20 True Stories Behind Famous Wrestling Names
13. The DDT
Named by the move’s inventor, Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts, back in the days when a simple DDT was protected as a lethal finishing move. Rumour ran into overtime in the 1980s as to what the initials stood for, with some guesses being Damien’s Death Touch (named after Jake’s snake… no, a real snake you perverts), the Demonic Death Trap or the Death Drop Technique.
The truth is actually much less cheesy, as befits one of the greatest masters of intense ring psychology the business has ever seen. Roberts named the DDT after the pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, a chemical that had the reputation for causing brain damage when soaked into the ground. The DDT plants the opponent’s head into the ground, causing a similar hazard – hence the name.