Quick question on wrestling technical details.
The “Coup de Grace”, Finn Balor’s (and others) jumping double foot stomp.
How in the hell does the attacker protect his target when doing this move? I’m watching the Kenny Omega / Kazuchika Okada match, and this move comes into play, and I cannot for the life of me work out how this move gets pulled off without causing real injury. What’s the trick? What am I missing?
I wonder this too! I’ve been told that the trick is that the heels are kind of already aiming to slide off of the other guys chest so that the weight of the attacker is more on their thighs across the chest as they land – but someones booted heels scraping across your chest still sounds terrible to me!
On a seated opponent Balor’s not making a whole lot of contact. He’s taking a bump to his butt and draping his legs over the guy at the same time. His butt is what is taking the brunt of the move.
When they are standing that’s an entire other thing.
Most of the time, you’ll see the one performing the double-stomp quickly falls to the side or back (sometimes onto their target.) This is where a lot of the impact actually happens, in addition to the heels sliding off as NP mentioned above.
Like many wrestling moves, there is a lot of impact, but more of it is either redirected or not there in the first place. (Obviously, you can’t fake gravity, so this is a case of the former, not the latter.)
Nathan Paoletta – I know you’ve not been watching as much lately, so I don’t know if you’ve caught Low Ki in AAW… but he’s been wrestling in a full suit and seems to be wearing regular dress shoes as part of that… and does The Warrior’s Way (top rope double stomp for those not in the know) in them. I gotta believe those don’t feel good landing on your chest, redirected impact or not.
Ironically, I just now watched a match with a double stomp. Lucha Underground, Sexy Star just hit the double stomp on Mariposa. Mariposa was laying sideways (her head to Sexy’s right, feel to Sexy’s left.)
(One of the things I love about Lucha Underground is the camera work. So many great angles and shots.)
Sexy jumps off and lands with both feet on Mariposa’s stomach; no heels sliding to the side here. But, I’m sure Mariposa (Cheerleader Melissa in many independent organisations) has rock hard abs, taking a shot like that.
Then (and I watched this on slo-mo to be sure), you can see Sexy’s knees buckle, keeping any further force from driving into Mariposa’s abs, and she falls forward, landing on her knees on the mat. It’s all about distribution and redirection of energy (in this case, force of impact.)
Terry Willitts I saw Low Ki live at the AAW Windy City classic! He’s so small compared to a lot of the other guys that I can believe he won’t cave in ribcages by weight, but he looks great doing it.
Nathan Paoletta EVERYTHING Brandon does looks great. He’s so precise, so crisp. He’s one of my all time faves and one I get to see so little of.
Also, totally jelly you saw Windy City Classic live. Was such a great show.
Like people have already said, a lot of it involves keeping your knees bent, and trying to land in a way that the weight falls away from the opponent. But, I read an interview with with Chris Sabin or Alex Shelley a couple of years ago where they said the other secret is to taking the Warrior’s Way is that it just actually hurts a lot and you have to concentrate to avoid shitting yourself.
Didn’t know CM was Mariposa.
Terry Willitts it was fun but I actually liked last years better – but that featured a Chris Hero/Pentagon Jr. main event that’s in the top 3 of my favorite matches i’ve ever seen live so, hard to top!
Speaking of Chris Hero — he apparently showed up at the most recent NXT taping for a brief staredown with Shinsuke Nakamura, using the name “Kassius Ohno”.
His previous stint in NXT wasn’t great, but things have ~changed~ so maybe he’ll have a chance to do what he does best: insult nerds who catcall him for carrying visible weight and drop fools on their heads with extreme prejudice.
Hero better not lose that weight. WWE could use some more big lads.