100 Best Wrestling Moves EVER
17. Dynamite Kid | Diving Knee Drop
The Dynamite Kid was as good a professional wrestler as he was a bad human being.
Amongst other instances of deplorable conduct, Tom Billington ritually threatened his then-wife with her murder, stabbed Jake Roberts’ snake with needles, set fellow wrestler Gypsy Joe on fire in Japan, was arrested for beating up teenagers unprovoked, took pleasure in spitting on and racially abusing the homeless…
Dynamite’s influence is hard-coded into the DNA of pro wrestling. The lung-bursting, high intensity back-and-forth you see every week can be traced back to his revolutionary style - and you can make the argument that, four decades later, nobody did it as well.
Now, there are better and more thoughtful storytellers, yes, but just consider the Kid’s diving knee drop. He looks like he has fractured his opponent’s orbital socket. You can watch it over and over again, you can slow it down, you can freeze the precise frame, and you will only ever see what looks like a full-on collision.
Of course, that can’t be true. It was a worked strike. But how?
Every other wrestler since has sought to make you ask the same question. Those answers are a lot easier to arrive at.