10 Insane Japanese Wrestling Moves WWE Fans Have Never Seen
Olivia Owen American pro wrestling and Japanese pro wrestling have been crossing over ever since both countries established the sport. In the 1950s, Japanese wrestling pioneer Rikidozan started wrestling in National Wrestling Alliance territories as soon as he burst on the scene, and in the following decades countless Japanese stars would wrestle for WWE, including Antonio Inoki, Tiger Mask, and Tatsumi Fujinami.
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While World Wrestling Entertainment has spent decades convincing its fans that wrestling doesn’t exist outside of WWE, they’ve seen a variety of moves innovated by Japanese stars like the Enzuigiri, Shooting Star Press, Emerald Flowsion, and Go To Sleep. But there are also some wild maneuvers that WWE’s most devout loyalists have never laid eyes on, so let’s take a look.
10 GTR
WWE fans have seen AJ Styles and Adam Cole bust out the Ushigoroshi -- a fireman’s carry where the opponent is dropped neck-first on your knee -- which was made popular by New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s perpetual bridesmaid Hirooki Goto.
But he has an even nastier move in his repertoire: the GTR, where Goto transitions from a headlock into a lariat, sending the opponent down into his knee. In other words, it’s a lariat and a backbreaker at the same time.
9 Victory Star Drop
Considered one of the best wrestlers of all time, Manami Toyota innovated a few quite impressive moves during her 30 years as a performer. One such move, the amazingly named Victory Star Drop, involves the opponent seated on the top turnbuckle, facing the post.
From there, Toyota would essentially do a victory roll on the opponent, sending them from the corner to the mat in something resembling a piledriver. The Victory Star Drop was an incredibly dangerous move, only used by Toyota a couple of times on select performers.
8 Tiger Driver ‘98
Several of the various men who have donned the Tiger Mask persona have come up with various versions of the Tiger Driver over the years, all of which utilize a double underhook. However, the most brutal looking has to be the Tiger Driver ‘98 which is a double underhook piledriver, as invented by Mitsuharu Misawa, who briefly worked as Tiger Mask II.
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In WWE, NXT’s Tommaso Ciampa uses the Fairytale Ending, which starts similarly with a double underhook, but the finish is a facebuster rather than a piledriver.
7 High Fly Flow
Between Eddie Guerrero, Rob Van Dam, and Sasha Banks, WWE fans have seen the frog splash in pretty much every era since the year 2000. Over in NJPW, star Hiroshi Tanahashi also utilizes a frog splash, but in a very impressive variation.
Called the High Fly Flow, Tanahashi manages to change direction mid-air, rotating his body on the way down. The other cool thing about the High Fly Flow is that the Ace doesn’t always use it against downed opponents, often delivering it from the top rope to a standing opponent on the floor outside the ring.
6 Sternness Dust Alpha
Jun Akiyama -- the highly acclaimed, multi-time champion of both All Japan Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestling NOAH, and current president/booker of AJPW -- has a number of high-impact moves that involve locking in a wrist clutch.
One of the hardest-hitting is the Sternness Dust Alpha, which involves a wrist clutch that hooks the opponent’s leg, fisherman suplex style, and THEN delivers a Death Valley Driver to the opponent’s head and neck.
5 Wheelbarrow Dragon Sleeper
The ace of World Wonder Ring Stardom, former World of Stardom Champion Mayu Iwatani, utilizes a pretty awesome Dragon Suplex as a finisher, but she’s also got a particularly painful-looking variation on the Dragon Sleeper in her repertoire.
Normally in a Dragon Sleeper the opponent is seated on the mat, but in Iwatani’s version she turns herself into some kind of torture device, bending her opponent backwards while locking in the Sleeper. As an added bonus, she can also transition into her Suplex if she wants.
4 Ganso Bomb (a.k.a Kawada Driver)
While WWE fans have seen a few versions of the Burning Hammer over the years, they’ve likely never seen the attempted murder known as the Ganso Bomb, otherwise known as the Kawada Driver. The maneuver was innovated by AJPW legend Toshiaki Kawada, whose quick head kicks are not uncommon in the WWE.
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Invented entirely by accident thanks to Kawada attempting a powerbomb with a broken arm (seriously), the Ganso Bomb basically involves Kawada falling to his knees and dropping the opponent on his head, completely unprotected. It’s considered THE most dangerous move of all time, and Kawada himself only pulled it out a few times.
3 Peach Sunrise
Another signature move from World Wonder Ring Stardom, the Peach Sunrise is used by fierce striker Momo Watanabe (“momo” is Japanese for “peach”). The maneuver looks a bit like a half-and-half suplex with a half-nelson applied to the neck, but Watanabe also pulls the opponent’s arm under her legs for a pump handle set up.
Then she swings her opponent up for a bridging suplex that looks great, but also incredibly painful.
2 Phoenix-Plex
WWE fans may have seen Kota Ibushi in NXT and the Cruiserweight Classic, but they’ve likely never seen anything like the Phoenix-Plex, which Ibushi innovated in the late 2000.
Technically a “bridging package fallaway powerbomb,” Ibushi would set up for a powerbomb, but grab the head to curl him up before sending the dude backwards over his shoulders. It’s a supremely risky move that could go very wrong -- in one infamous example, Dragon Lee lost his grip, inadvertently breaking Hiromu Takahshi’s neck.
1 Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex
Another wild move innovated by the legendary Manami Toyota, the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex is unlike any suplex WWE fans have ever seen before. In this move, Toyota grabs her opponent by the wrists, crisscrossing them across their torso while putting her head between their legs for the electric chair position. From the electric chair, Toyota falls backwards, slamming the opponent on their back and shoulders, often for a pin.
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