![]() ![]() ![]() In an interesting bit of trivia, in Japan (where ridiculously dangerous moves are rarely banned), the standard vertical suplex is actually referred to as a Brainbuster, while the head-and-neck version is called a “vertical drop Brainbuster”. The move is banned in WWE due to the combination of the lack of control involved in a move where everyone is falling, in addition to the obvious problems with dropping someone on their neck from a significant height. A modified and reasonably safer version of a Brainbuster can be seen in the Jackhammer, a trademark move of Goldberg, where instead of dropping straight down, the opponent is visibly pulled over, allowing them to land flat on their back. After lifting your opponent up as if for a standard vertical suplex, you instead drop straight down, forcing them to land mainly on their shoulders and neck. It’s a move that probably never should have been invented, and it was no great loss when WWE added it to the banned list almost instantly.ĭick Murdoch is credited with innovating the Brainbuster and bringing it into popular use, and it saw an increase in popularity in the modern era as a more brutal version of a suplex. Clearly, perfect timing is also required to prevent injury, and the margin for error is incredibly thin, since you can’t directly see the wrestler you’re performing the move on. The move requires a ridiculous set-up to pull off and can really only be successfully performed on smaller wrestlers, due to the combination of strength and leverage required to hold someone upside down on your back. Popularized by “Sugar” Shane Helms in the last days of WCW (Helms would go on to slightly larger fame as superhero character The Hurricane in WWE), the Vertebreaker was as complex and dangerous as it sounds, essentially holding your opponent upside down on your back, then dropping to the ground, forcing them to land on their head, neck, and shoulders. Arguably, it’s not the most dangerous piledriver variant, since the flipping involved removes most of the downward impact of the move, but the added complexity also makes it easier to screw up. ![]() You can probably guess the main reason why this move was banned before ever being seen in WWE, since we used the word “piledriver” twice while describing it. At any rate, the Destroyer is a piledriver that is performed by setting an opponent up as if you’re going to deliver a powerbomb, then diving over their back, forcing them to flip backwards with your legs, into a piledriver finish. If you can’t hit it on some of the super heavyweights that roam WWE’s rings, it’s not the most effective finisher. The move is a difficult one to perform and actually requires a significant amount of athleticism on the part of both wrestlers involved, which would already be a strike against it being performed regularly on WWE programming. This move has only ever truly been performed on the big stage by one man, Petey Williams, formerly of TNA. Banning the Piledriver was the beginning of WWE’s attempts to find ways to prevent serious neck injuries, a situation which they continue to monitor to this day. Jerry Lawler is one of the most well-known users of the traditional Piledriver in his career, and a modified (and slightly safer) version would be the Tombstone used by The Undertaker and Kane (the Tombstone is not banned, but only used on special occasions, and so much caution is used that the wrong camera angle can easily show that a Tombstone recipient’s head never comes close to hitting the mat). There are several versions of the Piledriver, but all of them basically involve turning your opponent upside down, and driving them into the mat head-first. The injury put Austin on the shelf for a year at the height of his popularity, and likely led to his retirement at a relatively early age. A classic finisher, and possibly the very first move ever explicitly banned by WWE, after a mistake by Owen Hart accidentally broke the neck of rising star “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |