The Downfall of the Gimmick Match in the WWE

Next Sunday, the WWE will bring us the Elimination Chamber PPV. Two Chamber matches in one show. The month after Wrestlemania, the WWE has Extreme Rules, where every match has a stipulation. In July? WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs. How about October? WWE Hell In A Cell. That's four PPVs that have their own specialty or gimmick matches.

This is something that I know has bothered a lot of fans for a long time. Over the last couple of years, the WWE has essentially killed the gimmick match concept. Do you remember a time when these matches actually meant something? The one that is the biggest problem to me is the Hell In A Cell PPV. To me, that match should be the end all be all of a feud. It is the match that eliminates pretty much all outside interference. It allows two wrestlers to go at it, one-on-one, and just absolutely destroy each other, with the winner finally being able to claim that he came out on top. Remember the first Hell In A Cell match with Undertaker and Shawn Michaels? That was a blood bath. It actually looked like hell. HBK was bleeding like a stuffed pig. It was brutal. Then there was Triple H/Cactus Jack at No Way Out 2000. Mick Foley took some brutal bumps in that match, just like the on he took against the Undertaker at King of the Ring 1998. The Undertaker has been in a handful of Hell In A Cell matches. He ended his feuds with Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton and Edge in all of those matches.