The Way I C It 12.03.07: Smooth Moves Volume 6: The Huracanrana
Posted by Chris Lansdell on 12.03.2007
They should have named Jericho's finisher the Toothbreaker. Thoughts on his new move, as well as the week's happenings, the huracanrana, and more, INSIDE!
Greetings humanity! Welcome to Lansdell Day on 411mania.com! That's right, today you will get to read my uniquely dumb opinion in not one, not two, but THREE awesome columns! Will the madness never end?
Big week just past, with Derby County being robbed in stoppage time by Sunderland, the Raptors putting up a stiff fight without the franchise player Chris Bosh (how about that Jamario Moon?), and some yummy new finishers to talk about. Yes, I just used yummy in a sentence. And?
Oh, and Bayani? Yeah, um, don't look now, but Ari just turned heel on both of us. I smell a triple threat! Of course, you'll end up taking the fall, being the veteran on his way out and all.
411's back with another huge podcast broadcast! Larry and the Wife have returned to preview the TNA Turning Point PPV, announce another contest winner, give out more contest details, talk about the near death experience the Csonka family had on the commute home from Thanksgiving and more! You can win free stuff! Check out the latest podcast of Larry and the Wife below!
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Know what really bugs me? Edge, for example, is announced from "Toronto, Ontario, Canada", but Batista is not announced from "Washington, DC, USA". Not even wrestling fans are dumb enough to think Toronto , Ontario is in the USA!
Aren't most contests scheduled for one fall? Isn't it kinda redundant to announce that?
The Way I C The E
The world almost imploded from the simultaneous awesome that was Santino vs Jericho on the mic and in the ring this week. Jericho was hilarious as the antagonist and Santino played his role perfectly.
Kelly Kelly needs to stick to looking good. Wrestling isn't her strength, clearly.
Punk continues to make everyone in the ring with him look good. In some ways this is great, in others it makes hmi look a touch weaker as champ. It would be better if the guys he was facing were either higher up the card, or getting the advantage through nefarious means.
Batista Edge Taker...again. Smackdown! NEEDS a new main event scene and pronto. Some permutation of these three has been the blue brand main since before Mania. With a brief Khali-flavoured interlude.
I'm loving the Flair farewell tour. A lot of people have missed one key point...of all his legendary confrontations and favourite opponents, only one remains in any sort of shape for the ring, one who happens to be riding out his current contract with the competition, one who has been rumoured to be in talks with WWE before, the only big North American name left who never wrestled for Vince...Flair vs Sting at Mania. Mark it down.
Hardy-HHH has potential, but Trips HAS to put Jeff over, if anyone is ready for the rub, it's him.
The Way I C the T
This week's iMPACT, which I was obliged to watch in detail, was actually quite good. Roode-Booker was very watchable, and Roode got enough offence in to look strong in the loss.
Dutt/Machismo 3D was great. The X Division guys flew around and get some nice spots in, then lost due to future X-Division champ Devine getting a shot in.
This was the first week in a long time that the backstage stuff did not make me want to gouge out my eyes. It built well, told a story, and was actually kinda funny in places.
JIMMY RAVE~!
The Way I C RoH
Weather did not co-operate and forced the cancellation of one of my favourite indy stables, the Trios Tournament. Still, if the results of Unscripted III are anything to go by, it was some show. Hero-Claudio best of 3 falls? Jacobs-AmDrag? Money.
Strong McGuinness, Hero McGuinness and Aries McGuinness are all being lined up. I'm all for setting up contenders, but this is not likely to give us any good feuds, especially with the pre-existing heat between Hero and Claudio, McGuinness and Dragon, and Aries and Strong. There's an idea....6-man mayhem for the strap, elimination rules! It's a PPV all to itself!
Delirious is in serious need of either a stable or a win in the feud with Hangmen's 3. He was uber-over for a while, bring that back!
The Way U C Me
A little slim this week, but the regulars are here. Jairo has some info on Shane doing a Shooting Star...
He tried to hit it on Kurt Angle during their epic Street Fight on King of the Ring. He didn't quite hit Angle with it and ended up ruining a trashcan.
