The 411 Wrestling Top 5 10.7.09: Week 43 – Favorite Wrestling Moves

Posted by Michael Bauer on 10.07.2009

From the Canadian Destroyer to the Diamond Cutter and from the golden Shooting Star Press to good old Sweet Chin Music, 411's Wrestling Staffers rank their Five Favorite Moves in the latest edition of the 411 Wrestling Top Five!

Hello everyone and welcome to 411 Wrestling's Top 5 List. What we are going to is take a topic each week and all the writers here on 411 wrestling will have the ability to give us their Top 5 on said topic, plus up to three honorable mentions. At the end, based on where all these matches rank on people's list, we will create the 411 Wrestling Top 5 list. (This is provided enough votes are cast and are not differented enough to cause no clear Top 5.) The scoring is very similiar to the Wrestler of the Week as it looks like this:

#1 Choice – 5 points
#2 Choice – 4 points
#3 choice – 3 points
#4 Choice – 2 points
#5 Choice – 1 point
Honorable Mentions will break ties, but get no points.

Also, in the case of a tie, the most votes win, regardless of where it is listed in the individual Top 5. I will also use this rule in the event that one item is mentioned more often, but is one point behind. For example, one second place vote and two Honorable Mentions will defeat simply one first place vote.


So, on to this week's topic…

THE TOP 5 FAVORITE MOVES

The criteria is as follows:
- No Tag-Team Moves. This is only for individual manuevers.
- Obviously, basic strikes or strike combos are not moves.
- If a writer honestly felt a submission should be up here, that is fine, but I submissions should not be a part of this list.

Sure, this narrows it down to about 10,000 or so… but who said these lists are supposed to be easy?

So what did our group of writers select? Let's find out…



Robert S. Leighty Jr

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Razor's Edge - Another move that was fun to try on your friends on a trampoline or in a pool.

Piledriver - No matter the variation, dropping someone straight on their head always makes for a great move.

5.Randy Savage's Flying Elbow - One of the coolest moves when I was a kid in the 80s. Savage was so badass, and this move only made him all the more awesome. Even if Warrior got to kick out of 5 of these at WM VII, it was still great to see Savage casually drop 5 of these in one match.

4.Stone Cold Stunner - Quite possibly the greatest finisher in the history of wrestling. Another move that could come at anytime, and what made the move all the better was one someone totally commited to getting the move over sold the shit out of it (ie: The Rock, Shane McMahon). It would be higher if this was greatest move ever, but this is personal choice, and I like 3 others better.

3.Powerbomb - Thank Vader for this one as I couldn't help but be amazed when he would kill some poor jobber with the move. From then on this was a move my friends and I would also do to each other in either a swimming pool or on a trampoline. In High School there was a fight in the cafeteria and the one guy actually pulled this move off on the person he was fighting. It was one of the craziest things I'd ever seen, and it did a lot of damage to that poor kid.

2.Diamond Cutter - During my high school years, everyone I rolled with loved this move and would constantly try to apply it to someone else in the halls. Another move that can come out of nowhere and just looks devastating. DDP got the move over huge in WCW, and it has became a fantastic finisher for Orton.

1.DDT - My favorite move of all time and has been since I was a little kid. The move is just so simple, but at the same time so devastating. You have to be careful though because it can backfire on the person applying the move. I once used the move on my girlfried (we were watching Spring Stampeded 98), and I hit the move in a way that it bruised my sternum. I missed the rest of the PPV because I was taken to the hospital. True story!



Julian Bond

HONORABLE MENTIONS

DDT - Hardest…Top 5…ever. Got to definitely cheat a bit here. Shout outs to: Black Hole Slam, Jackknife Powerbomb, Tombstone, Clothesline from Hell, Piledriver, Muscle Driver, Go 2 Sleep, Sliced Bread #2/Acid Drop, Stunner, F-5, Death Valley Driver…um…Best Moonsault Ever, Shining Wizard, Rock Bottom, Senton Bomb, Ricola Bomb, Tornado DDT, T-Bone Suplex, German Suplex (definitely mutiple), Razor's Edge, the 450, Frankensteiner, the 187/Vertebreaker…alright…I think I'm done now. To start off my official list here, I wanted to mention the simplest, but still totally still bad ass move with the DDT. It's seen so many damn times nowadays in so many different ways that many of us fans are numb to seeing it and not that excited when it happens. But it's to me one of the best looking and sickest moves ever when done correct. Not only this, the move's done in so many various ways that I had to mention it here.

