Iron Man match

Iron Man matches generally operate under the same rules as a regular professional wrestling bout, but instead of the match having to be over before a time limit is up, the Iron Man match goes the full length of the allotted time, with each wrestler attempting to score as many falls in that time as possible. The wrestler who has the most decisions at the end of the match is then the winner. There are 15-second rest period after each fall, regardless of how it occurred.

Should the match result in a tie, sudden death overtime occurs. After Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle tied 2–2 in a 30-minute iron-man match, Michaels begged Angle to go sudden death, but Angle walked off, to the heavy boos of the audience who wanted to see how it would end.

Sudden deaths are especially common in the event of a title match. This is because, in the event of a draw, the champion will always retain the title, meaning that sudden death is the only way to truly determine a winner. Commissioner Gorilla Monsoon ordered sudden death (after onscreen President Rowdy Roddy Piper had stated that there "must be a winner").

Iron Man matches are almost always two-sided (that is, no more than two sides, such as 1v1 or tag team, as opposed to triple-threat or fatal-four-way). However, it is possible for there to be a Triple Threat Iron Man, with the wrestler scoring the plurality of decisions being the winner.

The "Ultimate Submission" match is a variation of the Iron Man match where only submissions are counted for scoring.