Battle of Respect: This match has no winners. Two wrestlers wrestle each other for a fixed amount of time without pinfalls or submissions.
Beat the Clock Match: A regular match, only with the time of the match kept. Usually used by a succession of multiple wrestlers, with the first one setting a time the others have to beat. The shortest winning match time wins whatever was on the line.
Blindfold Match: Sometimes one, usually both competitors wear blindfolds and wrestle. Otherwise normal rules apply.
Blood Bath Match: Dump a bowl of red liquid over the opponent to win.
Bra and Panties Match: Take your opponents close off to win.
Double Jeopardy Match: This is two different matches taking place in the same ring at the same time. The winners of the two matches would then face each other. Example: Y2J and Jeff Hardy while Tazz faces JR.
Falls Count Anywhere Match: In the standard match, a pinfall or submission can only win the match when it is performed inside the ring. However, in a Falls Count Anywhere match, this need not apply. As such, this also implies that wrestlers cannot lose as a result of countout. The "Falls Count Anywhere" is somewhat of a misnomer in the fact that wrestlers may still be disqualified (but not counted out) for leaving the arena where the match is to be held (this, of course, may vary between promotion). However, it is to be noted that, as the match may take place in various parts of the arena, the "Falls Count Anywhere" provision may be one of many stipulations in a match - it is commonly paired with "No Disqualifications" to form the hardcore match, so as to allow wrestlers the convenience to use foreign objects that may lie wherever they may wrestle.
An independent federation in Quebec once held a "Falls Count Anywhere In Joliette, Quebec Match", where the entire town the match was held in was "in play".
Another variation of the rules state that once a pinfall takes, the pinned wrestler must return to the ring within 60 seconds else they lose. If the pinned wrestler makes it to the ring in this time, the match continues. Under these rules, all pinfalls must take place outside the ring. In the now-defunct Tri-State Wrestling Association, a wrestler won a Falls Count Anywhere match by pinning his opponent against an arena wall.
First Blood Match: This match has no disqualifications. The first person to make their opponent visibly bleed wins the match.
Flag Match: The Flag Match is essentially the professional wrestling version of capture the flag, in which there are two flags on opposite turnbuckles in the ring, with one wrestler defending one flag while attempting to get the other.
Handicap Match: A match in which one wrestler or one team of wrestlers faces another team of wrestlers with numerical superiority. For example, two wrestlers against one.
Hangman's Horror Match: In this match, on every rope there is a dog collar and your goal is to hang your opponent until he cant go on. This match was created by Raven to end his feud with Vampiro.
Inferno Match: In this match fire surrounds the ring and the only way to win is to set your opponent on fire.
Last Man Standing Match: The Last Man Standing Match is a match where there are no disqualifications or countouts, and where wrestlers, when knocked down, must answer a ten-count (akin to boxing). It is sometimes known as a Texas Death Match when hardcore aspects are to be emphasized.
Lumberjack Match: A match where the ring is surrounded by a group of "lumberjacks", normally fellow wrestlers. When one participant in the match leaves the ring for any reason, the heel lumberjacks attack the face wrestler who is out of the ring, and vise-versa. The face lumberjacks then come to the aid of that wrestler and return him to the ring, and vise-versa. The lumberjacks are generally a combination of faces and heels, who sometimes fight among themselves outside the ring. Sometimes, as part of a storyline, a face will wrestle a heel with a group of lumberjacks consisting entirely of heels.
A variation of this match is called a Canadian Lumberjack Match, in which the lumberjacks are equipped with leather straps. When the lumberjacks are all female, the match is known as a Lumberjill Match (a reference to Jack and Jill).
Mud Match: A female wrestling match that takes place in a mud pool. A variation of this is the Egg-Nog Match, where the competitors are in a pool of Egg-Nog, held during Christmas.
No Disqualification Match: The No Disqualification Match is a standard match, except that matches cannot be won via disqualification. Although there is little to prevent a No Disqualification Match from degenerating into a hardcore match, the typical No Disqualification match typically carries the convention that the "No Disqualification" aspect is typically more low-key compared to true hardcore matches, with disqualification-worthy material limited to run-ins and the introduction of ringside foreign objects.
Sometimes, a No Disqualification Match is held between valets, or a valet and a wrestler, where it is implied that wrestlers will run-in and "defend" their valets.
In WWE, a No Holds Barred Match, a match coined by Mr. McMahon, may refer to a No Disqualification match that has more hardcore content compared to typical No Disqualification matches. The No Disqualification Match may also be referred to by Sgt. Slaughter or during the annual Tribute to the Troops as the Boot Camp Match.
Scaffold Match: This match takes place on a scaffold above the ring. The two ways to win the match are to push the opponent off of the scaffold so that he/she hits the mat or to grab the flag from the opponent's home base of the scaffold and return it to one's own home base.
