, which occasionally includes those between luchadoras more willing to risk exposure of their undergarments than their faces.
  • While WWF set the trend for putting active wrestlers in these matches, GLOW did so first. In one instance there was a tag team undergarment match where the babyfaces were losing until Godiva, an evil nudist who always wore as little as legally possible, couldn't stand to be so covered any longer and cost her team the match by willingly stripping on the top turnbuckle.
  • WCW had a famous Tuxedo Match between the two managers of The Midnight Express Jim Cornette and Paul E Dangerously. Rather than try to remove each other's clothing they just beat the piss out of each other, to the best of their ability^note Not only are neither of the two trained wrestlers (or fighters of any kind) but Cornette worked this match with a torn ACL. The two were well known for a good professional but terrible personal relationship and it genuinely looked like their issues could not go unsettled any longer. Cornette goes into detail about it here and in this clip he watches the match and gives a running commentary that you can follow along with if you have the WWE Network/Peacock or a copy of the show.
  • One of the oddest variations of this match combined the Tuxedo and Evening Gown stipulations to make Lilian Garcia the RAW ring announcer by defeating (a surprisingly-heel!) Howard Finkel. Several of the other divas joined in on beating Howard down after several markedly misogynistic remarks.
  • At King of the Ring 2000, Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco, two elderly male former wrestlers, had a match of this kind. Pure, refined horror, even when put in context; they were feuding with Crash Holly for the Hardcore Championship (which was then defended under a 24/7 rule, which meant the title could be on the line anytime, anywhere).
  • The Tennessee Boot match combines it with two out of three fall, though it can become two out of four falls. Each fall or submission forces the loser to remove a boot and the bootless wrestler loses.
  • While tuxedo matches are supposedly the male equivalent, Dramatic Dream Team has made it clear more than once that bra & panties matches are not just for women. The match between the particularly hairy Takayuki Ueki and Suguru Miyatake mercifully ended in a no-contest.
• Thing On a Pole — Some object is put up on a pole at one corner of the ring, the winner must retrieve it. Could be a flag, or a belt, a pink slip, or a bottle of tequila, or whatever. Occasionally, the thing on a pole is a weapon (such as a steel chair, a hockey stick, brass knuckles, whatever); in these cases, obtaining the item doesn't end the match, but instead makes the weapon legal to use without disqualification, giving a competitor a major advantage. Tropes: Despite not being particularly difficult to reach, wrestlers will struggle to weakly climb up there and paw at the object before being yanked away by an opponent. Matches are typically lousy, a poor man's ladder match. Vince Russo, journeyman wrestling writer, absolutely adores these for some unknown reason. Often, the weapon would be disarmed from the person who retrieved it, and the other wrestler, for some odd reason, allowed to use it!
  • Probably the most notable of these matches took place in late 1999, where the power-hungry Triple H and Stephanie McMahon made a "Pink Slip on a Pole" match pitting Mankind and The Rock against each other, whom were both major fan favorites. The stipulation being that whomever got the pink slip kept their job, while the loser got fired. Mankind would lose and thus be fired, but this would lead to a lengthy and awesome feud between him and Triple H.
  • Perhaps the ultimate expression of this trope was the infamous(ly terrible) Thanksgiving Turkey on a Pole Match. This was during the AWA's final phase: The God-forsaken Team Challenge Series. Not exactly the way the promotion would like to be remembered. This was when Col. DeBeers of South Africa faced long-time AWA jobber Jake "The Milk Man" Milliman. The match went predictably until somehow DeBeers was distracted, felled, and Milliman went up the ladder to retrieve the turkey, win the match, and demand "It's MY turkey!!" Over... and over... and over again.
  • WCW's San Francisco 49er Match had four "secret boxes" on poles, one containing the Heavyweight title, the other three containing a blow-up doll, a coal miner's glove (from the infamous WCW 1992 Coal Miner's Glove Match), and a headshot of Scott Hall as Razor Ramon. It was so silly and combined with a decent match from the participants (Booker T and Jeff Jarrett), that if it wasn't for the title, it would probably be better than it sounds.
  • One of the better pole matches was between José Rivera JR and Eddie Colón during what were presumed to be WWC's dying days. The pole was tall enough that they did not have to pretend to have trouble reaching the object, Carly's shovel, and Rivera actually was disqualified for using it after Colon had been the one to retrieve it. It still had some questionable bits as apparently the two competitor's unauthorized use was the only way to force a disqualification but it exceeded the low expectations on every level.
  • One such match between Kaz and Black Reign had four boxes on poles. Three held mousetraps, the winning box held Black Reign's pet rat.
    • A variation of this is used in TNA, often as a "Feast or Fired Match". Several of the boxes would contain either direct awarding of championship belts or imminent title shots. One, often, would remove the wrestler from the promotion — and you wouldn't know what was in which box you got until you opened them at a later date.
    • One female variation, the lockbox challenge, had the match "loser" be forced to perform a striptease or be fired. This would be better than it sounds, until the person being forced to do so was Daffney, who had a goth gimmick.
  • The Pole and Paddle variation was one that Trish Stratus did rather often. The match consisted of two attractive females, and the object in question was a spanking paddle; once one wrestler won the match by gaining it, she could spank the loser. Usually done solely for fanservice, with one very notorious exception involving a rather irate Molly Holly.
  • In WWE's version of FCW, a "Money in the Bank" variation of the pole match with multiple participants and the winner getting a title shot, was done fairly often, especially with female wrestlers.
• Barbed Wire — depending on how "extreme" the competitors are, the turnbuckle pads are replaced with bared wire, the ring ropes are wrapped in it or the ropes are totally replaced by barbed wire. Tropes: Traditionally, American wire matches used rubber barbs since the 1970s but this was phased out since Mick Foley's glory days (Japan, "garbage" feds). Expect several excruciating spots where someone is tangled in the wire. A legendary ECW match between Sabu and Terry Funk ended with ring tech spending ten minutes cutting the two men free of the tangle of wire they ended up in. Paul Heyman never booked another barbed wire match (believing even that one got out of hand and not wanting anyone to try and top it), and when something is so far over the top that even Heyman backs off...
  • One variation sometimes seen in Japanese Garbage Wrestling promotions is the electrified barbed wire match. A wrestler running into the wires causes a shower of sparks.