The People's Elbow - On paper when describing it, this may sound lame as hell. In comparison to the other better-looking, complex moves in wrestling, this may seem like a joke. But to me, the Rock's insane amount of charisma and athleticism made The People's Elbow move a must-see every time he did it. Others may try to intimidate this a bit nowadays (John Cena…MVP), but the Rock was the only to be able to make a simple elbow drop one of the coolest-looking moves in the world…to me. Plus it was a blast to do on my friends back in high school!



Styles Clash - Not only is this one of the best, unique moves I've seen that holds up well still to this date, but the shit still looks like it hurts each time I see it done. Awesome, freaking awesome move by the great AJ Styles…and even Michelle McCool.

5.The RKO - I've seen the "ace crusher" move being done by tons and tons of different wrestlers in tons and tons of various ways in my years of wrestling watching, but Randy Orton to me is the man who has taken the move and makes it feel fresh almost every time out. While DDP was really the one to me who brought it to the masses via his "Diamond Cutter", Orton was the one to take it ten steps further and put his own spin on it. Most of the times I've seen Orton do the move, he makes it look insanely awesome by elevating himself like halfway up through the air to come crashing down. Not only this, he has done it in so many crazy-looking positions. From the top rope…catching someone in mid-air…on a chair…from every reversal possible. The man has done it all. Some may think it's overrated. Others think that DDP did it better. But I think that this one is a "new classic" cause the man keeps finding new ways to do it even today.



4.Frog Splash - The top-rope "frog splash" to me done by most wrestlers has always been cool-looking. People like D-Lo Brown (remember…the "Lo-Down") to Christian Cage have it done it pretty well, but it's the duo of Eddie Guerrero (taking from his best friend Art Barr) and Rob Van Dam that did it the best. Eddie Guerrero did it flawlessly and effortlessly week in and week out and RVD's execution of it from every angle possible at high velocities was done in such an awe-inspiring way. Plus doing it was one of the moves that I pulled on friends while pulling off wrestling moves on my backyard trampoline.

3.Canadian Destroyer - I've had the fortunate opportunity to see this move done live on many, many occasions here in good ol' Michigan (near Petey's hometown of Canada) and it's a crowd-stopping moment every time I've seen it executed. If I haven't seen it done EVER…please view it now! But for the majority of us who have, it's one of the sickest forms of a piledriver ever done in the ring. Petey Williams, who has made this piledriver execution infamous, has done it in so many crazy positions and each time out has made it look so damn jaw-dropping. The only reason it isn't number one in my personal book is because there is a limited amount of people that the move could be done on. If you are a cruiserweight-like wrestler and can do a great backflip effortlessly, then the move would go over perfectly. But if you're someone like let's say Scott Steiner, then Petey more than likely couldn't pull it off. Great move none the less.

2.Shooting Star Press - There's tons and tons of great-looking moves from the top-rope. The mentioned Frog Splash, the 450, Spinal Tap/Starship Pain, Senton Bomb…so on and so one. But the Shooting Star has always been the one to cause shock and awe almost every time. Billy Kidman was the one to introduce it to me in WCW, Paul London was the one who showed me how different crazy ways it could be done in ROH (remember him doing it off the top of a VERY high ladder?!?), Evan Bourne showed how it could be done effortlessly now in the WWE, and good old Brock Lesnar showed how one could almost die if done incorrectly. Sick, sick, SICK every time I see it done. It's one of my favorite wrestling moves and it isn't my number one simply because of the fact that I sometimes fear for the person doing the move.

[Check out the sick Shooting Star done at the end of this Kidman/London match…sick sick sick]


1.Sweet Chin Music - A simple superkick done by any other person is just a superkick. A superkick done by the great Shawn Michaels is…priceless (that was…corny). But in all seriousness, Michaels has since the day he started calling it "Sweet Chin Music" been performing this move perfectly for years and years and years. No matter if it's plain-as-day going to be done in match or it's done out of nowhere (which is the best!), I always mark out when I see it. Like every single solitary time. I honestly can't really describe it beyond saying that it's awesome every single time I witness it.



