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WWE tends to keep its wrestling relatively simple and straightforward. For better or for worse, RAW and SmackDown Live action is largely storyline centric with the in ring action pitched in such a way as to be accessible to a casual audience.
There are quite a few performers who have deceptively deep repertoires of moves, strikes, and holds that they rarely if ever put to use in front of a WWE audience.
However, based on performers’ earlier work in smaller promotions, abroad, or even NXT, there a number of them who have revealed themselves to have submission finishers that most fans may not be aware of.
Some of these finishers pay homage to stars past, and some are deceptively creative. Some don’t fit current WWE characters, or aren’t as TV friendly as the finishers that they now use instead.
This article takes a look at five current WWE Superstars who have at one point or another demonstrated that they can pull off impressive submission hold finishers that most of the WWE audience may not have known about.
#5 Daniel Bryan’s Cattle Mutilation
Daniel Bryan is widely regarded as one of, if not the single most proficient submission grapplers and technical wrestlers in WWE today.
Indeed, while Bryan didn’t necessarily have the look or style WWE typically privileges in its recruits—and that’s particularly so when he properly signed with WWE in 2009—it was his technical skills that got him a look.
Bryan had garnered a reputation as one of the best wrestlers, in the ring, in the world, and as such garnered an opportunity with the biggest wrestling company in the world.
Cattle Mutilation—a bridging double chicken wing hold—was a signature finishing hold for Bryan before signing with WWE, including during his celebrated Ring of Honor run. Many hardcore fans lamented that Bryan gave up this brutal looking submission, and were quick to blame WWE for dumbing down the technical wizard’s repertoire.
Bryan himself has rebutted the point in numerous interviews, though, citing that Cattle Mutilation isn’t the most TV friendly hold—particularly because it tends to obscure both wrestlers’ faces—and thus simply wasn’t a good fit for the WWE product.
#4 Sami Zayn’s Koji Clutch
The Koji Clutch—innovated by Japanese star Koji Kanemoto—has made its way throughout the professional wrestling world, including the United States. Wrestlers like Christopher Daniels used it on smaller stages, including Impact Wrestling, to help get it over as a deadly choking style submission hold.
Sami Zayn adopted the hold during his NXT run. While he was, and would go on to be better known for his Helluva Kick, the Koji Clutch served him well in developmental, including demonstrating his considerable technical prowess with a hold that not all WWE fans would necessarily have been familiar with.
The Koji Clutch didn’t really come with Zayn when he moved up to the main roster, where chokes are used sparingly and where such a hold didn’t necessarily fit Zayn’s persona, especially with the face character he initially portrayed. Nonetheless, it remains in his back pocket as a secret submission finisher he could break out.
The video below shows him picking up a win over Marcus Louis with the finisher.
#3 Bayley’s Rings of Saturn
Bayley is best known for her character’s sunny disposition and being awfully affectionate for a wrestler, as she proudly professes herself to be The Hugger. As such, it makes sense that even her signature Bayley To Belly starts with a hug.
Bayley’s persona doesn’t necessarily feel like a natural fit for a professional wrestler, but she’s a fighter, too, whose underdog spirit has long helped her connect with fans. That was especially the case in NXT where she was ultimately cast as the arch-rival to arrogant heel champion Sasha Banks.
After a seemingly climactic showdown at the original TakeOver: Brooklyn special, the two had one last curtain call for their rivalry before Banks moved up to the main roster full time. At TakeOver: Respect, they became the first women to main event a TakeOver with an Iron Woman Match.
It all culminated in Bayley maneuvering Banks into a modified Rings Of Saturn position, only to accent it with kicks to the back of her opponent’s head to garner the deciding submission at the end of regulation.
The hold remains one that Bayley could conceivably bust out, despite not yet showing any signs of it in her main roster run.
#2 Kevin Owens’ Sharpshooter
Before Kevin Owens was known by that name, he made quite a career for himself working for smaller promotions—most notably Ring of Honor—under the name Kevin Steen.
Steen’s offense had a bit more violent edge than what he has used in WWE, including a package piledriver that he most often used to achieve pin fall victories.
Owens also made use of a Sharpshooter submission hold. The move is largely synonymous with fellow Canadian countryman Bret Hart, and particularly given that Owens is from Montreal—the site of the infamous Montreal Screwjob that the Sharpshooter was so important to, when Shawn Michaels applied it to Hart, it makes sense that Owens would look to absorb the hold into his own repertoire.
Owens isn’t a part of the Hart clan, of course, and Natalya still uses the Sharpshooter as her own finisher, all of which probably contribute to him not using the hold in WWE. Nonetheless, it is a finisher that he used to good effect earlier on in his career.
#1 AJ Styles' Figure Four Leg Lock
AJ Styles had a long, successful career before signing with WWE, to the point that many experts anticipated his legacy may be as the greatest wrestler of his generation to have never worked under Vince McMahon. All of that changed in 2016, when Styles signed and debuted at the Royal Rumble, and he has since become a staple part of the WWE landscape.
The Phenomenal one has used his Calf Crusher to good effect in WWE, after using it earlier in Impact and New Japan. In addition to that and his Phenomenal Forearm, he had other signature maneuvers like the Styles Clash and Spiral Tap that he used elsewhere.
It’s easy to forget that, during Styles’s long tenure with Impact, he tried on a few different personas, and one of them was working as Ric Flair’s protégé.
During that period as a main event player, the powers that be at Impact probably went a little too far in trying to pattern the established star after the Nature Boy. For better or for worse, that included Styles adding the Figure Four Leglock to his catalog of finishers during that period of time.
