The Double-Arm DDT - Who Did It Best?

Sometimes, all it takes is a slight variation on a move and you’ve got something new altogether. The original DDT is a classic staple of modern pro wrestling that has been used so many times that it can no longer be believed as a finisher.

At the same time, it’s a move that can be done so easily and safely that almost every wrestler ever has used it at one point or another. Because of its widespread use, it’s natural that modifications and more powerful versions have popped up here and there. The Double-Arm DDT is one such variation. Instead of doing a simple headlock, the user hooks both of his opponent’s arms and then stops them.

It certainly looks like the impact is stronger than a normal DDT because the victim can’t use the user’s arm to protect their head. So to hit this move properly, you have to be a skilled professional.

Yet which wrestlers actually hit the move the best?

---

#5 Steven Richards

Richards is a 21-time WWE Hardcore Champion

Stevie Richards was a career mid-carder in WWE, having spent most of his time in lower-tier feuds. His main finisher in WWE was a double-arm DDT called the Stevie-T, which actually looked very impressive.

But unlike most wrestlers using this move – who simply fell backwards when hitting it – Richards actually lifted them as he fell backwards. This made his version looked far more impactful and devastating than a normal double-arm DDT.

Oddly, Richards didn’t use this move that much during his WWE run. He used it when he was wrestling normal matches, but much of his career was spent in the hardcore division. As such, he was mostly seen hitting people with weapons, and doing what amounted to WWE’s version of slapstick comedy.

Nevertheless, whenever he did wrestle, you could be sure he had a powerful maneuver he could use to end those matches if weapons weren’t available

#4 Mick Foley

Most people don't know this, but Foley had more than just

Mr.

Socko as his finisher

Whether he was wrestling as Mankind or as himself, Mick Foley had two finishers that he used to end his matches. His primary finisher was the Mandible Claw, which was terrifying at first because it was based on a real nerve hold that could cause immense pain.

That move became more of a joke in later years because of the addition of Mr. Socko, so Foley added another move to his arsenal: the double-arm DDT. Foley hit it well, but there was something unrealistic about the way he hit it’.

Foley never looked like the strongest wrestler, so when he fell backwards, it barely looked like he was putting any power into the move. Because of that, Foley’s Double-Arm DDT didn’t look that powerful.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Foley hitting the move didn’t take off, and it wasn’t long before he went back to pulling a sock out of his pants and jamming it into someone’s mouth. Wrestling sure can be weird sometimes.

#3 Dean Ambrose

Ambrose has been using this move for only a few years, since he had to change it for safety reasons

Dean Ambrose has actually used two different moves that he called ‘Dirty Deeds’. The first was a type of Headlock Driver which, as you can imagine, was deemed too dangerous by WWE because the victim had a much harder time landing in a safe position. Since then, Ambrose has used the Double-Arm DDT variant, and does it decently well.

The reason Ambrose’s version doesn’t rank higher is because the impact doesn’t look very strong. In the video below, you can see that most of his opponents aren’t even lifted off the ground but simply drop to their knees, which appears to take all the force of the move.

In most cases, the person taking Dirty Deeds doesn’t even ‘bump’ upwards to sell the impact or do a flip over to sell the landing; they just crumple flat to the mat. Maybe if Ambrose changed his move up a bit to actually lift his opponent instead of quickly dropping to the mat, his Dirty Deeds would look more powerful as a finisher.

#2 Drew McIntyre

McIntyre looks far more menacing now than he did five years ago

Back during his first run in WWE, Drew McIntyre’s finisher was a snap Double-Arm DDT which he called ‘the Future Shock’. What made his version so good was that he gave it more of a snap when he hit it, which made his victims flip over when hit with it.

With this move, McIntyre achieved quite a bit of success, winning the WWE Intercontinental Championship with it in 2009. At the time, McIntyre was only 24 years old, yet was pushed as ‘the future of WWE’. He pinned many wrestlers with this high-impact move as he tried to climb the ladder on SmackDown.

Unfortunately, things changed for McIntyre, despite checking almost all of Vince’s boxes. He had the look, he was tall, and he had a killer finisher in the Future Shock that, despite looking highly impactful, was a reliable move that didn’t run the risk of hurting anyone.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t getting much of a reaction, and reportedly had a high-profile confrontation with then-girlfriend Taryn Terrell that led to his de-push. Not even using this cool move as his finisher could salvage him after all of that.

#1 Kenta Kobashi

Kenta Kobashi was once nicknamed 'the Maximum Innovator' for creating so many moves used around the world today

There are a handful of cases when a wrestler does a move better than the person that created it. This is not one of those cases. Kenta Kobashi hit a better Double-Arm DDT than anyone else, which makes perfect sense as he’s the one to have invented the move.

When Kobashi hit this move, he’d actually jump backwards instead of just falling backwards. While jumping, he’d also lift his opponent and then drop them downwards. Both of these movements done together made his version look incredibly painful, which was the intended goal of such a move.

It also helped that All Japan Pro-Wrestling had one of the most enthusiastic play-by-play commentators of all time. Whenever a wrestler hit one of their big moves, he’d scream on the top of his lungs as if he had just seen the greatest things ever.

Watch at 3:06 in the video below as Kobashi hits his Double-Arm DDT, and the commentator screams ‘DEE-DEE-TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!’

Even without understanding Japanese, the emotion from this commentator tells you that this is a big move. That is why commentators are so important in a wrestling match: their emotion (or lack thereof) can be the difference between a great match and just a normal one.