Aaron Hubbard

HONORABLE MENTIONS
I'd like to note a few moves that I love, but that didn't make the list: Tilt-A-Whirl Backbreaker, Rolling German Suplexes, Northern Lights Suplex, Tornado DDT, Ace Crusher, Stone Cold Stunner, Russian Legsweep, Pump-Handle Gutbuster, Foldover Powerbomb, Gutwrench Suplex, Gourdbuster, Snap Powerslam, Exploder Suplex, Dragonrana, Military Press Gutbuster, Spinebuster, Reverse Hurracanrana, Tombstone Piledriver, Schwein and Perfect Plex.

Ricola Bomb - The straight-jacket powerbomb used by Claudio Castagnoli has been a favorite of mine since I first saw it. It's more based on aesthetics than anything, which is a large part of what goes into listing my absolute favorite moves.



Gutwrench Neckbreaker - Probably the most obscure move on the list, this is a move that Randy Orton breaks out on occasion, and it looks devastating, like it should be a finisher. Basically, you pick somebody up in a Canadian Gutwrench hold, and then step forward and hit them with a neckbreaker from on high. You know what, let the video talk for me (it's #6).



Frankensteiner - The hurracanrana is awesome no matter what, but when Scott Steiner did it, it looked he was going to pull his opponents heads right off his shoulders.

5.Tiger Driver ‘91 - One of the trademark moves of the late, great Mitsuharu Misawa. While the double underhook powerbomb has always been a trademark move of Misawa, in 1991 he came up with a much sicker version where he drops his opponent onto their neck and shoulders. He rarely busted the move out and only for truly momentous occasions, which makes the move all the more special.



4.Kudo Driver - Known to most American fans as the Vertebreaker or the Gringo/Cop Killer. Homicide and Shane Helms definitely made this devastating move mainstream, but to me, the original is still the best. So here's a picture perfect one, courtesy of Megumi Kudo.



3.Cutthroat Driver - The Burning Hammer is an awesome, incredibly dangerous move that makes me mark out. However, this slight variation, used by Mark Briscoe, scores more points because I think it looks prettier. Brutal moves are great, but eventually the brutality wears off. But I can never get sick of pretty moves.



2.Steiner Screwdriver - Words do this no justice. However, I think you can look at this list and see that TWO of Scott Steiner's signature moves are on my favorites list. It's easy to make fun of him now, but at one time, Scott really was the most exciting wrestler in the business.



1.Dragon Suplex Hold - Words cannot describe how much I love this move. It is very simple. The wrestler applies a full nelson and then bridges back to hit a suplex, dropping the opponent on the neck and shoulders, putting them right into a pinning position. It's quick, it's beautiful, and it's devastating. Most importantly, I always, ALWAYS mark out for it.





Jasper Gerretsen

HONORABLE MENTIONS

5.Shining Wizard - The premise of the move is simple enough: run up to someone and kick them in the face. The way the Shining Wizard is executed though, by stepping up to the knee and nailing them just as they're struggling back to their feet, makes it look spectacular when executed properly.

4.Horns of Aries/Last Chancery - Another move that looks really simple on paper, Aries first started using this move as a regular finisher when he returned to ROH in 2007. The front facelock is an incredibly basic move, but by bridging back on it he makes it look extremely painful. The knee strikes to set it up are just a nice bonus.

3.Dragon Suplex - In one of his many commentaries, Lance Storm mentioned that there are very few people he'd be willing to take a dragon suplex from, and with good reason. With both arms tied up in a full nelson, this move is exactly as dangerous as it looks. It's horrifying to watch (for all the wrong reasons) when executed by some backyard wrestler, but when done properly it looks great.

2.Delfin Special - The Delfin Special, as popularized by Super Delfin, is a great twist on the classic German suplex. In stead of simply holding on to the bridge to pin his opponent, Delfin would flip backwards into a rolling prawn hold. Delfin frequently executed this move at incredible speed, and the whole move just has a great one-two-three flow to it. I'm incredibly surprised that the move has never really caught on in the American independent scene, like so many other Japanese moves.



1.Shooting Star Press - No matter how many twists, flips and corkscrews you add, you simply can't beat a properly executed Shooting Star Press. Innovated by anime character turned professional wrestler Jushin Liger. It's a staple of high flying wrestlers the world over, and Evan Bourne has arguably the best I've ever seen, one that was good enough to convince WWE officials to lift their ban on the move. When Evan Bourne flies, it's almost as if he hits the move in slow motion, and it's always a sight to behold.



Shawn S. Lealos

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Chris Jericho's Armbar - It's legendary.

