5 World-Famous Wrestling Moves Created Entirely By Accident
Because sometimes mistakes can lead to brand-new wrestling moves.
Pro wrestling is an exact art that requires considerable skill. After all, the slightest mistake can lead to severe injury or even death for someone who executes a maneuver incorrectly. That is why wrestlers spend a considerable amount of time training and practicing moves, to ensure that they don’t cause serious damage to their opponents.
However, things don't always go as planned during a match, and mistakes can (and do) happen. Sometimes they’re minor; a mistimed spot, a poorly-executed promo, a bad camera angle, etc. Then there are the really bad botches, like broken necks, paralysis, and instantaneous retirement from pro wrestling.
Then, there those extremely rare mistakes that actually lead to the creation of entirely new moves.
While most wrestling moves are practiced time and time again to ensure that they’re executed (relatively) safely, there are some moves that come to be out of mistakes that occur out of nowhere, leaving the wrestlers involved to ad-lib the aftermath. These five wrestling maneuvers were all created on the spot, due to a mistake in the execution of another move.
5. The Diamond Head
To this day, this unusual maneuver has only been used once, and it’s not hard to see why: this is a clearly botched move that led to the creation of a completely unique maneuver.
The Diamond Head is supposed to be a Powerbomb lift somehow transitioned into a DDT or a sidewalk slam. The uncertainty of the end result comes from the fact that the move’s ending looks odd.
Apparently, what happened was that this was supposed to be some kind of head-spike-style Powerbomb variation that would become Kobashi’s new big-match finisher. However, the man taking the move, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, over-rotated once he was lifted onto Kobashi’s shoulders.
As a result, Kobashi had to transition as quickly as he could, and so the Diamond Head was created. It certainly looks very impressive, but it’s clear how this move can injure someone. Kobashi grabbed Kanemaru’s torso to complete the move, leaving Kanemaru’s head unprotected.
As a result, he got injured when he landed, and the move was never used again.
This just goes to show just how dangerous and high-risk Japanese wrestling can be. Since many top Japanese wrestlers are also among wrestling’s most innovative individuals, there’s an expectation for them to come up with unique maneuvers. Sadly, in this case, that expectation backfired. Thankfully, it didn’t end in tragedy.