Match of the Day - The no DQ loser leaves town for 30 days coal miner's glove tuxedo steel cage match!

Speaking of stipulations inside a steel cage match...

Ted DiBiase vs. "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan - No DQ Loser Leaves Town Coal Miner's Glove Tuxedo Steel Cage match - Mid-South Wrestling (1985)

Say what you want about this ridiculous sounding match starring a crazed Jim Duggan and a beardless Ted DiBiase in tuxedos, it definitely made sense at the time. At least, that's what I have heard...

The object of the match was pretty simple really, get locked in a cage with your tux on and if you could retrieve the coal miner's glove (a big glove loaded with a bar of metal on the knuckles) you could use it as much as you wanted without being DQ'd or the match stopping. Once there was a definitive winner, the loser had to leave with their tail tucked between their legs and stay away for 30 days. There was also no time limit.

Got it?

Match of the Day - Raven and Jeff Hardy have a tables match inside a steel cage

Raven vs. Jeff Hardy - Tables match in the six sides of steel - TNA Lockdown (2005)

It's actually not as bad as it sounds, I promise.

Match of the Day - FMW takes a whack at WarGames: the match beyond!

Hayabusa, Jinsei Shinzaki, & Masato Tanaka vs. Mr. Gannosuke, Yukihiro Kanemura, & Atsushi Onita - barbed wire baseball bat ladder WarGames deathmatch - FMW Super Extreme Wrestling War (1997)

Part 1:

Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling decided to take the concept of WarGames from NWA/WCW and replace the two ring element of the match with hardcore weapons like ladders, barbed wire, steel chairs, and handcuffs. The one thing that makes this match a WarGames-type match like the ones seen on the Great American Bash tour of 1987 with the Horsemen and Road Warriors, other than it being held in a caged structure, is the "staggered entry" format. Two men start in the cage and after a certain amount of time, another member from either team gets to enter the cage... but once this match got underway, that was also thrown out as all hell broke loose.

Part 2:

Yes, the match was one big cluster of violence, but really, that's what WarGames was all about; you got to see your favorite team (the good guys) take on the rival team (the bad guys) with little to no rules or restrictions. Granted this particular "WarGames" match didn't have the double ring set up that the original was known for, it still had the best wrestlers from FMW destroying one another inside one cage!

Theme of the Week - Cage Matches

In honor of Hell in a Cell this month and Battleground not having a Wargames type match like rumors had hinted at a few months back, this weeks theme will be all about cages.

Any type of match featuring a cage of some sort is fair game... even that one in Spider-man.

Enjoy!

Match of the Day - WWE's first women's steel cage match!

Lita vs. Victoria - steel cage match - Raw Roulette (2003)

In a surprising turn of events AKA the spinning of the Raw Roulette wheel, the returning (from neck injury) Lita took on her scheduled opponent, the deranged Victoria, in Raw's (and WWE's for that matter) first ever women's steel cage match to kick off the very first Raw Roulette episode in 2003; and it's really not that bad.

Victoria returned to the cage in 2010 when she took on Mickie James for Impact Wrestling as Tara.

Match of the Day - Sting unmasks The Black Scorpion (finally)

Sting vs. The Black Scorpion - Starrcade (1990)

It's the main event. It's a steel cage match. It features Dick the Bruiser as Popeye, Paul Heyman on commentary making Popeye and Gordon Solie jokes, and even a spaceship entrance to top it all off accompanied by the voice of The Shockmaster, Ole Anderson. What more do you want?

This was also the match that ended the Black Scorpion gimmick which, originally thought up by Ole Anderson himself, really had nowhere to go. So, after Dusty Rhodes took over booking in WCW, The American Dream put an end to whole gimmick by putting someone who could really be the man behind the mask after months of impostor Black Scorpions had been running around taunting Sting. I'm not going to give it away if you don't already know who signed up to be the real Black Scorpion but maybe you can figure it out yourself just by watching a little of this match. It's not as obvious as Mr. America (pic) but it's close-ish. Hopefully that flashy robe doesn't give it away after that out-of-this-world entrance too much.

Overall impression of the match: Beginning is crazy. Match is a little boring. Unveiling at the end is super rushed, especially with Good Ol' JR screaming the countdown and just who is under that mask,errr, those masks I mean. In the end though, definitely worth watching.

Maybe.