Welcome to another edition of #FinisherFriday! This is Wreddit_Regal giving my thoughts on one of the most underrated finishers in the modern era, and comparing it with another classic finisher.
What do Austin Aries, Eddie Guerrero, El Generico, Tomohiro Ishii, and Ultimo Dragon have in common? They have, at some point in their careers, used the brainbuster as their finisher.
Pretty unsettling, ain't it?
As dangerous as it looks like (it definitely is, when poorly executed), I would rate the brainbuster as only second to our classic piledriver. Here's why:
With regards to damage, I would give it to the piledriver. The brainbuster's main focus of damage is obviously the head and neck, but does the head and neck receive 100% of the damage? Let's look at other GIFs of the move.
The brainbuster also suffers from the same problems as the Michinoku Driver II, which I have discussed in this article. If the performer cannot maintain the opponent's body in a vertical position, the opponent would not land head-first, landing on their upper back instead (the opponent's neck would likely receive damage starting from the C7-C8 vertebrae, but none on the head).
This means that even if the brainbuster wins the battle of elevation, the piledriver wins the war of damage. With the exception of the package piledriver, the majority of piledrivers keep the opponent's body in a perfect vertical position from start to finish, which ensures that the brain is rocked and the neck is compressed to a very unpleasant degree.
With regards to ease of execution, the brainbuster is definitely outclassed by the piledriver (except for the Canadian Destroyer lol). The same reason why the brainbuster deals less damage when not done in textbook-form is the same reason why it's theoretically harder to perform than your average piledriver. If you can't at least manage to keep your opponent in a vertical position before falling down, then you're just doing a standard vertical suplex.
And there you have it chaps, my thoughts on the brainbuster when compared to the piledriver! Who holds the unofficial record for best brainbuster in the business? Let us know in the comment section below!
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Wreddit_Regal is the resident sports kinesiologist of Reddit's wrestling forum, r/squaredcircle. From the most basic of punches to the most intricate double-team maneuvers, he can explain them within the realm of human anatomy and physics, because when doing absolutely nothing wrestling-related, he also happens to work as an operating room nurse.
: Is The Brainbuster Better Than The Piledriver?){kind=link}