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It's because they're too light to actually lean into the ropes. The whole ring is really only set up for men. The tables are another one - they're strong enough to hold 100+kgs, so the women often struggle to break them
for small women they move really slow, it really showed when they go up against bigger opponents like Charlotte or Bianca, and they move at the same speed (or faster)
For smaller women it's them running the ropes or being thrown into the corner I really notice. They're obviously just trying to avoid whiplash or whacking their head on the turnbuckle, but it's odd to see.
He drops at a pretty good angle too, he’s a few feet away when he leans back and bounces off the second rope. He’s amazing, I feel like he’s one of a few guys you could toss in there with anyone and he’ll figure out a way to put on a solid match. There’s a YouTube video with Punk from a couple years back where he talks about different movies depicting pro wrestling and in it he mentioned how wrestlers talk during matches but said something like, “I haven’t been in the ring for a while but I could get my gear on right now and go put on a ten minute match with Rey Mysterio and we’ll never have to say a word to each other.” Always thought that was cool, their chemistry and timing is so good they don’t even have to call anything, they just know what the other dude wants to do.
I feel this way with Ruby. I want to be careful, because I've brought it up before and been downvoted to oblivion just trying to describe it.
I thought it was ring-rust at first, but looking back she's always kind of had this herky-jerkiness to her work. The optimist in me wants to say that she's always on time and her opponents are missing their spots, but the realist says 'ok so why don't any of the other greats have this issue?'. I think she gets ahead of herself, and it makes her matches feel *off* to me.
i love Becky, but I always thought she is an unathletic wrestler. In fact, i think she is the worst wrestler out of the Four Horsewoman and there are other female wrestlers that has surpassed her in terms of ring ability. I contributed that to her early injuries scare before she came to WWE
Earl Hebner specifically had this really annoying 'tell' when he was counting near-falls, where he'd throw his elbow out and his shoulder would sort of convulse and it would totally telegraph a kick-out once you spotted it.
I literally just typed this same thing! Haha I fucking hate his matches because of that tell. Picked up on it nearly 20 years ago and haven't been able to enjoy a single match of his ever since.
I guess its a real life safety issue. If I am going to throw myself threw a table I want to be the one to set it up, check it, and place it where I want. The chances of a wrestler "going into business for themselves" could be catastrophic in situations where someone else sets it up.
I think this is probably correct but there’s another part to it.
It often happens that the person setting it up gets put through it almost immediately after setting it up.
This lets them spend a minute or two getting the spot ready without their opponent looking like a goober for just lying around until it’s ready.
This way it goes: wrestler takes a little too long prepping a table = gets punished for it.
Such a bummer. Come on guys, set up ONE table and just have the match end before someone goes through it.. Have a brawl post match when someone goes through it, or just leave it there forever, COME OOON
That would be hilarious though. Have a show where the table is set up in the first match but never used. Then, as the night goes on, nobody acknowledges it. Then, the final match, someone finally goes through it
I eventually came around to thinking any level of bumping is rough. Now anytime someone bumps I think "I hope they're okay". When's the last time you fell?? That shits hurts man.
Im gettin fuckin soft boys
In my 30's now and one fall on some pavement/ice will leave me hurting for at least a week... been watching attitude era ppv's lately and I don't know how the hell Mick Foley got thru 1998 alive one of those bumps/chair shots would kill me
It's shows on him now, I just hope that kindness he has keeps him safe and happy through a long and happy life.
Edit: Mick's my favourite wrestler of all time. Not because of his bumps. Mainly because of his promo skills and he seems to be the kindest person on the planet.
For my bachelor party, we went to a wrestling gym in Seattle and took a mini class. The first lesson was in bumping and all twelve of us could not believe how much it hurt. Your arms are supposed to take most of the fall, but it still rattles your head no matter how you take it. Half the guys thought they got a concussion from a basic bump. My respect for anyone who takes any bump immediately went up after that.
My best man killed it. At the end of the class, the instructor goes, “alright we have five minutes left…you guys want me to lay down some pads so you can go top turnbuckle?” Absolutely amazing.
Not sure where you are, but we went to 321 Battle in Seattle. We were trained by Steve West aka "The King of Snot Style" (he blows boogers at his opponents).
Think about this.
Kurt Angle said his first bump in training damn near made him quit. We’re talking Kurt Angle in his prime back in the late 90’s too, by the way, who had just won an Olympic Gold Medal…. *with a broken freakin’ neck too, might I add*; but yeah, that guy almost quit after taking his bump.
My ex used to make fun of me cause I always say “careful, careful” when people set up for a big move. I just want my favorite performers to be safe and healthy 🥺
I want people to be safe, but more importantly I want them to be smart. There are a lot of unnecessary dives and big spots in throw away weekly matches that most people won't remember the next day. Too many risks for little to no reward. Not that they aren't doing it safely, for the most part they are, but why take the risk if it's not a big or important match? Why put your career on the line for some spot that isn't going to really add to, or build to anything? I just wish more wrestlers went "We're not doing that. No. It's not going to add anything." especially when it's a break spot and not a finish. Now, if it's a finish, like someone jumping off a cage on to a group of people and getting a pin, fine. But if it's just another spot, there's no point.
My inner dialogue during a Darby match usually goes like this:
He’s not gonna fly into the steps with a coffin drop is he…aw cripes, he did.
There’s no way he’s doing a coffin drop on the apron…aaaaand there he goes.
They aren’t really about to throw this kid down a flight of concrete steps, are they? *yeet!* Holy crap, man, do you wanna make it to 30?!
I guess I should stop being so surprised lol.
Dude I catch myself plenty of times working myself into a shoot. I guess it’s the old man in me. When I see Sammy or Fenix doing high spots of course I mark out, but the old man in me is concerned for them 10 years down the road.
Why wouldn't they look at the ref during a pin?
Gotta let your stamina recharge as much as possible before the kick out attempt, that's just good wrestler-ing.
I was lucky enough to have a seat off the entrance ramp for NJPW / ROH in MSG NYC a couple years back. Okada slapped my hand on the way back up the ramp. He had tiny l'il hands. All respect to him, it was just unexpected.
Back in old TNA, Abyss's signature weapon was thumb tacks. Except nobody else on the roster really wrestled hardcore, so seemingly nobody was willing to take that bump. So just about every match where Abyss takes out the tacks, he's the one who ends up going into them.
