5 pro-wrestling moves that were created by accident

#2 The Diving Head-butt

This is one occasion in which 'going head-to-head' is absolutely not a good idea.

Pro wrestling is the only sport/live-action TV drama in which head-butts are still considered legal. Every other sport has outlawed them for very good reason: they can cause considerable and possibly life-altering damage to both the person receiving the attack and the one giving it (just ask Katsuyori Shibata). Naturally, an even more dangerous take on the classic head-butt exists in pro wrestling: the diving head-butt did off the top rope.

This move was created when U.S. wrestling legend Harley Race botched a diving splash and hit his opponent’s head with his own instead. The move was considered high-risk ever since and has developed an infamous reputation for causing severe long-term damage to any wrestler that dared use it on a regular basis.

Harley Race suffered extensive damage to his body over the decades, owing partly to his use of the Diving Head-butt. The Dynamite Kid’s back and spine deteriorated at a much faster rate than normal because he used a swan-dive diving head-butt as a regular move for many years.

The damage caused by landing the way he did jar his spine so many times that he is now confined to a wheelchair. Chris Benoit, whose final moments on earth have caused considerable damage to both his legacy and pro wrestling in general, is believed to have suffered extensive brain damage.

This damage was said to have multiple sources, but one of them was his own Diving Head-butt, which he used very often throughout his WWE career. Finally, there’s Daniel Bryan, who used his own version of that same move during his main event push. But just like those wrestlers that preceded him, Bryan suffered neck damage and concussions from doing the diving head-butt on a frequent basis.

Clearly, these wrestlers should’ve learned a lesson from the Diamondhead: just because you create a move that looks cool and gets a huge reaction, doesn’t mean you should use it more than once.