10 Surprising Origins Of Your Favourite Wrestling Moves

True, the chokeslam may not be the most beautiful manoeuvre, but it is effective when you want to inflict the maximum amount of pain on an opponent. It's pretty morally defeating to not only be choked, but also thrown to the ground like a paper doll.

One would assume the chokeslam's creator would be a giant of the wrestling world like Undertaker or Andre the Giant, but it actually has its origins with a giant in the political world. Unless you count 6'3” as giant sized, then it was originated by a literal giant too.

As it turns out the earliest record of a person grabbing another by the throat and slamming them to the mat was in 1831. The slam-ee was a local tough named Jack Armstrong of New Salem, Illinois. The slammer was a tall store clerk named Abraham Lincoln. As in, “four score and seven years ago”, free the slaves, suspend habeas corpus, win the Civil War, future president Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln was working as a store clerk and, due to his stature and general toughness, was goaded into a fight with the local strongman. This is also one of the earliest known squash matches, as the 'Emancipator' dealt with Armstrong swiftly and with ease.