The best spear in wrestling is contended. The worst is not.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00The phrase, this ain't ballet, pal, gets thrown about a lot, but wrestling does have
00:04plenty in common with dance. On a surface level, it's about crafting something that
00:08looks pleasing to the viewer's eye. It should be said that not only are the men and women on
00:12this list better at fake fighting than you or I, they could very easily beat me in a real fight
00:17and turn me into a puddle formerly known as Psy from WhatCulture. Still, every fan will
00:21have their own take on who were the best at making moves look great and who were the worst.
00:26I'm the future Puddle of Psy from WhatCulture Wrestling,
00:29and this is 10 Wrestlers Who Couldn't Do Their Own Moves.
00:3210. The Rock's Sharpshooter
00:35Though he didn't invent it, it's fair to say that the Sharpshooter was made famous by Brett Hart.
00:39The master of the move was asked in 2021 by Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp about his colleagues,
00:44who also tried to apply it, and he was quick to point out that The Rock had always had trouble
00:49putting it on. Looking at Hart's take on the move, it's clear to see why it's beloved.
00:53The Hitman makes the crossing over of his and his opponent's legs,
00:56as well as his subtle hand placement, look easy. He pulls at his opponent to turn them over,
01:00demonstrating their weight, and pushes in deep to apply pressure.
01:04This is what submission moves are all about, after all. Pressure and control.
01:07The Rock had very little of either when he began applying the Sharpshooter onwards from 2000,
01:12often crossing legs over the wrong way and looking as weak as pond water,
01:16The Rock's Sharpshooter had been chastised by both fans and wrestlers themselves.
01:20Still, Rocky got it over because it was the Attitude Era, and at this point,
01:24he could almost do no wrong.
01:259. CM Punk's Elbow Drop
01:28Whilst there may or may not be legitimate heat between CM Punk and Kenta over Punker's usage
01:33of the Go To Sleep, it's hardly the only move in the Second City Saints repertoire that he's
01:37adopted from another. Occasionally, Punk will take it to the top rope, point to the sky,
01:41and drop an elbow, like Macho did back in his prime. Although perhaps not exactly like Macho
01:46Not only was Savage capable of getting some impressive air, he was able to lean into the
01:50blow mid-flight. Macho was a marksman with the elbow, always leading it to its mark and making
01:55it look devastating. With Punk, he often falls in a bit of a heap. Yes, the elbow is extended,
02:00but it's not the singular point of impact. CM Punk himself made fun of this in a 2020 tweet,
02:05when the WWE on Fox Twitter account put him amongst Randy Savage, Shawn Michaels,
02:09and Kairi Sane as the best elbow drops in the biz, saying,
02:13this isn't a list I should be on. So, at least he has good humour about it.
02:178. The Miz's Figure Four Leg Lock
02:19There are some stars that are just born to be heels. Not that The Miz isn't funny or
02:23charming when he wants to be, but there's just something so delightfully punchable
02:26about his on-screen persona. Ergo, he needs all the help he can get during his rare babyface runs.
02:31In 2012, WWE paired him with the legendary Ric Flair in a forgettable mentor and student story.
02:37In this time, Flair bequeathed his most deadly move to the A-Lister. And whilst Miz doesn't
02:41lock the Figure Four Leg Lock in quite as impressively as Flair did, where it really
02:45falls down is an overall performance issue. Miz doesn't use it to tell a story, he skips right
02:50to the end. Be of his own volition, or the time he's given, Miz never really bothers to work his
02:55opponent's leg during any given match. He never has, and he likely never will. As such, this
02:59already vapid hand-me-down of a move is less impactful, as the prior punishment that makes
03:04it so effective is missing. More than this, Flair would spend minutes applying the lock,
03:08steadily becoming more intense to amp up the atmosphere. It's what made it so memorable.
03:12When Miz applies the Figure Four, he's heaving and grimacing that punchable face before he's
03:16even hit the mat. 7. Charlotte Flair's Moonsault
03:19Being able to flip your entire body over mid-air is insanely impressive. It's a skill that requires
03:24a bit of rewiring of your instincts that tell you that your feet should stay on the ground,
03:28and by no means should your head ever be below them. The Moonsault is perhaps even worse,
03:33since the move is done backwards, facing away from your landing spot. That being said,
03:37just because you're able to flip doesn't mean you've mastered a move.
