best ball match

Monster's Ball match

A Monster's Ball match is a professional wrestling, hardcore match staged by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. The name is derived from the 2001 film Monster's Ball.

The key premise of the match was that all contenders are sequestered alone in a locked room without light, food or water for twenty-four hours before the match. This stipulation is intended to induce extreme feelings of aggression in the competitors. Once released, the wrestlers fight one another in a no disqualification match, with the usage of weapons encouraged. Victory can be achieved by pinfall or submission, with the match ending as soon as one wrestler is pinned or submits (there is no elimination format). However, the locked away stipulation was simply forgotten about and not mentioned since the 5th one. It is now simply a Street Fight, as the match has to end inside the Ring.

Due to the hardcore nature of the match, the Monster's Ball typically features numerous high spots. There has been a total of four official matches, plus two occurring on TNA non-televised "house shows" and one match dubbed "Monster's Ball" by an non-affiliated company, although it featured TNA wrestler Abyss. There is apparently no set number of wrestlers although it is generally four. The smallest official match was three people and there was a one-on-one match at a TNA house show.

Match history

No.	Event, Date and Location	Match	Details
I	Victory Road (2004) November 7, 2004, Orlando, Florida	Monty Brown defeated Raven and Abyss	Brown pinned Raven after a Pounce through a table.
II	Bound for Glory (2005) October 23, 2005, Orlando, Florida	Rhino defeated Abyss, Sabu and Jeff Hardy	Rhino pinned Hardy after a Rhino Driver off the middle rope.
III	TNA House Show June 10, 2006, Wayne, New Jersey	Samoa Joe defeated Abyss and Rhino	(unofficial) Joe forced Rhino to submit with the Coquina Clutch.
IV	TNA House Show August 24, 2006, Ottawa, Ontario	Rhino defeated Abyss	(unofficial) Rhino pinned Abyss after a Gore through a table.
V	Bound for Glory (2006) October 22, 2006, Plymouth Township, Michigan	Samoa Joe defeated Brother Runt, Raven and Abyss (w/Jake Roberts as Special Guest Referee)	Joe pinned Raven after a Muscle Buster.
VI	Bound for Glory (2007) October 14, 2007, Duluth, Georgia	Abyss defeated Raven, Black Reign and Rhino	Abyss pinned Raven after a Black Hole Slam onto a pile of broken glass and thumbtacks.
VII	Bound for Glory IV October 12, 2008,Chicago, Illinois	Abyss and Matt Morgan vs. Beer Money, Inc (Robert Roode and James Storm) vs. Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother Devon) vs. The Latin American Xchange (Homicide and Hernandez) for the TNA World Tag Team Championship, with Steve "Mongo" McMicheal as the special referee	Yet to occur

Monster's Ball I

The first Monster's Ball took place on November 7 2004 at Victory Road 2004. It took a triple threat match format and included Monty Brown, Raven and Abyss.

The events leading to the Monster's Ball began on the September 29, 2004 episode of TNA iMPACT!, when then-TNA Director of Authority Vince Russo announced that a four man tournament would be held to determine the number one contender to the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, with the winner receiving a title shot against then-champion Jeff Jarrett at Victory Road. On the October 8 episode of iMPACT!, Jeff Hardy defeated Abyss and Monty Brown defeated Raven to advance to the tournament finals. On October 15, Hardy pinned Brown to win the tournament in a match that saw both Abyss and Raven interfere.

On October 22, both Raven and Abyss attacked Brown after he defeated a jobber in a squash match. This led to the Monster's Ball match being scheduled for Victory Road. On November 5, two days before the match, Abyss revealed to Brown that the sack which he had carried with him for the past several weeks was full of thumbtacks.

The Monster's Ball saw Brown pin Raven after Pouncing him through a table. In the course of the match, Abyss attempted to superplex Brown onto a pile of thumbtacks, but was instead powerbombed onto the thumbacks himself by Raven. The match was observed by a hooded figure, later revealed to be the returning James Mitchell.