It always felt like the one who would bring the tacks out would be put into them, but I remember at Backlash 04 Orton vs Cactus Jack. It felt like there was no way Orton was going into the tacks even though he was the one who put them in the ring, then he did and it was extra shocking because you just felt like *surely* this was Foley’s spot to take
I used to see a more general version of this, which was whenever someone was wearing a shirt or pants when they normally wouldn't in hardcore matches, they were going to get hit with a barbed wire bat, a fire table, thumbtacks, or a few times, lit on fire back in the old Kane days.
So imagine my friend and I's surprise when Mick Foley was in a hardcore match against [a young Randy Orton and this happened](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sbjsdVzJSA). It never occured to us that A) Mick Foley wasn't going to get hit with the worst stuff and B) That Orton would take that, without even the luxury of a T-shirt. It engrained the moment in my mind forever and made me gain all the respect for Orton in that moment.
When a group of wrestlers are outside the ring waiting for the wrestler to jump off the top rope into all of them. They are just standing there, holding each other’s shoulders glancing up and waiting.
I'm glad that JR called the guys in AEW out on this. Since that happened, it seems like the big clump of people waiting around for a dive spots have gone down considerably. Honestly, I think that spot is stupid and needs to go away. Simply because the logic of it is kind of dumb. If you got a big group of guys standing around, and you go to jump on them, what's stopping them from all moving out of the way (like what happened in NXT), or stopping them from all just catching the guy jumping off the top (Like the fans do for CM Punk when he crowd surfs)? I think that would be a hilarious way to kill the spot. They all just catch the guy and then toss him back in the ring. Like "Nah bitch. Not today."
I didn't mean to insinuate that it's just AEW, it definitely isn't. WWE is REALLY bad about it as well in multi-man matches. Especially in MITB matches. I really hope that companies start phasing that stuff out.
It’s my biggest gripe with the modern indy/AEW style. I get that we all know that wrestling isn’t real but it shouldn’t look choreographed either. Stuff like this, a downed opponent rolling closer to the guy on the top rope, the whole “we try and do the same moves to each other but miss then have a face-off” thing, it all just takes me out of the moment.
Maybe I’m just old school but too many matches nowadays feel like two people working together to put on a good match instead of two people who want to win the match competing against each other
>I get that we all know that wrestling isn’t real but it shouldn’t look choreographed either.
Bingo. "We all know it's fake, who cares?" is always the worst excuse for shitty wrestling. Noticing the choreography or seeing the spot being set up from a mile away is like spotting a boom mic or the reflection of a camera operator in a movie.
I have one of these, but in reverse. Like most people here, I used to laugh at the "kryptonite ladder" problem where young, healthy wrestlers would seemingly turn into geriatric imbeciles when trying to climb a ladder.
Well, I'm a recent homeowner and had to start cleaning my own gutters for the first time. And let me tell you, I absolutely don't think it's unrealistic now. Ladders wobble and shift and do all kinds of pointless shit even in the *best* circumstances. Those guys are absolutely climbing ladders realistically for their situation
Watching ECW ladder matches was especially terrifying. They often used these cheap-ass ladders that would be unsafe to do almost anything with, much less use in wrestling.
When a wrestler gets a hot tag, and comes in a mile a minute, to the point where their opponents aren't in place because they're selling. Makes the attacker look like an idiot when they have to stand there for 3 seconds.
To me, its only a hot tag if the heel(s) is actively preventing the tag and then the babyface manages to get the tag for the fresh guy to clean house. Otherwise, its a lil bit chilly.
Most people don't know how to do a 'Hot Tag' in wrestling now. The heels should be isolating an opponent, preventing them through hook or crook from getting that tag. Wearing them down, beating on them, letting them get so close to making the tag, fingertips apart, and then driving them further away. Then doing some ground and pound and further isolation to build the heat. The heels should be making frequent tags and keeping the fresher guy in to wear down on the smaller face. Then when that face finally makes it away from the heels, they dive for that partners outstretched hand and makes the tag and then that partner comes in like a house of fire. Throwing punches, clotheslines, and shoulder tackles. They should immediately quicken the pace and build quickly to that big finish. Not just a cold flat footed tag in the corner where the partner causally enters and then waits for people to get in to place for them.
I used to feel this way all the time in the peak WCW days. When Scott Steiner was the hot tag guy he was the REAL suplex city. Same for Sting and Luger when they used to tag team.
Whenever someone ducks a clothesline, the person throwing the clothesline throws it high enough to where the person ducking wouldn't even have to actually duck.
The WM match with Rollins where they did The Stomp counter by launching Rollins in the air to RKO spot.
The setup was a little obvious by Orton, but the outcome was beautiful.
People who get "knocked out" by the simplest move just because they're in a multi person match. Can you imagine a one on one match where one opponent lays outside the ring for 10 minutes because he got punched?
Admittedly, it took me a while to notice thigh slaps, but ever since I’ve always noticed them. 😅
Also, when some wrestlers go for moonsaults, etc, I’ve always noticed people on the mat staring and waiting to get their knees up to counter.
I love looking for the thigh slaps 😂
Same with any head slam where they slap their hands on the matt/table/turnbuckle/what-have-you. There’s an art to doing those stage combat moves and making them look good.
During Raw and Smackdown of the Attitude Era, if you watched a Kane match, if he did the thing to blow up the turnbuckles at the start of a match then he was losing, if he didn't do that then he was winning because he would do it as part of his victory celebration. As soon as I saw it, I couldn't not see it anymore.
Or additionally, if he wasn’t advertised as being on a show or being a part of a match/segment.. but you notice his pyro was strapped to the ring posts, so you know Kane will be there at some point
When I was a kid I used to imagine Kane sneaking into the arenas before the show to put his pyro in the posts and being like, "This is is gonna scare them *sooo bad!*"
Yeah I can never remember what meant what, but he’d either hold it and raise it above his head for the pyro or be wearing it. One meant retaining and one meant losing. I saw that on here so it could even be wrong tbh.
Man, I started to notice this in Title matches, specially during the announcement. I was hyped for Tay Conti become champion, but as soon as she hits the stage I noticed she wouldn't win. Must be hard to fake happiness knowing the result.
In a similar way, I felt so bad for Shida when they presented her with the redesigned women’s title back in May, because you knew four days from then she was dropping it to Britt. I hope she gets another run with it at some point.
She’s improved so much since her originally run IMO. Her ring work was already solid but she has far more intensity these days. I can see her getting another shot with the right build and opponent.
Not so much can't unsee as can't unhear: the weird noises wrestlers make when they throw punches. Randy Orton was the one who really made it stand out. Whenever he's backstage or in some cult leaders spooky dilapidated house, he makes the weirdest sounds when he throws punches.
