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The Powerbomb is one of the most beloved and popular moves in wrestling. There’s something impressive about lifting your opponent so that they’re sitting on your shoulders, only for you to slam them down to the mat as hard as possible. Because of both the visual and sound of the impact, many wrestlers of all shapes and sizes have used the Powerbomb as a finishing move.
But which one of them was the best?
For this list, we’re looking at those wrestlers that used a Powerbomb as their finisher. We’re also focusing on a ‘regular’ Powerbomb; that is, the one where an opponent sits on both the user’s shoulders. The Crucifix Powerbomb won’t be included here because that’s a different move altogether. We’re also excluding other variations of the same move like Seth Rollins’ Bucklebomb, The Blue Thunder Bomb, the Gutwrench Powerbomb, and A.J. Styles’ Rack Bomb.
What we’re looking it at is a combination of how well the move was executed, how it looked in television, how fans reacted to it, and how much success it brought to the wrestler using it. Those elements will help us determine which wrestler hit the best Powerbomb.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVP9D9QGyfY
9. Kevin Nash/Diesel
Kevin Nash’s Jackknife Powerbomb is a bit of a misnomer. While he calls his finisher the Jackknife, it is technically a release Powerbomb. This is because when Nash/Diesel would lift people, he’d basically let them go as soon as they were in a position to be dropped. He wouldn’t hold on, sit down, or lift them higher. Once they were to be dropped, he’d let gravity do the rest. A real Jackknife Powerbomb is a Powerbomb where the user hits the move and then does a jackknife cover over their opponent right away.
Because of this ‘release’, Nash’s Jackknife didn’t always look like the most impactful. The landing looked slow, and in many cases (as seen in the video below), Nash didn’t get his opponent all the way up before dropping them to the canvas.
Yet while it might’ve not always been executed perfectly, one cannot deny that it was the perfect move for Kevin Nash because it allowed him to show so much power without having to do a more convoluted more as his finisher.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LAmw0s9AHU
8. Kane
Beginning in the early 2000s, Kane started using a Powerbomb as an additional finisher. In one famous match against Kaientai, Undertaker tried to teach Kane how to use the Last Ride Powerbomb, Kane botched it at first (intentionally), and then hit a different version of the Powerbomb to end that match. In the years that followed, Kane would sometimes hit a Falling Powerbomb on smaller opponents, which was like a normal Powerbomb except Kane would fall forward as he hit the move on his opponent.
For some reason, the visual of Kane falling forward as opposed to just standing there after he throws his opponent just works for him. It looks like he has more control over the move and that as he falls he’s putting all of his weight and power behind the impact, making it look even stronger.
Although most people think Kane was the best when he was Chokeslamming people, he didn’t throw a bad Powerbomb, either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sA89lT6HrM
7. Chris Benoit
In his prime, Benoit was an immensely versatile wrestler. He could hit diving moves, submission holds, and various suplexes with laser precision. Yet most people never saw him as a power-based wrestler, despite him hitting one of the most vicious Powerbombs ever seen.
This move, called the Wild Bomb, was basically a snap Powerbomb, i.e. a Powerbomb that was hit at high speed. What the move lacked in height it made up for in speed. In the example seen below, Benoit doesn’t get his victim (Eddie Guerrero, in this case) very high but drops him down very fast instead. That said, the impact from this move is so strong that you can see Eddie’s head bounce off the mat.
That isn’t even from any kind of over-selling or extra effort from Guerrero; Benoit hit this move with such heavy impact that it could’ve given Eddie whiplash. It’s a perfect example of a smaller wrestler doing a big man’s move as well as or better than said big man.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tTl2A45q7M
6. Big Van Vader
Vader is widely considered one of the best big men in wrestling history. He moved with incredible agility in (and above) the ring and had the strength to match this. While his Vadersault was easily his most jaw-dropping move, his Powerbomb was his most vicious.
Like many super-heavyweights, Vader would list his opponents as high as possible before dropping them down with incredible force. Interestingly, this move became incredibly popular in Japan, and it helped cement Vader’s popularity in that country.