03:40As Charlotte Flair demonstrates on a frequent basis, timing your rotation is imperative,
03:44as is making sure you stick the landing. It probably doesn't help either that she's
03:48very tall, and even more so that she has a history of cheerleading, so it's in her nature
03:52to land on her feet. As it is, most of her Moonsault landings are rough at best, as she
03:56flips too soon and lands on her ankles, rather than pressing her opponent flat. On the other
04:01hand, Moonsaulting to the outside of the ring means she at least has to land on her feet,
04:05which she does almost every time. Shame then that her standing Moonsault always misses her
04:09opponent by so much that she may as well have jumped off the turnbuckle and landed in a different
04:13area code. 6. Shane McMahon's Punches
04:16Shane McMahon is about the furthest you can get from technical wrestling. Even in his younger
04:20years, jumping into his dad's ring to play alongside all those pro athletes, nobody ever
04:24pretended that he was more than a glorified stuntman. And he was great at this, so it distracted
04:29crowds for some time from his god-awful fundamentals. Since his return in 2016,
04:34McMahon has been the subject of mockery for what are surely the world's worst worked punches.
04:39As a passionate fan of MMA and trained in Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Shane leans too
04:44far into wanting to look realistic. His swift and incredibly short movements are all clearly
04:49inspired by boxing jabs. However, this is just not how things are done in wrestling.
04:53Full arm extension and thrust are the name of the game, and Shane displays neither.
04:58It's hard enough to take the boss's jumpy upstarts unseriously as a legitimate fighter
05:02in his own right, but it's the seriousness with which Shane seems to present himself
05:06– he probably whispers sweet nothings to that best wrestler in the world trophy – every night.
05:115. John Cena's STF
05:13In a 2020 episode of WWE's Untold series, Edge recalled his match with Cena at Unforgiven 2006.
05:19He tells the story of how Big Match John accidentally choked him until he passed out
05:24via a nasty combination of STF and ladder. Though he laughs it off in a way that pro wrestlers do,
05:29since it's just a part of their job, it's a harrowing visual and thought. And clearly,
05:33it had an effect on Cena, because ever since that moment, his submission hold
05:36has gone from being genuinely dangerous to looking absolutely ludicrous.
05:40To be fair, that is pretty good reason to adapt to Mu, but there has to be a happy medium.
05:44To give it its full name is to describe it perfectly – the step-over toe-hold face lock.
05:49Edgy fans of WWE's ruthless aggression days might lament that the name of Cena's
05:54move went from the STFU back to the simple STF when the PG era rolled around,
06:00but in truth, it's been more of an ST this whole time. When Cena cinches it in,
06:04there's no face lock. Not only does this mean Cena isn't putting pressure on his victim's spine,
06:09which is the point of the full body hold, but it's clear to anyone watching that escaping
06:13it would need little more than a duck of the head.
06:164. John Cena's Springboard Stunner
06:18John Cena was a fantastic figurehead for WWE's promotional appeal. In the ring,
06:23his character is a great role model. Outside of wrestling, he's a promising actor and an
06:27honourable humanitarian. It's a shame that his actual wrestling has always been so limited,
06:32because everywhere else he succeeds. And while Cena is known for, and has largely got by on,
06:37his five moves of doom, he occasionally adds a sixth.
06:40Cena's victory over Rusev at WrestleMania 31 is a sour taste many WWE fans remember,
06:45but there was something else that night that caught everyone off guard. In a show of otherwise
06:50seen creativity, Cena hit his first Springboard Stunner by running into the ropes, bouncing off
06:56of them and taking his opponent down with a cutter. On first viewing, it's kind of cool,
07:00because it is so surprising. But even occasionally, when it didn't look bad,
07:04it still never looked great. The momentum of Cena running one way and then suddenly moving
07:08towards his opponent backwards made for an awkward sell. And most of the time,
07:12Cena could never get his hands around his dance partner's head precisely.
07:16Cena used the Springboard Stunner for all of about six months in 2015, in a period that is
07:20fondly remembered as some of his best in-ring work. Despite a move that the commentary consistently
07:26had to remark as one he never, quote, got all of.
