Terrible gimmick, great match

[Dylan Waco]

Is there any advantage at all to a Texas Death Match over a Last Man Standing match?

I could see the argument that counting every time someone falls to the ground is tedious, compared to every time someone is pinned

[S.L.L.]

I'm not saying it's uniformly bad gimmick. I'm saying it's a gimmick that many guys struggle with, particularly in finding good ways to integrate the "four corner" stip into the match in a way that adds to it.

I think that's kinda the case with a lot of these. Few of these gimmicks are inherently bad, it's just that a lot of wrestlers struggle to make the most of them. Like, Dundee/Koko showed me there's actually a ton of cool stuff you can do with a scaffold match, but how many wrestlers are as comfortable on a scaffold as Dundee and Koko are?

 

The lumberjack match is another good one that hasn't been mentioned yet. Again, not an inherently bad gimmick, and matches like the first Von Erichs/Freebirds six-man proved that it can be used to a match's advantage. But a lot of wrestlers struggle to do that, and it instead becomes limiting.

[flyonthewall2983]

I don't know about how "great" it is, but I have a soft spot for the Mania 2 battle royal with the football players.

I think it's good. Wonder if they'd ever try and do something like that again.

[jdw]

The lumberjack match is another good one that hasn't been mentioned yet. Again, not an inherently bad gimmick, and matches like the first Von Erichs/Freebirds six-man proved that it can be used to a match's advantage. But a lot of wrestlers struggle to do that, and it instead becomes limiting.

This. I think we all can point to a number of good / really good lumberjack matches. But there are a lot that were really bad / boring, with a "If you've seen one lumberjack match you've seen every lumberjack match" feel to them. It's not a bad gimmick... but a cliched / tired on. That does tend to make the good ones stand out.

[Kil]

I don't know about "great," but I have a strange fondness for the Big Bubba/John Tenta Carson City Silver Dollar match.

 

I also recall really liking the Henry Godwinn/Triple H hogpen match.

[EricR]

In 2003 (I think) I was at a WWE house show that had Dawn Marie vs. Torrie Wilson in a bra and panties match, and the match was completely awesome. Not in the way those matches are intended to be awesome, but awesome because Dawn Marie worked the fucking ARM the whole match in a bunch of really cool ways, and then when Torrie tried to take off Dawn's shorts she couldn't because her arm was too busted up. Torrie desperately trying to take off Dawn's shorts one-handed and not being able to was so great and we were all flipping out at what we were seeing.

 

That had to be when Finlay was the Diva's agent.

[shoe]

In 2003 (I think) I was at a WWE house show that had Dawn Marie vs. Torrie Wilson in a bra and panties match, and the match was completely awesome. Not in the way those matches are intended to be awesome, but awesome because Dawn Marie worked the fucking ARM the whole match in a bunch of really cool ways, and then when Torrie tried to take off Dawn's shorts she couldn't because her arm was too busted up. Torrie desperately trying to take off Dawn's shorts one-handed and not being able to was so great and we were all flipping out at what we were seeing.

 

That had to be when Finlay was the Diva's agent.

 

They did the same thing here in Austin at a houseshow . I was shocked at how good the match was and how well the girls played to the crowd. I put it in the never mention this on a wrestling message board file till I saw your post and thought I'd share my experience too.

[Big Rob]

Battle Royal wise, I believe there was one on ECW (possibly Smackdown) where Regal is just awesome at teasing being eliminated. He wasn't even a particularly important name in the match, but he went the whole hog with the gimmick. I seem to remember the crowd being pretty gutted when he was eventually thrown out.

[goc]

Daniel Bryan and Mark Henry had a REALLY good lumberjack match on the 1/20/12 Smackdown. Most creative use of the gimmick I've ever seen too.