The Worst Gimmick Match Concept Ever

[victory]

I didn't see the Bunkhouse Cage match mentioned yet ( sorry if I missed it). Trying to throw your opponent over the top of a cage was a terrible idea. It would be virtually impossible to lift somebody up and toss them out in theory. Kind of hard to suspend disbelief on that one.

[flyonthewall2983]

Putting a top on it and getting them out the door would make more sense.

[Jimmy Redman]

I don't mind "escape the cage", but I do mind "escape through the door". It's so hard to do it well because it stretches suspension of disbelief too far - there are always multiple points in the match where you think to yourself "why can't he just go out the door?" And if they don't ignore the door, then they go to it too often and it ends up as a farcical game of leapfrog as they race towards it.

 

The worst of it is the triple threat cage match. Two guys fight each other on top of the cage, a third guy stands around trying really hard not to look like he could just walk straight out of the door while they're busy.

[joeg]

in BJW, the gimmick matches that have upped the violence. The 10000 light tube match, the razor board match, the gusset plate match. Watching these is like watching somebody contract Hep-C.

[Parties]

I think it's amazing we got this far with so little discussion of (Russo themed item) On A Pole.

 

To Grimmas' point, the Reverse Battle Royal is sort of the embodiment of Russoism, as simultaneous mockery of wrestling itself that makes fifteen or twenty guys look dumb all at once. And a testament to TNA's painfully oblivious pursuits of originality, in the same way that somebody at one time had to be the first person to get swine flu. Scrubs like Sonjay Dutt publicly consider it to be the worst match of their careers, which is really saying something. I just watched the one from 2007, and it's actually surprisingly decent. 2007 TNA has a surprising amount of guys who look like they could have been reborn as beloved stars in NXT right now. Their roster had some of the same mojo, even in guys like Sabin and Kaz who you'd think would've sucked at that time.

 

I also forgot that halfway through the match, once you have 8-10 guys remaining, it just becomes a regular battle royal where you then start throwing guys out of the ring they've worked so hard to enter. But that because that group had to wait until that halfway point, the guys who'd made it into the ring would have to stand there not attacking each other. And that it then became a straight-up one-on-one match once you got down to two guys. All of which was just a way of establishing the seeding for a tournament using all the same guys that was to begin soon after on Impact. Amazing.

 

Still, Feast or Fired is much dumber in a lot of ways. And if you're going all time "Worst Gimmick", I feel like you need some kind of elaborately stupid prop or ring setup.

[JaymeFuture]

I want to thank everybody for the contributions, we got to read many of them on the show, which is now available at the following link:

http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/play/xrjsh8/SCGRadio72-TheWorstGimmickMatchConceptEver.mp3

Join us our show on The Worst Gimmick Match Concepts Ever, as the panel discuss every ridiculous stipulation under the sun, including Kennel From Hell, the Punjabi Prison, TNA's multiple horrific offerings, King Of The Road, Chamber of Horrors, Inferno Matches, Scaffold Matches, the San Francisco 49ers match, World War 3, the Anus Explosion Death Match (seriously) and many, many more, in search of the very worst one ever created. A tremendously fun show this week, check it out and let us know what you think!

[Bix]

You have to remember the origin of WWF escape the cage rules. It started as a thing where Bruno would beat up the heel so badly he'd get revenge. The idea is that he's beaten the heel so badly that he can just calmly walk out.

 

It worked for Bruno. It wasn't as good a fit for Hogan, and it became a race to escape the cage.

[JRH]

Speaking of cage matches, am i the only one who doesnt get why some promotions would have tag team cage matches contested under "traditional" rules? IMO, cage matches should pretty much be no-holds-barred, with the ref just there to count a pinfall. Otherwise it just becomes a regular match with the novelty of a cage,

[Laz]

Absolutely on the tag cage. It's like when street fights enforce tag rules. If the entire point is to have a balls-out fight, why the hell are you enforcing rules you've specifically booked away?

[Al]

I can kind of buy into the tag cage of the rules are consistently enforced. Street fight tag matches are worse, prime example being LOD/Nasty Boys at Summerslam '91. Or tag matches that become street fights midstream, which ECW did all the time.

[Al]

I also don't mind the escape cage rules. There's a group of matches where the goal is basically to incapacitate the opponent in order to accomplish a goal. Escape cage, ladder match, strap match, stretcher match are all variations of this basic concept. As long as you establish that you can't jump through the ropes and out the door instantly, it works. The issue becomes that over time, you have to bring in more dramatic elements. But that's inherent in all wrestling booking.

[Slasher]

I don't mind the escape rule if it was only achieved by scaling the cage and going over the top. Allowing people to walk out the door is a tougher sell. Even battered, logically it shouldn't take more than 15 seconds to make your way out the door if your opponent is down on the canvas incapitated.

[Slasher]

Or they could introduce a rule that you can't make an attempt to escape until a certain amount of time has passed during the match so that it guarantees the guys would be worn down and selling the slow escape attempts.

[JRH]

I don't mind the escape rule if it was only achieved by scaling the cage and going over the top. Allowing people to walk out the door is a tougher sell. Even battered, logically it shouldn't take more than 15 seconds to make your way out the door if your opponent is down on the canvas incapitated.

Come to think of it, has there ever been a cage that has no door? I dont mean a situation where the door is locked, im talking no door at all, and the only way to escape is to climb out (of course, this limits the type of wrestlers who could compete, no "Giant" wrestlers for example).

[Al]

 

I don't mind the escape rule if it was only achieved by scaling the cage and going over the top. Allowing people to walk out the door is a tougher sell. Even battered, logically it shouldn't take more than 15 seconds to make your way out the door if your opponent is down on the canvas incapitated.

Come to think of it, has there ever been a cage that has no door? I dont mean a situation where the door is locked, im talking no door at all, and the only way to escape is to climb out (of course, this limits the type of wrestlers who could compete, no "Giant" wrestlers for example).

 

Thunderdome (Halloween Havoc '89) had no door, but also no escape rules.

[Slasher]

 

 

I don't mind the escape rule if it was only achieved by scaling the cage and going over the top. Allowing people to walk out the door is a tougher sell. Even battered, logically it shouldn't take more than 15 seconds to make your way out the door if your opponent is down on the canvas incapitated.

Come to think of it, has there ever been a cage that has no door? I dont mean a situation where the door is locked, im talking no door at all, and the only way to escape is to climb out (of course, this limits the type of wrestlers who could compete, no "Giant" wrestlers for example).

I dunno. If they did a good job building the match up where the giant wrestler just crushes his opponent, you can buy a longer than normal wait for the giant to make it over the top. Especially if the door wasn't a viable way to win, otherwise you risk the idea that the giant labors through his way only to see the smaller opponent dart out the door.

[goc]

A stretcher match used to be an awesome stipulation. It was pretty much just a no holds barred match where the only way to win was for one guy to be so badly beaten he had to be carried out on a stretcher. Check out The Fabs/Moondogs stretcher match for an example. The goal isn't to put someone on a stretcher but to beat the shit out of him to the point where he has to be put on one. Now they are fucking stupid with the whole "push it to the finish line" foolishness.

 

WWE is good at ruining gimmick matches though. I never really had an issue with the "touch all four corners" strap matches but WWE using those goofy ass red and green lights makes me not ever want to see another.

 

And I can't believe anyone in here is complaining about the War Games rules. The coin flip and numbers advantage was the whole psychology of the match. It kept the babyfaces having to fight the odds the whole time.