Anyone Miss The Championship Scramble?

[Johnny Scumm]

WWE features a match called the Championship Scramble in which none of the wrestlers are eliminated. Two wrestlers start the match and every five minutes another wrestler enters until all five participants are present. After the last wrestler enters, there is a five minute time limit. Each time a wrestler scores a pinfall or submission, he becomes the interim or unofficial champion, and such reigns are not recorded as official reigns. Five minutes after the final wrestler enters, the wrestler that scores the last pinfall or submission is declared the winner and the official champion.

There's the Wiki description for it. I miss this match A LOT. I know it was an Adamle special & that, but it was great. I remember the WHC Scramble where Orton took out Punk before the match, allowing a replacement. Nobody knew who it was, and then the last person to come out? Chris Jericho. He had just been in a match with HBK, could barely walk to the ring. Then, he makes it in, gets beat on. Lies outside the ring, only right near the end of it. BANG! Jericho scores the pin and wins the WHC.

Now that was a great moment for me, 'cos the match was new & very enjoyable. I'd love to see a lower-card match, with Bryan, Morrison, Punk & two other guys, 'cos that could be REALLY enjoyable.

What do you lot think?

 

[Mitch Henessey]

Not really. I don't think it was a bad idea, but this match isn't something that needs to return. Although, it was kind of cool to see Triple H and Jeff Hardy rush to get the final pinfall at Unforgiven 2008.

The Championship Scramble match was kind of fun, but it wasn't a great gimmick match that we need to see return. I also don't know if I would want to see this as a mid card match. These matches can take up a lot of time, so I don't think WWE would use this as a mid card match. If WWE were to bring back the Championship Scramble, then they would most likely use this match for their world titles, and I have this bad feeling WWE would try to turn this into ANOTHER gimmick match PPV. WWE already has a MITB PPV, a Hell In A Cell PPV, a Fatal Four Way PPV, a TLC PPV, and a Elimination Chamber PPV. They really, really don't need another gimmick match PPV.

 

[Dagger Dias]

It was an interesting idea, but it ended up being just a big mess. The matches were incredibly confusing. I do not really miss it because of all the complicated booking it required. In the end it made very little sense and was just strange. The Championship Scramble was doomed to flop from the moment it was thought up. However, I still give WWE credit for trying it. Watch TNA try to bring it back with an even weirder name and even more complicated booking. I hope not.

 

[Disturbed]

I liked the idea but I think WWE feels like it is to much of a gimmick match and they probalbly feel like it is an idea Russo would have came up with. I know I would love to see it again but I doubt it will return. However if it were to return, I wouldn't it to be for a World TItle. I would rather it be for a number one contenders match or a match for the IC or US title. Also, I think they should make the match thirty minutes long instead of twenty. So to answer your question, I do miss it somewhat, mainly because it is so unpredictable and you don't see much unpredictablity in wrestling anymore.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I like the idea of it, and I hope to see the match return. Even though it doesnt count as an official title reign until the match actually ends, I thought it was cool when Brian Kendrick ended up as interim champion at one point in one of the Championship Scrambles. Just a simple thing like that can really help a wrestler get over in the eyes of the fans- although it didnt really do much for Kendrick in the end.

As it is a PG friendly match, and can be promoted as the main event of a PPV, I think it should return. WWE has a lot of young superstars who have never been a world champion such as Morrison, Kingston, McIntyre etc and a match like this would give them the chance to be in the main event of a PPV, and even if they didnt win (which they probably wouldnt yet), it would be great exposure, experience and could end up being a great match with several wrestlers rushing to get a pinfall at the end of the match.

It wouldnt even need to actually be a main event, it could just be for a number 1 contender shot, as Disturbed just mentioned, or if it had to be for a title it could be for the IC or US championships. It is so unpredictable and exciting in the final moments that I think the fans would like to see it return occasionally.

 

[Jacob]

Not really. Interesting idea i'll give you that it started off well actually but near the end of it's era it was to hard for me to understand and just a little bland. If they do however bring it back maybe at Mania and thats it. It takes a while and isn't worth ANOTHER PPV

 

[Alastor]

It didn't work for me. The matches tend to become rather messy. What is the point of pinning somebody before the last wrestler enter the ring? Why would anyone waste energy trying to score a pinfall that counts for little to nothing in the early going? The scramble seem to be trying to force the 24/7 hardcore rules and the royal rumble atmosphere into a standard match and fall short of both. Looked decent on paper but fell short when executed.

 

[Notorious718]

As Mitch said, this sort of match would eat up a lot of airtime on PPV and even if it was brought back, I doubt WWE would use this concept for the midcard belts. To be fair, it was an interesting concept and I did enjoy the Smackdown Cahmpionship Scramble mostly due to HHH and Hardy trying to get that last second pinfall. Besides that though, the matches were complete clusterfucks. I personally wouldn't mind WWE bringing the match back but I wouldn't care if they didn't. If they do, I also hope it doesn't lead to another gimmick PPV.

 

[LSN80]

It was decent for what it was, but I dont care one way or another whether it's brought back. It seemed like a good idea, but it wound up being a backdoor way for a fluke champion, as it did in the case of Chris Jericho in the Raw match. The matches themselves were a match, as the commentators themselves became confused as to who the champion was, and to the exact rules of the match. I think the Smackdown match was well done, with good commentary, and with those two factors, the match can work. But with the confusing booking, poor commentary, and lazy ways to get the belt on someone, it's too flawed a concept to be a good "gimmick" match.

 

[Lying Retarded Crybaby Troll Bitch]

From my (live) review of the Cleveland "Unforgiven" event with these matches:

"At this point, I have to tell you that the major downside of these matches seemed to be the pinfalls. Since there were so many temp. winners, they'd play a buzzer noise at the 3-count, but if you'd looked away ever-so-briefly, you didn't know who'd gotten it. Therefore, you spent several minutes wondering who the Champ at that point was."

Long story short, leave it alone.

 

[RoseFire81]

I actually just bought this dvd and the one thing i noticed was the lack of star power in the Raw match - I mean you had Spanky and Shelton- yet to me was probly more entertaining of the two. Just my opinion, but it was.

This got me thinking- I really love the consept of these matches but I feel its more designed for x-division guys. I would really enjoy seeing guys like AJ and Petey ,Lethal and Sabin in a match like this. that division is built for quick pace matches like this and are use to gimmick matches.

As for wwe using it though... I say no I think it was good for the one time I think it was designed due to the championship scene on Raw( or lack of one). It was a way of having guys like Kendrick,Shelton and MVP in a championship match and look credible enough not to make it too predictable.

 

[I_Am_Electro_Boy]

I wouldn't mind seeing it back, I liked the match although it was rather messy. It also allows the younger talent such as JoMo, McIntyre, Bourne etc to be in the main event of a PPV and be in a World Title match which means they'll be in a main event feud sort of during the run up to the match which will give them experience. Also I think it's something different which makes it fresh and exciting. So all in all I wouldn't mind seeing it back.