10 Famous Match Stipulations Never Used By WWE

WWE has come up with some incredible match stipulations over the years in the Royal Rumble, the Elimination Chamber, and Money in the Bank.

Sometimes, the company borrows ideas from other places, as we’ve seen recently with the introduction of WarGames on the main roster. However, the following stipulations may have proven popular in other promotions, but have yet to make an appearance for WWE (and may never do so in fact).

These are 10 famous match stipulations NEVER used by WWE.

10. Triple Cage Match

Anyone who has seen the WCW tie-in movie Ready to Rumble will know that a triple-decker steel cage is used during the final act. Well, that’s if anyone has ever made it to the end of that film. Whilst Jimmy King may not be a real wrestler, the Triple Cage Match is most certainly a real stipulation.

At 1988’s Great American Bash, two teams of five wrestlers were put into a “Tower of Doom”, a match that could only be won by climbing down through all three cages to the floor. At Uncensored 1996, Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage defeated eight heels in the so-called “Doomsday Cage”, which was so bad we wish the world really had ended.

Then there was the main event of Spring Stampede 2000, a triple threat triple cage match between Jeff Jarrett, Diamond Dallas Page, and reigning world champion… David Arquette.

WWE have never attempted to use three cages at once, presumably because they saw those last two WCW matches and were scared off. The closest they ever got was when they surrounded a regular cage with the Hell in a Cell at Unforgiven 1999 (for the infamous Kennel From Hell).

9. Bunkhouse Stampede

Though the first televised Royal Rumble match didn’t happen until 1988, similar formats were already in use by other companies. Between 1985 and 1988, the NWA ran an annual mega-match called the Bunkhouse Stampede. This was about as Southern rasslin’ as you could possibly get, as the competitors were allowed and encouraged to wear cowboy boots, hats, and as much denim as they could physically handle.

The idea was to invoke images of a brawl breaking out on a ranch, with all the various cowboys getting involved in any way they could. This gave rise to perhaps the Stampede’s most infamous quality - its heavy use of weapons. Wrestlers could bring their own signature tools to the ring and use them to wreak as much havoc as possible. Straps, spikes, cowbells, chains - you name it, someone was going to get hit by one.

As a result, Bunkhouse Stampedes were usually incredibly bloody and violent affairs, which might be why WWE have never done one. Also, this match represents the pinnacle of what Vince McMahon was trying to erase from wrestling in the 1980s.

8. Flaming Tables Match

Whilst we’ve seen plenty of table matches in WWE, we’ve never witnessed one where the hardware simply had to be on fire before a wrestler got put through it. This mad match type found a home in ECW during the peak of that promotion’s powers. Only one such match found its way onto pay-per-view, when Balls Mahoney and Chilly Willy took on Da Baldies at November to Remember 2000.

Though it’s never been the specific objective of a match to use one, flaming tables have not been totally absent from WWE. The most famous example has to be during Edge and Mick Foley’s match at WrestleMania 22, where the Rated-R Superstar speared the Hardcore Legend through one from the ring apron.

As such a spectacle is so rare in WWE, the iconic quality of the Edge/Foley moment was preserved.

7. Scaffold Match

In theory, there’s nothing wrong with a Scaffold Match. Two wrestlers or teams of wrestlers fight it out on top of a large, wobbly structure, with the winner being the first one to throw their opponent or opponents off the top. It’s dangerous, it’s visually interesting, what more could you possibly want?

Well, to actually see the wrestlers, for a start. The Scaffold Match has long been criticised for making it very hard for crowds both at home and in person to witness the action as it unfolds. They also severely limit how much work participants can do - the bulk of the offence in them being punches and kicks - as well as being needlessly risky for very little reward.

During a match at the NWA’s Starrcade 1986 between The Road Warrior and The Midnight Express, Jim Cornette fell from the scaffolding and managed to tear all the ligaments in one of his knees.

6. Reverse Battle Royal

A TNA Wrestling speciality, the Reverse Battle Royal is quite simple; wrestlers start outside the ring and attempt to get into it, before then attempting to throw the opponents that made it back out again.

It made its debut on an episode of TNA IMPACT in 2006 and was then awarded “Worst Match of the Year” by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Whilst you have to admire their creativity, the stipulation has a whiff of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” about it. It is clunky at best and downright messy at worst and isn’t even used that often by the promotion that created it.

