10 Strange WWE Gimmick Matches

If you stop and think about it for a minute, WWE certainly loves its special stipulation matches. Entire PPVs are dedicated to or based around certain themed matches. Some are often awesome (think Royal Rumble and Money in the Bank), some are usually enjoyable (think Tables, Ladders & Chairs and Hell in a Cell) and others can be a mixed bag (Extreme Rules).

Besides stipulation-themed PPVs, there are plenty of gimmick matches WWE relies on to break up the monotony of the typical “scheduled for one fall” bouts. We’ve recently seen two-out-of-three falls, iron man and ‘I quit’ matches in WWE, in addition to your garden variety hardcore bouts (often thinly disguised as no-DQ, anything goes, or No Holds Barred).

But not all gimmick matches are created equally.

We are about to witness one of the more confusing, complex gimmick matches in WWE, the Punjabi Prison match. But it certainly is not alone when it comes to unusual and strange gimmick matches WWE has held through the years. While many could be simply lumped together under various hardcore or Diva-based themes (pillow fights, lingerie bouts, bra and panties match) – which we will bypass – there are a handful of truly strange gimmick matches in WWE history.

So with the Punjabi Prison match on the horizon, let’s take a look at some of the strangest gimmick matches WWE has held and see where Sunday’s WWE Championship match type ranks.

The idea of a wrestler losing a match and being forced to kiss an undesirable body part of his opponent is not unheard of in wrestling, but we’ve seen more commonly the body part be the foot, ala Bret Hart and Jerry “The King” Lawler in 1995 or Michael Cole and Lawler in 2011.

Kissing the winner’s foot is one thing, but kissing his butt is something completely different. But yet, we’ve got a couple examples of it in WWF/E history. The first, naturally, comes from the Attitude Era, when a 1999 SummerSlam bout between The Rock and Billy Gunn carried the stipulation. Fortunately for Rocky, he won the match, but he was doubly fortunate that he didn’t have to have a guy going by the moniker “Mr. Ass” puckering up and kissing his posterior. That “honor” went to a large woman.

You’d think we would have been past that stipulation in the PG era, but you’d be wrong. In 2015, we had a ‘Kiss Me Arse’ match between Sheamus and Dolph Ziggler, a bout that Ziggler won and then seemed a little too enthusiastic to have the Celtic Warrior pucker up. Sheamus would instead hit a low blow and a Brogue Kick, then rub an unconscious Dolph’s face on his butt.

Yeah, never thought that sentence would get typed again.