  • FMW once tried a flaming barbed wire match, which had to be called off when the wrestlers all bolted once the ring started melting.
  • FMW has also had barbed wire tied to explosive charges, as well as the "Double Hell" match, were two sides of the ring have barbed wire in place of ropes and the other two lead right to open floor, which is usually covered in something equally dangerous.
• Lumberjack ^note a women's match of this type may also be called a Lumberjill match — A pre-determined number of wrestlers surround the ring (usually 12, but can vary from 10 to 30), ostensibly to keep both competitors in the ring (of course everyone knows it's to keep the heel from running). Tropes: The Lumberjacks are usually divided evenly between faces and heels, each group on one side of the ring. If a wrestler leaves the ring (usually thrown out), they'll be helped out if they land within their corresponding group, and pounded on by the opposite. Also, before the match reaches the climax, a brawl will usually break out among the lumberjacks, generally the signal for outside interference — which is almost always how the match ends. Will also be used by the Powers That Be to punish a wrestler (i.e., surrounding a face with heels and vice versa).
  • All Pro Wrestling sometimes armed all of the lumberjacks with leather straps, giving the wrestlers extra incentive to stay in the ring. Milton Florida's First Annual Assault On Autism benefit show in 2011 saw D.J. Pringle and Damian Lavaye also have a match under this stipulation. TNA eventually gave it a name: Belting Pot match.
• Loser Leaves Town/Retirement Match — a match that stipulates that the loser of the match had to leave town (whichever promotional territory they were in) or retire, often "for good", but usually for three months. Generally used to cover for a wrestler's planned absence (for injury or a tour of a distant promotion - usually Japan). Tropes: Often resulted in an oddly-familiar masked stranger showing up within a week or two of such a loss. Interestingly, in Memphis, the time limit for losers leaving town was actually mentioned quite explicitly. Often the build up would mention that "the loser must leave the territory for a period of six months (or one year, or what have you)."
  • These matches were especially popular during the territorial days of Professional Wrestling. It was an effective way to end a major feud, and it would draw a lot of money because the fans wouldn't see the losing wrestler for weeks, months, or even years depending on the angle.
  • Probably the best use of such a stipulation (or close to it) in the WWE era was when Vince McMahon stipulated that every singles match Ric Flair wrestled would be a one-sided retirement match. He put on a winning streak up until WrestleMania, when he put on a spectacular match with Shawn Michaels, which he lost and retired from WWE. (The less said about what happened afterwards, the better - a view Flair himself agrees with.) This was Flair's second time losing one of these matches in WWE, in 1993 he asked to be let out of his contract to return to WCW (mainly because the people that caused him to leave WCW in the first place had been fired by Turner^note Ric and Vince had come to an agreement when Flair got to the WWF that if Ric was unhappy Vince would let him go no questions asked so long as Ric put over a couple people on the way out, and both men honored this agreement. Flair did however have a modified no-compete clause, for his first few weeks back in WCW he could appear on TV but wasn't allowed to actually wrestle), Vince agreed and Ric lost a Loser Leaves the WWF match to Curt Hennig on the third episode of Monday Night Raw, ending his WWE career for 8 years.
• TV Time-Limit Match — a match that ends in an official draw if the TV show ends before there is a winner or disqualification, but is otherwise standard. Virtually extinct now as all matches conveniently end (via pinfall, submission, disqualification, or a brawl breaking out) just in time for the program to end (or, as with Raw or on PPV's, the network has given the show overflow time should the match run a little long).
  • Formerly, either 1980's Crockett-based television shows or Mid-South shows would be notorious for giving fans loads of jobber matches, and then one main event which might be interesting, but after a certain amount of the match, "BUT WE'RE OUT OF TIME!!!"... (The match is usually completed for the live audience.)
  • It is possible you may see a television title, a belt in which every match fought for it is under this kind of time limit or something similar.
    • In the 1950s, NWA LA introduced the "Beat the Champ" Television Title, with the added stipulation of the current "champion" taking on randomly selected challengers for five weeks, having to pay the former champion 100 USD if he failed.
• I Quit — essentially a contest of determination, there are no pinfalls, no submissions, no countouts, and no disqualifications in an I Quit match. Instead, there is just one way to lose: say the phrase "I Quit" ^note (or an equivalent phrase—e.g. "No más!" during a lucha libre version of the match) into a live microphone, in front of all the fans in the arena and everybody watching at home. Naturally, these are generally the most brutal matches ever seen in Professional Wrestling, as nobody wants to be seen as a quitter.
  • In a famous version of this match between The Rock and Mick Foley (then Mankind), Foley was incapacitated by multiple chairshots to the head, and Rock won by replaying tape of Foley saying "I quit!" on Raw prior to the pay-per-view (in the context of "this is what I will not say"). A few years later, when Foley challenged Ric Flair to one of these matches, he tried to never say those two words in any of his promos leading up to the match so that the same trick wouldn't happen twice.^note He would end up losing that match, too, after Flair threatened his friend, Melina, with a barbed wire-wrapped baseball bat if he didn't quit.
  • In a 2011 "I Quit" match between John Cena^note (Who has an impressive record in "I Quit" matches (undefeated, which makes sense, considering being a Determinator is a big part of his gimmick.) and The Miz, a similar tactic was used by Miz in order to seemingly win the match, but on the account of the referee finding the cellphone that played the supposed recording of (an out-of-context) Cena saying "I quit!", the match was restarted and Miz ended up losing to Cena.
  • While the intent of the match is to show who is the more determined/braver of the two, this matches will end in a loophole of some sort about as often as they do cleanly. This often happens when the face is booked to lose yet still needs his reputation intact at the end of the match. The Rock/Mankind fight is an apt example. Others, such as the Triple H/Rock fight and the Mick Foley/Ric Flair fight, utilize the heel threatening harm upon a close one of their opponent unless they quit the match. Since any halfway decent person would put the well-being of friends over a victory, this is an acceptable way to lose an "I Quit" match with one's reputation intact.
