10 Hidden Meanings Behind Wrestling Moves
No cute puppies were harmed in the making of the bulldog.
It doesn't matter how brilliant a wrestling move is if it has an utterly naff name. You can win as many championships as you like - heck, you can claim two at the same time - but nobody will ever, ever take a finisher lamely called 'the dis-arm-her' seriously.
It's probably for the same reason The Undertaker's 2002 experiment with a dragon sleeper failed to stick, a move Michael Cole repeatedly and unbearably referred to as the 'Taker Care of Business'.
Tombstone on the other hand? Just perfect - and like all great names, it's one you don't even think about anymore, even if in truth, it's a bit strange. There's a similar group of stone cold classics which are so well-embedded in the wrestling firmament that their labels seem as natural as (in the words of Jerry Lawler) "shaving your armpit hair", and yet, when you stop to ponder, sound a tad strange?
Just why is it called a Bulldog? Which Irish grappler in particular gifted the sport his ubiquitous whip? And what is the real story behind that other well-known wrestling technique, the Moss-covered Three-handled Family Gradunza?
10. DDT - Insecticide
In hindsight, Jake Robert's patented DDT is perfectly named twofold, in that it was once lethal and is now largely harmless.
It's lamentably used as a transitional move these days, but once over absolutely nobody recovered from The Snake's deadly DDT. The same applied to anyone taking a swig of its namesake, a supremely deadly insecticide contracted from its chemical name, Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane.
It's not clear why Roberts chose the name of a potent pesticide for his face-planting finisher, given his gimmick. In 2019, it'd almost certainly be called something painfully naff such as 'Snake Eyes' or 'Fangs For Nothing'. Just as the DDT was watered down in the wrestling ring by a glut of modern so-and-sos with no respect for the business, the chemical was gradually phased out in the '70s, before being banned outright.