Welcome to another episode of #FinisherFriday! I haven't really seen unique finishers over the past days, but a certain post on Twitter piqued my interest and thus became the focus of this article.
Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross ended the Kabuki Warriors' lengthy 181-day reign as the Women's Tag Team Champions at WrestleMania 36. The event gave each wrestler ample time to showcase their skill in what was widely considered a spectacular Night One match. The bout ended in the following sequence:
Sportskeeda was one of the earliest media sites to point out this "botch," to which some members of the Internet wrestling community rode the bashing bandwagon. One tweet caught the attention of Little Miss Bliss, to which she promptly replied:
Being a bloke that likes his finisher physics as accurate, realistic and plausible as possible, I decided to run a short fact-check on her statement.
First, while examining the claim "The impact is the same whether it’s hit on the midsection, legs or upper torso," a new question arises: is the damage and resulting incapacitation the same, whether it’s hit on the midsection, legs or upper torso? How do we analyze both of these questions in the simplest way possible?
Let's say that an opponent got shot with a gun in three places: the upper torso, the midsection, and the legs, and all bullets went through.
Now, if all bullets went through, then the impact is said to be the same in all areas. Drawing parallels to a wrestling finisher such as a splash or a senton, if the performer can execute and make it hit with the intended part at all times and at different places, then they can safely claim that the impact is the same at all areas. (For a detailed discussion about the mechanics of a splash or a senton, check out this article.)
Moving on to the actual damage dealt, it should be obvious that a gunshot wound on the chest deals more damage (and risk to life) than a gunshot wound to the abdomen, and a gunshot wound to the abdomen deals more damage (and risk to life) than a gunshot to the legs. Drawing parallels to wrestling finishers, a splash, senton, or a strike deals the most damage when the head and upper torso is targeted, decent damage when hitting the abdominal area (the grapefruits are another story), and least damage to the legs. You haven't really seen people get pinned after a WMD or a superkick to the legs, right?
"But what if the damage dealt is so much, that even if you hit the opponent's legs with it, it's still enough to incapacitate them for a pinfall victory?" you might ask. We might have seen lots of splashes/sentons/moonsaults done poorly but garnered pinfall victories, and that's mainly because the recipient was too preoccupied in "feeling the pain" that he/she didn't notice the referee counting the pinfall.
Let me put it this way: a wrestler loses via pinfall most of the time because they got knocked out or got so weakened that they can't raise their shoulders up or kick out of the pinfall. In this "special case" however, the opponent may not be knocked out or weakened, but instead shuts out all external stimuli because of the pain felt. A good example of this was the finish to Cody Rhodes and Shawn Spears' match yesterday at Dynamite:
So my final verdict for Alexa Bliss? I'd give her a pass because
And that wraps up my article for today! Have you seen other wrestling claims that needed to be fact-checked? Let me know in the comment section below!
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