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). The locked away stipulation was simply forgotten about, however, and not mentioned since the sixth 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 ten official matches, plus eleven occurring on TNA non-televised "house shows" and one match dubbed "Monster's Ball" by a 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 a one-on-one match at Bound for Glory (2009) and Slammiversary VIII.