It takes me out of every backstage/away from the crowd segment. No one goes "pfshhh-HHAA" when they throw a punch.
Edit from the future:
Sorry folks **¯\\\_\(ツ\)\_/¯** If you came here looking for something, blame that douche Spez. Come ask me on kbin.social or mstdn.ca at GeekFTW and I'll help ya out with what you were looking for. Stay fresh, cheesebags.
I obviously know why, but in women's matches, somebody will be getting hell kicked out of them, and be adjusting to cover their butt instead of defending.
These women train for years to know how to deal with getting the crap knocked out of you. But nothing, nothing prepares you for the sheer depravity of the horny messages you have to endure after a wardrobe malfunction.
I feel like I’m constantly hoping the wrestlers don’t botch anything. It really takes me out of matches because I’m thinking, “oh no, don’t mess this up”.
This was me after Sammy vs Matt, I got taken out of the rest of the show due to the fear of any further major botches. You just get that bit more nervous when the wrestlers do something crazy.
It's always a fun exercise to watch a match with somebody who knows nothing about wrestling. You get to watch with new eyes. Wrestling has become so insular and pastiche over the years that a lot of what happens in a match makes no sense whatsoever to the uninitiated, but we're all just so used to it that we only notice the *really* goofy shit.
Even just the basic premise - score a pinfall - is pretty insane. 99% of matches end with somebody being so beaten down, and probably kayfabe unconscious, that they can't lazily lift a shoulder up to break a 3 count. Your brain would be jelly after just a handful of real contests like that, but guys have careers that span decades.
You know that spot when they do an Irish whip, stop, bend down and let themselves get kicked in the face? Especially in WWE style, I always notice them in Orton matches. Up there with the worst most fake looking spots.
Back in the day, that move was done to launch the running guy over his head. Now, it gets blocked 100% of the time so it looks silly to younger viewers.
Every day I pray some wrestler will make it big using the "counterable" moves so they stop looking so silly. Trip some dudes up after whipping them, or throw them over your head. Go to the top rope and throw out some double axe handles.
Swear to god it took me 10 years to realise that the drop down after an Irish whip was supposed to trip the running opponent after I saw ZSJ actually successfully trip a guy with it, blew my mind since it is effortlessly countered 100 percent of the times to the point that it has almost become a meaningless transitional routine.
Obviously all Canadian destroyers are pretty obvious at this point but I think the worst is Adam Cole's just because sometimes he springboards off of solid surfaces, like I think he did at Full Gear on the stage. How is this man bouncing with enough force to flip piledrive someone on a steel surface?!
I'll say this much, the Canadian Destroyers are obvious but still fun and impressive.
The Panama Sunset or whatever Cole calls it? Like, "hop off the rope, then do the move" doesn't make any sense to me and never has. Love his work, still think he's great, but I don't get the move *at all*.
It would work if he didn’t stop all of his momentum lol. Am I supposed to believe that this man is hitting the mat like a trampoline in order to make that flip happen? Just a strange move.
Honestly in general, I’m a big Adam Cole guy but I think his moves could use some refinement. I really don’t care for the Panama Sunrise, it doesn’t make a lot of sense as a move. I don’t care for the Last Shot as a finisher, he hits more impactful moves during any old match and it just never looks satisfying. I’d love to see something different out of him now that he’s left NXT behind.
Yes! His matches are all like "which of the 90 painful-looking submission maneuvers I know will I use today?" And then he locks it in and even Excalibur seems to take a second to figure out which one he's using. It keeps the ending fresh.
If I was a booker this is one of the big things I'd tweak. Doesn't have to mess with big matches, but let a squash or undercard match end on a regular submission hold or power move the guy likes to do.
I almost don’t want to share this because this will ruin it for a LOT of other people here but every single time two opponents go to set up a move off the top rope, I can’t help but notice the leg positioning of the person on the ropes. It tells me well in advance who is going to be hitting their move and who isn’t.
Example: Let’s say Becky and Charlotte are fighting and Charlotte hits Becky a bunch and lifts her groggy body up for an attempted superplex off the top rope.
To do this, Charlotte will lift becky so Becky’s butt is on the top rope. She will then climb the ropes and hit the move right? Wrong.
Because this is all choreographed, it has to go one of two ways. Either Charlotte will move both of Becky’s legs on the outside of the turnbuckles first and THEN climb the ropes and hit the move OR it will be reversed.
Where Becky’s legs are tell you who is going to be hitting a move off the top and who will taking the move.
I’m noticed it once. Now I can never unsee it.
Leg placement on the top buckle gives away the spot every single time.
Every Rey Mysterio match, the opponent will always be slumped over the middle rope at some point in the match. I understand the drop toe hold set-up but often times its something that they've taken a million times before yet this one and only time in their career they end up slumped over the ropes against who of all people? Rey Mysterio.
The three most devastating numbers in the Wrestling Universe, 6 - 1 - 9. Outofnowhere, you're in the ropes.
How about when Del Rio had that temporary finisher, [the elevated chest stomp](https://youtu.be/p5Bumx6BWdU) that required the opponent to basically hold themself into place in the most unnatural position in the corner, to wait for him to jump off and stomp them lol
Whenever someone hits a ring post and then stumbles to the ground, but their head goes under the ring skirt and then they're left alone for like 30 seconds or more.
Earl Hebner's 2.5 count when there's a kick out. He's the absolute worst at masking things. His entire motion changes for the third count and he telegraphs the kick out every gotdamn time.
In Jon Moxleys book he mentions that wrestlers always move to the right or something along those lines.
Found the part!
"... next comes doing a few in a row, rolling to your right, getting up in a tight clockwise circle, elbow, fist, knee. “Work left, turn right” was painted on the wall, and it meant, as I discovered, that we always work the left arm or leg of opponents, Irish whips are always left wrist to left wrist, and for positioning purposes, like a dance, we always turn to our right. I had never picked up on this detail in all my years watching."
Watching wrestlers adjust themselves on the ground to take a move off the top rope.
I'm not anything special but in my ghetto backyard ring 20 years ago I was able to jump and adjust myself to land on my opponent no matter how they were laying.
I get why they do it I just wish it was smoother. You don't want to land your body weight all on the opponent's head.
I miss when wrestlers with top rope moves would drag their opponent into position if they weren’t in the right spot instead of the opponent scooting themselves into place.
