Why aren't there more multi-person wrestling matches?

[Radical]

Something I don't quite understand is, in regards to booking matches on Raw, Smackdown and PPVs... why aren't there more multi-person matches booked? More Triple Threats, more Fatal 4 Ways, more Championship Scrambles, more Six Pack Challenges more Tag Team Turmoil matches, etc.?

I often find those types of matches very entertaining. I love idea and psychology that goes into a match where there is more than one opponent to watch out for.

How boring is it to look on a PPV card and just see singles match after singles match after singles match? Yeah, I know each of those matches have their personal intense feuds between them but that just brings up another topic that because they are just personal fueds they aren't for titles and it means the other titles are being neglected. But that's another debate.

But IMO multi-person matches are a great way to get feuds and storylines and DIVISIONS going again.

For example, the Tag Team Division, finally there are at least 6 fairly obvious tag teams:

- R-Truth & Kingston
- PTP
- Hunico & Camacho
- The Usos
- Primo & Epico
- Reks & Hawkins

Why can't they have a segment of the show where R-Truth & Kofi Kingston are confronted by PTP about having a match at the next PPV but then Hunico & Camacho, The Usos, Primo & Epico and Reks & Hawkins all come out to say that they deserve a shot too. Then out comes the GM who announces a Tag Team Turmoil match involving all of these teams for the Tag Team titles at the next PPV. Just like that there is SOME sort of importance given to the Tag Team titles and we will all get to see these tag teams show what they can do in the coming weeks. If they announced something like this early enough they could use the next few shows to have a bunch of tag matches against these teams as each one jostles for bragging rights.


And remember the days of Championship Scrambles? They had those for the US title! Can you believe it? When the US title actually mattered. And I think it mattered because they showed us that other Superstars actually WANTED it and so many of them that they had to put them all in the same match.


Multi-person matches can also help with the World and WWE title pictures. They would have to do less personal individual matches if they could just merge more of them into the same title match. Or they could use a multi-person match for a major title as an opportunity to give a lower-to-mid card guy some much needed exposure!

Just look at instances where the WWE has done stuff like that like when they put Santino in the Elimination Chamber match or Kidd and Sandow in the MITB ladder match. Sure, these guys didn't win but they got more exposure and a chance to show what they can do! It doesn't really hurt them status-wise because multi-person matches are easier for both face and heel characters to blow off as insignificant because there are so many factors involved.

Now I've said my part.

What are your thoughts? Agree? Disagree?

Share.

 

[The Hillside]

- Tag-team division is dead and the most boring it has ever been, it is full of lower-midcarders.

- We often get to see 6 men tag team matches on RAW or Smackdown.

- We get to see multi-man matches often like 3-way or 4-way no. 1 contendership match, 2 multi-men matches at Money in the Bank, multi-men matches at Survivor Series, 2 Multi-men matches at Elimination Chamber.

- We often get to see 3-way or 4 -way World Title matches on PPV's. Like Summerslam Triple-threat WWE Title coming up, 4-way for WHC at Over The Limit, 3 -way for WWE Title at No Way Out.




I don't know what you are complaining about?

 

[Jack-Hammer]

- Tag-team division is dead and the most boring it has ever been, it is full of lower-midcarders.

You couldn't be more wrong about this statement. If anything, the tag team division in WWE has been stronger, overall, over the course of this year than it's been in probably half a decade or more.

The tag team division is far from great, it's certainly not great and there's a lot that can be done to improve things. However, the tag titles do have some degree of relevance for the first time in several years. Also, there's currently a threeway feud for the titles featuring Kofi & Truth, Epico & Primo and the Prime Time Players. When's the last time WWE had a threeway feud involving the tag titles? Hell, when's the last time WWE actually had a relevant feud period for the tag titles?

The three main teams right now are the ones that I mentioned and there are several more waiting in the wings that could certainly contribute. Reks & Hawkins, Gabriel & Kidd and the Usos are all three pretty solid teams. The potential for WWE to have a great tag team division is there, WWE just has to put in the time and effort. The threeway feud for the titles has started off slowly and has built up. This past Monday on Raw, all three teams got a decent response from the live audience.