  • A variation is the version of the submission man where a wrestler's manager, valet, or friend has to throw in the towel to stop the match. If this variant is used, there is most likely a Face–Heel Turn in the Face's valet's future. However, the most famous of these types of matches, Bret Hart vs. Bob Backlund, actually had Hart's corner man (Davey Boy Smith) knocked out, leaving Bret's mother to throw in the towel in his stead, persuaded by his brother Owen Hart (though she probably didn't need much persuading after seeing Bret in Backlund's crossface chickenwing for a full five minutes), who had already turned heel owing to massive sibling rivalry; in fact, he was Backlund's cornerman in the match. The whole thing was teased as a My God, What Have I Done? moment for Owen — until Bret's mom threw in the towel and Owen immediately started celebrating.^note (Backlund's 90's heel run began when he snapped at his former manager Arnold Skaaland for throwing in the towel during his match versus the The Iron Sheik, ending his nearly six-year run as WWF Champion.)
  • At ROH Rising Above, "The Lovely" Lacey prevented Tyler Black from throwing a towel in to his representative, Jimmy Jacobs, forcing him and Austin Aries to wrestle until one of them quit on their own.
    • Smoky Mountain Wrestling used a variant on this particular variant called a "coward waves the flag" match, where each team of two had a representative at ringside wielding a white surrender flag. The winners were the team who would make their opponent's representative wave the flag. In both instances where the match was used, the same finish was used where the loser's rep was tricked into waving his flag by swinging it at the other team's rep, which was seen by the referee as a "surrender".
  • In a match billed as an I Quit between Beth Phoenix and Melina, neither competitor was required to say the words "I Quit" into a microphone, but rather just tell the referee whether or not they gave up.
  • An I Quit match that made the loser seem royally badass was the one between Bret Hart and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin: the match ended with Austin passing out, but never saying "I Quit".
  • In the match between the Hardy Boys, Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy, at Backlash 2009, Matt quit not because of the physical pain he'd endured, but because of the physical pain he was about to endure.^note (He was tied to a table with his arms and legs duct taped, with no means of escape)
    • John Cena won two "I Quit" matches this way. First against John "Bradshaw" Layfield when he was going to use exhaust pipe as a weapon against him, and the second was against Batista when John Cena is about to perform an Attitude Adjustment off the top of a car onto the stage floor. John Cena still attacks both times.
• Elimination — In any match where there are three or more wrestlers, the victory is usually decided by a simple pinfall or submission. However, an elimination variable added to such a match means that every wrestler except one (or every member of every team except one) must be pinned, forced to submit, counted out, or disqualified for there to be a victor. For example, in a four-man man match, there must be three eliminations for there to be a victor—and not all of them need be by the same wrestler. Three-man elimination matches were an ECW staple, with such a contest called a "Three-Way Dance".
  • A variation, the Elimination Chamber, has been a signature match of WWE since its inception in 2002, and specifically has been attached to their No Way Out pay-per-view (which in recent years has actually been named for the chamber). In this match, four men start behind plexiglass cages within a much larger structure, not unlike Hell in a Cell, with the other two men start outside the plexiglass like a regular match. Every two or three minutes, another is released. It is, as the name indicated, an elimination match: five competitors must be defeated for there to be a victor. Tends to get bloody, as the chamber has much less give than most types of cage.
  • Another variation is the elimination tag, where both members of a tag team must be pinned, submitted, etc before the match ends, with the first team to score a submission gaining a numerical advantage over the opposition.
  • Elimination tags were popular in the WWF for them to build a Pay Per View event around them called Survivor Series with four or five man tag teams! Of course, the heels almost always had the extra man. In its heyday, all the Series matches were of this type, but nowadays there are usually three or four (now referred to as the "Traditional Survivor Series Match"), with other match types filling out the under card. Whenever a brand split is active in WWE, there were always be at least one Raw vs Smackdown elimination match (in 2019 NXT entered teams of their own) with brand bragging rights as the prize.
  • In Lucha Libre, it is fairly common to make elimination tags with large numbers of participants into a Torneo cibernetico in which there can only be a single winner. If one team is completely eliminated first, the remaining team's members will fight each other in an elimination match. Although sometimes the match is used as a "qualifying" round for a larger event or series, in which case the ref will call for the bell after a set number of eliminations and those left will advance on to other matches. To preserve a "tournament" spirit and enforce some fairness, these matches usually have a "batting order" luchadores on both sides must enter and exit the ring on.
  • Tag Team Turmoil — Two to four tag teams start in the ring wrestling under normal tag team rules to eliminate the others by pin fall or submission. Each time a team is eliminated, another comes in to take their place until no one is left. A common occurrence is that an evil authority figure will insert another previously unannounced team into the match once a winner has been determined between all the known participants.
• Gauntlet Match — A match that usually has at least five competitors. Two will start until a pin fall or submission is gained after which the loser will be replaced by another wrestler and the process will continue until only one wrestler is left. The aforementioned Royal Rumble combines this with battle royal, while Tag Team Turmoil can vary between an elimination match or a gauntlet depending on how many teams are involved.
  • A "standard" gauntlet used to be called a "King Of The Mountain" match, but the name fell out of use in the 1990s when Smoky Mountain Wrestling was threatened with a lawsuit by a Tough Man promoter who had a copy right on the term. Going to court eventually proved fruitless, but "King Of The Mountain" became associated with one of TNA's ladder matches instead.
  • Variation: One wrestler may be forced to "run the gauntlet" in which wrestlers will keep coming at him one at a time until he defeats them all or is defeated himself. Sometimes the run will end when the wrestler forced to run it is beaten (if that's the case then the person who beats them is usually the last one they're expected to face), other times he must continue wrestling until he has faced everyone no matter how many of them beat him. Most commonly setup by evil bosses.
    • In the St. Louis territory a "running" gauntlet was called a "handicap match", which would always stopped as soon as the "handicapped" wrestler was beaten. The term gauntlet was adopted for this stipulation in post territorial St. Louis as one fall became became "standard" for handicap matches.
  • In June 2015, Chris Hero willingly ran "an infinity gauntlet" hosted by SMASH where he promised to wrestle thirty minutes for every 500 USD raised for combating ALS. $3440 was raised, resulting in him wrestling for three hours and ten minutes straight.
  • Lucha Underground had a unique variation called Aztec Warfare, which essentially combines the classic Gauntlet with the Royal Rumble - two wrestlers start the match and next one enters every 90 seconds, but unlike RR, fighters can be eliminated only by pinfall or submission.
