Invent A Gimmick Match!

[Statto]

52 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

IIRC that was the Builder's Cage match that WAW used to do back in the day. Don't know if they still do it though.

Yep, the builder's cage matches in WAW had that leave the cage = submission stip.

They don't do those specific matches anymore as they got a proper steel cage a while ago now, and I don't think they use the same leave = quit rules. I wouldn't swear to it but I vividly remember a(n even) young(er) RKJ doing a stupendous sell job after getting caught trying to climb out, hanging from the top of the cage then dropping to the floor after some punches. Whole place went quiet as the grave when he started screaming and clutching his leg, everyone in the room was genuinely convinced he'd broken his leg/ankle. (He hadn't and later returned to the match, so they don't do escape = win either, at least for tag matches).

[simonworden]

9 hours ago, Carbomb said:

IIRC that was the Builder's Cage match that WAW used to do back in the day. Don't know if they still do it though.

Wow! That's a memory that's shot back, I think Ricky outlined it on here many years ago when he still liked us. I must have take it from his post originally.

 

A couple more ideas I had were a tactical tag match where two managers assemble a team of 5 secretly but only 2 on each team are ever in the ring while the rest are in secret boxes. The manager can withwithdraw anyone at any time and replace to match up with the opposing sides choice unless eliminated. Basically a wrestler Pokémon battle. 

The other is an elevator gauntlet match. Use a big tower block and one wrestler on each floor. One starts in the lift and it randomly goes up and down with two wrestlers fighting on each floor which is set out with different themes such as a dojo, construction site, restaurant, bathhouse or whatever. Winner of the fall gets back in the lift and once all other floors are eliminated they go to the roof and fight the champ for the belt.

Edited September 17, 2023 by simonworden

[Keith Houchen]

Phones on a pole

Four sex cases have their phones on poles in each corner. They try and smash each others phones. The winner is the one whose phone doesn’t get smashed and they can show the owner the DMs on the device, thus exonerating them. 
 

Couple of issues though. Sneaky heels would use an indestructible Nokia 3210 and the owner would probably declare all of them the winner. 

[air_raid]

There’s quite a few variations on gauntlet/team eliminators. For while I thought Survivor Series but where it stayed 2 vs 2 for the bulk of the match with a new partner coming down to the ring to replace the wrestler eliminated would be novel, until I realized that reducing the possible “outnumbered” disadvantage to just 1 vs 2 it would actually give you fewer stories you could tell than the original format. There is, of course, the scope to cross a War Games or Rumble timer element - either you start the match 1 on 1 and have a new partner enter for each team in turn designating by the coin toss - this would give you an added dimension for the “shifting advantage” that Survivors matches can have e.g heels having a man advantage through eliminations AND the coin toss giving them the next man in too provides some REAL tough odds for the protagonist - let’s him call him John C? No no, too obvious…. J Cena… to overcome. Or, you could make it chaotic by having the partners enter randomly, Rumble style, to further allow for random numerical disadvantages. Of course, either can be done as elimination, first pin wins, or as I mentioned earlier, “captains fall” rules. I quite like the idea of a timed-entry team match where we see the last heel backstage watching (sideways) on the monitor, eager to go, then suddenly the decisive fall happens so the match is lost for his side. On TV later he can throw a tantrum about how it’s not fair he can be deemed to have lost a match he was never in. Let’s call him… Miz.

Not a new match type, but I also think (at least in WWE) they’ve never really done enough with the “multiple titles at stake in one match” concept in terms of participants’ motivations. In my ficfed I once did a handicap match with five heels vs three babyfaces with the tag belts and two singles titles contested, with rules that if someone who had no title was pinned they were eliminated but first pinfall on a champion gave their title to the winner of the fall and ended the match. If you ignore the unnecessary convolution of eliminations and the handicap (I was 17 and watching Russos Raw every week) I threw every story at it I could think of around the “team rules, individual prize” dynamic - the heel team had a falling out with one stablemate who was actively avoiding tagging, valuing preserving his own title over trying to win the match, one wrestler turned on a partner at the finish so he could win the belt that was in jeopardy at the time, and in the aftermath one partner got grief from (and started a feud with) the dethroned champion over perception that he could have made a save in the dying moments but decided spur of the moment not to, because he saw the threat to his own title amidst the chaos disappear in three seconds. “Why would Shawn Michaels save Diesel?” indeed, King.

[andrew "the ref" coyne]

I came up with a couple of terrible ones during my efedding days.

The Hell House Match:
Imagine a Hell In a Cell but it's a giant Perspex box. The inside of the box is basically a giant sauna that gets hotter as the match goes on. BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE... the outside of the ring is submerged in ice cold water. The idea is that your fighting in a sauna, and if you fall into the water around the edge, there's a chance you may suffer shock from the temperature change.

Basketball Challenge: 
It's a standard match, but whilst you are wrestling two men (who have been chosen by each competitor in the match) are playing 1 on 1 basketball outside the ring. You cannot attempt to go for a cover or submission whilst the basketball match is tied, but once your chosen player is up on points, you can win the match.

