The best spear in wrestling is contended. The worst is not.
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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
00:11and women on this list better at fake fighting than you or I, they could very easily beat me
00:16in a real fight and turn me into a puddle formerly known as Psy from WhatCulture.
00:20Still, every fan will have their own take on who were the best at making moves look great
00:24and who were the worst. I'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 Bret 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
01:46did. Not only was Savage capable of getting some impressive air, he was able to lean into the blow
01:51mid-flight. Macho was a marksman with the elbow, always leading it to its mark and making it look
01:55devastating. 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 charming
02:23when he wants to be, but there's just something so delightfully punchable about his on-screen
02:27persona. Ergo, he needs all the help he can get during his rare babyface runs. In 2012,
02:32WWE 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
03:25a 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. As Charlotte Flair
03:41demonstrates on a frequent basis, timing your rotation is imperative, as is making sure you
03:45stick the landing. It probably doesn't help either that she's very tall, and even more so
03:49that she has a history of cheerleading, so it's in her nature to land on her feet. As it is,
03:54most of her moonsault landings are rough at best, as she flips too soon and lands on her ankles
03:58rather than pressing her opponent flat. On the other hand, moonsaulting to the outside of the
04:02ring means she at least has to land on her feet, which she does almost every time. Shame then that
04:07her standing moonsault always misses her opponents by so much that she may as well have
04:10jumped off the turnbuckle and landed in a different area 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 in his own
05:03right, but it's the seriousness with which Shane seems to present himself. He probably
05:06whispers sweet nothings to that best wrestler in the world trophy every night.
05:105. 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.
05:32And clearly it had an effect on Cena, because ever since that moment,
05:35his submission hold has gone from being genuinely dangerous to looking absolutely ludicrous.
05:40To be fair, that is pretty good reason to adapt a move, 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 move went
05:54from the STFU back to the simple STF when the PG era rolled around, but in truth,
06:01it's been more of an ST this whole time. When Cena cinches it in, there's no face lock. Not
06:06only does this mean Cena isn't putting pressure on his victim's spine, which is the point of the
06:10full body hold, but it's clear to anyone watching that escaping it would need little more than a
06:15duck of the head. 4. 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. Cena's victory over Rusev at WrestleMania
06:4231 is a sour taste many WWE fans remember, but there was something else that night that caught
06:47everyone off guard. In a show of otherwise rarely seen creativity, Cena hit his first
06:52Springboard Stunner by running into the ropes, bouncing off of them, and taking his opponent
06:57down with a cutter. On first viewing, it's kind of cool, because it is so surprising.
07:01But even occasionally, when it didn't look bad, it still never looked great.
07:05The momentum of Cena running one way and then suddenly moving towards his opponent backwards
07:10made for an awkward sell. And most of the time, Cena could never get his hands around his dance
07:14partner's head precisely. Cena used the Springboard Stunner for all of about six months in 2015,
07:20in a period that is fondly remembered as some of his best in-ring work. Despite a move that
07:24the commentary consistently had 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,
07:41with a surprising new move passed on to her by her trainer Brian Kendrick.
07:45Sliced Red No. 2 demonstrated the beauty of fluid wrestling drilled down to one perfect second.
07:50Kendrick would run almost vertically up the turnbuckles, with his opponent in tow,
07:54rotating over them and forcing them onto their back. It was a move that exemplified
07:58the Cruiserweight's agility and finesse. Now credit where credit is due, it's not an
08:02easy move to pull off, because in order to look good, it requires a lot of confidence
08:06and careful footwork. These are things Marie rarely managed to demonstrate,
08:10as 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
08:23a particularly imposing staircase in roller skates. It was clear that her opponents were
08:27doing most of the work to make sure everyone got out of it safely. It's probably not surprising
08:32that her 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. If you can't pull
09:11off a move time after time and make it look picture perfect, especially in Vince McMahon's
09:15clinical sports entertainment world, then you should perhaps reconsider it, doubly so if it
09:20has the potential to be dangerous. Unlike other entries in this list, Kidman couldn't do his move
09:26for more reasons beyond his own inconsistency. In an August 2004 episode of Smackdown,
09:31Kidman hit one of his worst attempts at the Shooting Star Press on Chavo Guerrero,
09:35landing wrong and with some serious velocity. He drove his knee into Chavo's head,
09:39legitimately concussing his opponent. As 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.
09:501. Edge'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, it's fair to say that Edge's
10:05finisher is not as powerful as Michael Cole's frenzied calls of Spear implies.
10:10The 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 face
11:02it, 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 into those
11:11comments, either to tell me what for or to give me other examples of wrestlers that couldn't do
11:15their own moves, make sure to hit like on the way and make sure you go subscribe. Head over
11:19to WhatCulture.com for more content every day. I've been Si for WhatCulture, and have a good week.