TNA has been a little hit-or-miss with its unique match stipulations, so it's not surprising if you forgot about some of them.

Almost 20 years ago, Total Nonstop Action wrestling debuted and gave wrestling fans an alternative to the WWE after they purchased WCW and ECW in 2001. Today, the company is simply known as Impact Wrestling and is home to some of the best professional wrestlers in the world.

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Throughout its two-decade existence, TNA has thought outside the box with some of its ideas for matches and match types. Stipulations like the Ultimate X and Lethal Lockdown became exciting traditions that helped gain popularity for the promotion. While some of these ideas have been hits, some have been forgotten.

There are few match types more exciting in the world of professional wrestling than a ladder match. The stipulation is simple, wrestlers fight each other until one person is able to climb a ladder and retrieve whatever is being hung above the ring, often times this is a championship or a briefcase.

In 2004, TNA debuted a unique twist to a ladder match. Instead of climbing and retrieving an item, participants needed to take the championship and hang it above the ring themselves. If that was not bizarre enough, in order to get the championship, participants had to pin or submit an opponent in order to be eligible to win. But that is not all, once someone was defeated they had to sit in a penalty box, in the shape of a cage, for two minutes.

Similar to the King of the Mountain match, TNA once again decided to take one of the most exciting stipulations in wrestling and tried to reverse it. In 2006, and again in 2007, TNA held a “Fight for the Right” tournament in order to determine a number one contender for their world title. In order to get into the tournament, wrestlers competed in a reverse battle royal.

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This meant all participants started the match outside the ring. Then, a certain number of wrestlers had to fight their way into the ring in order to compete in a traditional battle royal. From there, a traditional battle royal took place to determine the seeding of the upcoming battle royal. But that is not all, in TNA the final two men in a battle royal must compete in a traditional one-on-one match in order to win.

Throughout its history, TNA was home to some of the most hardcore wrestlers in the history of the sport. With ECW no longer in business, TNA often held hardcore matches to feed the extreme appetite of their fanbase.

“The Monster” Abyss was known for his matches regularly involving barbwire, thumbtacks, and other weapons. The Monster’s Ball matches were widely enjoyable due to other hardcore wrestling legends such as Raven, Rhino, Sabu, and Jeff Hardy being included. However, TNA needed to add a bizarre twist to the match. Prior to the match beginning, participants had to be locked in a room for 24 hours without food, liquid, or light.

Many of TNA’s more forgettable match types involve them trying to reach a new level when it comes to getting extreme.

One of these extreme match stipulations came in the form of a “Hangman’s Horror” match. In this match, the participants need to put a dog collar, which is connected to a chain, onto their opponents. From there, you must throw your opponent over the top rope resulting in them being hung. The match would end when one opponent was choked unconscious. This match was a specialty of Raven, who wrestled the likes of Abyss and Sabu in the match.

When certain weapons, or stipulations, are constantly done in wrestling, they become less special. This ultimately became the case with Abyss and thumbtacks.

During his run in TNA, almost every Abyss match featured some type of foreign object. Thumbtacks became a regular occurrence in Abyss matches. In order to up the ante, Abyss competed in a “Match of 10,000 Tacks.” In 2007, at the Turning Point pay-per-view event, Abyss teamed with Raven to fight Black Reign, portrayed by Dustin Rhodes, and Rellik, that’s killer spelled backward. While the match was filled with thumbtacks, the use of the weapon became stale in TNA and this match is far from an all-time classic.

One of the most dangerous match stipulations in the history of professional wrestling is the scaffold match. In this match, wrestlers fight high above the ring. In order to win, one wrestler must throw their opponent off of the scaffold.

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In 2007, TNA brought the classic stipulation into the 21st century. In the match, two wrestlers competed high above the ring on a structure in the shape of an X. The first “Elevation X” match featured Rhino and AJ Styles. The match ended when Rhino was able to knock Styles off the platform and sent him falling onto the wrestling ring below.

It did not matter what time of year it was, when it came to TNA and Abyss, they always needed to outdo themselves with their hardcore stipulations.

Once again Abyss found himself in a tag match against Black Reign and Rellik, once again that is killer spelled backward. However, this time Abyss teamed up with Sharkboy. The match featured a Christmas tree wrapped in barbed wire. Underneath the tree were mystery weapons inside of presents. With this being TNA, one of the presents was obviously thumbtacks. Ultimately, due to outside interference, Rellik and Black Reign were victorious.

On Jan. 4, 2010, TNA attempted to go head-to-head with WWE’s Monday Night Raw. On this night, TNA held a Steel Asylum match.

The Steel Asylum match was TNA’s take on a steel cage match. In this match, the only way to win is to escape the cage. However, TNA’s bizarre twist was the only way to escape was to climb through a small hole on top of the cage. The Steel Asylum took place in a cage shaped like a dome, similar to WWE’s Elimination Chamber.

What made this match so infamous, and forgettable, is that the winner, Homicide, took an awkward amount of time to escape the ring. This match was also completely overshadowed by the TNA return of Jeff Hardy, which took place while wrestlers were fighting in the cage.

In 2014, at the Sacrifice pay-per-view event, TNA held a “Committed Match,” which was their take on an ambulance match.

In this match, the goal was to incapacitate your opponent and put them in the back of a van. The point of the van being it would take the loser to a mental hospital. The match featured Mr. Anderson and Samuel Shaw, who currently wrestles for NXT as Dexter Lumis. With the support of Christy Hemme, Anderson was able to pull off the victory.

Matt Hardy rejuvenated his career in TNA with his “Woken” character. During this time, Hardy had the whole wrestling world talking with his “Final Deletion” match against his brother Jeff Hardy.

Due to the success of the match, TNA has Hardy participate in multiple cinematic matches. In the end, TNA did an entire episode of Impact from The Hardy Compound. During “Total Nonstop Deletion” a match between Rockstar Spud, later known as Drake Maverick in WWE, and King Maxel, Matt Hardy’s toddler son took place. King Maxel earned the victory in his professional debut despite having yet to enter preschool.

Scott Minor is a lifelong professional wrestling fan. In 2016, he graduated from Ball State University with a degree in journalism and telecommunications. When not writing about wrestling, he covers the sport of mixed martial arts. When not working, he enjoys traveling the country to watch live wrestling and UFC events. Minor is also a gamer and action figure collector.