I have a lot of respect for professional wrestling bookers. They have so much to contend with. If a booker is writing for television, they have to set up weekly shows, build to Pay-Per-Views, keep the rest of management happy and contend with the talent. Sometimes I dislike their decisions, but considering what they have to deal with, a lot of their follies are forgivable.
But every so often, some booker forgets everything he should know about professional wrestling.
I did not think there was anyone foolhardy enough or anyone so incapable of learning past mistakes to actually book a scaffold match in a major televised wrestling promotion. Then I remembered who is currently booking TNA. A few weeks ago, TNA announced Elevation X, the so-called evolution of the scaffold match. I groaned. Many others did too. Then I got scared and I suspect I was not alone in that either.
Time to learn about this odious match and just exactly why it should never take place again. As a quick personal note, I would like to say that I have had the displeasure of watching a few scaffold matches before deciding to do this article, and to further my education and to give an accurate explanation of these godawful atrocities, I watched a few more, including the aforementioned Elevation X match. I hope you appreciate the pain that went into writing this.
First, let’s go over the bare basics. The match takes place on a narrow scaffold above the ring. It is usually not much wider than a foot and a half. Typically, there are two major variations to the match in terms of how to win. The most famous is to push the opponent off of the scaffold so that he hits the mat. It is usually between fifteen and twenty feet off the ground. The other version is for a wrestler to grab a flag from the opponent's home base of the scaffold and return it to the opposite end/home base. Other variations that have nothing to do with the method of victory include putting weapons or objects into the ring for when the opponent lands, which are most frequently tables.
Next, a brief history the match stipulation. The very first scaffold match and the most recent one have something in common. Elevation X took place in TNA, which was founded by Jerry Jarrett. The first scaffold match was actually Jerry Jarrett vs. Don Greene in 1971. The stipulation was largely forgotten for a long time until receiving a minor revival in the 80’s with matches like Bill Dundee vs. Dutch Mantell and the Midnight Express vs. the Road Warriors. It fell out of favor by the mid-90’s (except in ECW) and was brought back disastrously for a latter-day WCW Pay-Per-View match involving Shane Douglas and Billy Kidman.
Let’s fast forward to present day. Last night, TNA presented Elevation X, a match that featured platforms joined together to form the letter X. It was only twenty inches in width and eighteen feet off the ground. To give an idea of the danger, that is comparable to Mick Foley’s infamous fall off the top of Hell in a Cell. During the ascent to the scaffold, Rhino nearly fell off twice just trying to start the scaffold match. AJ Styles had to perform a few hangs and swings from the scaffold in an attempt to hide from Rhino. In the end, Styles lost the match as he did a hanging drop. It was the least dangerous way to fall from the scaffold. At least there was that. I will be generous and say that some of the spots were clever and it was one of the more watchable scaffold matches I have ever seen, but considering the competition, that is not saying that much. All that risk and the match was not that good.
The scaffold match is almost always a stinker. At its best, it is only okay. At its worst -- and this is far more frequent -- it is the worst long-running match stipulation in professional wrestling. They are generally bad for multiple reasons. These include inherent flaws that are aesthetic (that is to say problems with match quality) and problems with wrestler safety.
1. As mentioned, the scaffold is not wide. It resembles someone walking a pirate ship plank. There is no room to perform any wrestling moves. Scaffold matches consist of a lot of punching and even that is done without much energy due to the potential to drop someone or swing wildly and lose balance. So, not only is there a lot of punching but there is a lot of labored, weak punching.
2. Wrestlers are understandably unnerved by being up so high. They come off as hesitant and unwilling to do much. Some even crawl during portions of the match.
3. The potential for an abrupt ending to the match due to an accidental fall is always there. This is bad for both the quality and for safety reasons.
4. Except in the case of a modified flag version of a scaffold match, someone is booked to take a dangerous risk with their career. Oddly enough, this can even be dangerous for non-wrestlers. Jim Cornette fell off a scaffold once and his knees have never been the same.
This brings us to the point. I’m not a man who thinks wrestlers need to take excessive risks, but since big risks are part of the business and will be for some time, I can’t help but feel that bookers, when setting up dangerous matches, should at least consider something I call the Quality-to-Risk Calculation. If you put the wrestlers at serious risk for something that lacks quality (a terrible stipulation match that has never yielded strong results), that is a needless risk. To summarize, if you’re going to put your wrestlers at risk, you damn well better have a good reason. Not that it would make it all better but indications are that TNA Destination X won’t even receive a buyrate boost for this nonsense.
Do not see this as a rant. It is a plea for the end of this nightmare of a match. There are chances and there are pointless gambles. There is no sense in going too far for too little.