Iron Will Match:
Basically it's a one hour match, but you can only go for the finish after an hour of wrestling. 

[Jazzy G]

On 9/15/2023 at 3:51 PM, BomberPat said:

The other I'm sure has been done, but a while back I wanted to do a match - I think I called it Double Jeopardy at the time, though that name has been used for other gimmicks - where rather than two out of three falls, the winner has to get two consecutive falls, with the count reset if they dropped a fall to their opponent. I think someone else might have done it after I thought of it, and that's why I scrapped it. Though, again, was probably done before anyway. 

I had an idea for a triple threat match, but you have to pin both your opponents to win, conversely if you manage to get pinned by both your opponents before the finish you get eliminated, and it reverts to being a singles match. It's possible to have the match end with all three still in the ring, but then there could be the opportunism of trying to get save somebody from being eliminated to maintain pressure on a champion, or two heels trying to work together to eliminate a babyface from the match, only for it to fall apart.

When I was Ed Anderson two of my friends in our little backyard fed had the "Burnley Bloodbath" match, which was a last man standing match, but the counts were only valid if you'd been busted open first. Sounds like something Mox would very much be into.

Edited September 17, 2023 by jazzygeofferz

[andrew "the ref" coyne]

Oh god. 

15 hours ago, jazzygeofferz said:

I had an idea for a triple threat match, but you have to pin both your opponents to win, conversely if you manage to get pinned by both your opponents before the finish you get eliminated, and it reverts to being a singles match. It's possible to have the match end with all three still in the ring, but then there could be the opportunism of trying to get save somebody from being eliminated to maintain pressure on a champion, or two heels trying to work together to eliminate a babyface from the match, only for it to fall apart.

The memory is coming back to me. I actually competed in a match similar to this. 2 Falls Triple Threat, to win you have to hold a fall over both of your opponents. No elimination, all three people stay in it until someone gets the two falls.

I reckon with more competent and talented trio on a tv show it COULD work, but at a working men's club in Loughborough it was a terrible idea. Don't do it. Ever.

Edited September 18, 2023 by andrew "the ref" coyne

[air_raid]

7 hours ago, andrew "the ref" coyne said:

The memory is coming back to me. I actually competed in a match similar to this. 2 Falls Triple Threat, to win you have to hold a fall over both of your opponents. No elimination, all three people stay in it until someone gets the two falls.

I assume you won, given the unfair advantage you had, of being able to fast count your own pinfall attempts.

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

The Kofi Rumble

Usual Rumble entry, but however you go through or over the ropes counts as an elimination as long as any part of your body touches the floor....

 

Just to spice things up - around the crowd barriers there's barbed wire and the ring steps are removed. And if you really want to make it exciting, after 1hr the floor around the ring begins to set on fire....or similar. 

 

Sounded much better in my head than written down

[andrew "the ref" coyne]

55 minutes ago, air_raid said:

I assume you won, given the unfair advantage you had, of being able to fast count your own pinfall attempts.

I did actually!

[Glenryck Pilchards]

A Poll on a Pole match. The winner is declared after retrieving an electronic device and choosing the option 'otter'.

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

This might seem a basic one, but keeping the match in the ring. No using the barriers, announce table, throwing into the crowd, steps are out, ring post is out. Just a simple two wrestlers in the ring and it's purely down to who will win inside the ring.

[Devon Malcolm]

That one was sent to CornyDriveThru@gmail.com

[Statto]

1 hour ago, Big'Olympic_Hero'Pete said:

This might seem a basic one, but keeping the match in the ring. No using the barriers, announce table, throwing into the crowd, steps are out, ring post is out. Just a simple two wrestlers in the ring and it's purely down to who will win inside the ring.

Souled Out 2000, WCW did Kidman vs Dean Malenko in a "catch as catch can" match where you'd get DQd for leaving the ring.

2mins into the match Dean "forgot" the rules (or knew he was on the way out very shortly thereafter) and rolled to the outside to cut off Kidman's momentum, and that was that.

That match itself was thrown together at the last minute as the PPV was supposed to feature Benoit vs Jarrett in a "triple threat theatre" of 3 different gimmick matches (none of which was this one) but Jarrett was hurt & Benoit moved into the main event to replace an injured Bret Hart so the triple threat theatre became Kidman vs 3 different guys.

[air_raid]

16 hours ago, Statto said:

That match itself was thrown together at the last minute as the PPV was supposed to feature Benoit vs Jarrett in a "triple threat theatre" of 3 different gimmick matches (none of which was this one) but Jarrett was hurt & Benoit moved into the main event to replace an injured Bret Hart so the triple threat theatre became Kidman vs 3 different guys.

It was basically meant to be. They were going to call it a Dungeon match and remove the ropes but the rules were going to be the same - pinfall or submission or lose if you hit the floor.

Card was switched from Bret Hart vs Sid for the big belt, Jarrett vs Benoit for the US title in the triple threat theatre and Filthy Animals vs Revolution including their mystery partner... to what they did. Honestly, it was so awful, it must have been the worst PPV since Starrcade 99.