The Stardy Report #3 (written by Stardy for OWW Genesis)
Multiman Elimination Matches: WWE & TNA Needs To Use Them More.
And by elimination matches, I mean three way dances where if one of the three men gets pinned, he’s out and then there are two. And I don’t mean tag matches either, I just mean a flat out fatal four way match elimination or something, be it for the a world title or better yet, a midcard title, like the United States Championship. I’ll post an example here.
The Miz is United States Champion and he’s basically doing nothing. Tons of challengers, but there is barely any title defenses, and when there is, they don’t last that long and yeah, the challenger doesn’t come out strong and Miz doesn’t exactly gain anything from it except a V. Which is why at TLC, they could easily have fatal four way elimination match for the belt, Miz vs. Swagger vs. Bourne vs. somebody else, Primo maybe. Start off by having the fourth person manage to get some offense in but as he’s going for his finisher on the champion, Swagger saves Miz so he can pin the champion himself, but first he disposes of Primo, letting Swagger come off as a strong contender and a favorite, and Primo looking like he had a shot only to have it taken from him last moment. Then have Bourne manage to get the clean pin on Swagger a couple of minutes later, and show Bourne has a good chance of winning after upsetting Swagger (and setting up a rematch for next week) and then in the final few minutes and Bourne looking to win on a number of times, Miz can go chicken… poop and low blow Bourne behind the referee’s back before hitting the Skull Crushing Finale.
Not only would that four way keep Swagger, Bourne and Miz looking strong (Well, Miz comes off as a heel, which is what he wants, no?), sets up Swagger/Bourne on RAW, gives more midcarders a chance like Primo (if he manages to impress in the match, give him a rematch in the future) and makes the champ have a great reign instead of just random pointless singles matches with little to know build like he has had recently.
Same could be done for the Intercontinental Championship. John Morrison has a whole array of contenders, so book a fatal four way, him the champion against Drew McIntyre, Dolph Ziggler and Matt Hardy. Have Hardy get eliminated first by Ziggler, as he starts to gain some momentum again, only to be rolled up by Morrison out of nowhere to be eliminated. He could then hit whatever his finisher’s called on Morrison before he leaves (I like to call it the Formal Introduction myself), and keep McIntyre looking strong going into those final two, only to get himself DQ’d and keep Morrison as champion. Not only could that simply set up John Morrison vs. Drew McIntyre, but it could also set up John Morrison vs. Dolph Ziggler and Dolph Ziggler against Matt Hardy.
It would even work for TNA. I mean, they have enough random stipulation matches as is, but a Multiman Elimination could work, so long as they don’t overflow it and add in some random stipulation like they generally do. Amazing Red / Homicide / Shark Boy / Alex Shelley / Chris Sabin. You could have Homicide mow through Shark Boy and one of the guns to push him as a bad ass, only for the other gun to manage to get the pin on him, setting up Motor City Machine Guns against Homicide and somebody from the World Elite (Make it a six way and it could be Kiyoshi/Bashir/A member of the British Invasion, who gets pinned by Red to show why he is champion), leaving Red and the remaining Gun. Red could win and show why he’s champion, Homicide proves why he is a bad ass and could start feuding with the Motor City Machine Guns with Whoever the other World Elite Member in the match is, the only person who really doesn’t gain anything is Shark Boy, but he hasn’t appeared in so long and when he has, it’s to job, so yeah, he could put over Homicide as a dominant force in the match and as a favorite.
Yeah, it’s a simple concept, but the multiman elimination matches are really important, could lead to some really simple yet good booking, build up a champions reign as great and most importantly, give more guys a shot at the belt instead of focusing it around the same old people. And the closet we’ve gotten to see multiman matches is six random people in a one pin to win match (It could work for a cheap pinfall, but eh, it doesn’t exactly help anybody out) and a Scramble Match, where a person can get pinned a thousand times and only get a pin once and still become a champion. Meh.