So in the aftermath of Money in the Bank, I got to thinking about ladder matches. And I made a very odd discovery in my brain that brought up a few questions. I don't know what brought the Pole Match to the forefront of my thought process, but I suddenly realized something that struck me as very odd. Besides the location of the object or prize, and the method used to reach it, they're essentially the same type of match. The object is to incapacitate your opponent so that they cannot stop you from climbing up to grab the prize in question. So, what is the difference, really?
The simple answer seems to be one word: Russo. While ladder matches are almost always contested for a title (or a shot at a title), the same is rarely the case for pole matches. I never watched WCW when it was on, but it's pretty common knowledge that Vince Russo fell in love with the pole match and put everything imaginable on one. According to Mehe (and I can't verify the intensity of her sarcasm on this statement), there was a pole match pretty much every other Monday on Nitro. Perhaps he felt it was so versatile, simply because you can put whatever you want up there. However, once the prize on the pole is a live person, perhaps it's time to put it to rest.
I can't fault him completely for the idea. I started watching old pay-per-views a while back, and when reading the match listing prior to watching Starrcade 1985, I was legitimately intrigued by the entry of a "Mexican Death Match". Then I actually watched the show, and the Mexican Death Match turned out to be... a sombrero on a pole. Fucking seriously? Manny Fernandez and Abdullah the Butcher beat each other to a bloody pulp in order to claim a sombrero? They made it feel like it mattered, but that wasn't the point. When you label something a Death Match, you kind of expect a more climactic finish than one of the guys grabs a big silly hat, and that's it. I said out loud to my screen, "Dear everyone from 1985, do not let Vince Russo see this match."
Let's move on to the Ladder match. Like I said, mostly the prize suspended above the ring is a title or a shot at a title. There have been a few ladder matches that weren't. Rey Mysterio v. Eddie Guerrero for the custody of Dominic (aka, "Where the fuck was Vickie??") comes to mind. But the ladder match is pulled out much less often with a much better payoff. If they're not contested for titles, the match is at least the climax of a major storyline.
We have the Ladder Match DVD at our house. The first match on the DVD is Jake Roberts v. Big Daddy Ritter in 1979. The title was secured to scaffolding above the ring. The ladder wasn't the fold-out types used by today's superstars. It was a straight ladder that they propped up against the scaffolding. The two refs were there seemingly mainly just to hold the ladder to make sure the wrestlers didn't fall. It was insanity, and you just knew that there was a big prize on the line.
So is it just that tradition now dictates that Pole Match = Lame, while Ladder Match = Awesome? Perhaps. There's no rule dictating that you can't put a title on a pole, but you'll be hard pressed to find such an occasion. There must be some factor tilting in the favor of the Ladder Match, and there is. It's the ladder. While, like I said, the objective of both matches is effectively the same, the mechanics of the matches are not. The pole is fixed and secure in the corner of the ring. That sucker isn't going anywhere. It's the structure holding the prize at the end of the match, so nobody's messing with that. The ladder, however, is merely the means to reach the goal. It's mobile. It adds a dynamic that the pole match doesn't necessarily have. The ladder can be used as just about anything in the ring: A springboard, a table, weapons of various types, even stilts!! If you want a weapon in a pole match, you have to bring your own. If you want a weapon in a ladder match, the ladder IS your weapon. Spots off the ladder make for much more exciting wrestling than just grabbing something out of the corner. And I think that's the factor that dictates the uses of the two match types.
I want to end on a positive note for pole matches. I will say that when done properly, and with the right people, they can actually be really entertaining. I already mentioned the Mexican Death Match, and while I was disappointed at what the match actually was, holy crap did those two guys tear into each other. In more recent memory, I was pleasantly surprised by the contract on a pole match between Dolph Ziggler and Alberto Del Rio. I'll be honest, I was half expecting Ricardo Rodriguez to grab the contract off the floor and keep it for himself. The match was a lot more entertaining than I expected it to be. The only thing I was disappointed in was the ending. Sheamus announcing he was more than happy to take them both on was not as good a payoff as it would have been if they'd torn the contract in half during their struggle... but the whole match was executed well, and it made for an entertaining segment.
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