5 World-Famous Wrestling Moves Created Entirely By Accident
1. The Kawada Driver/Ganso Bomb
Though this might not be the most famous maneuver created from a botch, it’s without a doubt the most devastating and cringe-inducing.
The story has it that Toshiaki Kawada was wrestling Mitsuharu Misawa for the AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship on January 22nd, 1999. Early on in that match, Kawada broke his arm, but still managed to power through it (because strong style).
Towards the end of the match, Kawada went for his Powerbomb finisher, but because his arm was broken, he couldn’t lift Misawa all the way up, and Misawa couldn’t roll-through into a Frankensteiner (as he tended to do in situations like that).
As a result, an exhausted Kawada dropped Misawa directly onto his head, stunning the audience and, in doing so, creating what many consider the single most dangerous wrestling move ever used: the Kawada Driver/Ganso Bomb.
This move is exceptionally dangerous because there is literally no way for a wrestler to absorb the damage onto any other body part. In this first case, Misawa was literally in free fall and couldn’t even use his hands/arms to cushion the impact, and so he took yet another insane ‘head drop’.
Though he hasn’t technically retired, Kawada has only used this move three times, and for very good reason. Even its safest form it’s essentially a free-falling Piledriver without any protection, and easily the most infamous maneuver that ever came about as a result of a botch.