10 Times Wrestlers Busted Out Moves You'd NEVER Expect
Undertaker flies, AJ Styles defies, and an MJF surprise...
Remember the old "Roman Reigns only has X moves" discourse?
What a load of old sh*te.
Wrestlers have a defined, signature repertoire from which they rarely deviate - or add to - because it makes no sense on several levels.
For a character to hold credibility, unless they are a hybrid specialist like PAC, they should operate within a certain discipline. To use an example: although he utilises the Sharpshooter, it would make no sense for Matt Jackson to suddenly start wrestling as if he's Zack Sabre, Jr. There'd be no drama, logic or heat to that because he isn't known to be - or taken seriously as - a shooter.
Conversely, it would make no sense for ZSJ to start wrestling as if he's Matt Jackson. It would indicate that he had lost faith in the expert submission game he has crafted over years and years. What good would that do him in his next match?
Wrestlers limit their arsenals because the form is all about pacing and creating expectation, through building a move, and making the audience want to see it, if they're a face, or, if they're a heel, not want to see it. It's about rhythm, pattern, service. In much the same way as not hearing the chorus after the first verse would feel like an anticlimax in a pop song, the babyface failing to hit the big, popular move after the comeback would deflate the crowd.
Subverting that pattern, however, can sometimes elicit incredible drama...
10. Diesel Busts Out A Plancha
There's a perception of Kevin Nash, one that the man himself endorses with a sly wink and shrug, of an inveterate carny who lazed his way through a career in which he only gave half a sh*t about the money he was paid.
This perception formed a sort of meta character throughout his TNA run, which was probably funnier than was advisable, and was built from almost everything he did in WCW. The Bash At The Beach 1996 main event was so dull before it became infamous, and he'd only just got there. He himself states that he had little intention of going hard in there because he was paid so much money, he was a megastar, and he didn't need to.
He did need to go in the WWF because he didn't evolve into a sensation overnight (or at least one that drew money).
He backed up the mega-push and, driven by the perfectionist DNA ingrained in the Kliq, who if nothing else justified the spots they controlled so zealously, busted out a plancha against Sid at in Your House 2. It was amazing.
Nash being Nash, there was probably more than the pursuit of art propelling him off his feet; he likely wanted to make sure to do something that Sid, competition as a giant, could not do in a panic if he stuck a gerbil in his trunks.