Greatest Practitioner: Kurt Angle Also used by: Ken Shamrock, Jack Swagger. Early forms of the anklelock were practiced in medieval Japan and the hold is believed to have originated from ju-jitsu. It is also used in judo, MMA and amateur wrestling. In professional wrestling, however, the leg is usually lifted off of the ground in a more theatrical fashion, which occasionally leads to a more traditional mat-variation with body scissors applied. Ken Shamrock is generally credited with bringing this move into modern pro wrestling, but as it was/is used in traditional catch or shoot wrestling, he is definitely not the first wrestler to have ended a match or two with it. Once Kurt Angle started using the move in the early 2000s and garnered a string of highly credible victories with it, the anklelocks stock was boosted significantly and it is now greatly respected by pro wrestling fans as a premier submission hold. Nevertheless, in any incarnation, this move can genuinely hurt a person.
I am a professional author and lifelong comic books/pro wrestling fan. I also work as a journalist as well as writing comic books (I also draw), screenplays, stage plays, songs and prose fiction.
I don't generally read or reply to comments here on What Culture (too many trolls!), but if you follow my Twitter (@heyquicksilver), I'll talk to you all day long!
If you are interested in reading more of my stuff, you can find it on http://quicksilverstories.weebly.com/ (my personal site, which has other wrestling/comics/pop culture stuff on it).
I also write for FLiCK http://www.flickonline.co.uk/flicktion, which is the best place to read my fiction work.
Oh yeah - I'm about to become a Dad for the first time, so if my stuff seems more sentimental than usual - blame it on that!
Finally, I sincerely appreciate every single read I get. So if you're reading this, thank you, you've made me feel like Shakespeare for a day! (see what I mean?)
Latcho Drom,
- CQ