• Blindfold Match — The wrestlers involved are blindfolded, hooded, or otherwise prevented from seeing. The fans, however, aren't so lucky. You see, these matches tend to be boring, disastrous, or a combination of both. They usually amount to the face wrestler pointing around the ring, and the crowd cheering when he points at the heel, leading the face to wander in that direction. This does not make for good entertainment. A perfect example of this is when TNA booked Chris Harris vs James Storm in a blindfold cage match. Their blindfolds repeatedly came off, 9/10 of the match involved them stumbling about the ring, and the fans turned on the match in a hurry, chanting "Boring" and even "Someone Stop This", and the match ended up being named the worst wrestling match of 2007. Yowza. Incidentally, there have been very few blindfold matches since then.
  • Variant: Only one wrestler's blindfolded and at the complete mercy of the one who can still see. This is another one almost exclusively set up by evil boss types to punish faces, though on WWE Smackdown heel Jamie Noble had a blindfold to punish him for all the abuse he put Nidia through while she had been temporarily blinded by Yoshihiro Tajiri's black mist.
• Handicap Match — Two or more wrestlers, acting as a tag team, take on a lesser number of wrestlers. This is almost always done by an evil boss to cause problems for a Face, but occasionally as Fanservice to punish a particularly disliked Heel, or The Worf Effect to put a Giant over.
  • During the kayfabe, pre-cable television era, where WWF fans got most of their fill of wrestling through its syndicated TV shows, handicap matches were a great way to get the popular André the Giant on television. Usually, he would be matched against mid-card wrestlers, while sometimes these contests would be used to draw out the latest heel who claimed he could take down Andre. At the WWF's arena shows at venues such as Madison Square Garden, Andre was sometimes placed in 2-vs.-3 or on occasion 2-vs.-4 matchups (the heel side almost always featuring Captain Lou Albano), with Andre's side always winning.
  • John Cena and Randy Orton once took on the entire Raw roster. It was also an Elimination Match.
    • Cena and Orton won the match when the RAW roster finally invaded after taking the better part of a half-dozen falls against it. Then the beatdown ensued, and Triple H came out to exact his dominance.
• First Blood Match — The loser is whoever bleeds first, or, more correctly, who the referee sees as bleeding first (the referee will frequently be seen checking the competitors by wiping their faces with a white towel.) There is no other way to win, or lose. Tropes: Count on the Heel to somehow hide that he's bleeding from the referee, use particularly brutal methods to cause the Face to bleed, or use some technique to make bleeding less likely. (Ironically, this type of match is actually less brutal than a normal match in which a wrestler happens to start bleeding and yet still must continue to fight.) Most notably used in a match between "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Kane. The latter was given a ridiculously extreme advantage, because at the time he was masked and covered head to toe in a black-and-red costume, making it rather difficult for the referee to see if he was bleeding. Unsurprisingly, he won the match, but Austin won the title back a day later.
  • John Cena defeated JBL in one of these matches by strangling him with a chain until he started coughing up blood.
  • At TNA's 2011 Victory Road, Matt Morgan lost such a match when Hotstuff Hernandez threw fake blood on him. In Brew City Wrestling, Stacy Shadows cheated in a First Blood Steel Cage match by pouring previously drawn blood on women's champion Selene Grey.
  • Sadistic Madness is a type of match created by TNA. It is similar to the First Blood match, but doesn't end when the blood starts flowing—at that point, the bleeding wrestler is able to be legally pinned (until at least one wrestler bleeds, there is no way for the match to be won or lost).
• Last Chance Match — Usually a championship match, with an extra rider—if the challenger doesn't win, he's barred from challenging for the title again until it changes hands.
  • All Elite Wrestling loves this stipulation, with the extra twist of making it so that the loser is barred from ever challenging for the title again. Full Gear 2019 saw Cody, the company's top babyface at the time and a sensible choice to give the top belt, lose to Chris Jericho and forfeit any future World Championship shots. This later allowed Cody to take the second-tier TNT Championship instead and use that position to help put over up-and-coming talent that aren't ready for the main event picture.
• Lucha de Apuestas/Wager Match — Most common in Mexico, but comes up in other countries as well. A match where both competitors put something of theirs on the line. The most common ones are the Mask vs Mask match (between two masked wrestlers), Mask vs Hair (between a masked wrestler and an unmasked wrestler), and Hair vs Hair (between two unmasked wrestlers). Occasionally, a title belt will be put on the line, either instead of or in addition to the wrestler's mask or hair (such as Rey Mysterio Jr. and Eddie Guerrero's mask vs title match in WCW). The most extreme cases can combine this with a Loser Leaves Town/Retirement Match when a wrestler puts their career on the line.
  • According to The Other Wiki, there is an actual law about this in Mexico: if you lose your mask in such a match, you may never wear that mask again. Despite what you might expect, this rule is generally and strictly enforced; in the case of Mysterio, he was allowed to keep wearing his mask in WWE, and in his post-WWE career with AAA and Lucha Underground with no repercussions due to the circumstances and controversy surrounding his original de-masking in WCW.
    
    To wit, Eric Bischoff decided to unmask him because he thought that wrestlers who hid their faces weren't "marketable". Mysterio and just about everyone around him were horrified at the idea of such a career-altering (and potentially career-wrecking) move being done for such a lame reason. When they went through with it, it severely damaged Rey's image (since he looked more like a 14-year-old rather than a superhero-like luchador) and the de-masking itself was done in an extremely disrespectful fashion ^note As Mysterio noted in the 2009 book Rey Mysterio: Behind the Mask, the two who unmasked him (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) began disrespectfully playing around with the mask in the ring, with the former sticking it on the back of his head. This sharply contrasted with lucha libre's attitude toward unmaskings, where such events are often the high point of the night or even the year; the winning wrestler is expected to take the mask and treat it well, as a sign of respect toward the beaten wrestler and the profession as a whole; worse, WCW hardly did anything to push him after he was unmasked despite promising they'd strap him to a rocket for doing so. Eventually, Rey and his uncle (better known as the original Rey Mysterio) successfully argued that Rey was representing his uncle's image in WWE since he dropped the Jr. from his name (the original Mysterio was a heavyweight, by the way). Pure Loophole Abuse, but the commission liked his uncle and they hated Bischoff for what he did so they allowed it.
