That Was Then, Is This Too? 11.24.09: Cashing In

Posted by Jasper Gerretsen on 11.24.2009

With Feast or Fired making its return at the upcoming Final Resolution PPV, we take a look at another match involving a title shot in a briefcase.

Welcome to yet another installment of That Was Then, Is This Too?, the column that looks for parallel lines in all the right places. As usual, we have comments:

An inverted Chikara special? May God have mercy on us all.

Posted By: The Celt (Guest) on November 17, 2009 at 12:59 PM

That seems to be the general idea they're going for.

CHIKARA doesn't get the credit they deserve for being innovative and interesting.

Posted By: AngryTas (Guest) on November 17, 2009 at 08:20 PM

I agree, although the company is pretty nicely covered on 411mania, with both reviews and a weekly column. They don't get nearly enough coverage in other wrestling news outlets though.

Before we move on, I'd like to draw attention to the results from this weeken's CHIKARA show, as provided by CHIKARAfans.com. Without spoiling too much, I can say that the show saw an absolutely epic conclusion to what's probably CHIKARA's greatest year yet, including a revelation about Carpenter Ant that only raises more questions.

That leads us to banner! 2.0!



At this year's Final Resolution PPV, TNA will be bringing back their Feast or Fired match. The Feast or Fired match will be held for the third time, and will probably feature any TNA wrestler not booked in another match on the show. The wrestlers will fight it out for one of four briefcases hanging from poles in the corners, with the winners being the ones that can grab a briefcase and leave the ring. Inside the briefcase will be a title shot for either the X-Division, tag team or world heavyweight championship. The fourth briefcase contains a pink slip, sending the wrestler holding it packing from the company. The fun doesn't end there, as the title shot is seemingly determined by possession of the briefcase containing it, rather than by simply winning the match, as evidenced by several storylines revolving around the theft of briefcases, most recently seen during the feud between LAX and the British Invasion.

The very first Feast or Fired match was held at the 2007 Turning Point PPV, with the winners being Senshi, Scott Steiner, Petey Williams and BG James. Senshi lost his briefcase to Christopher Daniels in a match on Impact, and was subsequently fired as the briefcase contained a pink slip. B.G. James decided to chose his father as his tag team partner for the tag team title shot, leading to the VKM team of B.G. James and Kip James splitting and feuding. Scott Steiner and Petey Williams traded briefcases after Steiner won a match involving all four briefcase holders, then won Williams' briefcase in a match at Against All Odds. Williams got the briefcase with the X-Division title shot back when he became Steiner's protegé, and eventually beat X-Division champion Jay Lethal on Impact. Steiner meanwhile was unsuccessful against Samoa Joe at Sacrifice.

The match returned in December of 2008, at the Final Resolution PPV. This time the men to walk away with briefcases were Homicide, Hernandez, Jay Lethal and Curry Man. Curry Man ended up getting fired, allowing Christopher Daniels to come back to the company a few weeks later under his real name, after having been "fired" in much the same way the previous year. Jay Lethal meanwhile had won a tag team title shot, and cashed in with Consequences Creed as his new partner. Homicide meanwhile had his briefcase, containing an X-Division title shot, stolen by the British Invasion, but he was succesful in a ladder match with the brief case on the line and won the title a few weeks later on Impact. Hernandez also lost his briefcase to the British Invasion only to eventually win it back, but unlike his tag team partner he was unsuccessful when he tried to cash it in, inserting himself in the fatal fourway match for the TNA world heavyweight championship at No Surrender.

So far the winners of the Feast or Fired match have had limited success. The winners of the tag team title shot have a record of one win and one loss, while the world heavyweight championship has never been won through a feast or fired title shot. The only briefcase with a 100% success rate so far has been the X-Division championship title shot.

Of course the whole idea of winning a match by grabbing a briefcase containing a title shot that can be cashed in at any time is hardly original, as WWE has been having this match at their showcase PPV for five years now, in a much simpler format. How does the Feast or Fired match measure up to WWE's Money in the Bank ladder match?

That Was Then...

The first Money in the Bank match was the brain child of Chris Jericho, who proposed the concept to Eric Bischoff on an episode of Monday Night RAW thre months prior to WrestleMania 21. Bischoff accepted and signed the match, with six RAW superstars (Chris Jericho, Christian, Chris Benoit, Kane, Edge and Shelton Benjamin) competing in a ladder match for a briefcase containing a contract that would entitle them to a shot at the world heavyweight championship anywhere, any time.

The match was won by ladder match specialist Edge, who would sit on his contract for the next nine months. He did successfully defend it in another ladder match, this time against Matt Hardy, in which Matt's spot on the RAW roster was also on the line. He didn't cash in on his title shot until the 2006 New Year's Revolution show, where he managed to pin Cena for his first WWE championship after the latter had just outlasted five other men in a brutal Elimination Chamber match.

In 2006 the match was brought back after a suggestion from Carlito. This time around the match would be open to competitors of both brands, and the six participants were chosen through a series of qualifying matches. The lineup was a bit more varied this time around, with grizzled veterans Ric Flair and Finlay, ladder match specialist Matt Hardy, spotfest specialist Rob Van Dam and young upstarts Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin.

