The shooting star press is another one of those moves that was long banned by WWE due to a perceived danger in executing it correctly: Brock Lesnar would nearly break his own neck performing it on Kurt Angle at Wrestlemania XIX, and Billy Kidman would give Chavo Guererro a concussion with a botched version of the move a year later on Smackdown. The shooting star aspect of the move is the backflip after the leap forward, invented by high-flying Japanese legend Jushin Liger. The press is the standard iteration, but variations can include a legdrop or an elbow drop to finish, or even a DDT or a senton. Like the 450 splash and the piledriver, the WWE only allows wrestlers whove got a proven track record of safety and consistency with the shooting star press to perform it in the ring. In fairness to Kidman, hed been safely performing the shooting star press for years before his mistake on television. Evan Bourne, the former Matt Sydal, had also proven to WWE that he had the ability to pull it off, as does current NXT high-flying king, Adrian Pac Neville. Naturally The Man That Gravity Forgot goes one better, performing a corkscrew shooting star press as one of his finishing movies. He calls it the Red Arrow. We call it totally freakin awesome. Whats your favourite bit of high-flying grandstanding? Have we covered it, or do you have an eleventh or even a twelfth to add to our list? Tell us all about it in the comments
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
