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Modern Gimmick: Scaffold Matches

Posted: Mar 30th 2011 By: CMBurnham

The wrestling business thrives on giving the fans what they want, so as you could imagine, one type of a match is never enough for long. Before the global empire of WWE, wrestling was run in smaller areas across the country simply called ?territories.? To get people that lived in the same territory to come back each week or every other week you had to build a really great feud to build the hype. Sometimes even a great feud wasn?t enough and you would have to come up with a gimmick.

A popular gimmick in those early days was a steel cage match, which is when a metal fence mesh surrounds the ring. And back then this type of match was booked when it came time to end a feud. Sound familiar? Every match is in the cage in the UFC today.

Another gimmick match was a lumberjack match. This type of match meant a dozen or so wrestlers surrounded the ring during the match. If the two wrestlers in the ring got thrown or fell out, it was up to the lumberjacks to throw them back in.

The territory that was king of the ?gimmick? matches was Memphis, Tennessee. In 1971 Memphis bookers (match makers) came up with a match not like any other: a Scaffold Match. And this one was between Memphis legend, Jerry Jarrett and Don Greene.

At a scaffold match you see a scaffolding structure that is 15 to 20 feet above the ring on two sides of the ring with a plank, leading across. The match starts at the top and the object is to knock your opponent off, make them fall, or force them to give up and climb down. Another variation of this match is to capture your opponent?s flag and make it across to your home base scaffolding structure.

The match was used in the 80′s but it wasn?t until Jim Crockett Promotions came along that it reached the next level. The promotion made it a part of their annual Starrcade special event. First there was the team called The Midnight Express, which consisted of ?Beautiful? Bobby Eaton and ?Loverboy? Dennis Condrey against Hawk and Animal, collectively known as The Road Warriors. The special event was subtitled, The Night of the Skywalkers. The following year it was Midnight Express again, but this time it was their arch rivals, Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson, The Rock-N-Roll Express.

During this match even the managers got hurt. The loud mouthed Midnight Express manager, Jim Cornette climbed the structure and was forced off the plank by the Rock-N-Roll Express. When Jim Cornette fell it looked like the mountain man bodyguard, Big Bubba Rogers was meant to catch the manager. What happened was Rogers sort of for the lack of a better word missed and Cornette blew out his knee and injured his leg. The match has been done on a smaller independent wrestling scale. People were hurt, less than 100 people saw it and the less mentioned about it the less likely it will be attempted again. Like backyard wrestling its best not to encourage it. The match has been used around the world, but not to the extent it was used stateside during the 80s.

The scaffold match has been toyed with as a regularly occurring motif within the WWE, but it is really unlikely it will ever be seen again. For one thing the match is dangerous. And truthfully, it isn?t that exciting. No one should slow down to see the victims of a car crash, especially in the after math of the death of Owen Hart. Owen Hart was an outstanding wrestler that died because of a horrible repelling accident. No one can justify having this ?gimmick match.? It is an elaborate set up and it is one of the matches that sound better on paper.

It is impossible for a wrestler no matter how daring, not to be thinking about falling off the structure. Wrestling is very theatrical physically. This isn?t a good idea when you are trying to keep your balance. You don?t want to make lots of movement so the scaffolding doesn?t fall apart. You put two to four guys up there that each is over two hundred and thirty pounds it isn?t one of the safest work environments. Then there is gravity. Falling from the 20 foot structure means you could tear your knee up or break a bone. As much as people think you are meant to hurt people in wrestling it?s far from the objective.

The idea is to put on a show and be able to put on that show again and again. Serious injury means missing a show and missing out on a payday. The big spectacle of a gimmick match like a scaffold match can gain interest, but for the wrestlers it can mean serious injury. The matches are worth checking out to say you have seen one. Some of the greatest matches are between Midnights and the Rock-N-Roll Express from Starrcade 87. Checkout the video above, or check out the ?87 match available on DVD on WWE Starcade: The Essential Collection. This may be your only chance, because scaffold matches are becoming a thing of the past.