Welcome to another edition of #FinisherFriday! This is Wreddit_Regal taking a one-time break in covering finishers, but this time giving an analysis of one misunderstood move's mechanics.
There are instances of routine pro wrestling moves that seem like they are only done for the aesthetics, but are actually devastating when done outside the context of a safe performance of a match inside the squared circle. One such instance is the humble arm drag...
...that has the ability to rule out the possibility of the receiver having an active in-ring career, should he/she not do the customary response of jumping with the drag, which we discussed a couple of years ago.
This time, we'll take a look into another move that has received its fair share of flak in the online wrestling community: the dragon screw leg whip.
Innovated by the legendary Tatsumi Fujinami, this handy-dandy move is actually a killer in disguise, as it mercilessly targets the joint that all wrestlers k-need to walk out the ramp and go back to the locker room. (heh, get that pun?)
The human knee has four ligaments that help keep it stabilized, and enables you to walk without wobbling sideways. These are the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), posterior cruciate ligament (PCL), medial collateral ligament (MCL), and the lateral collateral ligament (LCL).
As sturdy as these ligaments are, one abrupt change in direction or a sudden shift of body mass can make them rupture/tear, and cause your knee to immediately buckle, as we occasionally see in NBA games:
The dragon screw leg whip exploits this weakness by forcing the opponent's leg to stay in one position, while the whole body falls down in one swift motion. Hiroshi Tanahashi is a prime example of this, as you can visibly see the Ace forcibly disrupting the opponent's balance while holding the foot down:
Should an attacker choose to forego the process of holding down the foot and instead finish the roll, they can still deliver damage by keeping the opponent's leg abducted (opened wide) from start to finish, giving the opponent a pulled groin in the process:
Using my Regal Rating, I would give this move a:
8/10 for aesthetics. It's done fast as a counter (so there's no long-ass taunt), and is as flashy as the Cody's Cross Rhodes or Jay White's Blade Runner. It's one of the best-looking non-finisher moves ever created in the business.
6/10 for damage. Let's be honest: it doesn't deal the damage needed for a pinfall victory, but it sure keeps an opponent out of action for a long while if the ligaments tear.
And that's it chaps, my short review of the dragon screw leg whip! Do you have any routine moves that need its own #FinisherFriday article? Let us 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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