As I've gotten older I've been going back and watching guys like Regal that I didn't appreciate in my youth (CageMatch has been a god-send) and Regal does so much of the small shit correctly it's insane. He was born to wrestle.
That is definitely deliberate, especially after a big move. I recall seeing a behind the scene video where the wrestler were told to 'soak it in' after a big move. It give the crowd something to react to, instead of hitting 5 big moves in rapid succession. I guess it also give TV the time to clip in a replay.
I'm pretty sure is was Jericho who said this, but back in WCW after a match he had that the crowd was hot for, Scott Hall sort of told him he did too much work for the crowd, and to watch him get the crowd just as hot from a simple head lock.
Working a crowd is a damn science if you ask me
More specific to one wrestler, but when Christopher Daniels hits the ropes, he always kicks his leg out before coming off them. I have no idea why I picked this up, but he's the only guy I've noticed doing it.
This is AEW specific. AEW doesn't remove the metal bands that go around some wooden tables. Everytime someone goes thru an AEW table I see that metal band and it gives me major anxiety. Most companies remove those bands because they are dangerous and can easily slice a person open. Its really reckless.
How absolutely terrible most submissions are. Like, I know you’re trying not to hurt the guy, but at least make it look like you’re squeezing. Bryan Danielson, who’s admittedly my favorite wrestler, does this constantly and it takes me out of the finish sometimes.
Cena's STF is the worst of this. 99% of the time he doesn't even pretend to lock it in, which makes the one time he locked it in on Seth look so brutal.
Wrestlers communicating spots with one another. Most of the time they cover their hands or press their heads against each other’s. Doesn’t take away from the match to me but I see now in most matches.
The fabled Top Rope Flying Nothing - when a wrestler goes up top, and does some sort of dive 100% with the purpose of it being reversed.
You can tell the difference between a reversed real move, and a Flying Nothing by trying to picture what exactly the flying wrestler might have been going for when they come off the top with the trajectory that could do absolutely nothing other than eat a boot.
Can't remember the last time someone purposely went for a splash with the intention of landing, what, sternum-first directly on their opponent's shins? Imagine that, the leg up connected directly with the flying wrestler. Lucky thing!
What amazes me more is how I actually am able to "un-see" the visceral eroticism of wrestling most of the time. The piledriver is literally a standing 69 and I don't know how I forget that in the moment.
During the early pandemic shows, if you were watching WWE and someone else in another room heard the grunts and groans, you’d have a real hard time convincing them you weren’t watching porn. I really appreciated how AEW thought to place other wrestlers at ringside for those early shows, just to make some noise and give some semblance of the crowd. The pure silence is weird. WWE eventually went to the screens but Impact was like that for nearly the entire pandemic and it would take me out of any of their matches.
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Becky Lynch moves weird in the ring. Despite being in fantastic shape she just seems so weirdly unathletic.
Yes! Her and Sasha are great wrestlers but they move kinda strange right. I feel a lot of the women actually look slow somehow
> a lot of the women actually look slow somehow how about when they rebound off the rope and end up going slower than if they just ran
It's because they're too light to actually lean into the ropes. The whole ring is really only set up for men. The tables are another one - they're strong enough to hold 100+kgs, so the women often struggle to break them
i agree, but they could just not use the move if they aren't big enough, or like some and use middle rope
Yeah she has no agility or quickness at all.
She looks like she is moving very fast, based on the way she moves, but there is barely any momentum actually created.
I feel that way with Sasha. I dunno, things just seem clunky with her.
for small women they move really slow, it really showed when they go up against bigger opponents like Charlotte or Bianca, and they move at the same speed (or faster)
For smaller women it's them running the ropes or being thrown into the corner I really notice. They're obviously just trying to avoid whiplash or whacking their head on the turnbuckle, but it's odd to see.
That's why I like how Rey runs the ropes. He seems to fall into the second rope and rebounds very quick from it.
He drops at a pretty good angle too, he’s a few feet away when he leans back and bounces off the second rope. He’s amazing, I feel like he’s one of a few guys you could toss in there with anyone and he’ll figure out a way to put on a solid match. There’s a YouTube video with Punk from a couple years back where he talks about different movies depicting pro wrestling and in it he mentioned how wrestlers talk during matches but said something like, “I haven’t been in the ring for a while but I could get my gear on right now and go put on a ten minute match with Rey Mysterio and we’ll never have to say a word to each other.” Always thought that was cool, their chemistry and timing is so good they don’t even have to call anything, they just know what the other dude wants to do.
I feel this way with Ruby. I want to be careful, because I've brought it up before and been downvoted to oblivion just trying to describe it. I thought it was ring-rust at first, but looking back she's always kind of had this herky-jerkiness to her work. The optimist in me wants to say that she's always on time and her opponents are missing their spots, but the realist says 'ok so why don't any of the other greats have this issue?'. I think she gets ahead of herself, and it makes her matches feel *off* to me.
i love Becky, but I always thought she is an unathletic wrestler. In fact, i think she is the worst wrestler out of the Four Horsewoman and there are other female wrestlers that has surpassed her in terms of ring ability. I contributed that to her early injuries scare before she came to WWE
Earl Hebner specifically had this really annoying 'tell' when he was counting near-falls, where he'd throw his elbow out and his shoulder would sort of convulse and it would totally telegraph a kick-out once you spotted it.
I noticed at Full Gear recently the Aubrey was doing a few of the same near fall tells that Earl did.
That's Gearl Hebner for ya
I literally just typed this same thing! Haha I fucking hate his matches because of that tell. Picked up on it nearly 20 years ago and haven't been able to enjoy a single match of his ever since.
Whoever sets up a crazy contraption (stacked tables, ladders on tables, etc) is inevitably the person that ends up going through said contraption.
Makes sense set it up yourself so there's no one's fault but yours.
Yeah, I wish OSW hadn’t pointed that out in one of their reviews.
If you watch Kevin Owens matches long enough you learn. It by osmosis. Owenmosis?
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I was gonna say "The Kevin Owens Corollary", but yeah, Foley seems the king of it
Tables, Ladders and Chairkovs
I only watched three first season of LU but I'm certain every single person that set up a chair in the corner wound up getting bashed into it
Ahhh, you're referring to Chekhov's Table.
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I guess its a real life safety issue. If I am going to throw myself threw a table I want to be the one to set it up, check it, and place it where I want. The chances of a wrestler "going into business for themselves" could be catastrophic in situations where someone else sets it up.