By the time he returned to WCW in 1995, Vader’s Powerbomb was widely regarded as a truly vicious move that no one ever kicked out of. So when Vader crossed paths with a pre-NWO Hulk Hogan…well, you can imagine what happened. Hogan kicking out of Vader’s Powerbomb hurt Vader’s credibility and damaged the aura of one of the most protected finishers in the industry at the time, which was a similar circumstance to what Brian Kendrick and Kota Ibushi did at the Cruiserweight Classic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhIFGC482nU
5. Toshiaki Kawada
Toshiaki Kawada, one of AJPW’s famed Four Pillars of Heaven, used a Folding Powerbomb as his primary finisher. Kawada would hit the Powerbomb, and then he’d cover his opponent. But he wouldn’t do a simple jackknife cover; instead, Kawada would hold his opponent's shoulders with his hands and then put all of his weight on top of them.
As he was pinning them, it looked like he was lying directly on top of his opponent. This was an example of smart wrestling, as his opponent had to do double the work to kick out. They had to lift their own shoulder up from the mat while also trying to push off a 231-pound man pushing down on them with all their might.
A handful of wrestlers have used this move since then, most notably Samoa Joe, who’d hit the move just like Kawada only without lying on top of his opponent.
4. Jushin 'Thunder' Liger
Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger is widely considered to be one of the most innovative, influential, and adaptable wrestlers ever. His matches were crucial to the growth of cruiserweight wrestling around the world, and his work was emulated by many wrestlers around the world.
A key aspect of Liger’s matches was that he was multi-dimensional. This meant that he was good in all areas of wrestling instead of just one style. Liger’s Powerbomb finisher is an example of that. This version, aptly called the Ligerbomb, was Liger’s finisher for many years and is his main finisher today.
His Ligerbomb is special because of how it ends. Instead of pinning his opponent after they’ve been dropped, Liger kicks his legs out the moment his opponent is airborne. As soon as they land, Liger has his feet on top of their shoulders in a perfect pinning position.
Doing basically two moves simultaneously is incredibly difficult, even for the most skilled pro wrestler. This goes to show just how much skill Liger really has as a performer, and is a testament to why so many others have paid tribute to him over the years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRv5AwFTIg4
3. The Undertaker
In 2000, the Undertaker started using a new move to end his matches: The Last Ride. This was a Powerbomb on steroids, a move that’s far more vicious than the original. Taking a regular Powerbomb is painful enough, as you’re thrown from great heights hard onto your back.
But the Last Ride – which is an elevated Powerbomb – sees the user lift their opponent even higher than normal before dropping them downwards. So if the Undertaker hit someone with this move, they’d fall from well over seven feet in the air with considerable force.
It should also be noted that this move requires an exceptional amount of strength to lift someone into it, so props to the Undertaker for doing that for years without botching the manoeuvre in any way.
Even the smallest elevation took an incredible amount of arm and especially back strength, so for ‘Taker to hit this move on wrestlers as big as Batista showed just how strong he really was.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frsTG9XuI2Q
2. Kota Ibushi
Despite spending most of his career as a cruiserweight jumping off of things, Kota Ibushi has recently made the transition to the heavyweight division. To prove this point, he started using more power-based and lifting moves, which includes the Golden Star Bomb, a sitout version of the Last Ride.
As we have seen before, the Last Ride itself is a vicious, horrifying move. If you ever listen to the move being hit, the impact is one of the loudest you’ll ever hear in a wrestling ring. But Ibushi takes things one step further by sitting down as his opponent is driven into the mat.
This action gives him the illusion of greater control and more impact, which in turn makes it look like the move is more effective than a standard Last Ride. Height doesn’t even matter in this case because Ibushi has perfect technique to execute this move flawlessly and without worrying if his opponent is too heavy to lift all the way up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rOQ44w1VAc
1. Batista
There is a reason why so many people enjoyed Batista’s run in WWE: he was an enormous ass-kicking machine with an awesome finisher. Batista had the perfect finisher in the Batista Bomb, especially since most of his opponents were either smaller than him or light enough for him to lift onto his shoulders.
In most cases, Batista didn’t need much to lift them onto his shoulders and them drive them back-first into the mat with incredible force. One need only watch the video below and listen to the fans reacting to this amazing Powerbomb. Even when he was a heel, fans would react to his Batista Bomb because it was such a powerful and impressive move.
Finally, Batista could hit this move almost anywhere in almost any situation and it would still get the job done. It was the perfect move for him and was a central element in Batista enjoying the success he had in WWE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYlV-UoAFAw
