Chances are, anyone reading this column has watched a lot of professional wrestling matches. While a gripping one-fall encounter between two evenly matched athletes is certain to please fans time after time, every once in a while fans who do watch a lot of wrestling might want something just a little bit different. I’m not talking about some ridiculously overbooked gimmick match out of Vince Russo’s wildest fantasy. Didn’t the last TNA ppv have some sort of “reverse battle royal, chain on a pole, bra-and-panties, third-blood, elimination-in-a-cage match†or something? No, I mean a stipulation that allows the performers to add a new level of drama and psychology, enabling more sophisticated storytelling and deeper intrigue in their game of human chess.
TODAY’S ISSUE: Matches with multiple decisions.
Whether you’re talking about 2-out-of-3 falls, Iron Man, or Texas Death match rules, any contest that can include multiple decisions opens things up for the wrestlers to tell a slightly different story than the more common one-fall-to-a-finish match allows. For example, I’ll never forget a brilliantly simple piece of business in the 60-minute Iron Man showdown between Triple H and the Rock at Judgment Day in 2000. Up by a fall, Triple H walloped Rock with a chair right in front of the referee, surrendering a fall and evening the match. But since the chair shot couldn’t be stricken from the record and had knocked the Rock silly, 23 seconds later Triple H very calmly covered him, scoring a pinfall and regaining the one-fall lead in the match. The Cerebral Assassin got away with a devastating chair shot and, within the context of the match format, lost nothing by doing so. That’s the sort of thing that makes multi-decision matches more compelling at times.
If Triple H wanted to hit Rock with a chair in a one-fall match and not get DQ’d, he’d have to force us all to pretend a pro wrestling referee is the dumbest person on the planet, and distract him in some way so that everyone else in a 2-mile radius would see the chair shot, just not the man in charge of the action. That sort of tomfoolery often makes it difficult to suspend your disbelief. In fact, I love it when somebody on-screen is allowed to use common sense. That’s why I enjoy it when Samoa Joe simply sidesteps an onrushing attacker in the ring instead of standing there and eating a high-impact assault from his opponent. Common sense.
Another way officials get abused is via the dreaded ref-bump, and while it isn’t always done for this reason, sometimes the destined-to-lose babyface gets to show the crowd his superiority by hitting his finisher and covering the evil heel for much longer than a three-count, but the ref is incapacitated due to the heel’s shenanigans from moments earlier, so there’s “nobody to count the fallâ€. It’s completely beyond me why, after all this time, promoters don’t keep a spare official at ringside to take over officiating duties in the event the original ref is knocked-out, especially since it happens on a somewhat regular basis.
When trying to get into the action and suspend disbelief, the more stupid and annoying stuff that occurs, the less likely you are to remain in that nether realm between reality and fantasy that promoters need to keep you in. How cool would it be to see a ref take a knockout bump and have another official jump up from ringside and continue calling the match seamlessly? That would make me think the promoter had his feces coagulated, and I’d respect the company for it. I know it would restrict heels from cheating as freely, but then, perhaps some clever heels simply need to concoct some new ways to break the rules.
Something else multi-decision matches can do is to protect the credibility of supposedly deadly finishing maneuvers. Whenever grapplers endure these vicious maneuvers and then kick out, the moves weakened in the eyes of the fans. I can’t understand why, especially in WWE main events since around 2000 (although I admit my beloved indies are guilty as well, and TNA apes WWE in every way, so they’re not innocent either) the bigger the match, the less likely a killer finisher is to actually lead to victory. At least not on the first try.
In a big match like Austin vs. Rock at WrestleMania, both men become super-human and kick out of the other’s biggest moves again and again. What about being in a big match makes wrestlers’ jaws stronger, their endurance greater, or their body more able to absorb punishment? (Conversely, in an elimination style match in which several men must “lose†before you get to the end, think traditional Survivor Series matches, the very simplest of moves can lead to a pinfall.)
In a multi-fall match, they can protect the effectiveness of a big move by having the victim take it and lose a decision as a result, as they should. If the folks who build matches don’t want Stone Cold to hit 17 Stunners in an Iron Man match, then they should book his opponent to counter and/or avoid 16 of them. But when he does hit that 17th one, promoters should let it earn the Rattlesnake a fall or else risk convincing fans that the maneuver is only devastating SOMETIMES.
Speaking of finishers, Texas Death match rules can really serve to bolster the perceived effectiveness of a given hold. Imagine a move so devastating that it not only leads to a man being pinned, but even after the fall he struggles to beat a slow 10-count afterwards. That’s a great way to prove how dangerous a finisher can be.
