Great-ing Gimmicks of the Past: WCW Triple Cage

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In the history of wrestling, there have been great gimmicks, horrible gimmicks, and then there are those that fall in between. Some of these are remembered fondly by some and cause others to cringe. No, we’re not going to be exploring any Wrestlecrap here. Leave that to the experts. Here, we’ll take a look at some good (or not-so-good) ideas. And, of course, I’m always open to your ideas as well. Post them on the forum or send me an email.

THE TRIPLE CAGE – WCW, 2000

History
Back in 2000, WCW had a movie coming out called Ready to Rumble. Most people consider this a very bad thing. On the April 24 Nitro, the star of the movie, David Arquette, was going to be in attendance to promote the film. Unfortunately, at a booking meeting before the show, Tony Schiavone had made a joke about all the publicity they would get if they made Arquette champion. All well and good, until you realize that Vince Russo was also in this meeting and he thought this was a brilliant idea. No one, not even Arquette himself, could convince Russo otherwise.

Arquette showed up, jawed with Bischoff, and allied with Diamond Dallas Page and Chris Kanyon. This led into a special match on the following Thunder – DDP and Arquette vs. Jeff Jarrett and Eric Bischoff. In one of the most ridiculous moments ever, Arquette pinned Bischoff to win the WCW World title.

When Arquette tried to surrender the title on the next Nitro, Bischoff simply replied by adding him to the planned DDP-Jarrett triple cage match at Slamboree on May 7.

The cage was the same one used in the Ready to Rumble movie. It resembled a boxy pyramid and was broken up into stages. The lowest level was much like the WWE’s Hell in a Cell. The cage completely enclosed the ring and most of the ringside area. The object was to get a ladder, open a trap door in the roof, and climb to the second level. This was dubbed “hardcore hell” and contained various hardcore implements – a table, trashcan, a chair or two, etc. It also contained bolt cutters to cut the chain on the door, which would enable the combatants to climb to the third cage which contained four guitars. The next objective was to climb to the top of the third cage and retrieve the title belt.

The match itself wasn’t bad in the bottom cage and Arquette was booked perfectly, just trying to keep out of the way and getting trampled by Page and Jarrett when he failed.

Eventually Page fought his way into the second cage, with Jarrett behind. The two brawled for a while, finally crashing through the wall onto the roof of the first cage. As Jarrett and Page teased throwing each other off the cage, Arquette climbed up the cage and headed up to the roof of the third where he settled down to watch and guard the belt for DDP.

Just when Page was getting the advantage, Mike Awesome came running out of the back to try and powerbomb DDP. Page hit the diamond cutter on Awesome and the two headed up to the third cage.

Page grabs a guitar and hands it up to Arquette, then he and Jarrett missed shots. As Jarrett reached for another “acoustic equalizer,” Arquette reached down and smashed his guitar over Page’s skull. As Page dropped to the roof of the hardcore cage, Jarrett climbed up, and grabbed the belt.

After the match, Kanyon came running out to help his friend Diamond Dallas. When he reached the top of the first cage, Awesome grabbed Kanyon and threw him off the top. He crash-landed in the raised entrance ramp.

Final Analysis
The triple cage was a promising idea that had three points that hurt it:

1) The entire idea of a cage is to keep other people out. Awesome and Kanyon running in hurt the mystique – Awesome moreso because of his attempted interference.

2) The ending. Another big part of a cage match is to have a definitive winner. Arquette nailing Page took that possibility away.

3) Kanyon taking a giant leap. Don’t get me wrong – this spot looked good and realistically, wasn’t anything that Mick Foley hadn’t already done at the 1998 King of the Ring. It was actually safer since they were able to prepare the area that Kanyon would be landing. Unfortunately, this took place in Kemper Arena in Kansas City – less than a year after Owen Hart fell to his death.

Where are they now?
Normally I’d go into what the wrestlers are doing now, but the next two columns I write will go into this. All except Jeff Jarrett, who’s now one of the main guys (and NWA world champion) in TNA.

As for the star of the column:
The triple cage was last used (to the best of my knowledge) on the September 4, 200 Nitro for a match Vince Russo called “Wargames 2000” which Kevin Nash won. It’s likely under some crates of unsold Nathan Jones T-shirts in a WWE warehouse somewhere now.

Next week: What effect did chucking Kanyon off the cage have on Mike Awesome?