The Specialty Match

Professional wrestling has had its share of specialty matches over the years. Most have been bloody and some have just been inane. Some of the bloodiest matches include the Hardcore Match, where weapons are used in a match and the First Blood Match where the loser is the first one to bleed in a match. A couple of very dangerous specialty matches are the Hell in a Cell match and the Scaffold match.

The Hell in a Cell Match is an enclosed steel cage with a mesh roof on top and the battle usually winds up there if it doesn’t start up there. The very first Hell in a Cell match was between Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker in 1997 at an event called: In Your House: Bad Blood. The door of the cell was opened because the crew needed to get an injured cameraman out of the cage and that led to Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker fighting on top of the cage.
Michaels went on to win that match by pin fall after Kane came down to the ring and attacked the Undertaker and gave him a tombstone pile driver.

The next Hell in a Cell match was the Undertaker and Mankind going at it from the top of the cage at the onset of the match. The two men battled precariously on the top of the cage until the Undertaker eventually threw Mankind off of the top of the cage and down through the announcer’s table. Everyone thought he was seriously injured until he was being carried away from the match on a gurney by EMT’s and got off of the gurney and climbed back up to the top of the cage. The Undertaker climbed back up and they battled some more until the Undertaker choke slammed Mankind down onto the top of the cage and part of the roof collapsed, sending Mankind about sixteen feet down to the ring on his back.

Vince McMahon and Terry Funk ran into the ring to make sure Foley was okay. He got back up and continued his match with the Undertaker. The Undertaker choke slammed him on a pile of thumb tacks and gave him the Tombstone Pile driver and then pinned him for the victory. When it was all said and done, Foley had a dislocated shoulder, a bruised kidney, a dislocated jaw, two broken ribs, one and a half broken teeth and fourteen stitches in his lower lip.

Some of the specialty matches that require little wrestling and more skin are “Lingerie Pillow Fight” matches with the Divas and Bra and Panties matches while some of the more popular specialty matches are Hardcore Matches and the annual Royal Rumble match where thirty competitors compete in the ring and the last one left standing in the ring is the winner.

The Specialty match has become an important and popular staple in professional wrestling and is usually done to culminate a feud.