07:293. Eva Marie's Sliced Red
07:32Eva Marie's moveset rarely got more complex than running sentons and back elbows. However,
07:37in 2015, All Red Everything returned to the company after a hiatus, with a surprising new
07:42move passed on to her by her trainer Brian Kendrick. Sliced Red No. 2 demonstrated the
07:47beauty of fluid wrestling drilled down to one perfect second. Kendrick would run almost
07:52vertically up the turnbuckles, with his opponent in tow, rotating over them and forcing them onto
07:56their back. It was a move that exemplified the Cruiserweight's agility and finesse.
08:00Now credit where credit is due, it's not an easy move to pull off, because in order to look good,
08:04it requires a lot of confidence and careful footwork. These are things Marie rarely managed
08:09to demonstrate as it felt like WWE were always shoving her onto TV well before she was ready.
08:14So this is very much a case of running, up the ropes in fact, before you can really walk.
08:19Marie's Sliced Red had all the flat-footedness of a baby deer and looked like someone climbing a
08:23particularly imposing staircase in roller skates. It was clear that her opponents were doing most
08:28of the work to make sure everyone got out of it safely. It's probably not surprising that
08:32her next gimmick had her finding excuses to not wrestle, and we were all better for it.
08:372. Billy Kidman's Shooting Star Press
08:40The shooting star press might be one of wrestling's most beautiful moves.
08:43The end-over-end rotating flip from the top rope requires grace and precision to hit perfectly.
08:48On the one hand, there are those that believe that Billy Kidman was one of the most entertaining
08:52acts of his time. He was also one of the first men to bust out a shooting star press on TV,
08:56instantly creating conversation amongst fans. And sometimes it looked incredible,
09:01but only sometimes. Quite a lot of the time, it looked like Kidman had beef with gravity.
09:06He barely got any air, his rotations were late, and his landings were sloppy.
09:10If you can't pull off a move time after time and make it look picture-perfect,
09:14especially in Vince McMahon's clinical sports entertainment world,
09:17then you should perhaps reconsider it, doubly so, if it has the potential to be dangerous.
09:22Unlike other entries in this list, Kidman couldn't do his move for more reasons beyond
09:27his own inconsistency. In an August 2004 episode of Smackdown, Kidman hit one of his worst attempts
09:33at the shooting star press on Chavo Guerrero, landing wrong and with some serious velocity.
09:37He drove his knee into Chavo's head, legitimately concussing his opponent.
09:41As such, the SSP was blacklisted at the company,
09:44meaning that both Kidman and his tag partner Paul London had to find new signature moves.
09:51Edge's Spear
09:52It's the job of wrestling announce teams, as much as the in-ring workers themselves, to sell.
09:56Commentators will tell you how impactful something is supposed to be with how they react to it.
10:01But without any distractions, and with the right comparisons,
10:04it's fair to say that Edge's finisher is not as powerful as Michael Cole's frenzied calls of Spear
10:09implies. The Spear has been a signature move for a great number of major stars,
10:14Roman Reigns and Goldberg among them, in part because it's a simple and understandable technique.
10:19The attacker throws their entire weight into an airborne tackle, taking their opponent down to
10:23the mat and, perhaps most importantly, knocking the wind out of them by burying their shoulder
10:28into their enemy's gut. Except Edge doesn't do this, and he never really has. He wraps his
10:33opponent in an embrace, pushing the flat of his bicep into them. Despite being part of some of
10:37the company's most rewatched moments, Edge's Spear has always more resembled a running hug
10:42when properly scrutinised. This was exemplified the most during his runs where he assembled a
10:47three-man team alongside Rhino. Rhino's Spear might have gotten a unique title inspired by
10:52his namesake, but it deserved its own moniker because of just how deadly it looked. It didn't
10:56even need Joey Styles losing his mind chanting gore, gore, gore on commentary. Although, let's
11:02face it, it didn't hurt either. Now, I'm sure I've just upset some superfans of these particular
11:07wrestlers, but as I say, this is all done in good fun. If you are going to go down to those comments,
11:11either to tell me what for or to give me other examples of wrestlers that couldn't do their own
11:16moves, make sure to hit like on the way and make sure you go subscribe. Head over to whatculture.com
11:20for more content every day. I've been Si for WhatCulture and have a good week.