MMA fighters are amongst the best athletes in the world. Their intense training helps build strength, speed, and athleticism to a combined level that very few people around the world can ever match. But, that doesn’t make them infallible gods who can do wondrous feats regardless of the difficulty involved.
Take pro-wrestling moves for example. Sure, there are a lot of simple moves such as clotheslines and suplexes that most MMA fighters can pull off with little trouble but there are plenty of moves which no MMA fighter in the world can pull off.
The degree of athleticism, coordination, and skill required is just beyond those who haven’t spent their whole lives practising the art of pro-wrestling. With that in mind, we take a look at five such moves which would just as likely injure an MMA fighter than their opponent if they attempted them:
#1 The Shooting Star Press
Let’s start off with an easy one, eh?
In case you couldn’t tell through the dry droll of a keyboard, that was sarcasm. The Shooting Star Press is one of the most difficult to execute moves in pro-wrestling today.
Requiring a wrestler to get onto to the top rope and perform a leaping backflip before landing on the opponent. While not quite on the level of a piledriver, the move is still banned in the WWE unless the performer has had an excellent history with it.
In fact, Neville is the only wrestler who is allowed to do it on the WWE roster. The King of the Cruiserweights is on another level, though, as evidenced by his decision to add a corkscrew into the mix and call it the Red Arrow.
There is no way an MMA fighter is ever doing this move with any modicum of success. After all, Brock Lesnar himself tried the move against Kurt Angle and failed spectacularly as you can see in the video above.
#2 The Canadian Destroyer
You remember that piledriver I mentioned in the last slide? Well, that’s a pretty dangerous move. You know being categorically banned by the WWE and what not. Easy enough to execute, but difficult to pull off safely. The standard version of that is, of course, belly to back.
The Canadian Destroyer is basically that on speed. Invented by Petey Williams, he decided to add a flip to it. Actually, two flips. The move requires the Superstar performing the move to do a front flip while the opponent simultaneously does a backflip and then end with the piledriver portion of the move. It is absolutely bonkers.
Here, take a look:
Sure, I have no qualms in admitting an MMA fighter can execute a piledriver with some practice. The Canadian Destroyer, though? Forget about it. There’s no way someone is getting that level of power, athleticism and coordination unless they’ve been trained for years and years.
#3 The 450 Splash
MMA guys are pretty agile, yeah? Y’know with Yoel “The Soldier of God Who is Probably on Steroids” Romero doing standing flips and what not. I can already imagine Broken Matt Hardy muttering about “spot monkeys” under his breath seeing Romero’s antics.
As impressive as Romero is, he doesn’t hold a candle to the pro-wrestlers who can pull off the 450 Splash. The name is quite self-explanatory, really. You jump off the top rope, front flip 450 degrees and land on your opponent. Nice and easy.
Or if you’re AJ Styles, you start the move via spring boarding from inside the ring and end it through a table on the outside.
Yeah, now look me in the eye and tell me an MMA fighter can do that.
#4 Starship Pain
Johnny Mundo aka John Morrison aka Johnny Nitro. The man who was supposed to be the next Shawn Michaels has had a bit of a stop-start pro-wrestling career but no can argue with the fact that he has invented one of the finest finishers in the world today: Starship Pain.
Blessed with incredible athleticism, Mundo puts it to full use, as he performs a split legged corkscrew moonsault from the top rope in what is a thing of absolute beauty. Or, when he’s feeling particularly edgy, he does it off the top of a steel cage like this:
Name one MMA fighter who has the ability to pull that off. Go on, I’ll wait here till you’re done racking your brain. No one? Yeah, thought as much.
#5 Hell in a Cell Elbow Drop
Okay, this one might be cheating a little bit, but it's my list so deal with it. Shane McMahon has a bit of a deathwish. You know with the whole leaping off really really tall things onto people and tables and all that jazz.
But, what he decided to do when he took on the Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match at Wrestlemania 32 was extreme even for Shane O’Mac. From atop the Cell, an elbow drop onto a prone Deadman – who was on an announce table, just FYI. The cherry on top? Undertaker moves leaving Shane to crash into the table.
There’s one simple reason why no MMA fighter will ever do this: cojones. There is nobody who will be willing to do this kind of damage to their bodies.
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