5. Monster's Ball

Another Impact speciality now, and one that belongs to a certain monstrous performer. Abyss worked for TNA for 17 years, winning multiple titles including the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship. Serving as an amalgamation of The Undertaker, Kane and Mankind, Abyss’ character was one of an unhinged psychopath who was willing to endure unbearable suffering to get his hands on his opponents.

This tied in perfectly with his signature hardcore match type, where the competitors were kept in a darkened room with no food or water for 24 hours beforehand. Abyss appeared in 49 Monster’s Ball matches, more than four times more than anybody else. Even after he left the company, they’ve still used the stipulation on multiple occasions.

Chris Park, the man behind the Abyss gimmick, has actually worked for WWE as a producer since 2019, so there is the smallest of possibilities that a variation of Monster’s Ball could turn up in the promotion one day.

4. Ultimate X Match

Our TNA trilogy concludes with perhaps the promotion’s most famous and celebrated creation. A major selling point during the early days of TNA was its X Division, which was designed to fill the gap left by ECW and WCW’s cruiserweights. This division was all about high-flying, high-impact moves, and was initially populated by the likes of Low Ki, Jerry Lynn, and AJ Styles.

The Ultimate X Match is considered the crowning achievement of the X Division concept. Two cables are suspended 15 feet in the air so they form the shape of an X. An object, sometimes a title belt, sometimes a big red cross, is hung in the middle of the X, and it’s up to the participants to retrieve it without using a ladder. There have been over 50 different Ultimate X matches since its 2003 debut, with some being great and others being that one where the X kept falling down.

There are plenty of WWE stars who could work wonders in this sort of environment, but it’s unlikely the company would ever ape something so synonymous with its former competitor. Of course, that could change with the WWE NXT-TNA working relationship.

3. Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch

There have been plenty of variations of the “make the ring explode” match attempted over the years, including something called the “Anus Explosion Deathmatch” from Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, where the objective was to stick a firework up your opponent’s bum and then set it off.

An Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch is where the ring ropes have been covered by or replaced with the spiky stuff, and also set to explode every time someone touches them.  Mick Foley and Terry Funk had a version of this match in 1995 that has gone down in hardcore wrestling history.

The version from AEW Revolution 2021? Not so much. The first mainstream Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch in a long time went from historical to hysterical when the planned explosion at the end failed to go off, leaving everyone looking a bit confused and incredibly silly.

This error means that the stipulation now has a black mark against its name, which is just another reason why we’ll probably never see one happen in a WWE ring. Something tells us that sponsors wouldn’t be thrilled at the idea of kids watching their favourite superstars get blown up, either.

2. Coal Miner's Glove Match

A coal miner’s glove is a leather welding glove with a steel bar across the knuckles. One day, a wrestler saw one and went “That would look great dangling from a giant pole.” Thus, the Coal Miner’s Glove Match was born, and it would go on to become one of the most feared match types in the territory days of wrestling.

The glove was so powerful that one punch was enough to knock somebody out, which is why the only way to get hold of one was to shimmy up a huge strut. WCW ran one of these matches as the main event of Halloween Havoc 1992, pitting Sting against Jake “The Snake” Roberts. When the Stinger hit Roberts with the glove, it forced him to shove a snake into his own face, which is how he lost the match.

WWE have never put on a Coal Miner’s Glove Match, although they did give the world the Coal Miner’s Nightstick Match between Big Boss Man and Test on a 1999 episode of Raw, although this was literally just a Nightstick on a Pole match.

1. World War 3

WWE has borrowed a lot of things from WCW over the years. WarGames, The Great American Bash, nonsensical storylines with no payoff, but one thing they’ve never taken from them is the concept of World War 3. From 1995 to 1998, WCW held an enormous three-ring, 60-man battle royal at a November pay-per-view named after this insane match type. Though the first one was for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, later incarnations rewarded its winner with a title shot at Starrcade.

Even in their wildest dreams, WWE have never done an over-the-top-rope match with this many people. They’ve also never done a match type with three rings, despite owning the rights to World War 3 since 2001.

So why is this? Perhaps it’s because WWE are happy to stick to the Royal Rumble concept. Or perhaps it’s because a match with 60 people in it at the same time is an unwatchable mess.