As for the tag team division being comprised of lower & mid-card wrestlers, so what? Those are exactly the guys that should ultimately make up the tag team division at this time. With the tag team picture being less than stellar, every team is pretty much on equal ground and the WWE can potentially use the tag scene to mold some of these wrestlers into stars. Putting guys like Cena, Orton, Sheamus, Punk, Big Show and other top tier wrestlers on the roster in the tag team scene would be a waste of energy. Plus, it'd be considered a huge demotion for them as well.

As per the topic, the WWE does sometimes feature six man tags, triple threat matches and a fatal 4-way every now and again. Matches like the championship scramble tend to be clusterfucks more often than not. However, comparatively speaking, all these gimmick matches aren't used all that often so that they feel special when they are used. TNA used to have 3 minute gimmick matches all the time, so much to the point that they killed any relevance and intrigue for such matches. They finally realized that they were killing match interest, which isn't suprising as Vince Russo was the head booker.

 

[Radical]

- Tag-team division is dead and the most boring it has ever been, it is full of lower-midcarders.

- We often get to see 6 men tag team matches on RAW or Smackdown.

- We get to see multi-man matches often like 3-way or 4-way no. 1 contendership match, 2 multi-men matches at Money in the Bank, multi-men matches at Survivor Series, 2 Multi-men matches at Elimination Chamber.

- We often get to see 3-way or 4 -way World Title matches on PPV's. Like Summerslam Triple-threat WWE Title coming up, 4-way for WHC at Over The Limit, 3 -way for WWE Title at No Way Out.




I don't know what you are complaining about?

- Tag team division is only 'dead' (in your opinion) because the WWE lets it be. The tag team division would be dead in the Attitude Era even with Hardys, Dudleys, Edge & Christian, New Age Outlaws, etc. if the WWE treated the tag team division the same way they do now.

- Your definition of "often" seems to be different than mine. Perhaps there are 6-man tag matches fairly often on Raw or SmackDown but not 3-way, 4-way or anything above that. Once in a while they will have a battle royal but those should hardly count because they are hardly any wrestling and mostly just hanging onto a rope.

And maybe Triple Threat matches happen fairly often on TV and PPVs but not Fatal 4 Ways (they had to make it its own PPV just because it's happened so rarely before that it seemed to have to be a special night just for it).

I'd like to see more multi-person matches. 5-way match or six pack challenge or make the Fatal 4 Way or Triple Threat an elimination match or falls count anywhere.

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

- Tag-team division is dead and the most boring it has ever been, it is full of lower-midcarders.

Let us travel back to 1999 when you had four guys who were considered lower midcard guys have one of the most amazing ladder matches in history. I believe they were named Edge, Christian, Jeff Hardy, and Matt Hardy. They helped revolutionize tag team wrestling and they started out low on the totem pole.

The tag team division isn't great right now but I believe it is shaping up to be the best since late 2002. I'm glad for the division right now and I hope to see more improvement in the future.

 

[The Hillside]

- Tag team division is only 'dead' (in your opinion) because the WWE lets it be. The tag team division would be dead in the Attitude Era even with Hardys, Dudleys, Edge & Christian, New Age Outlaws, etc. if the WWE treated the tag team division the same way they do now.

- Your definition of "often" seems to be different than mine. Perhaps there are 6-man tag matches fairly often on Raw or SmackDown but not 3-way, 4-way or anything above that. Once in a while they will have a battle royal but those should hardly count because they are hardly any wrestling and mostly just hanging onto a rope.

And maybe Triple Threat matches happen fairly often on TV and PPVs but not Fatal 4 Ways (they had to make it its own PPV just because it's happened so rarely before that it seemed to have to be a special night just for it).

I'd like to see more multi-person matches. 5-way match or six pack challenge or make the Fatal 4 Way or Triple Threat an elimination match or falls count anywhere.

I don't think WWE will do 6-pack challenges ever or maybe just once in 5 years due to 2 Elimination Chamber matches every year, until and unless they are taken off.

Fatal 4 Way PPV was a flop and so are the matches. Wrestlemania 2000 had a fatal four way as its main event and it was a below average PPV. Also, in a 4 way feud a proper feud is never established and the fans are just always confused.


But I do miss stuff like 3 way or 4 way tag team TLC or Ladder Matches or 6 men Hell in a Cell Match.

 

[Aquaman6686]

And remember the days of Championship Scrambles? They had those for the US title! Can you believe it? When the US title actually mattered. And I think it mattered because they showed us that other Superstars actually WANTED it and so many of them that they had to put them all in the same match.

