I found a picture of a gorgious 3 teir cheesecake...one stack directly on top of the other. do you think that you would stack a cheesecake just like a normal cake...with dowels...would that be enough support or do you think that it would fall through?

I would use the sps stacking system.......although I use that with ALL of my stacked cakes now.....it's a system of plates that have pillars that fit directly into the bottom of the cake.......you could probably stack jello if you had to with these things!!
Here is a pic of a cake I just did yesterday using this system and as you can see there are NO borders (the fondant ribbon was put on before I stacked the cakes) and they fit nice and tightly together even with the plates in there!!

I agree after many disasters I feel more comfortable with stacking system

thanks so much...but what exactly is an sps stacking system and where can i get it ?

it's made by bakery craft and I buy mine at oasis supply.com if you search the forums for sps and put "leahs" as the author/poster and search posts..........you'll see a million where she describes everything.....or you can just pm her and ask her to send you the directions for them..........then you'll understand what they are!