10 Wrestlers Who Couldn't Do Their Own Moves
5. John Cena's STF
In a 2020 episode of WWE's Untold series, Edge recalled his match with Cena at Unforgiven 2006 and tells the story of how Big Match John accidentally choked him until he passed out via a nasty combination of STF and ladder.
Though he laughs it off in a way that pro wrestlers do, since it's just a part of their job, it's a harrowing visual and thought. Clearly, it had an effect on Cena because ever since that moment his submission hold has gone from being genuinely dangerous to looking absolutely ludicrous.
To be fair, that is a pretty good reason to adapt a move but there has to be a happy medium.
To give it it's full name is to describe it perfectly: "the stepover toehold face-lock". Edgy fans of WWE's Ruthless Aggression days might lament that the name of Cena's move went from STFU back to the simple STF when the PG era rolled around, but in truth it's been more of an ST this whole time.
When Cena cinches it in, there's no face-lock. Instead of grabbing his opponent by the chin, he instead cross-faces them. Not only does this mean Cena isn't putting pressure on his victim's spine, which is the point of the full-body hold, but it's clear to anyone watching that escaping it would need little more than a duck of the head.