10 Wrestling Props You Totally Don't Remember

6. Leyla Hirsch's Spare Turnbuckle

Undertaker Soil
AEW

If you can't help but be pedantic about it, the existence of weapons under the ring is a ridiculous notion that only feels normal because the mainstream North American wrestling industry has normalised it for nearly a quarter of a century.

These things shouldn't really be there.

A table is never used to build a ring, and if the compressed sawdust table was used, a member of the ring crew would fall through it after standing there for, at most, 10 seconds. Are the chairs there so that the workers can take a break? It's not an easy task, but it's not as if they can't hop a guardrail and pick from about 5,000 at a minimum. These are the only objects that could be halfway justified; everything else, like a barbed wire board, conjures an absurd image of a wrestler sneaking around the arena before bell time. The larger the weapon, the more asinine the logic.

Which makes Leyla Hirsch's recent prop a genuinely great and logical idea; before she was struck down by injury, rendering her heel run forgettable, she used a spare turnbuckle clamp to cheat her way to victory.

A weapon that actually belonged in the ringside environment: this was an inspired detail, but terrible luck and timing scuppered the idea.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!