Van Terminator - Man, screw Shane McMahan. RVD blew my mind when he hit this for the first time.

Flying Elbow Drop - So many guys do corkscrew 360 moonsault flippy flips now. Watch Randy Savage to see how to drop something with grace that works just as well as anything.

5.Canadian Destroyer - It is the newest move on the list but damn is it an awesome one. It looks so much better than other cool TNA moves (Styles Clash, Muscle Buster, Angels Wings) and looks devastating as hell. It is a piledriver, but uses an additional flip to add impact. This alone got Petey Williams over as a star. It is unrealistic but I don't care.



4. Frankensteiner - Before he bulked up into a man beast, Scotty Steiner amazed me every freaking time he hit this. Even today, with his roided up body, he still makes me mark out when he pulls it out of his bag of tricks.



3. Diamond Cutter - Randy Orton is pretty famous for doing it now, but damn DDP could hit it from anywhere at any time a decade before Orton ever tried.



2. DDT - Jake Roberts perfected the DDT and while many have used it since (Raven's Even Flow was awesome), no one can match The Snake. I remember an old interview where Roberts said the reason he slapped his opponent on the back on the way down was to create more impact with the move - the harder his slapped them, the more it hurt. I like to see a "scientific" approach by a wrestler concerning their moves instead of just doing it because it looks cool.



1. Sweet Chin Music - I remember when Gentleman Chris Adams used to use his as a finisher back in the eighties. Even James Storm uses a nice version of it today. But it was Shawn Michaels who made it legendary. Whether it was the "loading up the boot" from the nineties or "striking up the band", when Shawn starts his preparations to hit it I get chills up and down my spine. Plus, he doesn't even have to strike up the band and can hit it from anywhere at any time.





Chris Lansdell

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Lightning Spiral - This really only makes the list because it's sick. Just SICK. There's no way to adequately describe it, so here's a video:



Chaos Theory - If you've ever subjected yourself to one of my Impact reports, you'll know I crave this move every time I see Doug Williams. It's not really that special, just a rollup rolled through into a German suplex, but he hits it so smoothly and so rarely that it just tickles me in ways normally reserved for 19-year-old Filipinas.

Jig n Tonic - I saw Sheik Abdul Bashir bust this out last week on Impact and almost spit out my iced tea. It's technically an inverted or belly to back piledriver, and it looks really really nasty. Don't believe me? Here, have a look:



5. Dragon Suplex: Also known as the full nelson suplex. I first saw this move busted out in the epic Chris Benoit/Kurt Angle/Chris Jericho feud and instantly loved it. I've since seen it done yards better, both the release and bridging versions, by the likes of Jay Lethal and Kobashi. You'll likely never see it in WWE again as it's not exactly safe.

4. K-Driller/Kishi Driver/Island Driver: Most infamously known as the move with which Owen Hart broke Steve Austin's neck, but surprisingly used in WWF after that by Rikishi (briefly). Samoa Joe used it in RoH and When Kishi turned up in TNA, he used it there too. It's like a Tombstone, but the executor of the move drops the head between their legs in a sit-out position instead of kneeling.

3. Kudo Driver/Cop Killa/Vertebreaker: I have yet to find one person who didn't cringe when they first saw this move. Despite looking like somebody is going to get their neck broken, it's surprisingly safe to take. My first exposure to the move was back in the days of 3-Count, and I instantly loved it. Until you've seen the combination double stomp/cop killa by Low Ki and Homicide, you haven't seen a head bump.

2. El Generico's Brainbustaaaaaaaaah: Of all the YouTube move clips, I think this is the one I have watched the most and shown to the most people, with the possible exception of Madoka's Ranhei. The commentary on some of the executions is what really sells it, but I mean...DAMN! Dude got dropped ON HIS HEAD!



1. Burning Hammer Driver: As if there could be any doubt. Without a doubt my favourite move ever, made famous by my favourite wrestler ever. For those who don't know, it's an inverted Death Valley Driver. It's been used by Mark Briscoe, Chaz (briefly), Dan Maff and most famously Kenta Kobashi, the move's "innovator". I'm not sure why it makes number one over some more flashy stuff, like the Ranhei or the Suicide or the Package piledriver or the uranage backbreaker or...OK, I could go on. Maybe because it's ultra-rare: Kobashi used it a grand total of 7 times, and only against 4 different people. Maybe because it's just pure brutality and simplicity, and it drops fools on their heads. Nuff said.