100 Best Wrestling Moves EVER

By Michael Sidgwick /

20. Andrade | Spinning Back Elbow

WWE.com

Andrade might not ever put it together.

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Handsome, a great worker, a wrestler who has headlined to awesome effect in the past - albeit it several years ago in NXT - Andrade, after his obligatory Vince McMahon era main roster failure, which doesn’t count, has now failed to grab the ball in AEW and an in Paul Levesque’s WWE. Neither are perfect, but in both promotions, a wrestler tends to get rewarded for consistently superb output.

Andrade is a bit of an enigma, though it’s possible that he simply doesn’t have the intangibles (nor, per various reports, the attitude).

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Even those who don’t rate him all that highly wonder aloud why he isn’t a far bigger star whenever he executes his sensational spinning back elbow strike.

Well, a few seconds pass by before they can think straight, The initial reaction to the strike isn’t a thought but rather an impulse feeling of awe and fear. His movement is beautiful, the deception effective every time, and the execution is gruesome. It looks like a horrific concussion, but of course it isn’t: it’s a masterpiece of footwork.

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The lunge with which Andrade steps into the move is breathtaking, a martial arts chess move that looks beyond deadly.