10 Most BRUTAL Looking Finishers In Wrestling Today

To reiterate, the standard Piledriver is a somewhat basic manoeuvre.

You place your opponent’s head between your legs, raise them at a ninety-degree angle so their feet are perilously dangling in the air, and drop them vertically, spiking their poor head into the unforgiving mat below. It’s worked so well as a convincing finish for many through all of its iterations.

When you’re being dropped on your skull by Minoru Suzuki, however, there’s an entirely different vibe to the aura of the already-deadly move. The King will typically hold his opponent at that crucial ninety-degree angle for a number of seconds, causing every ounce of blood to rush to their head. It’s such a simple, yet effortlessly perfect detail that furthers the deathly nature of the head bump.

The execution of Suzuki’s Gotch-style Piledriver is nothing without its set up. Before putting the receiver into the Piledriver position, Suzuki will instead grasp his arms around the neck from behind, but he doesn’t actually apply the sleeper hold. He uses it superlatively to freeze opponents’ in their tracks.

If you saw Suzuki wrapping his arms around you, almost like he’s a boa constrictor, you’d freeze, too. It’s the perfect preamble to his gloriously vicious Piledriver.