Serengeti Survival Match: A match in which there are no disqualifications, and the competitors can win by pinfall, submission or by slamming their opponent onto thumbtacks. Invented and named by "The Alpha Male" Monty Brown.
Short Leash Match: This match has two wrestlers tied together with a short leash (making the opponents one foot away from each other) and the only way to win is by either submission or knock-out. Another variation is called a Chain Match, a submissions-only match with no disqualifications.
Submission Match: The first man to make his opponent submit wins. Often used in Japan under the name (Japanese) UWF Rules. The Japanese UWF and its derived shoot-style promotions only allowed submissions or knockouts to end matches (including tag team matches), so it was an exclusive feature of such promotions.
Ultimate Submission Match: This match is a variation of an Iron Man Match. The variation is that the wrestler with the most submissions at the end of the match is the winner.
Barbed wire match: A barbed wire match is a professional wrestling match in which the ropes surrounding the ring are replaced by strands of barbed wire. In the United States of America, this match was mainly seen in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). It has also been utilized in Japan, especially in death match promotions such as Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling (FMW).
Three Stages of Hell: In professional wrestling, a two out of three falls match, or a best of three falls match, is a series of matches (often between two wrestlers or two teams of wrestlers), in which wrestlers attempt to win the majority of matches. It is often the case that the three individual matches in a best-of-three match are done under different rules so as to maintain audience interest - the three different match types are often referred to as the Three Stages of Hell. The typical "three stages" configuration often begins with a standard one-fall match, followed by a match with a slower pace (eg. a submission match), and ending up with a fast-paced match (eg. a steel cage match). The three matches are often contested one after another; however it is also common for the matches to be played out over a series of wrestling shows, making the match more like a true best-of-three series.
Iron Man match: An Iron Man match is a professional wrestling match where the man who holds the most pinfalls, submissions, count out and disqualification victories at the end of a given time limit is declared the winner. Should the match result in a tie, sudden death overtime may be requested by either wrestler, often accepted (or rejected) by either an opponent or a higher (on-screen) wrestling authority.
Because of the fixed time limit, Iron Man matches have a tendency of losing their audience in the middle of a match, with a quick flurry of action near the end. Often, an Iron Man match will have the wrestlers tied or holding a one-point advantage going into the final minutes, with one wrestler attempting to make a tying or winning pin.
Recently, Iron Man Matches have been known to be 30 minutes long, rather than the usual 60 minutes.
Junkyard Invitational: This match takes place in a junkyard. First wrestler to escape the junkyard wins the match. Brian "Nasty" Knobs was the winner of the match in WCW Slamboree.
Total Conquest Match: This match has two wrestlers fighting throughout a house until a pinfall is made.
Ambulance Match: A no-disqualification match, in which there are no pinfalls or submissions: instead, the object is to injure one's opponent to the point that they must be taken away in an ambulance to send the loser to the nearest hospital
Buried Alive Match: The object of this match is to bury the other wrestler alive in a makeshift grave inside the arena. No other rules apply. In this match type, the wrestler who is buried alive always survives in the storyline.
Casket Match: The winner of this match is the first wrestler to put his/her opponent into a closed casket. This match has been a trademark of the WWE wrestler The Undertaker. A number of variants exist, where the object is to place the other wrestler in other closed containers. The Casket is often placed on the ringside, but the other variants might have the container on top of the ramp. The casket may be replaced by other containers, such as a dumpster (in which case the match becomes a Dumpster Match), an ambulance (Ambulance Match), or a hearse (known as a Last Ride Match)
Stretcher Match: Stretcher Match is an ambiguous term that can be used to described two different matches: in the container-based variation, one must restrain your opponent by strapping them on a stretcher (and then possibly pushing the restrained opponent onto an ambulance) to win. In the weapon-based variation, the stretcher is simply treated as a legal foreign object, and normal rules apply. This is the hospital version of the Casket Match.
Handcuff Match: Handcuff Matches are matches in which wrestlers to seek to handcuff the opposing wrestler, often to a ring fixture, but sometimes so that the opposing wrestler is unable to make use of their hands.
Ladder Match: The Ladder Match (not to be confused with the Extreme Championship Wrestling one-fall variation where ladders were used as legal foreign objects) is one where two or more wrestlers compete for an object stationed above the ring, which is only accessible by using a ladder. Due to the nature of the match, ladders are considered to be legal foreign objects.
There are typically two possible finishes to a ladder match: if the object is storyline-related, such as a championship, the match immediately ends when one wrestler obtains this item. However, if a foreign object is stationed above the ring, then the match continues into a second phase, a one-fall variation where the wrestler who retrieves the foreign object may use the foreign object without disqualification.
