- 14 hours ago
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 plenty in
00:05common with dance. On a surface level, it's about crafting something that looks pleasing to the
00:09viewer's eye. It should be said that not only are the men and women on this list better at fake
00:13fighting than you or I, they could very easily beat me in a real fight and turn me into a puddle
00:18formerly known as Psy from WhatCulture. Still, every fan will have their own take on who were
00:23the best at making moves look great and who were the worst. I'm the future Puddle of Psy from
00:28WhatCulture Wrestling and this is 10 wrestlers who couldn't do their own moves.
00:32Number 10, The Rock's Sharpshooter. Though he didn't invent it, it's fair to say that the
00:37sharpshooter was made famous by Bret Hart. The master of the move was asked in 2021 by Fightful's
00:43Sean Ross Sapp about his colleagues who also tried to apply it and he was quick to point out that
00:47The Rock had always had trouble putting it on. Looking at Hart's take on the move, it's clear
00:51to see why it's beloved. The hitman makes the crossing over of his and his opponent's legs as
00:56well as his subtle hand placement look easy. He pulls at his opponent to turn them over,
01:01demonstrating their weight and pushes in deep to apply pressure. This is what submission moves
01:05are all about after all, pressure and control. The Rock had very little of either when he began
01:10applying the sharpshooter onwards from 2000. Often crossing legs over the wrong way and looking as
01:15weak as pond water, The Rock's sharpshooter has been chastised by both fans and wrestlers themselves.
01:20Still, Rocky got it over because it was the Attitude Era and at this point he could almost
01:24do no wrong. 9. CM Punk's Elbow Drop
01:28Whilst there may or may not be legitimate heat between CM Punk and Kenta over Punker's usage of
01:33the Go to Sleep, it's hardly the only move in the Second City Saints repertoire that he's adopted from
01:38another. Occasionally Punk will take it to the top rope, point to the sky and drop an elbow like
01:42Macho did back in his prime. Although perhaps not exactly like Macho did. Not only was Savage capable of
01:48getting some impressive air, he was able to lean into the blow mid-flight. Macho was a marksman with
01:53the elbow always leading it to its mark and making it look devastating. With Punk, he often falls in
01:58a bit of a heap. Yes, the elbow is extended but it's not the singular point of impact. CM Punk himself
02:03made fun of this in a 2020 tweet when the WWE on Fox Twitter account put him amongst Randy Savage,
02:08Shawn Michaels and Kairi Sane as the best elbow drops in the biz, saying this isn't a list I should be on. So at
02:15least he has good humour about it. 8. The Miz's Figure 4 Leg Lock
02:19There are some stars that are just born to be heels. Not that The Miz isn't funny or charming when he wants to be,
02:24but there's just something so delightfully punchable about his on-screen persona. Ergo he needs all the help he can get
02:30during his rare babyface runs. In 2012, WWE paired him with the legendary Ric Flair in a forgettable
02:35mentor and student story. In this time, Flair bequeathed his most deadly move to the A-lister.
02:41And whilst Miz doesn't lock the Figure 4 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 to
02:50the end. Be of his own volition or the time he's given, Miz never really bothers to work his opponent's
02:55leg during any given match. He never has and he likely never will. As such, this already vapid
03:00hand-me-down of a move is less impactful as the prior punishment that makes it so effective is
03:05missing. More than this, Flair would spend minutes applying the lock steadily becoming more intense
03:09to amp up the atmosphere. It's what made it so memorable. When Miz applies the Figure 4, he's
03:14heaving and grimacing that punchable face before he's even 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 a bit of
03:25rewiring of your instincts that tell you that your feet should stay on the ground and by no means
03:29should your head ever be below them. The Moonsault is perhaps even worse since the move is done
03:34backwards, facing away from your landing spot. That being said, just because you're able to flip
03:38doesn't mean you've mastered a move. As Charlotte Flair demonstrates on a frequent basis, timing your
03:43rotation is imperative as is making sure you stick the landing. It probably doesn't help either that
03:48she's very tall and even more so that she has a history of cheerleading so it's in her nature to land on
03:52her feet. As it is, most of her moonsault landings are rough at best as she flips too soon and lands
03:58on her ankles rather than pressing her opponent flat. On the other hand, moonsaulting to the outside
04:02of the ring means she at least has to land on her feet which she does almost every time. Shame then
04:07that her standing moonsault always misses her opponents by so much that she may as well have
04:11jumped 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 years,
04:20jumping into his dad's ring to play alongside all those pro athletes, nobody ever pretended that he
04:24was more than a glorified stuntman. And he was great at this so it distracted crowds for some
04:30time from his god awful fundamentals. Since his return in 2016 though, McMahon has been the subject
04:35of mockery for what are surely the world's worst worked punches. As a passionate fan of MMA and trained
04:41in Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Shane leans too far into wanting to look realistic. His swift and
04:47incredibly short movements are all clearly inspired by boxing jabs. However this is just not how things
04:52are done in wrestling. Full arm extension and thrust are the name of the game and Shane displays
04:57neither. It's hard enough to take the boss's jumpy upstart son seriously as a legitimate fighter
05:02in his own right, 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. And clearly it had an effect
05:33on Cena because ever since that moment his submission hold has gone from being genuinely dangerous to
05:38looking absolutely ludicrous. To be fair that is pretty good reason to adapt a move,
05:42but there has to be a happy medium. To give it its full name is to describe it perfectly,
05:47the step over to hold facelock. Edgy fans of WWE's Ruthless Aggression days might lament that the name
05:53of Cena's move 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 there's no facelock.