But yeah, I love the article dude. Keep on truckin'
I remember the match VERY well, and I may even have it somewhere, but I don't remember the spot. Of course, the belly 2 belly into and then through the glass is the spot everyone remembers from that match. With more on Shane, Brian Horn mentions Mania X7 as containing a Shane SSP. This one I DON'T have, so I'll throw this out to you, readers. Chris Jacobs is back with more on Shane, and other stuff besides:
I do remember Shane using a shooting star press, cant recall when it was, but he missed it. He did the lesnar style, as in, jump, hook your legs like a cannonball, and once upside down you straighten out into a splash. Kennedy used the piledriver on Undertaker in there last feud, Murdoch's West Texas Destroyer (to me at least) is nothing more than a fast summersault flip really.
The SSP in TNA has only recently been AJ springboarding up and jumping to the outside, he makes it look so easy. Then in a ultimate X match, I think it was against LAX, could be wrong. AJ swung up for momentum while hanging on the X ropes, and swung down and somehow busted a shooting star press onto everyone standing in the ring, and he did it while HANGING FROM THE ULTIMATE X ROPES!!! That kid was crazy, he had to turn heel before he killed himself doing face moves, lol. I also remember a botch towards the last years of WCW. Kidman, in his blue jeans, and white tank top stage, since he was already out of the flock for some time, he was wrestling Lord "Steven" Regal, and Kidman jumped, rotated, and landed gut first on the top rope. Or when he did it from the top rope to the outside at Road Wild (I think) and busted his shin/ankle on the ring apron. He never made a fuss of that, so it probabally didn't hurt, but it looked and sounded painful.
Vince actually let Kennedy use a piledriver...wow. I forgot all about that. As for Murdoch's Destroyer, he certainly does a good job of protecting people in it, and it still looks impressive.
I totally agree about AJ needing to go heel before he died. He's been money as the comedy chicken heel recently, and Tomko makes a perfect straight man. I don't recall either of the Kidman bumps, but let me tell you, hitting any part of your body off the apron hurts like a bitch.
That's all the printable feedback I have for you this week, so we'll move on to:
Smooth Moves volume 6 The huracanrana
Before we start on the history of the move, let's clean up a few common misconceptions. First, the spelling above is the correct one. It's not hurricanrana. Second, huracanrana is not the same as a headscissors takedown. Third, for the move to be considered a true huracanrana, it has to end in a pin. The Frankensteiner, while similar, is more of a variation, something like a release German is to a German with a bridge.
Copasetic? Bonus.
Mexican luchador Huracan Ramirez is credited with the invention of the huracanrana, hence the name. It wasn't long before everyone was trying it south of the border, where flippy-floppy twisty-turny stuff has always been popular.
As strange as this may seem to anyone who has only been watching wrestling in the last 8 years or so, it was Scott Steiner's Frankensteiner that really brought the move to popularity in American wrestling. Even today, as a steroid-enhanced senior citizen of wrestling, he will occasionally bust out the top-rope variation of the Frankensteiner at PPVs, and it still looks impressive. The key difference, though, between the Frankensteiner and the huracanrana is that the Frankensteiner was initially performed on a running opponent.
Nowadays, of course, everyone and their skanky whore dog Lita are doing huracanranas. And, of course, it has as many names as it has people doing it: Litacanrana, Mickecanrana, huraKanerana ...yes, that's right, even Kane has busted out this move. Although I remember the move very well, I have trouble remembering which Generic Tattooed Big Man in Black he nailed it on: Luther Reigns or A-Train. Kane was on the top rope poised for his flying clothesline spot, but Generic Big Man cut him off and hoisted Kane up onto his shoulders. Kane then rolled through and executed the tallest huracanrana ever. The crowd went nuts for the spot, and rightly so. I seem to have a vague recollection of him doing it a second time, but I don't remember the details...readers? (Yeah, that's right Bayani, I have more than one)
It should be noted that the twisty-turny stuff that we see from the likes of Rey Misterio is techincally a flying headscissors and not a huracanrana. His West Coast Pop, however, is, a springboard variety to be precise, and very nice it is too. When hit correctly, it gives the illusion that the guy is taking a hard bump to the top of the head, when in fact the majority of the impact is shielded by Rey's legs. The potential for a botch is there, though, and as much for the attacker as the victim. Behold Mascarita Sagrada, a midget wrestler who did a few special attractions for WWF in the early 90s...