Tables Match: In a Tables Match, the object is to put opposing wrestlers through tables - that is, manipulate them in such a way that the table is broken in half when they are thrown against it. Tag-team table’s matches, especially elimination tag-team table’s matches, have varied on whether one or both members must go through tables in order for a team to lose. It is common for table’s matches to also include a "no disqualification" clause, which turns them into hardcore matches by nature (although this variation may also be alternately known as a Hardcore Tables Match).
Lion's Den Match: The aim of the match was to knock out your opponent or to make him submit inside an octagonal cage. The rules are made to mimic mixed martial arts matches, and the octagonal cage is meant to mimic the cage used by the Ultimate Fighting Championship league.
Triple Cage Match: This match, which made its first appearance in the film Ready to Rumble, was a specialty of WCW involving three cages constructed on top of each other. The first cage encompasses the entire ringside area. The second cage is the size of a cage used in typical cage matches, and is filled with a variety of weapons. The third cage is roughly half the size of the second. The object is to climb up to the top of the third cage to grab an object, much like a ladder match.
Final Wars Brawl: This match has two wrestlers in a steel cage for thirty minutes with other wrestlers entering at a timed interval to help out one of the opponents.
Football Classic Match: Two cages are placed at ringside, inside each of which is locked a manager with a weapon. The key for each cage is fastened to a football. Two teams of wrestlers must try and gain possession of the football and take it over to their manager's cage, use the key to unlock the cage, then use the manager's weapon to attack the other team. To get the ball to the cage, the wrestlers must pass it between themselves and attack any opposing wrestlers who have possession of the ball.
Gauntlet Match: A Gauntlet match is, in a sense, a quick series of one-fall one-on-one matches. Here, two wrestlers begin the match, and are replaced whenever one is eliminated (by normal means), with the last person standing being named the winner. A Gauntlet match may also be played out in multiple "parts" as part of a storyline (where a face wrestler must face a series of a heel wrestler's underlings before facing the heel himself, for instance) - this was common in World Championship Wrestling in the early 1990s, where it was referred to as a Slobber Knocker. A participant involved in a Gauntlet Match may be referred to as to be "running the gauntlet", although in most cases this designation is reserved for those who are involved for most of the match.
The Gauntlet may also be referred to as a Turmoil Match, a likely backformation from Tag Team Turmoil, which is used to denote a Gauntlet involving tag teams.
King Of The Mountain Match: Five wrestlers compete in this match for a title belt. This basically is a Ladder Match in reverse with a twist. When one man is pinned or forced to submit, he is sent to a ringside penalty box for 2 minutes, while the wrestler who scored the fall must hang the belt on a hook above the ring. The others try to stop the wrestler from hanging the belt. The first wrestler to successfully hang the belt wins. This is a Total Nonstop Action Wrestling creation.
Relay Match: The match has two (could have more) teams of between 3 or 12 members to a team and before the match there will be a coin toss to see which team switches out first. Every 3 or 5 minutes the teams will switch. The first team to get a pinfall wins. Sometimes performed with hardcore rules.
War Games: Sometimes suffixed with the tagline "The Match Beyond". The War Games match features two rings surrounded by an enclosed steel cage with two teams (or sometimes three) facing one another. One man from each team starts out with another from either team at random entering the cage via a timed interval. The winning team must get a member of another team to submit after all members of each team are in the cage.
200 light tubes death match: A match type first used in Combat Zone Wrestling at an event called "They Said it Couldn't be Done". The object of this match is to win by pinfall. The use of fluorescent light tubes—officially, two hundred are available for use—as weapons are allowed. These matches are often very bloody and have been banned in most states.
300 Lightube Deathmatch: Once Used In Japan, Instead Of The Regular 200 Light Tubes Match.
Clockwork Orange House of Fun Match: A singles match with many weapons suspended from steel chains around the ring, sometimes with sides of a steel cage attached to the ring. The use of weapons is legal, and the match ends in pinfall. Pinfalls count anywhere in the ringside area.
Explosion Match: Usually accompanied with barbed wire ropes, a large barbed wire wrapped explosion board is placed in the ring laced with a small amount of C-4. The loser is the man that is blown up.
Sadistic Maddness: A match where the only way to win is by pin fall, but the only way to make the pin fall is if the opponent is bleeding first. There is no disqualification.
Shattered Dreams Match: Broken Glass all over the floor inside and ouside the ring and sheets of glass in the corners. There is also Taipei Deathmatch Rules. The only way to win is by pin or submission.
Taipei Death Match: Two wrestlers tape their fist and dip them in glue. They also have a bucket of beer bottles, they smash the bottles to shards and dip their glued-soaked fist in the shards and tear each other apart.
