100 Best Wrestling Moves EVER
87. Swerve Strickland | House Call
For every move, there exists a counter.
This is a necessary mechanism for driving the action forward; done well, it creates the impression of two strategic athletes who’ve done the necessary studying. It also alters and propels the momentum of a match. The flying nothing is awful, but, say, the Busaiku knee into a powerbomb a nanosecond before the strike hits the cheek?
Perfection.
As is always the case, though, wrestling takes it too far and eats itself. This counter dance was electrifying when it fuelled the New Japan resurgence - and because it got popular, wrestlers everywhere just did it all the time. It too often felt like wrestlers the globe over were doing moves purely so they’d get reversed.
That’s what’s so refreshing about the House Call: Swerve Strickland’s vicious and cruel heel kick to the side of the head. The physical execution is amazing, proper bruising with a pleasing and emphatic thud behind it, but the set-up makes it. It can’t be reversed.
Swerve does it because it can’t be reversed. It shouldn’t stand out as much as it does.