wrestling / Columns

The Professional 3 4.28.13: Top 3 Underrated Specialty Matches

April 28, 2013 | Posted by Jon Harder

What’s happenin’ everyone? Welcome to another edition of the Professional 3 here on 411wrestling.com! I’m Jon Harder and this week’s column will be no different than any other P3, as I attempt to stress the unique topics that pop into my mind at any given basis. It truly is the highlight of my week when I get an opportunity to write this column. It brings out my inner-nerd when I dig back into the annuls and dig out small pieces of wrestling history.

I am genuinely pleased with the comments of last week’s column. So many different mustaches; so little time. Good News Hughes was so pleased with the Professional 3 being dedicated to him; he announced on this week’s Hardway Podcast that hisInstagram will be “Mustache Week”. Of course, Good News loses track of time, so his week of soup-strainers will most likely take 5 weeks. Also this week, Vanessa Kraven from the Quebec wrestling scene and manager extraordinaire Loudy from On Point Wrestling stop by for a few to talk about their careers within the independent scene. Oh, and “Stone Cold” Charles Barkley makes an impact this week.

Now, this week in the Professional 3, I want to talk about an art form that many wrestling fans love, yet many might not 100% fully appreciate: the specialty match. Specialty matches are an attraction that can either enhance a feud or end a long-term rivalry. It truly is like watching the final fight scene of a movie after being emotionally invested throughout an entire flick. You watch little pieces thrown in that lasted throughout an entire rivalry and watch it either succeed again or fail miserably. The Hell in a Cell match is a perfect way to put an ultimate feud to rest. In particular, the Undertaker vs Edge Summerslam 2008 match is a perfect example of what a feud-ender should feel like. It just had that perfect ability to have incorporated everything that the rivalry had for over 18 months.

Not only that, specialty matches can also be used as a spectacle that showcases a group of wrestlers abilities. Death-defying stunts mixed in with an utter display of recklessness to one’s body equal that demolition derby setting. The multi-man ladder match personifies that to a t. Whether it’s in FRAY form, Money in the Bank style, or even the multi-team TLC match, if it involves a ladder, insanity will pursue.

Obviously, there are a plethora of “gimmick” matches that have existed in the pro wrestling art form. From the simple yet barbaric cage match, to the leather strap match, to Buried Alive, to EVEN the infamous Dog Poo match with the Rock-N-Sock Connection against Val Venis and the British Bulldog in October of 1999 (yes, even that one), a zillion have existed. Yet to me, there are three in particular that are either not remembered, not respected, or completely forgotten about and most definitely should not be forgotten. SO, as per usual in the spirit of this column, I proudly present…

THE PROFESSIONAL 3: Underrated Specialty Matches

Triple Cage Match by wcwAttitude

1) TRIPLE CAGE MATCH

In 2000, one of the most ridiculous, yet one of my personal favorite movies came out to movie theaters: Ready to Rumble. The WCW based flick revolved around a “shoot” rivalry between former WCW champion Jimmy King and Diamond Dallas Page, along with crooked promoter Titus Sinclair. The movie built to a climatic Triple Cage match, which were 3 cages stacked on top of one another. The movie was ludicrous, but the match premise was unique. The bottom cage was a Hell in a Cell structure, covering the ring. The second cage, slightly smaller, was filled fence to fence with weapons. The final and smallest cell was strictly used to climb up and grab the WCW World championship at the tippy-top. The Triple Cage was a cool match concept in theory.

There have only been two official Triple Cage matches in the history of wrestling. The first took place on May 7, 2000 at Slamboree where WCW World champion David Arquette (yes, the guy who starred in Ready to Rumble and the 1-800 Collect commercials) defended the title against DDP and Jeff Jarrett. In what can only be classified as a modern miracle, the three had a solid match. In the end, however, Arquette took out DDP with a guitar and helped Jarrett win the match and the championship. (DID YOU KNOW: this was also the match where Mike Awesome threw Kanyon off the top of the second cage to the stage below.)

