An Iron Man Match differs from a regular professional wrestling match in that the match will go on for a specific amount of time. During that time, a wrestler can win a fall by pin, submission, count out, or disqualification. The wrestler to get the most falls during the allotted time wins the match. If a match ends with both men even, history has shown that the match will either end in a draw or will go into sudden death overtime.
When did the Iron Man Match start?
American audiences were first introduced to the Iron Man Match by World Championship Wrestling in 1992. After two PPV Iron Man Matches, the company stopped having them. The WWE introduced the match on the house show circuit in 1993 with a battle between Bret Hart and Ric Flair. The next year, Bret fought his brother Owen around the circuit. The first time one of these matches that made it to a WWE PPV event was at WrestleMania XII when Bret Hart fought Shawn Michaels. Since then, the WWE has run these matches on an occasional basis and have been joined by TNA in running these types of matches in front of a national audience.
Nationally Televised Iron Man Match Results (all matches were 30 minutes long unless noted otherwise)
1992
6/20 Beach Blast - Ricky Steamboat beat Rick Rude 4-3
1993
7/18 Beach Blast - Rick Rude & Dustin Rhodes battled to a 1-1 draw in a match for the vacant U.S. Championship
1996
3/31 Wrestlemania XII - Shawn Michaels beat Bret Hart 1-0 to win the WWE Championship in a 60-minute match that went into overtime
2000
5/21 Judgment Day - Triple H beat The Rock 6-5 in a 60-minute match to win the WWE Championship
2003
9/18 SmackDown - Brock Lesnar beat Kurt Angle 5-4 in a 60-minute match to win the WWE Championship
2004
7/26 RAW - World Heavyweight Champion Chris Benoit beat Triple H 4-3 in a 60-minute match
2005
2/13 Against All Odds - X Division Champion A.J. Styles beat Christopher Daniels 2-1
10/3 RAW - Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle fought to a 2-2 draw
10/23 Bound for Glory - X Division Champion A.J. Styles beat Christopher Daniels 1-0
2007
1/14 Final Resolution - Kurt Angle beat Samoa Joe 3-2
2009
10/25 Bragging Rights - John Cena won the WWE Championship from Randy Orton 6-5 in a 60-Minute Anything Goes Iron Man Match
Sources used include: Pro Wrestling Illustrated Almanac and thehistoryofwwe.com
