Sunday, September 26, 2010

Top 5 coolest wrestling moves

Watched some wrestling show, perhaps it was Raw or Smackdown (I don't really know), on Friday night at the wife's nephew's 14th birthday extravaganza. During the early to mid 80's I was a huge wrestling fan -- this would have been during the golden era of Hulk Hogan. It struck me how the faces have changed over the years, but the moves have not. Here is a tribute to the top 5 coolest all time moves in professional wrestling, which my dad's friend used to say was the "only true American sport."

  1. Piledriver -- We're talking Paul Orndorff style, not that stupid kind where you just pinch the guy's head in between your knees and fall down. When I was young I REALLY wanted to see a piledriver off the top rope, not realizing it probably would have killed the person.
  2. Figure 4 Leg Lock -- It looked really, really painful and I routinely used to try to put my sister in it, I was never successful and she used to laugh uncontrollably.
  3. Camel Clutch -- Here is a move that I have executed before and let me tell you: the recipient started screaming in about 2 seconds flat. The Iron Sheik was, and still is, the best.
  4. Whatever move Jimmy Snuka used to do, where he would flash the devil horns and launch himself at his opponent off the top rope, that was awesome! I think an entire generation of kids such as myself used to propel themselves off dressers, beds, couches, etc trying to emulate that move. Probably resulted in a lot of broken limbs too.
  5. Rounding out the top 5 is a tie between the abdominal stretch, and the sleeper. I don't think you see the abdominal stretch anymore. Quite a shame, since this one also looked to be really painful. The sleeper was cool because this was one you could actually do on your friends, and successfully put them to sleep. The first time it was ever done to me I remember being a little ticked off, but the guy showed me how to do it, and so I figured it was an even trade. Once when I tried to put my dad in it he taught me that the standard defense is burying your chin into your chest. The prevents the would-be aggressor from getting the elbow around your neck.

No comments:

Post a Comment