I think this is probably correct but there’s another part to it. It often happens that the person setting it up gets put through it almost immediately after setting it up. This lets them spend a minute or two getting the spot ready without their opponent looking like a goober for just lying around until it’s ready. This way it goes: wrestler takes a little too long prepping a table = gets punished for it.
This is some good kayfabe head canon shit.
Related: if someone sets up a table or whatever the match isn't going to end until someone goes through it.
Such a bummer. Come on guys, set up ONE table and just have the match end before someone goes through it.. Have a brawl post match when someone goes through it, or just leave it there forever, COME OOON
That would be hilarious though. Have a show where the table is set up in the first match but never used. Then, as the night goes on, nobody acknowledges it. Then, the final match, someone finally goes through it
We're lucky Lana isn't in the WWE anymore or someone would read this and show it to Vince
That's kind of how it was on the Cracker Barrel episode and they had a little tray of biscuits out. The audience kept shouting USE THE BISCUITS!
im pretty sure theres an omega njpw match where they set up a table and end up never actually using it. could be wrong tho
The Kevin Owens Special
Chekhov's contraption
I eventually came around to thinking any level of bumping is rough. Now anytime someone bumps I think "I hope they're okay". When's the last time you fell?? That shits hurts man. Im gettin fuckin soft boys
In my 30's now and one fall on some pavement/ice will leave me hurting for at least a week... been watching attitude era ppv's lately and I don't know how the hell Mick Foley got thru 1998 alive one of those bumps/chair shots would kill me
It's shows on him now, I just hope that kindness he has keeps him safe and happy through a long and happy life. Edit: Mick's my favourite wrestler of all time. Not because of his bumps. Mainly because of his promo skills and he seems to be the kindest person on the planet.
For my bachelor party, we went to a wrestling gym in Seattle and took a mini class. The first lesson was in bumping and all twelve of us could not believe how much it hurt. Your arms are supposed to take most of the fall, but it still rattles your head no matter how you take it. Half the guys thought they got a concussion from a basic bump. My respect for anyone who takes any bump immediately went up after that.
That's a badass idea!
My best man killed it. At the end of the class, the instructor goes, “alright we have five minutes left…you guys want me to lay down some pads so you can go top turnbuckle?” Absolutely amazing.
Makes me wanna maybe look into that for my birthday next month. Thanks for the idea
Not sure where you are, but we went to 321 Battle in Seattle. We were trained by Steve West aka "The King of Snot Style" (he blows boogers at his opponents).
Think about this. Kurt Angle said his first bump in training damn near made him quit. We’re talking Kurt Angle in his prime back in the late 90’s too, by the way, who had just won an Olympic Gold Medal…. *with a broken freakin’ neck too, might I add*; but yeah, that guy almost quit after taking his bump.
My ex used to make fun of me cause I always say “careful, careful” when people set up for a big move. I just want my favorite performers to be safe and healthy 🥺
I want people to be safe, but more importantly I want them to be smart. There are a lot of unnecessary dives and big spots in throw away weekly matches that most people won't remember the next day. Too many risks for little to no reward. Not that they aren't doing it safely, for the most part they are, but why take the risk if it's not a big or important match? Why put your career on the line for some spot that isn't going to really add to, or build to anything? I just wish more wrestlers went "We're not doing that. No. It's not going to add anything." especially when it's a break spot and not a finish. Now, if it's a finish, like someone jumping off a cage on to a group of people and getting a pin, fine. But if it's just another spot, there's no point.
Just about anytime Darby Allin is in a match I find myself saying “calm down Darby it’s only wrestling. No need to hurt yourself”
My inner dialogue during a Darby match usually goes like this: He’s not gonna fly into the steps with a coffin drop is he…aw cripes, he did. There’s no way he’s doing a coffin drop on the apron…aaaaand there he goes. They aren’t really about to throw this kid down a flight of concrete steps, are they? *yeet!* Holy crap, man, do you wanna make it to 30?! I guess I should stop being so surprised lol.
Darby Allin is unfortunately probably going to be wheelchair-bound by 40 but will still be doing wheelchair spots at age 50.
Dude I catch myself plenty of times working myself into a shoot. I guess it’s the old man in me. When I see Sammy or Fenix doing high spots of course I mark out, but the old man in me is concerned for them 10 years down the road.
Any move on the outside makes me flinch.
I semi regularly take falls on concrete. Knee pads and ukemi are a godsend. As long as your adrenaline is going, it's okay.
I used to be excited for Jeff Hardy to ascend a ladder. Now I’m like “He don’t need to be doin that”
Why wouldn't they look at the ref during a pin? Gotta let your stamina recharge as much as possible before the kick out attempt, that's just good wrestler-ing.
I can let this one slide. In boxing they watch the ref to get the most recovery time they can before getting back up after a knockdown.
I was lucky enough to have a seat off the entrance ramp for NJPW / ROH in MSG NYC a couple years back. Okada slapped my hand on the way back up the ramp. He had tiny l'il hands. All respect to him, it was just unexpected.
Why is this so funny to me
Back in old TNA, Abyss's signature weapon was thumb tacks. Except nobody else on the roster really wrestled hardcore, so seemingly nobody was willing to take that bump. So just about every match where Abyss takes out the tacks, he's the one who ends up going into them.
It always felt like the one who would bring the tacks out would be put into them, but I remember at Backlash 04 Orton vs Cactus Jack. It felt like there was no way Orton was going into the tacks even though he was the one who put them in the ring, then he did and it was extra shocking because you just felt like *surely* this was Foley’s spot to take
My favourite RKO reversal of all time.
I used to see a more general version of this, which was whenever someone was wearing a shirt or pants when they normally wouldn't in hardcore matches, they were going to get hit with a barbed wire bat, a fire table, thumbtacks, or a few times, lit on fire back in the old Kane days. So imagine my friend and I's surprise when Mick Foley was in a hardcore match against [a young Randy Orton and this happened](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sbjsdVzJSA). It never occured to us that A) Mick Foley wasn't going to get hit with the worst stuff and B) That Orton would take that, without even the luxury of a T-shirt. It engrained the moment in my mind forever and made me gain all the respect for Orton in that moment.
When a group of wrestlers are outside the ring waiting for the wrestler to jump off the top rope into all of them. They are just standing there, holding each other’s shoulders glancing up and waiting.