  • One of the biggest Wager Matches in the WWE was the "Streak VS Career" match at WrestleMania XXVI, where Shawn Michaels put his career on the line for another shot at ending The Undertaker's WrestleMania winning streak. Shawn Michaels lost, and, true to his word, hasn't wrestled since, a one-off appearance at Crown Jewel aside.
• Last Man/Woman Standing — A gimmick rarer than most (though with increasing frequency in WWE), this match sees two wrestlers fight in a no-disqualification match until one of them is down for a ten-second count. The referee will stop counting if a wrestler attacks a downed opponent until they stop. Tropes: the likelihood of a tie is somewhere around 50% but varying depending on the people involved. Such a match will have a lot of high spots and generally moves that would normally end a match will draw a 9 count, usually multiple times. Expect the finish to usually involve someone being thrown off or through something.
  • In days past, this was known as a Texas (or Mexican) Death Match and one wrestler had to pin the other for a three count before the referee's ten count would start. TNA and ROH reintroduced it for audiences in the late 2000s to mid 2010s.
  • John Cena infamously won one of these against Batista in 2010 by duct-taping Batista's ankles to the turnbuckle. Hey, no one ever said you couldn't! Alberto Del Rio must have watched that match, since when he had a Last Man Standing match against The Big Show, he resorted to taping Show's feet to the bottom rope.
    • Randy "Macho Man" Savage won a variant at WrestleMania X against Crush in a similar way. In this variant, falls counted anywhere, and after being pinned, the wrestler had 60 seconds to return to the ring or lose the match. Savage pinned Crush, then tied him upside-down on a forklift so he couldn't get back in time.
• Exploding Ring Match (or "C4 match") — Sometimes seen in Japanese garbage wrestling promotions like FMW, a hardcore match in a ring rigged with explosives on a timer. In some versions the idea is to finish the match before the timer runs out and detonates the ring (although this does not necessarily end the match!), while in others the explosives are concentrated in a specific area, with the wrestlers struggling not to get pushed onto it. Frequently combined with the barbed wire match.
• Triple Threat/Fatal Four-Way — This match is similar to the Elimination match in that more than two wrestlers are involved. However, unlike the Elimination match, only one pinfall or submission is needed to end the match, whereby the wrestler who gets the pin or submission is declared the winner. A title is (almost) always on the line for these matches (the main non-title variation being a number one contender's match for when several wrestlers are feuding over who deserves the next title shot), and there is a good possibility that the current title holder will lose the title without being the one getting pinned. Naturally, there will invariably be multiple near-falls where the third wrestler breaks up the pin or hold. Also, you can count on one wrestler being "knocked out" or otherwise indisposed for much of the match and win it at the last moment after both his opponents have beat the living crap out of each other.
  • Triple Threat, specifically, is one of the most interesting type of matches when you take wrestler alignment into account:
    • Two Heels/One Face: This match will be, for around 50% of its duration, a handicap match. Both heels will gang up on the face and beat the crap out him. However, after beating the snot out of the face, the heels quickly turn on each other. Usually, the face is the title holder in this type of match. In this particular setup, it's pretty even odds on either the face or one of the heels winning. If the title holder's the face, it's quite common for him to lose the title by one of the heels pinning the other heel, meaning he lost the title but not "cleanly." (And thus, he isn't made to look weaker to the fans.) Once in a while, a heel might consider the face an Worthy Opponent and hint a turn, especially if he really goes at it with the other heel, but it's just as likely that both heels will be as rotten as ever.
    • Two Faces/One Heel: Much less common than Two Heels/One Face. The heel is practically GUARANTEED to win this type of matchup. While the same handicap rules apply, it's not uncommon that the faces are much more vicious to each other than if it were two heels instead, and the heel will milk this for all it's worth. It is also quite common that one of the faces will start a feud with the other face after the match, if not do a turn outright.
    • Notably averted by the Shawn Michaels/Triple H/Chris Benoit match at WrestleMania XX, and the rematch at Backlash. No Face–Heel Turn from either Michaels or Benoit, and Triple H didn't win - Benoit did. Both times. The first by making Triple H tap out, and the second by making Shawn Michaels tap out.
    • Another aversion was Ayako Hamada vs Sara Del Rey vs Jessie McKay on SHIMMER volume 34, with McKay pulling off a Dark Horse Victory.
    • Three Faces: Not as uncommon as you might think, this happens usually when an evil boss wants to punish a face stable. Expect the more vicious face to win, usually by using heel tactics, and like it so much he goes full heel.
    • Three Heels: Probably the rarest type, this one usually happens when one of the heels is already hinting turning. Win or lose, the heel in question turns face and goes against the other two heels, usually gaining an ally from one of the established faces in the process. For added drama, the face that teams up with the former heel will be his sworn rival.
  • There is also a six pack match (six wrestlers).
    • Shockwave Impact Wrestling in Sidney Ohio USA, perhaps took the Iron Man match to its logical extreme by combining it with a six pack match and having it last for twelve straight hours. Logan Cross, Sid Fabulous, "Lightning" Tim Lutz, American Kickboxer II, Dark Angel (Williams) and DJ Tom Sharp were the wrestlers who pulled it off.
• Championship Scramble — A WWE experiment for Unforgiven in 2008, where three different championships were on the line in this type of match. Each match had five competitors, but started with two, and a competitor was added after a few minutes. Once all competitors were in the ring, a time limit began (20 minutes, in each of the Unforgiven matches' case). Whenever a wrestler scored a pinfall or submission, they became the interim champion (not officially counted in the record book). The championship would be awarded to the competitor who scored the last pinfall or submission before the time ran out. The experiment was considered a failure, and after the initial three matches, it was only done one more time before it lost out to the more fan-friendly and less confusing Money in the Bank ladder match.
• Submission Match — Exactly What It Says on the Tin, a match that can only be won by Submission. At Backlash 2001 this was combined with an Iron Man match, to create the Ultimate Submission Match where the wrestler with the most submissions in the designated 30 minute time limit won.
