5 Cage Match Variations You Probably Forgot

 

Happy Holidays folks, I hope everyone had a joyous and relaxing Thanksgiving. And am enjoying Black Friday sales and football. With WarGames this weekend with it's double ring and cage infrastructure I started thinking about other cage match variations. Elimination Chamber, Lethal Lockdown, Blood and Guts, and Hell In A Cell are the most commonly known ones. Per usual I went down the rabbit hole of cage matches, to find 5 variations you probably forgot about.

5. Kennel From Hell Match

If you've wiped this match from your memory you've done yourself a favor. If you've never seen this match, don't even waste your time. The Kennel From Hell match held at Unforgiven in  September1999, in retrospect is a clear example that Vince Russo was burnt out at this point. It also raises the question of how was this approved? 

The match featuring Big Bossman and Al Snow squaring off in a steel cage match, surrounded by a hell in the cell with the winner having to escape both. The selling point to this match was there were dogs at ringside meant to deter both wrestlers from escaping and you know be "ferocious". Yet the dog's didn't react, the audience didn't react, and this goes down as one of the worst steel cage variations ever. 

4. Scramble Cage Match

Held during the early year's of Ring of Honor, this match was held only once in 2004 at the Scramble Cage Melee event.  Participants of this multi-man match included Trent Acid, BJ Whitmer, Devito, and Jack Evans among a few others. The objective of the match was to climb the top of the cage, stand on one of the pillars that were situated in the four corners. Then dive onto a waiting opponent, who would then be eliminated from the match. Many participants sustained injuries during this match and it was deemed too dangerous to ever hold again. 

3. Asylum Match

A WCW match that originated in the Summer of 2000 when the train that was WCW started going off the rails one last time. Inspired by the MMA world and supposedly thought of by Scott Steiner. The steel cage was literally an oval shaped cage that took over only, ONLY the center of the ring. Which meant the two competitors were truly confined with what they were able to do in the ring. 

The only way to win was by submission, and I guess the idea was that it would lead to more brawling than actual wrestling. 

2. Dixieland Match

Depending on which way you view the world, this match was either ahead of it's and different or a complete cluster. Legend has it Dixie Carter herself thought of the idea, and thus the match was named Dixieland in her honor. In this match, the competitors started off inside a steel cage, would have to escape the cage and work their way up the ramp towards the entrance. Where a ladder was waiting for them to climb and grab whatever prize dangled from above. 

I believe there were a couple matches held with this format, before someone decided it was too convoluted and not worth it. Then it disappeared.

1. Three Cage Match

In May of 2000 WCW still trying to promote their film Ready To Rumble released a month prior decided to do some synergy promoting, and use the cage concept from the film and bring it to real life. To further drive home the synergy they decided have film star David Arquette be a participant in the match. Alongside Diamond Dallas Page who had a role in the film, Kanyon who was a stunt coordinator on the film was an outside participant, and Jeff Jarrett who had no involvement in the film but was being built up as a main eventer.  

This was another sort of hybrid cage match. The participants started in the ring and then worked their way up to the next cage. After spending some time there, they then moved to the third cage and on top of that cage was the WCW World Heavyweight Championship for them to obtain. Good idea in theory, bad execution especially the way the match ended and the outcome.