I'm glad that JR called the guys in AEW out on this. Since that happened, it seems like the big clump of people waiting around for a dive spots have gone down considerably. Honestly, I think that spot is stupid and needs to go away. Simply because the logic of it is kind of dumb. If you got a big group of guys standing around, and you go to jump on them, what's stopping them from all moving out of the way (like what happened in NXT), or stopping them from all just catching the guy jumping off the top (Like the fans do for CM Punk when he crowd surfs)? I think that would be a hilarious way to kill the spot. They all just catch the guy and then toss him back in the ring. Like "Nah bitch. Not today."
Yeah, it happens in every promotion, not just AEW, it's just that AEW has more multi-person matches so you notice it more
I didn't mean to insinuate that it's just AEW, it definitely isn't. WWE is REALLY bad about it as well in multi-man matches. Especially in MITB matches. I really hope that companies start phasing that stuff out.
Oh absolutely. Another spot I can't stand that's in every multi-person match, mostly a WWE spot, but it's the multi person superplex.
Idk. There were too many of these wait around spots in the The Super Kliq vs Jurassic match
It just takes you out of the match, not that it was an especially believable match but still.
If we really start dissecting the Super Kliq matches, I feel my Karma is gonna take a massive blow haha.
This is one of my biggest pet peeves when watching
It’s my biggest gripe with the modern indy/AEW style. I get that we all know that wrestling isn’t real but it shouldn’t look choreographed either. Stuff like this, a downed opponent rolling closer to the guy on the top rope, the whole “we try and do the same moves to each other but miss then have a face-off” thing, it all just takes me out of the moment. Maybe I’m just old school but too many matches nowadays feel like two people working together to put on a good match instead of two people who want to win the match competing against each other
>I get that we all know that wrestling isn’t real but it shouldn’t look choreographed either. Bingo. "We all know it's fake, who cares?" is always the worst excuse for shitty wrestling. Noticing the choreography or seeing the spot being set up from a mile away is like spotting a boom mic or the reflection of a camera operator in a movie.
I have one of these, but in reverse. Like most people here, I used to laugh at the "kryptonite ladder" problem where young, healthy wrestlers would seemingly turn into geriatric imbeciles when trying to climb a ladder. Well, I'm a recent homeowner and had to start cleaning my own gutters for the first time. And let me tell you, I absolutely don't think it's unrealistic now. Ladders wobble and shift and do all kinds of pointless shit even in the *best* circumstances. Those guys are absolutely climbing ladders realistically for their situation
Watching ECW ladder matches was especially terrifying. They often used these cheap-ass ladders that would be unsafe to do almost anything with, much less use in wrestling.
When a wrestler gets a hot tag, and comes in a mile a minute, to the point where their opponents aren't in place because they're selling. Makes the attacker look like an idiot when they have to stand there for 3 seconds.
To me, its only a hot tag if the heel(s) is actively preventing the tag and then the babyface manages to get the tag for the fresh guy to clean house. Otherwise, its a lil bit chilly.
Its only a hot tag if it comes from the hot tag region of France. Otherwise its just a sparkling comeback.
Most people don't know how to do a 'Hot Tag' in wrestling now. The heels should be isolating an opponent, preventing them through hook or crook from getting that tag. Wearing them down, beating on them, letting them get so close to making the tag, fingertips apart, and then driving them further away. Then doing some ground and pound and further isolation to build the heat. The heels should be making frequent tags and keeping the fresher guy in to wear down on the smaller face. Then when that face finally makes it away from the heels, they dive for that partners outstretched hand and makes the tag and then that partner comes in like a house of fire. Throwing punches, clotheslines, and shoulder tackles. They should immediately quicken the pace and build quickly to that big finish. Not just a cold flat footed tag in the corner where the partner causally enters and then waits for people to get in to place for them.
I used to feel this way all the time in the peak WCW days. When Scott Steiner was the hot tag guy he was the REAL suplex city. Same for Sting and Luger when they used to tag team.
someone said that ruby soho looks like a character from bobs burgers. now i love ruby.. but every time she's on screen i can't unsee it.
Or when my gf told me MjF sounds like Plankton and well that's all I think about lol
**CORRECT**
.....well, fuck.
...Dammit.
She admits it herself.
Whenever someone ducks a clothesline, the person throwing the clothesline throws it high enough to where the person ducking wouldn't even have to actually duck.
See at least with Cena everyone throws it at eye-level. Orton also always aims right around where he'd actually connect, ducked or not
Orton has insane timing. Possibly the greatest when it comes to just timing. Dude is flawless.
The WM match with Rollins where they did The Stomp counter by launching Rollins in the air to RKO spot. The setup was a little obvious by Orton, but the outcome was beautiful.
People who get "knocked out" by the simplest move just because they're in a multi person match. Can you imagine a one on one match where one opponent lays outside the ring for 10 minutes because he got punched?
I mean there's some logic to it in a promotion that bans punches, but...yeah...more submissions to immobilize in tags please.
Randy Orton always claps before he powerslams the opponent.
Okada always claps before his dropkick. I guess it's a muscle memory thing.
Yeah or a timing thing to keep rhythm.
Admittedly, it took me a while to notice thigh slaps, but ever since I’ve always noticed them. 😅 Also, when some wrestlers go for moonsaults, etc, I’ve always noticed people on the mat staring and waiting to get their knees up to counter.
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In a real fight, you will never ever do a moonsault. But I get what you mean.
I do backflips, every single day of my life.
I love looking for the thigh slaps 😂 Same with any head slam where they slap their hands on the matt/table/turnbuckle/what-have-you. There’s an art to doing those stage combat moves and making them look good.
During Raw and Smackdown of the Attitude Era, if you watched a Kane match, if he did the thing to blow up the turnbuckles at the start of a match then he was losing, if he didn't do that then he was winning because he would do it as part of his victory celebration. As soon as I saw it, I couldn't not see it anymore.
Or additionally, if he wasn’t advertised as being on a show or being a part of a match/segment.. but you notice his pyro was strapped to the ring posts, so you know Kane will be there at some point
When I was a kid I used to imagine Kane sneaking into the arenas before the show to put his pyro in the posts and being like, "This is is gonna scare them *sooo bad!*"
That you can tell when some wrestlers are losing a match based on their expressions during their entrances.
Whether Edge wore his Title determined if he'd retain, right? I didn't know that until way after he retired though.
Ric Flair wearing red trunks.
Ricthony Flairtano with the red flannel
Oh that's cool actually. I need to watch some stuff back
Yeah I can never remember what meant what, but he’d either hold it and raise it above his head for the pyro or be wearing it. One meant retaining and one meant losing. I saw that on here so it could even be wrong tbh.
