100 Best Wrestling Moves EVER
25. Kenny Omega | Snap Dragon
You know what doesn’t make a great deal of sense, when you think about it?
The dead-lift set-up.
It’s an impressive feat of strength, yes, which often works on a pure dramatic effect basis - but the mere existence of the dead-lift reveals that wrestlers happily “go up” for everything else. The dead-lift almost always generates a rising crescendo of noise, which is why it (and indeed most things) prevails - but it’s flawed.
What isn’t flawed, and what underscores his genius, is Kenny Omega’s anti-dead-lift move: the snap dragon suplex.
It works as an excellent pacing device. When Omega hooks his arms underneath the shoulder blades, and drives his opponents to the mat with light-speed quickness, it signals that the frisson is about to explode. It’s a great transition, one of many, into his V-Trigger. The flow of his matches is electrifying; the snap dragon is a mechanism with which he enters his trademark, brain-melting feeling of overdrive.
It also just looks devastating, resulting in an awesome bump with such momentum behind it that the recipient lands on their tiptoes at almost the exact same time their heads crack against the mat.