  • Perhaps the most famous Submission match, the one at WrestleMania 13, actually ended without a submission, when a bleeding "Stone Cold" Steve Austin refused to tap out to Bret Hart's Sharpshooter, despite having no way out of it. The match ended when Austin passed out from the pain instead of tapping out, eventually leading to a Heel–Face Turn out of a new respect fans had for his raw determination, and he would go on to become the face of the Attitude Era. At the same time, Bret made a Face–Heel Turn with his ruthlessness in the match, even going so far as to continue beating the unconscious Austin after the match had already been called in his favor.^note Ironically, Bret would remain a face in his native Canada as he would blame the American fans, like the ones in Chicago who witnessed the submission match, for embracing an Anti-Hero like Austin over the more wholesome Hart Yes, that's right, a Face/Heel Double-Turn; today it is still unanimously viewed as the greatest example of this extremely rare trope in wrestling history.
• The Undertaker has the following signature matches:
  • Casket Match — Involves putting the opponent inside a casket and closing it to achieve victory.
    • Infamously, when Triple H had one of these matches, it was impossible for him to win, as Viscera was too large to fit in the casket. ('Taker had two such matches against large opponents, and had double-wide caskets made for such a purpose. He beat Kamala, but lost to Yokozuna the first time. He beat him in the rematch at Survivor Series 94.)
    • One such match between Undertaker and Kane ended in a draw when the casket was smashed to pieces.
    • In one such match between Undertaker and The Big Show, Show deliberately smashed the casket to pieces, declared the match over, and tried to escape. Before he could, a second casket was carried out. The match continued and Show then lost.
    • Lucha Underground adapted the Casket Match (under the name "Grave Consequences") as the signature match of resident Wrestling Monster Mil Muertes, "the man of a thousand deaths". It basically has the same rules as the WWE Casket Match, but with two main differences: firstly, the booking of the matches is handled much better than WWE's since, rather than a mad scramble to shove your opponent into a casket, the match is a vicious struggle to the death where putting them in the casket is simply the last thing you do to your opponent once you've destroyed them; and secondly, within the universe of LU, being put into the casket actually kills you dead!^note Although the victims of all three matches were subsequently restored to life by dark magic. The second match, called "Graver Consequences" (between Mil and the Monster Matanza) featured four caskets placed around the ring, one on each side.
  • Buried Alive Match — In this match, the only way to win is to take the opponent and bury him inside a grave.
  • While it's no longer exclusively his, he's still linked with the HIAC match, since the first five Cell matches featured him.
  • The original but often forgotten precursor to these was the Body Bag Match which he mostly fought against The Ultimate Warrior in 91.
  • Last Ride Match — Put your opponent in the back of a hearse and drive it out of the arena to win. In the first version of the match between Undertaker and JBL, the hearse had its own driver, so all they needed to do was put their opponent in it. In the second version of the match between Undertaker and Mr. Kennedy, there was no driver, so after putting their opponent in, they had to get in the driver's seat and drive it out. In both matches, the combatants were at times able to escape while the hearse was in motion, thus emphasizing the need to incapacitate them.
• Pure Wrestling Rules — Most commonly appearing in Ring of Honor (they even have a Pure Wrestling title) but occasionally seen elsewhere. Each wrestler is allowed three rope breaks - once they are used up, the wrestler cannot use the ropes to escape pins or submissions. Closed fists are illegal, and using them will cause the wrestler to be penalized a rope break - if he is out of rope breaks, he will be disqualified.
  • It should be pointed out that closed fists are usually illegal anyway but rarely enforced. Ric Flair once disqualified The Dudley Boys for their use of closed fists but it happens so rarely in regular matches no one could remember the last time a referee had done so^note as early as 1951, a year before WWE existed in any form, heels such as Carl Meyer would punch baby faces in front of the referee and only get a stern warning. Likewise illegal holds (including all those involving the ropes) can be grounds for disqualification, but a five count is usually granted. Hard as it may be to believe by those who grew up with post Russo WWF DQ happy shows was that disqualifications were so shameful to a promotion referees would hold off on calling them for as long as they reasonably could. The pure wrestling stipulation simply makes enforcement mandatory. ROH pulled it off by running a "Code of Honor" angle where disqualifications could get one fired.
  • If the commentators are to be trusted, closed fists are now legal in WWE; John "Bradshaw" Layfield pointed this out while discussing Cesaro's signature European uppercut.
  • In February 2015, Wonder Ring STARDOM decreed an immediate match ending disqualification must be called on any closed fist strike in response to Yoshiko going into business for herself in the infamous Sunday 22nd Korakuen Hall show against Act Yasukawa. This was later clarified to be limited to face punches, which meant things like Io Shirai delivering a slingshot superman punch to the back of Hudson Envy's head did not stop matches.
• Taped Fist Match — The wrestlers must compete with their fists taped, the idea being that this would make it harder to grab each other while at the same time protecting their hands while punching, basically encouraging the athletes to "fight" instead of wrestle. Traditionally, these would be made in response to someone receiving multiple disqualifications for closed fist strikes but as that became less of a thing, wrestlers would simply be put in them as punishment for cheating or attacking someone outside of sanctioned matches.
  • The American Wrestling Association and a few others had a brass knuckles title belt, where punching was legal in every match it was contested for, which were often taped fist matches or made use of brass knuckles.
  • Dramatic Dream Team skipped all pretenses and simply booked "No Grappling Allowed" matches.
  • Garbage wrestling fed Big Japan Pro Wrestling has the "Ancient Way" Death Match — Both fighters wrap their hands in hemp rope, which is then coated in honey and dipped in broken glass.
  • Substitute the hemp rope with tape, and the honey with glue, and you have what ECW and CZW call the "Taipei Death Match".
• Scaffold Match — Two wrestlers or tag teams are on a narrow metal scaffold above the ring. Victory is either by throwing the opponent off the scaffold or some sort of capture the flag situation. Very old fashioned and all-but-obsolete, this gimmick has some historical value. Scaffold matches have a reputation of being the worst out of all of wrestling's classic gimmick matches. The scaffold is very narrow and VERY high, making it difficult to have a good match up there. Sometimes wrestlers are so intimidated that they crawl around on it. There's also the risk of the match ending by accidental fall! The risk factor for this terrible match involves taking a fall off the scaffold that rivals Mick Foley's (in)famous Hell In A Cell dive for danger. Jim Cornette's knee injury from a botched scaffold fall almost crippled him. So, wrestling's worst gimmick match is also one of its most dangerous. The last serious scaffold match revival undertaken by a "major" was in TNA. It wasn't any better or less dangerous than the scaffold matches from decades ago.