I agree completely that WWE needs more multi-man title matches and less singles matches, but just FYI, the United States Championship has NEVER been defended in a Scramble Match. There have only been four Scramble matches in history, and they were all for the WWE Championship (once), World Heavyweight Championship (once), or ECW Championship (twice).

 

[TheLoneCharles]

Honestly why wouldn't the tag division be filled with lower carders? Pair together two guys with some chemistry that have nothing to do and you have yourself one or two new stars! Problem is, eventually they'll throw one of those tag teams into a tag match against established singles stars and gets humiliated on TV...that's what kills the division: burying your top level teams to make an established star look more dominant.

As for multi matches, I'd love to see more. When they are done right and not a total clusterfuck that is. Personally I'd love to see a Fatal 4 Way Cage match to name one of the #1 contenders for a title.

 

[xavyer]

It would be great to see those type of matches again, that's why i like the 2002/2003 era of the WWE because there use to be those type of matches in the big PPVs and they were fantastic, if they do those more often today, it would give more superstars a chance to shine, they should make those matches with the US and IC titles maybe not every single PPV, but very often, and then people can se what the mid card talent has to offer, people like Sandow, Rybak and several others, that's why the old days had more relevant mid card and top superstars, because of matches like those.......

 

[Shotaro]

I would guess it's because triple threat matches are harder to plan and given that Raw often has extensive re-writes before it goes to air it makes the life of the wrestlers involved needlessly complicated. Those matches are well represented on PPV and in all honesty that doesn't really bother me.

 

[sdelfin]

Someone already posted that they are known to be harder to plan out. With that said, in reply to the original post, I think WWE does three and four-way matches too often as it is. They often do them as title matches or even as number-one-contender matches. It's common enough for me. I don't understand this thinking that the singles match is boring. The singles match is the very foundation on which professional wrestling(and combat sports in general) is built. It is the most basic match, featuring a battle of wills between two men. There's a lot more room for psychology in basic singles and tag matches. If you can keep selling shows to people using mostly singles matches, and not resorting to many gimmicks that's a good thing. Then a gimmick like a triple threat will have more impact. But if there are multi-man matches all the time, then we end up with a situation like we have in this thread, the idea that the singles match is boring. With that said, I can understand the boredom considering WWE seems to like doing the same matches all the time. Del Rio, for example, keeps going over the same people. WWE gives away most of their big-money matches with no build. If the singles matches are boring now, that's the fault of the WWE booking.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

Let us travel back to 1999 when you had four guys who were considered lower midcard guys have one of the most amazing ladder matches in history. I believe they were named Edge, Christian, Jeff Hardy, and Matt Hardy. They helped revolutionize tag team wrestling and they started out low on the totem pole.

The tag team division isn't great right now but I believe it is shaping up to be the best since late 2002. I'm glad for the division right now and I hope to see more improvement in the future.

Great post from LJL, he is totally right. The tag-team division doesn't need to be packed with current stars to be in a good state. It just needs teams capable of putting on good matches, and talented wrestlers who will hopefully develop into stars over time, continued exposure and consistant performances.

Who would have thought in the first ever tag-team ladder match in 1999 between E&C and The Hardyz, that Edge was going to get to double figures in title reigns, that Christian and Jeff Hardy were going to also become World Champions and even that Matt Hardy would be a decent mid-carder- they were nobodys at the time.

One great match can be the launching pad for a career- I hope that is the case for one of the tag-teams currently on the scene

 

[MCMG]

I completely agree with you. There needs to be more variation in the matches. Single matches get boring easily and using multi-man matches can prevent that and give us something different.

The idea for the tag-division is good. There should be a tag-team turmoil match like they use to do.

 

[Mustang Sally]

Mixed feelings. On one hand, I love the one-on-one concept; the notion that you stand or fall on your own with no one standing between victory and defeat except yourself. Of course, that applies to sports like boxing and tennis more than pro wrestling, in which run-ins and sneak attacks (usually unseen by the stupid referees!) are always a possibility.

