Vince McMahon Was Apparently Down For A WWE Exploding Deathmatch
Over the years, WWE has had some head-scratching options for gimmick matches, but one of the most infamously ridiculous was the Punjabi Prison match. The match came to an end once one wrestler escaped the two layers of bamboo surrounding the ring before their opponent, and first appeared at WWE Great American Bash in 2006, featuring The Undertaker and Big Show, who replaced The Great Khali at the last second due to wellness issues.
At the time, someone involved heavily in formulating the idea of the match was MLW founder Court Bauer, who was then working for the WWE as a writer. While doing an exclusive interview with AdFreeShows.com, Bauer revealed that he originally came up with a different match for the feud between The Undertaker and The Great Khali, leading to the stipulation later being changed into the Punjabi Prison.
"I had wanted to do a Deathmatch, Exploding Deathmatch in WWE, they were trying different things at this time, this was a time when they said 'let's try to relaunch ECW, let's try different stuff.' I showed Vince an Onita Exploding Deathmatch and he said 'yeah, let's do it.' From there, they said 'get with Kevin Dunn and his team, let's get to work on it,'" Bauer said. "I wasn't the lead writer, I was just one of the writers in the room. ... Vince liked an idea, and now it's on someone else's plate, we'll circle back and that's the lead writer's job to communicate with [Kevin Dunn]. ... About 12, 14 days out we finally see the first photos of this thing being built and it's like 'oh, that's not an Exploding Deathmatch.' It was supposed to be Undertaker in one of these things and it turns out to be what you'd see out of "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" or something."
The Punjabi Prison caused several issues for the WWE
Unfortunately for fans of the Exploding Deathmatch concept, WWE has yet to put on said match, although All Elite Wrestling has. The company held an "Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch" at AEW Revolution in March 2021, involving Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley, which was universally viewed as a dud. The "explosions" used looked and sounded so weak that AEW actually turned that element into part of the story later.
Continuing to talk about the strange WWE structure, Bauer revealed that the match ended up causing several issues for the company, mostly involving the bamboo used in its construction. Despite those issues, WWE would hold two more "Punjabi Prison" matches, the second coming at "No Mercy" 2007 involving The Great Khali and Batista and the other happening 10 years later between Randy Orton and Jinder Mahal at WWE Battleground.
"I guess in some ways for WWE it is impressive what the structure did end up being, but from a match point of view, it was very brutal because there was no give on that bamboo, then we had, going through the wellness process, all these people fail tests for elevated enzyme liver issues," Bauer said. "What was once a match with Undertaker and Khalil ended up with Big Show, poor guy doesn't have any prep time to weigh this out. He wasn't given a match where you could do much in it and this match did not feel good in that setting. It was one of those things where it was a spectacle. ... I remember Dusty [Rhodes] watching this saying 'Baby, it's going to be a long night.' It was a rough night and I feel for all parties involved but that was originally supposed to be a Deathmatch, an Exploding Deathmatch."