  • According to Jim Helm, first voice of ICW, they started out during the 1950s in Nick Gulas's promotion as "Carpenter's matches". "Scaffold matches" were codified in the 1970s.
  • Pro Wrestling Unplugged's Crazy Eight took the ladder match concept but had the wrestlers climb a scaffold to reach the title belt instead, surrounding it with a cage wall, two trampolines and four ropes to swing on.
  • Big Japan Pro Wrestling has the Circus Death Match, which is scaffold match with a net to catch the wrestlers. A net made of barbed wire. Inspired by another garbage fed, the Big Japan W*ING Crisis Big Born Death Match has barbed wire trampolines.
  • TNA also had its very own X shaped scaffold for a match it called Elevation X. This was slightly better, though no less dangerous, than a plain scaffold match by giving the wrestlers more directions to move in.
• Four Corners Match — The first wrestler to touch all four turnbuckle pads in succession wins. If at any point a wrestler starts touching pads but is taken down before he can finish touching them all, he must start over. Another old fashioned gimmick.
• Strap Match — Two wrestlers tied to opposite ends of a belt, rope, steel chain, or anything similar in order to keep them in close proximity to each other. This can also be referred to as a "Dog Collar Match," when the competitors are shackled at the neck. When these matches don't have the usual pinfall or submission win conditions, the winner is usually decided by the above Four Corners stipulation. With the the wrestlers connected to one another, interrupting or knocking down an opponent in the process of touching the corners to force a restart is much easier, meaning this is usually the only time the four corners stipulation sees use in the post territorial era.
• Tables Match — One wrestler or a tag team must send their opponent(s) through a table to win. Read that carefully, because the wrestlers can put themselves through a table without being eliminated.
  • Some heels cheat by putting their opponents in some table wreckage just as the referee turns around.
  • TNA had the Ghetto match, where a pin fall was required after going through the table.
• Stretcher Match — One wrestler must load the other on a stretcher and pull it across a finish line to win.
  • In one such match between Brock Lesnar and The Big Show, Lesnar loaded Show, but the stretcher broke under his weight. Lesnar picked Show and the stretcher up with a forklift and drove across the finish line.
• Ambulance Match — One wrestler must put the other in the back of an ambulance and shut the doors to win.
  • John Cena defeated Ryback at one of these by throwing him so hard he crashed through the roof of the ambulance and landed inside.
  • Braun Strowman defeated Roman Reigns by dodging Reigns' finishing move (a spear) while coincidentally standing right in front of the open back of the ambulance, then quickly shut the doors on him.
• Move Match — The first wrestler who uses a particular move on their opponent wins. Usually a bodyslam; if so, usually one competitor is much, much larger than the other. The best known of these was Yokozuna's Bodyslam challenge, which Lex Luger won.
  • Another famous "Move Match" was the "$15,000 Body Slam Challenge" between Andre The Giant and Big John Studd at the first WrestleMania. If Andre slammed Studd, Andre would win $15,000, though if Andre was slammed, he would have to retire. If you're wondering who won, Andre's last WWF match was six years later.
  • Variation: In one match between Austin Aries and Senshi, the object was Submission, but the submission would only count if the wrestler used the Crossface Chickenwing to do it.
  • Dramatic Dream Team had a "Shattered Dreams" match pitting Ryuji Ito and Danny Havoc against "Kokutenshi" Jaki Numazawa and Jun Kasai at The Indie Wrestling Summit.
  • Bull Nakano Produce Empress featured a Guillotine Drop Match with four wrestlers from four different promotions^note Kayoko Haruyama from JWP, Ryo Mizunami from WAVE, AKINO from Oz Academy, Maki Narumiya from Ice Ribbon who each used the move, it being the finisher of the retiring Nakano.
• Substance Match — The wrestlers fight in a pool of some kind of substance, like mud, chocolate milk, eggnog, etc. Matches end in pinfall or submission. Naturally used with female wrestlers for comedy and fanservice.
  • The final stages of Black Rose's infamous feud with manager José Chaparro in New Wrestling Stars, where Rose had to beat Sexy Juliette The Huntress in a mud pool before she was allowed to get her hands on him in a proceeding match.
  • Candice Michelle defeated Melina in one of these by holding her head under the chocolate pudding until she tapped out to keep from drowning.
• Match of 10,000 Tacks — The only way to win is to slam your opponent onto a pile of thumbtacks.
  • A variation called the Serengeti Survival Match allows pinfalls and submissions.
• Pillow Fight — Two or more female wrestlers begin the match with a bed full of pillows in the ring, and typically come to the ring in a nightgown, lingerie, or pajamas. Matches end in pinfall or submission. Again, it is typically used for comedy and fanservice. Notably, Torrie Wilson once picked up the bed with Candice Michelle on it and threw it.
• Water Fight — The ring is filled with buckets of water, Water Guns and Balloons, etc. Obviously, it is used with female wrestlers to get a Sexy Soaked Shirt trope going. Notably, Jillian Hall once smacked Mickie James over the head with a water gun.
  • The WWF's Women's title once changed hands in such a match. At Armageddon 1999 this was combined with the evening gown format to create an evening gown in a pool match. The match is remembered for Miss Kitty dropping her top after winning the title.
• Bath House Death Match — Believed to have been started by IWA Japan in 1995, The wrestlers compete in the pool of a public bathhouse. Besides regular wrestling rules, if they leave the pool, they are disqualified. The pool is heated by a fire that is regularly fed more logs, making staying in it harder and harder.
• Punjabi Prison Match — Signature match of The Great Khali (or Giant Singh, depending on which promotion you watch). Ironically out of three such matches in WWE, Khali only competed in one (although he was supposed to be in two, and he showed up for the third). The ring is surrounded by a bamboo cage with an even larger bamboo cage around that. The inner cage has a door on each side. At a wrestler's request, a referee can open a door, but it will be padlocked closed after 60 seconds, never to be opened again. The only way to win is to escape the outer cage. If that sounds overcomplicated to you, it is—the match is considered one of the worst gimmicks of all time, and all three matches have been terrible: aside from other problems, the double bamboo cages around the ring obscure both the cameras and the live audience's view, meaning nobody can see shit.