A natural evolution of the huracanrana was to attempt it from the top of something, normally the ropes. Rarely does this variation lead to a pin unless the victim is standing in the ring, so the "both on the top" 'rana is not technically a 'rana. The problem with this move is that it can come off looking very forced, because the victim is basically somersaulting off the top into the ring, with little visible assistance from his opponent. It, too, is a botch waiting to happen. Observe Jericho, Chris:
It's amazing he can still walk after that. The diving huracanrana onto an opponent standing in the ring is somewhat easier to pull of convincingly, and can look very flashy indeed if done right.
One of the best current purveyors of all things rana-riffic is Matt Sydal. He has a trademark spot where he slips out of a powerbomb position to stand on his opponent's shoulders, while his opponent is still standing, then dropping into a 'rana. This is the variation he used to beat the Kings of Wrestling for the RoH Tag Titles. His basic 'rana is also one of the stiffest you'll see in North America, often dropping the guy flush on his head.
Jack Evans will occasionally bust it out from standing, but it rarely leads to victory, strange for such an impactful move. Joshi puro legend Manami Toyota is the innovator of this move, only her version hooks the opponent under the arms instead of around the neck. Check this clip and see which one looks better: hers, or Kanemoto's...
The poison rana is incredibly dangerous, not just because of the whole head-landing thing, but also the fact that neither the victim nor the attacker can properly see where the mat is and time the landing. Similar to the Burning Hammer, this is why you will never see the move in the WWE.
It would be a sin of the highest magnitude to complete the review of the huracanrana without mentioning Dragon Kid. Known in the US mainly as part of the ridiculously good Dragon Gate 6-man matches in RoH, he is also the innovator of the Dragonrana, wherein he somersaults of the top onto his opponent's shoulders before executing the 'rana. It is visually stunning and VERY hard to pull off, as the somersault disorients you, and then you have to regain composure and flip the other way.
In Search of a Smooth Move
We had two new finishers début this week! Of course there is the much-maligned Codebreaker of Chris Jericho and Shelton Benjamin's new effort. We're also going to suggest a finisher for Cody Rhodes, Santino Marella and Rellik.
The Codebreaker
I must admit to being more than a touch disappointed when Jericho hit this on Monday...and the match was over. Having seen Shark Boy use it as a transition, and seeing Gregory Helms use something very similar last year before breaking his neck, this doesn't seem like a main eventer's finisher. Still, given that they seem to be avoiding submissions for Jericho, there aren't a lot of impact moves left that aren't associated with someone else or banned outright. It's very impactful and can look like a million bucks if sold well, but I was hoping for something...more.
Shelton's Move
We may be waiting a week or so before this gets a name. For those who missed it, it has been mis-called as a leaping high-angle DDT by Styles and Tazz, but this week Tazz pointed out that Benjamin underhooked the neck before driving the head to the mat, making it more of a leaping Flatliner/Downward Spiral. Either way, it's VERY nice and Benjamin's athleticism makes that leap look even more deadly.
Cody Rhodes, Santino Marella and Rellik
The Finisher Store is open! I read somewhere on the forums that Cody should use a hammerlock DDT as a finisher, since he already uses a DDT as a placeholder. The hammerlock DDT is not likely to see use in a WWE ring as it is a great way to pop out a shoulder in a hurry. What they could do, as a nod to those of us who follow continuity, is give him Holly's old finisher, the Falcon Arrow/Hollycaust. This would play into the respect story and give the rook a credible finisher that is hard to mess up and looks good on impact. While we're on the subject of the DDT, has there been any move that has lost more credibility in the last 15 years? From dreaded finisher to nasty set up move to mid-match momentum changer. Poor Jake the Snake.
Rellik, on the other hand, needs to win a match or two first! If he can manage that small feat, then I think we'll see something very impactful and that shows of his strength and quickness. I wouldn't mind a top-rope fallaway slam, or some form of powerbomb. It's been a while since we had a new one of those.
Finally, our boy Santino. From what we've seen of him, he picks a body part. Give him something simple but painful-looking, along the lines of the ankle lock, something UFC-style. That way, he has less chance to mess the move up, he can be made to look strong by making veterans scream or tap,
Well, boys and girls, that's it for another week! Check us out next week, when we go old school for a move that only a select few can use these days. Email your guesses as usual, for the chance to share your thoughts with the world!
that is the piledriver, I think it is still Luther Reigns taking it, but it's not Jindrack doing it. Actually it's one of the last Nitro's and I dont know who is doing it, but the botch is nasty.
Posted By: hammer_hwa (Registered) on December 17, 2007 at 07:33 PM