06:06Not only does this mean Cena isn't putting pressure on his victim's spine, which is the
06:10point of the full body hold, but it's clear to anyone watching that escaping it would need little
06:14more than a duck of the head. 4. John Cena's Springboard Stunner
06:18John Cena was a fantastic figurehead for WWE's promotional appeal. In the ring his character is
06:24a great role model. Outside of wrestling he's a promising actor and an honourable humanitarian.
06:28It's a shame that his actual wrestling has always been so limited because everywhere else he succeeds.
06:34And while Cena is known for and has largely got by on his five moves of doom, he occasionally adds
06:39a sixth. Cena'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
06:50rarely seen creativity, Cena hit his first Springboard Stunner by running into the ropes,
06:55bouncing off of 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, it still never looked
07:05great. The 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 the
07:25commentary 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 with a surprising new move passed on
07:43to her by her trainer Brian Kendrick. Sliced Bread number two demonstrated the beauty of fluid wrestling
07:48drilled down to one perfect second. Kendrick would run almost vertically up the turnbuckles with his
07:53opponent in tow, rotating 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 is not an easy move to pull
08:03off because in order to look good it requires a lot of confidence and careful footwork. These are
08:08things Marie rarely managed to demonstrate as it felt like WWE were always shoving her onto TV well
08:13before she was ready. So this is very much a case of running, up the ropes in fact, before you can
08:18really walk. Marie'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 her
08:32next gimmick had her finding excuses to not wrestle and we were all better for it.
08:37Number two, Billy Kidman's shooting star press. The shooting star press might be one of wrestling's
08:42most beautiful moves. The end over end rotating flip from the top rope requires grace and precision
08:47to hit perfectly. On the one hand, there are those that believe that Billy Kidman was one of the
08:51most entertaining acts of his time. He was also one of the first men to bust out a shooting star press
08:56on TV instantly creating conversation amongst fans. And sometimes it looked incredible, but only
09:02sometimes. Quite a lot of the time it looked like Kidman had beef with gravity. He barely got any air,
09:07his rotations were late and his landings were sloppy. If you can't pull off a move time after time and
09:12make it look picture perfect, especially 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 his own
09:28inconsistency. In an August 2004 episode of SmackDown, Kidman hit one of his worst attempts at the
09:33shooting star press on Chavo Guerrero, landing wrong and with some serious velocity. He drove his
09:38knee into Chavo's head, legitimately concussing his opponent. As such, the SSP was blacklisted at the
09:44company, meaning that both Kidman and his tag partner Paul London had to find new signature
09:49moves. And number one, Edge's Spear. It's the job of wrestling announce teams, as much as the in-ring
09:54workers themselves, to sell. Commentators will tell you how impactful something is supposed to be with
09:59how they react to it. But without any distractions, and with the right comparisons, it's fair to say that
10:05Edge's finisher is not as powerful as Michael Cole's frenzied calls of SPEAR implies. The spear has been a
10:11signature move for a great number of major stars, Roman Reigns and Goldberg among them, in part because
10:16it's a simple and understandable technique. The attacker throws their entire weight into an airborne
10:21tackle, taking their opponent down to the mat, and perhaps most importantly, knocking the wind
10:26out of them by burying their shoulder into their enemy's gut. Except Edge doesn't do this, and he never
10:31really has. He wraps his opponent in an embrace, pushing the flat of his bicep into them. Despite being
10:37part of some of the company's most re-watched moments, Edge's spear has always more resembled a
10:41running hug when properly scrutinized. This was exemplified the most during his runs where he
10:46assembled a three-man team alongside Rhino. Rhino 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 even
10:57need Joey Styles losing his mind chanting gore, gore, gore on commentary. Although, let's face it,
11:02it didn't hurt either. Now, I'm sure I've just upset some super fans of these particular wrestlers,
11:07but 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, wrestlers that couldn't do their own
11:16moves, make sure to hit like on the way and make sure you're subscribed. Head up to
11:19whatculture.com for more content every day. I've been signed for WhatCulture, and have a good week.
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