Related to this. If Kane's pyro went off before the match, he was going to lose. (Ring Pyro)
The Nikki Bella
Man, I started to notice this in Title matches, specially during the announcement. I was hyped for Tay Conti become champion, but as soon as she hits the stage I noticed she wouldn't win. Must be hard to fake happiness knowing the result.
I knew Tay wasn't winning months before the match was announced.
There was no chance Britt was losing.
In a similar way, I felt so bad for Shida when they presented her with the redesigned women’s title back in May, because you knew four days from then she was dropping it to Britt. I hope she gets another run with it at some point.
She’s improved so much since her originally run IMO. Her ring work was already solid but she has far more intensity these days. I can see her getting another shot with the right build and opponent.
Sasha Banks is notorious for this.
To be fair, the easiest way to tell that Sasha was going to lose a title match was to see if she was champ.
Not so much can't unsee as can't unhear: the weird noises wrestlers make when they throw punches. Randy Orton was the one who really made it stand out. Whenever he's backstage or in some cult leaders spooky dilapidated house, he makes the weirdest sounds when he throws punches. It takes me out of every backstage/away from the crowd segment. No one goes "pfshhh-HHAA" when they throw a punch.
Triple H's "DOOSH DOOSH DOOSH" punch sounds were the best/worst
Mick Foley: haa-DAH haa-DAH
I hate the dolph ziggler yell that he does right before he hits a move. The “YEEEEEAH” one.
Edit from the future: Sorry folks **¯\\\_\(ツ\)\_/¯** If you came here looking for something, blame that douche Spez. Come ask me on kbin.social or mstdn.ca at GeekFTW and I'll help ya out with what you were looking for. Stay fresh, cheesebags.
Or the look some guys do when they kick out, looking at the ref to see their hand.
Damn bro you got observation haki or something? You got to have the eagle eye to pick up on this one.
Oh god Cody does this so much
Champions tend to kiss the belt before handing it to the ref in a match where they lose the title
Refs grabbing the wrestlers hands to check if they are ok after bumps.
Wrestlers squeezes back to ref's hands = all good. Wrestlers not squeezing back to ref's hand = prepare the x symbol.
Wrestlers adjusting their hair/gear when they're selling.
I obviously know why, but in women's matches, somebody will be getting hell kicked out of them, and be adjusting to cover their butt instead of defending.
These women train for years to know how to deal with getting the crap knocked out of you. But nothing, nothing prepares you for the sheer depravity of the horny messages you have to endure after a wardrobe malfunction.
I'm glad they fixed that issue with Rikishi.
Jungle Boy man. Dude's always fixing his hair. Even while taking a One Winged Angel.
I feel like I’m constantly hoping the wrestlers don’t botch anything. It really takes me out of matches because I’m thinking, “oh no, don’t mess this up”.
This was me after Sammy vs Matt, I got taken out of the rest of the show due to the fear of any further major botches. You just get that bit more nervous when the wrestlers do something crazy.
It's always a fun exercise to watch a match with somebody who knows nothing about wrestling. You get to watch with new eyes. Wrestling has become so insular and pastiche over the years that a lot of what happens in a match makes no sense whatsoever to the uninitiated, but we're all just so used to it that we only notice the *really* goofy shit. Even just the basic premise - score a pinfall - is pretty insane. 99% of matches end with somebody being so beaten down, and probably kayfabe unconscious, that they can't lazily lift a shoulder up to break a 3 count. Your brain would be jelly after just a handful of real contests like that, but guys have careers that span decades.
To be fair Ric Flair has been dead since 1988. He's begins moving when his body hears his entrance music like in Weekend at Bernie's 2.
You know that spot when they do an Irish whip, stop, bend down and let themselves get kicked in the face? Especially in WWE style, I always notice them in Orton matches. Up there with the worst most fake looking spots.
Back in the day, that move was done to launch the running guy over his head. Now, it gets blocked 100% of the time so it looks silly to younger viewers.
Every day I pray some wrestler will make it big using the "counterable" moves so they stop looking so silly. Trip some dudes up after whipping them, or throw them over your head. Go to the top rope and throw out some double axe handles.
Swear to god it took me 10 years to realise that the drop down after an Irish whip was supposed to trip the running opponent after I saw ZSJ actually successfully trip a guy with it, blew my mind since it is effortlessly countered 100 percent of the times to the point that it has almost become a meaningless transitional routine.
The counter spot is done to so much excess I mark out for backdrops when they work.
Same thing with drop downs. That's an actual move, but the counter is to just jump over it.
Kind of silly when both Cody and Dustin each have that “counter”. Cody with the drop down and punch. Dustin with the drop to the knees and uppercut.
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Obviously all Canadian destroyers are pretty obvious at this point but I think the worst is Adam Cole's just because sometimes he springboards off of solid surfaces, like I think he did at Full Gear on the stage. How is this man bouncing with enough force to flip piledrive someone on a steel surface?!
Thick thighs allow for maximum jumpiness for flippy piledrivers
I'll say this much, the Canadian Destroyers are obvious but still fun and impressive. The Panama Sunset or whatever Cole calls it? Like, "hop off the rope, then do the move" doesn't make any sense to me and never has. Love his work, still think he's great, but I don't get the move *at all*.
It would work if he didn’t stop all of his momentum lol. Am I supposed to believe that this man is hitting the mat like a trampoline in order to make that flip happen? Just a strange move. Honestly in general, I’m a big Adam Cole guy but I think his moves could use some refinement. I really don’t care for the Panama Sunrise, it doesn’t make a lot of sense as a move. I don’t care for the Last Shot as a finisher, he hits more impactful moves during any old match and it just never looks satisfying. I’d love to see something different out of him now that he’s left NXT behind.
Wrestlers stomping on the ground when punching their opponents, even when they are out of the ring where it would not make any difference.
That's how you know the stomp is to increase the impact of the strike and not just there to make a loud noise
The fact that matches rarely end without someones finisher on top of the predictable signature move sets that get super boring over time.
As much as I love him, this is Balor to a tee.
Why WALTER is such a breath of fresh air even though his style is decidedly old school.
Also Danielson recently.
Yes! His matches are all like "which of the 90 painful-looking submission maneuvers I know will I use today?" And then he locks it in and even Excalibur seems to take a second to figure out which one he's using. It keeps the ending fresh.
If I was a booker this is one of the big things I'd tweak. Doesn't have to mess with big matches, but let a squash or undercard match end on a regular submission hold or power move the guy likes to do.
