Professional wrestling does not always stay in the confines of the ropes, let alone the arena. Pinfalls happened in a bar; in a parkade on the hood of a car. Hog pens, boiler rooms, House of Horrors, special match settings resulted in snorers. Fights have happened on a truck, which turned out to be a mess.
However, not all fights to have taken place outside the ring have been stinkers. Some turned out to be the show's best fight and created great moments. Multiple pro wrestling promotions have experimented with having matches take place outside, including the likes of WWE, ECW, WCW, and AEW. Sometimes, the match pays off. Other times, not so much.
10 TERRIBLE: King Of The Road Match (WCW)
The King of the Road match in WCW at Uncensored 1995 was truly a landmark fight. Blacktop Bully and Dustin Rhodes fought on the bed of a moving eighteen-wheeler truck, enclosed by a cage. The first to get to the horn on the cage and sound it won the match. The match was filmed at twenty minutes but was trimmed down to thirteen.
No other time in professional wrestling has one fight resulted in both wrestlers and the road agent being terminated from the company. This was due to usage of blood which was prohibited but that fact alone makes the King of the Road match terrible. The two struggling to balance in hay in a "street fight" more or less did not help in quality.
9 GREAT: Boneyard Match (WWE)
Night one of WrestleMania 36 closed out with the first ever Boneyard Match between AJ Styles and The Undertaker. This feud was one of Taker's most personal rivalries with AJ making mentions of Taker's wife Michelle McCool and their life on social media.
The end result was a battle in a "graveyard" where the American Badass 2.0 came to fight. Although the match had some "cheesy" theatrics and moments, Taker looked great, chokeslammed AJ off an awning, kicked butt fending off Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, and their druids. Taker got the win after burying AJ in a grave.
8 TERRIBLE: House Of Horrors Match (WWE)
The year 2017 started off great for Randy Orton by winning the 2017 Royal Rumble and would decide to challenge his then-stablemate Bray Wyatt for his newly won WWE Championship at WrestleMania 33. Despite Orton winning, the match fell flat.
The rematch weeks later at Payback was in a non-title House of Horrors match. Orton fought Wyatt through Bray's deserted house with writing on the walls and dolls hanging from the ceiling. Wyatt won the match after dropping a refrigerator on Randy. Later in the show, Orton attacked Wyatt back in the arena.
7 GREAT: Latino Heat Parking Lot Brawl (WWE)
After SummerSlam 2003, a heated rivalry brewed between John Cena and the United States Champion Eddie Guerrero. Cena, who was the gritty Doctor of Thuganomics, bloodied and attacked Guerrero over the weeks with Eddie's title belt, Cena's chain, and even a tire. Eddie, who drove Low Riders at the time, had his car stolen one week by Cena.
The feud peaked on the September 11, 2003, SmackDown in a Latino Heat Parking Lot Brawl where Cena tried attacking Eddie with a lawnmower and a shovel. The two smashed each other through car doors and windshields. A returning Chavo Guerrero hit Cena with a car rim, allowing Eddie to connect with a car-to-car Frog Splash for the win.
6 TERRIBLE: Hog Pen Match (WWE)
There have been two official Hog Pen matches in WWE history. The first took place at In Your House 5 in 1995 with Triple H defeating Henry O. Godwinn. This match started off in the ring and ended up in the hog pen near the entrance way. The second Hog Pen match was at Extreme Rules 2009.
Santina Marella defeated Vickie and Chavo Guerrero by pinfall to win the crown of Miss WrestleMania. The entire match took place in a hog pen stationed near the entrance way. The comical match featured Chavo being thrown in the enclosure with the pigs, Vickie having a slop bucket thrown at her, and a man winning a women's accolade.
5 GREAT: Falls Count Anywhere Match-Wedding (WWE)
This entry involves the 24/7 Championship where every title fight is technically Falls Count Anywhere. The match in question for this entry happened on June 21, 2019, at a wedding! 24/7 Champion Drake Maverick just tied the knot with his wife Renee Michelle when they were stopped by a WWE referee; Drake was rolled up from behind by R-Truth.
Though the match was seconds long, its uniqueness, creativity, and surprise made for a viral video that was a tremendous success for both men and the championship. Though this was not Drake and Renee's actual wedding, it was filmed on their legitimate wedding day alongside their real ceremony.
4 TERRIBLE: APA Invitational Bar Room Brawl (WWE)
With a list featuring terrible matches, you would think WCW would have more than one entry. Keep in mind this list is for matches outside the ring, not in (*rim-shot). Two years and change after WCW went under, WWE presented the APA Invitational Bar Room Brawl at Vengeance 2003.
A makeshift "saloon" was constructed by the stage where twenty-one men brawled with Last Man Standing rules. A table, mirror, and pool cue were some weapons used. Bradshaw (JBL) won after last taking out Brother Love (Bruce Prichard) with a beer bottle to the head.
3 GREAT: Scaffold Match (ECW)
The Scaffold match is a very dangerous fight. The purpose is to fight atop scaffolding high above the ring and the match ends when one wrestler is thrown off. In ECW at High Incident 1996, Tommy Dreamer battled "Primetime" Brian Lee in a Scaffold match.
The two men struggled for balance at times on the wobbling scaffolding. After a few teases of a fall, Dreamer punched Brian off the scaffolding who then fell through an array of stacked tables down to the ring. Lee took a horrific fall and was immediately checked on in the ring by doctors. This became a legendary moment in ECW's history.
2 TERRIBLE: Broken Rules Match (AEW)
A rather scary incident took place at AEW All Out 2020 involving Matt Hardy in his match with Sammy Guevara. The Broken Rules match (Last Man Standing) started at TIAA Bank Field. Minutes in, Hardy hit his head on the concrete floor after a fall off a scissor-lift with Guevara.
Hardy struggled to keep his balance and stay on his feet, clearly disoriented, making the match come to an immediate end. Moments later the match shockingly continued at Daily's Place with Hardy knocking Guevara off a scaffold to get the win. AEW and Tony Khan went under fire for how they handled and talked about Matt's condition.
1 GREAT: Parking Lot Fight (AEW)
On the September 16, 2020, edition of AEW Dynamite, Proud and Powerful (Santana and Ortiz) took on Best Friends (Trent and Chuck Taylor) in a Parking Lot Fight in the parkade of TIAA Bank Field/Daily's Place. The 13-minute match featured non-stop chaos featuring weapons and offense utilizing the surrounding cars.
A surprise "run-in" by "Freshly Squeezed" Orange Cassidy to help Best Friends led to Trent connecting with a Crunchy on Ortiz through a sheet of plywood onto the bed of a pickup truck to score the win. To put the cherry on top, Trent's mom Sue appeared post-fight with her van to pickup Best Friends and Orange Cassidy before flipping off P&P.