Welcome to another edition of #FinisherFriday! This is Wreddit_Regal bringing you a finisher which I didn't really expect to be done in my lifetime, but was done anyway.
YO-HEY's pro wrestling career is a story of making a mistake, paying for that mistake, and coming back with a clean slate. Most Dragon Gate fans would remember the old animal abuse scandal from a decade ago, with RYOMA (his ring name at the time) named as one of the wrestlers responsible for it. This resulted in him leaving Dragon Gate and retiring from wrestling to reflect on his actions.
The gods of the squared circle seemed to accept his act of penance, and he eventually made his return to the ring a couple of years later as a freelancer, ultimately landing on Pro Wrestling NOAH's soil. The only problem is his persona didn't resemble a man who was repenting; this guy developed a flamboyant, eccentric, borderline-crazy personality.
This reflects in his wrestling arsenal, which is oftentimes a mix of reckless abandon, his nonchalant demeanor when dealing damage to his opponents, and changing the usual sequences that we have gotten used to watching:
His finisher is something I was looking for a long time. I thought to myself, "As time progressed, the basic top rope splash or senton has evolved into many different forms, but you're telling me no one ever thought of doing a top rope barrel roll as a finisher?" Turns out, this guy took his craziness to another level and did it. Behold, his finisher called Bamboo Dragonfly:
"But Regal, Naito/Willie Mack/other flippy wrestlers do a barrel roll!" Nope, it's only a barrel roll if the performer's body is horizontal throughout the whole duration of the move. If the performer flips (or "loops" in roller coaster jargon) while doing a barrel roll, then it is called a corkscrew, or a tornillo in lucha libre terminology.
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| Not a barrel roll |
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| Not a barrel roll |
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| Nobody would desecrate Hector Garza's legacy by calling this a barrel roll. This is a goddamn tornillo |
Come to think of it, WWE's Kalisto does something akin to a barrel roll too, but he shifts his entire body to make it hit like a crossbody:
And Cesaro with his one-rotation crossbody:
but let's not steal the spotlight away from YO-HEY who faithfully stays true to the description of a barrel roll:
Using my trusty Regal Rating, I would give it a
9/10 for execution. I would have been happy with just one rotation, but being the crazy guy that he is, YO-HEY exceeds my expectations by performing as many rotations as possible before hitting the ground! What a badass.
8/10 for damage. If he can increase his chances of landing on the opponent's body, then he could deal more damage. But hey, a blow to the kneecaps isn't a laughable injury either.
And that's it chaps, my short review of the Bamboo Dragonfly! Do you know of other wrestlers who have barrel roll splashes in their arsenal? Let me know in the comment section below!
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.
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