Every Wrestling Secret WWE Tries (And Fails) To Hide
8. Thigh Slaps
A popular talking point recently due to images leaking of a backstage ban on the act, the venerable thigh slap has been around forever now, and really isn't that harmful used sparingly.
But then, perhaps that's become the issue.
In the era of a big kick as a transition move rather than Shawn Michaels' finisher or Yoshihiro Tajiri's kill-shot, the importance of the thigh slap has increased. The flesh-on-flesh firecracker noise serves as a marker to differentiate a boot to the chops as one to audiences gasp rather than one they can miss while nipping for a quick p*ss. It's presumably Vince McMahon's opinion that wrestlers have lost sight of when to do one rather than another.
He might not be totally out of line. When the news broke, Wrestling Twitter was awash with some of the more egregious uses of the trick, most notably when Johnny Gargano senselessly deployed it alongside a chop. But mention of it has ultimately drawn the eye closer to it - Drew McIntyre's Claymore typically comes with a clap to the leg, and more people are screen-shotting that now than his winning pinfalls.
Still, it could be worse. When hands went on thighs a generation ago, it was as part of a drooling ritual over objectified women akin to that of Vic Reeves midway through a Shooting Stars gag. Loud kicks are a slap in the right direction.