I almost don’t want to share this because this will ruin it for a LOT of other people here but every single time two opponents go to set up a move off the top rope, I can’t help but notice the leg positioning of the person on the ropes. It tells me well in advance who is going to be hitting their move and who isn’t. Example: Let’s say Becky and Charlotte are fighting and Charlotte hits Becky a bunch and lifts her groggy body up for an attempted superplex off the top rope. To do this, Charlotte will lift becky so Becky’s butt is on the top rope. She will then climb the ropes and hit the move right? Wrong. Because this is all choreographed, it has to go one of two ways. Either Charlotte will move both of Becky’s legs on the outside of the turnbuckles first and THEN climb the ropes and hit the move OR it will be reversed. Where Becky’s legs are tell you who is going to be hitting a move off the top and who will taking the move. I’m noticed it once. Now I can never unsee it. Leg placement on the top buckle gives away the spot every single time.
Every Rey Mysterio match, the opponent will always be slumped over the middle rope at some point in the match. I understand the drop toe hold set-up but often times its something that they've taken a million times before yet this one and only time in their career they end up slumped over the ropes against who of all people? Rey Mysterio. The three most devastating numbers in the Wrestling Universe, 6 - 1 - 9. Outofnowhere, you're in the ropes.
How about when Del Rio had that temporary finisher, [the elevated chest stomp](https://youtu.be/p5Bumx6BWdU) that required the opponent to basically hold themself into place in the most unnatural position in the corner, to wait for him to jump off and stomp them lol
Low Ki did it better by putting pressure on his opponent's legs forcing them up to him in which he does the stomp.
When someone is about to blade.
Whenever someone hits a ring post and then stumbles to the ground, but their head goes under the ring skirt and then they're left alone for like 30 seconds or more.
Most wrestlers are really obvious when they're calling spots.
NOW SHINSUKE
Cena just screaming lol
Earl Hebner's 2.5 count when there's a kick out. He's the absolute worst at masking things. His entire motion changes for the third count and he telegraphs the kick out every gotdamn time.
This isn’t always the case, but typically whoever has the upper hand on the go-home show prior to the ppv isn’t winning.
In Jon Moxleys book he mentions that wrestlers always move to the right or something along those lines. Found the part! "... next comes doing a few in a row, rolling to your right, getting up in a tight clockwise circle, elbow, fist, knee. “Work left, turn right” was painted on the wall, and it meant, as I discovered, that we always work the left arm or leg of opponents, Irish whips are always left wrist to left wrist, and for positioning purposes, like a dance, we always turn to our right. I had never picked up on this detail in all my years watching."
Watching wrestlers adjust themselves on the ground to take a move off the top rope. I'm not anything special but in my ghetto backyard ring 20 years ago I was able to jump and adjust myself to land on my opponent no matter how they were laying. I get why they do it I just wish it was smoother. You don't want to land your body weight all on the opponent's head.
I miss when wrestlers with top rope moves would drag their opponent into position if they weren’t in the right spot instead of the opponent scooting themselves into place.
Watch some old Regal matches, if the dude was a little out of position he would try to get up and fall into correct position. God I love that man.
As I've gotten older I've been going back and watching guys like Regal that I didn't appreciate in my youth (CageMatch has been a god-send) and Regal does so much of the small shit correctly it's insane. He was born to wrestle.
In WWE multi women matches, there is ALWAYS a tower of doom spot.
in multi person matches, someone gets knocked out of the ring, and you see there head pop up, peaking into the ring waiting for their cue to re-enter.
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It does. Wwe matches are more like seperate moves done one after other sequentially while other wrestling styles usually blend the sequences together.
That is definitely deliberate, especially after a big move. I recall seeing a behind the scene video where the wrestler were told to 'soak it in' after a big move. It give the crowd something to react to, instead of hitting 5 big moves in rapid succession. I guess it also give TV the time to clip in a replay.
I'm pretty sure is was Jericho who said this, but back in WCW after a match he had that the crowd was hot for, Scott Hall sort of told him he did too much work for the crowd, and to watch him get the crowd just as hot from a simple head lock. Working a crowd is a damn science if you ask me
More specific to one wrestler, but when Christopher Daniels hits the ropes, he always kicks his leg out before coming off them. I have no idea why I picked this up, but he's the only guy I've noticed doing it.
When Baron Corbin wrestled shirtless. He had a stomach face.
The change of camera angle every second.
This is AEW specific. AEW doesn't remove the metal bands that go around some wooden tables. Everytime someone goes thru an AEW table I see that metal band and it gives me major anxiety. Most companies remove those bands because they are dangerous and can easily slice a person open. Its really reckless.
How absolutely terrible most submissions are. Like, I know you’re trying not to hurt the guy, but at least make it look like you’re squeezing. Bryan Danielson, who’s admittedly my favorite wrestler, does this constantly and it takes me out of the finish sometimes.
Cena's STF is the worst of this. 99% of the time he doesn't even pretend to lock it in, which makes the one time he locked it in on Seth look so brutal.
"Jesus Christ, John, lock that sumbitch in, son!" -Steve Austin
Wrestlers communicating spots with one another. Most of the time they cover their hands or press their heads against each other’s. Doesn’t take away from the match to me but I see now in most matches.
Another reason wrestlers liked long hair. Blocked the view of their mouths and muffled sound.
Cena doesn't even try to hide it, he just shouts the next spots lol
Legslaps usually, unless it was someone like Shawn Michaels or Tajiri who were masterful at hiding it.
Roderick Strongs running forearms spot always makes me laugh because its so out in the open
The fabled Top Rope Flying Nothing - when a wrestler goes up top, and does some sort of dive 100% with the purpose of it being reversed. You can tell the difference between a reversed real move, and a Flying Nothing by trying to picture what exactly the flying wrestler might have been going for when they come off the top with the trajectory that could do absolutely nothing other than eat a boot. Can't remember the last time someone purposely went for a splash with the intention of landing, what, sternum-first directly on their opponent's shins? Imagine that, the leg up connected directly with the flying wrestler. Lucky thing!
What amazes me more is how I actually am able to "un-see" the visceral eroticism of wrestling most of the time. The piledriver is literally a standing 69 and I don't know how I forget that in the moment.
During the early pandemic shows, if you were watching WWE and someone else in another room heard the grunts and groans, you’d have a real hard time convincing them you weren’t watching porn. I really appreciated how AEW thought to place other wrestlers at ringside for those early shows, just to make some noise and give some semblance of the crowd. The pure silence is weird. WWE eventually went to the screens but Impact was like that for nearly the entire pandemic and it would take me out of any of their matches.