(By the way, the one-on-one concept also applies to chess.......but can you imagine if they had run-ins at the World Chess Championships, in which Grandmasters from Russia run down the aisle, using 2 x 4's to sneak-attack opponents on behalf of their countrymen who are losing the contest? We could call it Full Contact Chess. If it ever comes about...... I will have seen everything)

On the other hand, I wish I could remember who originated the Three-Way concept, especially in title matches, because it adds an element of suspense we could never get with one-on-one. The idea of a champion being able to lose his title without being involved in the decision still fascinates me. At Summerslam, C.M. Punk could be lying helplessly outside the ring while one of his opponents pins the other, causing Punk to become an ex-champion. It's so unjust you could scream, yet it creates an entirely new set of circumstances the champ has to deal with. He might spend more time pushing his foes off each other than he does mounting an offense of his own. This concept, along with Fatal 4-Ways, is genius. As long as they don't put on these matches too much, they will remain huge attractions.

Once you start getting into 6, 8 or 10 men tag teams, it gets a bit much for me. Watching all those talented wrestlers standing outside the ring waiting to be tagged into the match makes me think of wasted manpower. I spend more time wondering which guy the man in the ring is going to reach for when he's ready to tag than I do caring what's going to happen once the new guy gets in there.

One-on-one is still the best and always will be. That you have only yourself to depend on is the everlasting attraction of athletic competition and the element that makes us buy PPVs. But when circumstances dictate, such as the Cena-Punk-Big Show 3-Way, that more than two competitors get in the ring, I look forward to exactly how they're going to bring off the result.

 

[Radical]

Once you start getting into 6, 8 or 10 men tag teams, it gets a bit much for me. Watching all those talented wrestlers standing outside the ring waiting to be tagged into the match makes me think of wasted manpower. I spend more time wondering which guy the man in the ring is going to reach for when he's ready to tag than I do caring what's going to happen once the new guy gets in there.

One-on-one is still the best and always will be. That you have only yourself to depend on is the everlasting attraction of athletic competition and the element that makes us buy PPVs. But when circumstances dictate, such as the Cena-Punk-Big Show 3-Way, that more than two competitors get in the ring, I look forward to exactly how they're going to bring off the result.

I agree that I DON'T like the 6, 6 or 10 men tag team matches. In fact I HATE THEM because so many guys standing outside of a ring seems like a waste and more of a hinderance to putting on a good match because there are so many distractions.

BUT I would like to see a 6-man Triple Threat Tornado Tag team match! I think it would help establish the tag teams a lot more. It's such a slow and, honestly, un-interesting process when it seems like it's always one team vs one team or one guy vs one guy over and over again for a few months.

And I want to clarify that I am not saying I don't want to see singles matches. I realize they are the basis of wrestling competition and I agree they should be fairly standard. I don't complain that most matches on Superstars or NXT are simply singles matches or 2 vs 2 tag team matches because I realize it's more about keeping things simple so that the wrestlers can show off what they can do.

I think maybe my desire for more multi-person matches intensifies when I feel like certain Championship belts are being under utilized. I can see that the World Title and WWE Title situations are pretty decent and until Superstars really catch on they probably won't get their match for those titles but right now in the WWE the IC title, US title and Tag Team titles are pretty insignificant and I believe it's because they don't make us believe that anyone else who doesn't have those titles care.

The closest we have right now is Primetime Players and Epico and Primo showing interest in the Tag Team titles.

But who is showing interest in the IC title? The US title? NOBODY! So why not have some Superstars actually come out and say "I want the IC/US title and I'm going to get it no matter what!" or have more than just 1 Superstar say that. Then start with an tournament for the #1 contendership or set up a match at the next PPV for a Triple Threat, Fatal 4 Way or Championship Scramble for those titles and over the next few weeks show each of the Superstars who are interested in the title getting matches to prove themselves.

I think what makes me tired of singles matches is too many singles matches with almost no meaning - just 'personal' - but to me that should only apply for a small few situations and the rest of the time everyone should be trying to contend for a championship or be in a match that has some sort of championship or career implications.

I mean what the hell is the point of Daniel Bryan vs Kane? Oh, some celebrity might be involved but who cares? Sure Daniel Bryan and Kane can put on a good match but, fine, make it a random match on Raw or SmackDown but how is it a PPV quality match? It sounds like it's just a regular singles match, no special stipulations or implications so who cares? At least if it had some sort of implication like whoever wins does NOT have to be admitted into a mental institution or, even better, whoever wins gets a WWE Championship match next night on Raw.