Monster's Ball II

Monster's Ball II took place on October 23, 2005 at Bound for Glory 2005. It was a four way match that featured Abyss, Jeff Hardy, Rhino and Sabu.

The second Monster's Ball was scheduled after both Abyss and Sabu interfered in a match between Jeff Hardy and Rhino on the October 1, 2005 episode of iMPACT!. In the weeks prior to the match, Rhino defeated Sabu on October 15, while Abyss teamed with Jeff Jarrett and Monty Brown to defeat Hardy, A.J. Styles and Lance Hoyt on October 22.

Rhino pinned Hardy to win the match following a Rhino-Driver off the middle rope. During the course of the match, Hardy delivered a Swanton Bomb onto Abyss, putting him through a table in the process, from a height of approximately thirty feet.

Monster's Ball III

Monster's Ball III took place on June 10 2006 at a TNA house show in Wayne, New Jersey. It was a three way match featuring Abyss, Rhino and Samoa Joe. The match was won by Samoa Joe, who forced Rhino to submit with the Coquina Clutch.

Monster's Ball IV

Monster's Ball IV took place on August 24, 2006 at a house show in Ottawa, Ontario. It was a one-on-one match between Abyss and Rhino. The match was won by Rhino following a Gore through a table.

Monster's Ball V

Monster's Ball V took place on October 22 2006 at Bound for Glory 2006 in Plymouth Township, Michigan and featured Abyss, Brother Runt, Raven and Samoa Joe with special guest referee Jake "The Snake" Roberts. This match was very brutal within the opening minutes, as it saw Abyss throw Brother Runt into the crowd where they threw him back over the guard rail. It also saw Abyss and Runt going up to the balcony where Abyss Chokeslammed Runt off it then jumped down with him. But Abyss took some pain when he took out the tacks and it backfired when Samoa Joe back splashed him onto the tacks. Joe pinned Raven after a Muscle Buster.

Monster's Ball VI

Monster's Ball VI was announced on October 4 and took place at Bound for Glory on October 14 2007 at the Arena at Gwinnett Center in Duluth, Georgia. The participants were Raven, Rhino, Abyss and Black Reign, where Abyss finally won his first Ball after being unsuccessful in the last five. He pinned Raven after a Black Hole Slam onto a pile of broken glass and thumbtacks. It is worth noting that announcers Mike Tenay and Don West referred to this Monster's Ball as the fourth that TNA has put on, seemingly excluding the two which happened at the house shows.

Monster's Ball VII

Monster's Ball VII will take place at Bound for Glory IV and will be the first ever Tag Team Monster's Ball match for the TNA World Tag Team Championship. The teams announced for the match so far are Abyss, who will be appearing in his eighth Monster's Ball match, and Matt Morgan, Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother Devon), The Latin American Xchange (Homicide and Hernandez), and Beer Money, Inc (Robert Roode and James Storm), who are the champions.

Non-TNA Monster's Ball

The seventh Monster's Ball match (although not a "real" Monster's Ball match as it was unassociated with TNA) was announced by Johnny Fabulous, president of the Massachusetts-based Millennium Wrestling Federation on its MWF Xtra online show to take place at their Night of Champions show(8 days prior to WWE's PPV of the same title) on June 21, 2008 at Good Time Emporium in Somerville, Massachusetts. The match will be Abyss(who would be in his 7th Monster's Ball) vs Rick Fuller vs Brian Milonas vs Makua.

Notes

During the Monster's Ball V match Abyss swallowed a large number of thumbtacks when Samoa Joe splashed his face on to the objects.
Samoa Joe (2-0) Monty Brown (1-0) are the only wrestlers now to be undefeated at the Monster's Ball match.
Abyss is the only person to appear in all matches, with Rhino as second-most,
In 2007, Abyss finally won the Monsters Ball match after having been in all the previous ones.
Raven has been the technical loser of every Monster's Ball match he has competed in (I by Monty Brown, V by Samoa Joe and VI by Abyss).