• Piranha Death Match — Another Big Japan Pro Wrestling gift, a tank of piranhas is placed in the middle of the ring and the opponent's head must be held in it for ten seconds for the match to end. Barbed wire boards are included to bloody up the opponent so the fish will be more likely to bite. Variations in include a Scorpion Death Match which is the same thing with scorpions and instead of barbed wire, cactus plants are used for a more desert feel.
• Flag Match — The wrestlers have to play Capture the Flag. Can be combined with other matches like the Scaffold Match.
  • At Battleground 2017, John Cena and Rusev had a variation where after capturing their respective flag, they had to plant it on a stand on the stage to win.
• Winner Takes All Match — The match can be fought with any ruleset, but at the end of the match, the winning wrestler or faction wins everything that's been put on the line, from championships (always more than one) to other material objects to authority roles to entire promotions.
• One Sided Rules Match — One of the competitors cannot be disqualified or counted out, while the opponent can, giving said opponent a serious disadvantage.
• Banned Move Match — One or both of the competitors is not allowed to use their finishing move or else they will be disqualified. This type of match often forces the banned wrestler to get more creative and use moves they don't normally use in an attempt to win.
• There have been matches where somebody, usually one of the competitor's tag team partner or manager, is suspended above the ring in a shark cage in an attempt to prevent them from interfering. This is usually combined with another type of match. These matches usually end when the suspended person drops a weapon for their partner to use and/or manages to escape and jump down to assist their partner.
• Masterlock Challenge — Signature match of "The Masterpiece" Chris Masters. The match starts with Masters locking his opponent in his finisher, The Masterlock (a full nelson). He wins if they pass out or submit, while they win if they escape. However, it doesn't count as an escape if Masters lets go on purpose. Masters had a long undefeated streak and often offered money or other prizes to anyone who would try.
  • When Shawn Michaels took the challenge, Masters exploited the rules by letting go on purpose, fetching a steel chair and attacking Michaels with it, then locking him in the hold again until he passed out.
  • The Big Show and The Great Khali's attempts to take the challenge were voided because they were supposedly too big for Masters to lock in the hold.
  • John Cena took the challenge twice. The first time, the match was thrown out when Edge attacked Cena. The second time, Cena won in an unusual way. Masters eventually let go on purpose, attacked Cena for a bit, then attempted to lock him in the hold again, but Cena countered and locked Masters in his own hold and Masters submitted. Cena thus became the first person to win the Masterlock Challenge without breaking the hold.
  • At Tribute to the Troops 2006, a soldier took the challenge and broke the hold when JBL interfered and kicked Masters. Masters angrily said it didn't count.
  • Bobby Lashley became the first and only person to officially win by breaking the hold.
  • There have been variations of this throughout professional wrestling's history, such as Grizzly having a "Bear Hug" Challenger, were the competitor had to either break the hold by forcing Grizzly's hands apart or last longer than Grizzle could hold it on without passing out or submitting.
• Trading Places Match — The wrestlers have to dress like each other, use each other's entrance music, and act like each other/use each other's moves.
• Bloodsport Match — A type of match pioneered by the PPV series Josh Barnett's Bloodsport. Matches must end with a knockout or submission, and take place on a ring mat with no turnbuckles or ropes. If a wrestler falls off the mat, the fight is reset in the centre. This results in a style of wrestling that is highly reminiscent of MMA or catch wrestling, and is usually thought of as one of the more successful attempts at translating the feel of shoot combat sports to the world of worked professional wrestling.

As a side note, it has been pointed out that for Vince Russo, the ultimate gimmick match would be a three round, one fall, submission, or knockout match, with nothing else going on. In other words, a regular wrestling match. The lesson to be drawn here is that too much gimmickry reduces the value of any given gimmick.

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Examples from other media:

• One story in the 1960s Batman manga climaxes with Batman invading a wrestling show to challenge a heel wrestler who's been committing real crimes to a "loser unmasks" match.
• In the first Spider-Man movie, Peter Parker's debut as Spider-Man takes place in a Steel Cage Match with a pro wrestler (played by the late "Macho Man" Randy Savage). The cage itself was more Hell In A Cell, as it had an enclosed roof and escape would not win the match... and of course, in "real" wrestling events, they don't challenge random schmoes to "fight" a guy for money since the winner is decided in advance, let alone springing a stipulation on the random schmoe at the last second. Although in the old days of pro wrestling at the carnival, the wrestler would also take on "all comers" for a cash prize should he lose. Of course, should he begin to lose, the promoter or wrestler would resort to cheating to rapidly KO the local tough guy. In other variations of this, people would have to pay to fight the wrestler; after 2 days of said wrestler losing to plants in the audience, word would get round that the wrestler was a pushover, and locals would gladly pay for their chance at some easy cash — the wrestler would then mercilessly batter his opponents, and the carnival would scarper.
• A brief gag on The Simpsons had Homer watching a promo for a Texas Deathmatch between Dr. Hillbilly and The Iron Yuppie. The announcer notes that one of the two wrestlers will be unmasked and killed in the ring.
  Homer: I hope they kill that Iron Yuppie. He thinks he's so big.
• An episode of Xena: Warrior Princess involved Love Goddess Aphrodite posing as Gabrielle's twin, which at one point saw them infiltrating a pro wrestling league. This proved problematic when they learned all twin teams must compete under tornado rules, for obvious reasons, and Aphrodite didn't even bother defending herself as their opponents were two handsome men, making it worse than a handicap match for Gabrielle, who had to beat them both while literally pulling the weight of her "sister".
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode The Gang Wrestles for the Troops ended with "The Trashman", winning a Garbage Wrestling match winning by throwing a metal trash can at his opponent, the edge of which knicks the other wrestler's jugular and caused him pass out from blood loss.
• Wonder Woman volume three has Black Canary disguise Wonder Woman and herself as "The Orphan Sisters" tag team in order to save Sergeant Steel from Doctor Psycho, Doc forcing Sarge to work in an illegal fight club owned by Roulette. Their opponents refuse to tag in and out first match, there's covert outside inteference and the climax features a handicap match that begins with the heroes having the numerical advantage but ends with assailants storming the cage against them.
• In Knucklehead, a backyard promoter neglects to adequately leash his pet bear, causing it to rampage before The Big Show manages to hold it down.

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