The other one took place on Monday Nitro in September 2000 as a part of a War Games match for the WCW championship. Unlike the original, the only way to win was to grab the championship from the top and THEN go through all obstacles in reverse before getting to the first cage and exiting through the door to win. At the end of the match, Bret Hart cost Goldberg the opportunity to regain the WCW championship. It was an insane battle, especially on an episode of Monday Nitro.

Regardless, the Triple Cage match has not taken place since. I think the unique specialty match could work in this day and age, especially with the evolution of wrestling style. This concept is vastly underrated and deserves to be seen again somewhere. ANYWHERE.

Sandman vs. Sabu – Stairway To Hell by homicide

2) STAIRWAY TO HELL

ECW was the master of putting a new twist on already barbaric matches in the mid 1990s. Examples include the High Incident match, the barbed wire match, and the Gangstas Paradise cage match (i.e. Sandman, 2 Cold Scorpio, and New Jack against Mikey Whipwreck & Public Enemy in 1995). However, Paul Heyman and his maniacal wrestling mind put the ultimate twist to the ladder match by concocting the STAIRWAY TO HELL match.

The Stairway to Hell match had the basic gist of a ladder match, in which a ladder was used to climb to grab a coil of barbed wire. Unlike a ladder match, once the barbed wire was pulled down from the ceiling, the match didn’t end; IT ONLY BEGUN. The brutality and bodily harm only intensified from that point. The match mercifully ended with a pinfall or submission.

There have only been a handful of these matches in the era of extreme, and for good reason. The first ever match of this magnitude was between the Sandman and Sabu during the fall of 1997 during their legendary rivalry. The damage inflicted by both athletes on each other was inhumane. Simply devastating, at least to me and my tastes. The last known Stairway to Hell took place at Heatwave 2000 between ECW World champion Justin Credible and Tommy Dreamer.

This is not a PG style match to say the very least. It is the violent end to a rivalry and a blessing that a mass exodus of talent have not experienced personally in wrestling. It is such an underrated specialty match and deserves massive props.

3) THE SCRAMBLE CAGE

Ring of Honor has always been the home of revolutionary wrestling. State-of-the-art competition has always reigned supreme in the most influential independent wrestling company in the 2000s. Yet, of all the hard-hitting matches that ever took place in ROH, there was only one truly innovative match that was influential yet career-shortening for every athlete that ever stepped foot in it: the Scramble Cage.

Unlike a normal cage match, ROH officials added an unusual element to their fenced squared circle. In each corner of the steel cage, four wooden planks were added to the top. That one added extra maximized the high flyers chances of doing crazy dives off the top, which was 10-15 feet in the air. It was AWE-INSPIRING to say the very least.

Debuting in Elizabeth, NJ, the first installment in 2003 was simply a “can you top this” affair, ultimately culminating with the earth-shattering double moonsault from Jack Evans from the top to the outside on the arena floor. (DID YOU KNOW: This was also the match where Teddy Hart went absolutely berserk with back flips and such post-match.) “At Our Best” in March of 2004 showcased the end of a long rivalry, as the Carnage Crew ended their war with Special K, utilizing the double team piledriver on Azrieal off the top of the cage through 2 tables as the “exclamation point” ending.

The most controversial Scramble Cage took place at “Scramble Cage Melee” in August of 2004 in Boston, MA, where a dozen men walked into a cage and put it all on the line for the ROH fan base. The ultimate stunt was Mr. Evans topping his double moonsault from 2003 and delivering a 630 to the late, great Trent Acid off the wooden plank through a table. The Scramble Cage Melee was so risky that Gabe Sapolsky, ROH booker at the time, refused to book another match similar to that effect.

The Kat Vs Terri Thong Stinkface Match Summerslam 2000 – The funniest videos are a click away