The same goes for near-falls and almost tapping out in dangerous submission holds. Announcers always sell it as amazingly dramatic when a man barely lifts his shoulder off the canvas one millisecond before the zebra strikes the mat for the third and final time, but it’d be equally exciting for the victim to lift his shoulder one heartbeat AFTER the ref strikes three, showing that he barely lost that fall. It might be an anticlimactic ending to a one-fall match, but in a multi-decision contest, it’d be just another compelling chapter in the entire story. Imagine JR’s animated cackling, “Shawn Michaels just drilled Jericho with his best move, that Sweet Chin Music, as clean as could be in the middle of the ring, and it BARELY held Y2J down, King! What else can HBK do now? If he can only eek out a fall in this Iron Man match against the Ayatolla of Rock-and-Rolla with the biggest gun in his arsenal, where does Michaels turn now? There’s nothing left in his bag of tricks!â€
Multi-fall matches are extremely effective in displaying that two opponents are dead even in skill, heart, and will-to-win. If two men trade falls in a 2-out-of-3 falls match and then the final fall comes down to a “pick-em†situation in which both men appear able to win before one squeaks through, it helps establish the two men as being on the same level. If they weren’t equals before the match, this means one man has been elevated (always good for business), and if they were on the same level before the match but neither man dominated, that means the promotion can always build to another match, or an entirely new feud between them, sometime down the line. This is also good for business, as promoters need possibilities and openings to plan for the future, not a one-way path down a narrow road.
One more element I appreciate in multi-decision match is that they give the wrestlers another bit of kayfabe strategy. For example, let’s say early in a multi-fall match Kurt Angle cinches on the ankle-lock with accompanying heel-hook on AJ Styles in the middle of the ring. In this dangerous predicament, Styles has two primary options. He can choose to stay in the hold a long time, weakening his ankle while trying to make his way to the ropes or come up with some brand new counter on the spot and severely limiting his offense for later since a lot of what he does requires agility and flying. Or, he can think long-term and simply tap-out quickly to get out of the punishing hold. A multi-fall match is a marathon not a sprint, and accepting that early decision against him might be Styles’ best tactical option at that stage in the game.
Since so many possibilities become available to wrestlers and promoters with these specialty stipulations they can be very effective when used sparingly, especially as blow-off matches to end a feud. Anything that makes a contest between two wrestlers seem special, unique, and important will always be good for business, and multi-fall matches can be a nice treat compared to the standard diet of one-fall, one-on-one matches upon which wrestling fans subsist. If you have the patience and endurance to watch, just like taking the time to read a good book, the traditionally longer stories told in multi-fall matches can truly satisfy your craving for something different.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled reality.
p.s. – “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.†– Mark Twain
Elsewhere on Pulse Wrestling…
The greatest WWE analysts take a crack at predicting the results of the biggest party of the summer in our Rasslin Roundtable for SummerSlam. How did they fare? Compare their picks to reality in Steve Murray’s exceptional live coverage.
David Wells discusses Pro Wrestling Guerrilla in his Independent Run Down and speaking of PWG, Big Andy Mac writes a review of their latest 3-disc compellation called PWG Sells Out which looks so good (both the DVD set and the review) that I will buy it before this week is over. Guaranteed.
Also in the land of the indies, Jonathan Kirschner discusses Shane Storm and much more, plus he makes a promise to yours truly in his outstanding Guerrilla Chikarticles.
Our grand puro champion David Ditch brings the goods as only he can in his 131st installment of Puroresu Pulse.
Andy Wheeler makes a valiant effort for you, the discerning wrestling fan, by enduring TNA’s latest craptacular ppv Hard Justice. I respect you for your dedication to our fans, Andy. Also on Hard Justice, the wacky and “controversial†Brad Curran gives his take on the show and, surprise! He disagrees with most of us.
Our ROH Ace, Pulse Glazer, gives a comprehensive and quite detailed look at Ring of Honor’s top five shows in each of their main geographic areas of operation in his latest ROH Weekly, and Big Andy Mac gives results of the August 16th ROH show emanating from Chicago Ridge.
IWC icon Scott Keith breaks down WWE’s new DVD set on the Rock called The Most Electrifying Man In Sports Entertainment.
And finally, in a Pulse Wrestling exclusive, Big Andy Mac interviews former NWA World Heavyweight Champion “Scrap Iron†Adam Pearce in a fantastic three-part podcast. A MUST-HEAR!
