Stipulation Clarification
Posted by: BatRastered Jan 28, 2014 | 3306 views | 5 comments
What is a stipulation?
A stipulation is when there are special rules or restrictions in place for a given match. Check out our rule book for the list of stipulations we currently have points for. Or check out Wikipedia's full list of pro-wrestling match types.
We've got a lot of new people signing up for Drop The Belt these days (welcome!). So to clarify the points as it's been brought up a couple of times now, the stipulation bonus is ADDED to the normal points for winning the match. Thus for winning the Royal Rumble Match (50 pts), Batista was awarded 70 points (50 for the stip and 20 for winning the match).
There is also a bit of a controversy around whether or not the John Cena vs Randy Orton match had a stipulation or not. I'm not sure where the people claiming it had one are coming from, the best Choke and I could turn up was Stephanie saying some weird stuff a week earlier on RAW about it being "a traditional championship match, with no interference, no stipulations... victory by pinfall or submission only" (emphasis mine). The heck does that mean? Typically, the title is won by pinfall or submission only. (The traditional "champion's advantage" is that he can retain by his own DQ or countout). Maybe she was stating Cena could only win the belt by pinfall or submission? Either way, I don't want to have to speculate on something someone said (in a weirdly worded way) two shows ago for the enforcement of rules.
With that, I want to clarify how we tell if a match has a stipulation or not.
If the match is announced by the in-ring announcer, broadcast announcer(s), or on-screen graphics as a specific stipulation during the broadcast of the event where it takes place, then we have a stipulation. Also, if the match is listed as a stipulation on WWE.com once the results are published, it will be accepted as a stipulation as well. Certain obvious stipulations (6-man or 8-man tag for instance) are exempt for this requirement, we will do our best to make sure a stipulation bonus is awarded when it is apparent.
So.... Orton vs Cena... The in ring announcer did not announce as a stip. There were no on-screen graphics stating anything other than WWE World Heavyweight Championship match (points were awarded for Orton defending the belt), the announce team didn't say anything about the type of match (at least not during intros or the first few minutes in). WWE.com does not have the match listed as anything more than the previously mentioned WWE WHC but they do mention it being a "traditional wrestling match" That's the best I could find. Was it an apparent stipulation? I didn't see anything that showed it to be NoDQ, there were no foreign objects used in sight of the ref, no excessive outside the ring action... it looked like a straight match to me.
So, should we award points for the "traditional wrestling match" as a special type of match? I'm thinking no, but vote on it. Never underestimate the WWE's power to make murky what should be clear.
Poll
Jan 28, 2014 by BatRastered