WWE Match Types

The World Wrestling Entertainment franchise features several types of matches for its wrestlers to face off in. While all have broadly the same rules, each contest has a distinct style. While there are a broad range of possible matches, the following covers the most common and popular ones which take place at WWE events and pay-per-views.

  1. Standard Match

    • A normal match in WWE takes place inside a four-sided ring enclosed by taut ropes. A wrestler can leave the ring, but must return before the referee counts to ten or be disqualified. The usual way for the match to end is for one wrestler to pin the other down while the referee counts to three, or when one "taps out" while in a submission hold.

    Hardcore Match

    • Almost anything goes in a hardcore or "extreme rules" match. Injuries are commonplace, given the arsenal available to the fighters. Alongside familiar WWE weapons like steel chairs and ladders is everything from garbage cans to fire extinguishers and kendo sticks. Some WWE superstars have a favorite weapon which invariably comes into play -- such as Triple H's sledgehammer.

    Tables, Ladders & Chairs Match

    • A tables, ladders and chairs match is a spectacular contest in which the wrestlers vie to grab a championship belt which is suspended high above the ring. Large ladders are provided to allow the wrestlers to reach the belt, but they can also legally be used as weapons -- as can the wooden tables and steel chairs that are also strewn around the arena. This invariably ends in wrestlers being thrown off the top of the ladders and through the tables.

    Cage Match

    • The cage match, or "Hell In A Cell" match is one of the most brutal, unforgiving contests in the whole of WWE. The entire ring is enclosed in a huge, 16-foot-tall steel cage, which the wrestlers fight in and around. One of the most infamous matches in WWE history occurred in 1998 at the "Hell In A Cell" pay-per-view, when The Undertaker threw Mick "Mankind" Foley from the top of a cage through the announcer's table. Later in the match Undertaker choke-slammed Mankind through the roof of the cage into the ring, briefly knocking him unconscious.

    Royal Rumble Match

    • The WWE "Royal Rumble" is the second most anticipated event in the pay-per-view calendar after "Wrestlemania." Thirty wrestlers are assigned a number from 1 to 30, and the match starts with numbers one and two in the ring. After two minutes, number 3 joins the fray, followed two minutes later by number 4, and so on. A wrestler is eliminated if he is thrown out of the ring over the top rope. The "Royal Rumble" takes place every January, and the winner is rewarded with a main event match at "Wrestlemania."

    Lumberjack Match

    • Inside the ring, a lumberjack match runs much the same as a standard wrestling match, with the winner decided by pinfall or submission. The difference is outside the ring -- it is surrounded by other wrestlers, and on the frequent occasion of a wrestler being thrown out of the ring, it is the job of these wrestlers to get him back in. Usually all of the wrestlers outside the ring will have sided with one contestant or the other, and will attack their opponent when he is out of the ring.