Like the year before Shelton Benjamin stole the show, but it was Rob Van Dam who would walk away as the new Mr. Money in the Bank. At next month's Backlash show, he put the title shot on the line against Benjamin's intercontinental championship, and came out victorious. He proved impatient however, announcing his intent to challenge WWE champion John Cena just weeks after winning.

The title match was signed for the ECW One Night Stand PPV, and would headline a show designed to kickstart the newly revived ECW brand. In front of thousands of rabid fans, RVD captured the WWE championship after interference from Edge, with Paul Heyman counting the pinfall. With this win, RVD was also awarded the ECW championship, although he would lose both soon after following his arrest for drug possession.

Ìn 2007 the match was expanded to include eight competitors from all three brands, and it was arguably the most stacked Money in the Bank match ever, with three former world champions participating. However it was the rookie Mr. Kennedy who, after a year of beating pretty much every former world champion on the SmackDown roster, would capture the coveted title shot.

Kennedy would get little chance to actually enjoy his newfound glory, as he lost the title shot to Edge on the May 7th episode of RAW. Edge used the title shot the following night to successfully capture the Undertaker's world heavyweight championship. Both the briefcase and the title changed hands due to injury, but Kennedy's injury proved much less severe than initially feared. He would never get another world title shot however, suffering a series of injuries before eventually being released.

The 2008 Money in the Bank ladder match was the only edition where only seven wrestlers competed, due to Jeff Hardy's 60 day suspension for violating the wellness policy just weeks prior to the show. In the end it was CM Punk who overcame Shelton Benjamin, ladder match specialist Chris Jericho, Carlito, Montel Vontavious Porter, former winner Mr. Kennedy, and former rival John Morrison.

Punk cashed in his title shot on world heavyweight champion Edge on the June 30th episode of Monday Night RAW. Jim Ross, who had been drafted to SmackDown, saw his farewell speech interrupted by the Rated R superstar, but was saved by an enraged Batista, who had been cheated out of the title on the previous night's Night of Champions show. Punk made the most of the oppertunity, pinning Edge after a Go To Sleep and in the process making sure that RAW once again had a world championship.

It was Punk who would also go on to win the match in 2009, becoming the first person to win the match twice. He chased Edge for several weeks, attempting to cash in his title shot only to get beaten down before the match could start. He finally managed to win the world title at Extreme Rules, defeating Jeff Hardy, who himself had just beaten Edge in a great ladder match. By cashing in on the blue brand's strong babyface, Punk would start down the path that would eventually lead him to become SmackDown's top heel in one of the greatest feuds of 2009.

...Is This Too?

At the very core, both Feast and Fired and Money in the Bank follow the same general idea: grab the briefcase to win a shot at the title. That's pretty much where the similarities end though, as WWE's interpretation involves six or eight guys, ladders and one briefcase, where TNA's interpretation seems to be whoever isn't booked on the PPV yet, poles and four briefcases.

And that overload of wrestlers and briefcases is exactly why Feast or Fired matches will never be as memorable as some of the Money in the Bank matches have been. They simply demand too much of the audience's attention. In Money in the Bank however, the audience has one focal point: the one briefcase hanging over the ring. After the usual big brawl to start, you can follow the whole match simply by focusing on that briefcase and whoever happens to be reaching for it at the time, while the rest of the wrestlers rest outside of view. In the TNA match meanwhile, there is simply so much going on that it's almost impossible to tell a real story, or create a memorable moment.

The same problem persists after the match, when there are three guys running around with potential title shots. The Money in the Bank winner will be in the spotlight simply by showing up, because people know he can take over as the face of the company at any given time. The Feast or Fired winners meanwhile have rarely been highlighted as the future of the company, in stead becoming involved in various convoluted feuds that made the briefcases seem more important than the championships they were chasing.

It certainly doesn't help that TNA has yet to give a clear ruling on how the briefcases are controlled. Several times we have seen the briefcases defended in matches, but at the same time we have also seen the briefcases stolen, with all wrestlers and authority figures involved acting as if the person stealing the briefcase was now the one who was entitled to the title shot inside.

What irks me most about the Feast or Fired concept is the presence of a pink slip in one of the briefcases. While this might make the match more exciting, it also makes absolutely no sense at all. Imagine this scenario taking place at any corporation. You get to pick one of four briefcases, and in three are a promotion, the fourth will get you fired. Why would anyone gamble with their career like that? Is a shot at a championship really worth risking your ability to put a roof over your family's head? Anyone with a shred of common sense would simply walk away from all this. What's even worse is that so far the fired stipulation has had no actual impact, as Daniels simply returned as Curry Man the first time around, then went back to being Daniels the second time.

A far bigger logical flaw that plagues both matches is that cashing in the title shot while the title holder is down, which has been done in the majority of these cases, is very much a heel thing to do. They actually had the right idea with RVD's title shot, as he gave Cena plenty of time to prepare while still chosing a venue that would give him a decided advantage. So far he has been the only babyface to cash in in a babyface way without looking stupid, unlike, for example, Hernandez.

So if TNA intends to emulate WWE by holding these matches, they're certainly going about it the wrong way. Every aspect of both the match and its aftermath has been far too convoluted, making it impossible to create any memorable moments or push new talent into the main event scene. Of course if TNA were to simplify this match, they would end up with an even more blatant copy of a WWE concept. At this point the smartest thing to do would be to simply drop the match all together and never mention it again.