100 Best Wrestling Moves EVER
98. Darby Allin | Suicide Dive
CM Punk - who, if he’d followed his own advice, would have escaped serious injury at All Out 2022 - said when building his AEW in-ring return a year prior that everybody bar Darby Allin should retire the suicide dive from their move-set.
Nobody can ever agree on anything Punk has ever said - except that, surely.
Darby launches himself between the bottom and middle rope like a bullet from a gun. The propulsion is mind-blowing. Fans of modern wrestling tolerate the fact that a wrestler will rather helpfully catch an inbound aerial attack. There’s no need for this leniency with Darby because you don’t catch Darby Allin; you stand there, without even waiting, and accept that he’s going to in effect shoot you.
The acceleration and pace is such that fans always brace themselves for a gnarly, terrifying clash of heads, but Darby is so incredible at the craft that he safely lands the missile 100% of the time.
Darby is a wrestler who has no regard for his safety; he feels half-dead stemming from childhood trauma, and gives everything every time because he knows he “shouldn’t” have made it through to what the industry used to be; in that sense, in execution and in emotion, it’s the best high-risk move ever.