100 Best Wrestling Moves EVER
62. Bret Hart | Russian Leg Sweep
It's tempting to cheat here and shout, 'ALL FIVE MOVES OF DOOM' from behind pink 'Hitman' shades. If you've watched even one lengthy Bret Hart match, then you'll know he deployed the same set of five killer blows to finish opponents. Here's the order: Inverted atomic drop > Russian leg sweep > backbreaker > forearm from the middle rope > trusty Sharpshooter.
So, why has only one of those been picked out specifically? In short, the gusto with which Bret nailed the leg sweep was always a thing of beauty. It would've been easy for Hart to phone that part in, or for other wrestlers to take the sloppiest basic back bump since their first days at a wrestling training school, but no - that was never Bret's style. Everything had to be on point, because he viewed the biz as art and was quite the perfectionist.
After crunching his knee to the erm...spine (honest!) of another man, Hart would deftly dart behind them, position himself just enough in front so that both weren't taking exactly the same bump, then pull back as hard as he could whilst sneakily making sure someone's head didn't smash into the canvas. Again, Bret was an artist and he painted with fine brushes rather than in broad strokes.
Some say Hart always took himself too seriously. He'd say wrestlers can't take pro wrestling seriously enough.
The venomous whip on the sweep, and the satisfying impact it caused, helped feed into the remaining trio of doom-denoting moves in Bret's arsenal. Put it this way: That Sharpshooter wouldn't be anywhere near as great without something so fundamental as the vicious crack of his leg sweep.