Each sport has its own risky moves and typical injuries. A look at the latest soccer news will show you how tackles often lead to serious injuries, even broken bones. In ice hockey, pretty much the whole sport is dangerous, able to cause everything from broken noses to missing teeth. But professional wrestling is the sport that looks by far the most dangerous – even if it’s safer than it seems. For the athletes, that is, not the ones recklessly trying to emulate them without proper training.
There are, in turn, moves that are very dangerous even for the wrestlers who extensively train to take them. They are certainly spectacular, but at the same time, they put the health of the athletes at a great risk. These might be the most dangerous ones of them all that you’ll most likely never encounter at a WWE event.
Canadian Destroyer
The “Canadian Destroyer” is a front-flip piledriver-like move made popular by Canadian professional wrestler Petey Williams, who is also nicknamed after the move. It is pretty much what it sounds like: a front flip with the opponent that ends in a piledriver.
It requires an incredible amount of athleticism, not to mention a lot of training to be executed without one of the wrestlers landing in a strange position… and maybe breaking a neck.
Diving Headbutt
When it comes to wrestling moves with a highly descriptive name, the Diving Headbutt is one of the best.
Unfortunately, it is also a move with possibly devastating long-term effects. The move, attributed to wrestling legend Harley Race, sees the wrestler dive from the top roap with spread arms, like a devastating vulture, headbutting the opponent’s body that’s lying on the ring’s floor.
Unfortunately, the move has the potential to cause long-term spine problems, and possibly send the wrestler using it to a wheelchair.
Burning Hammer
Invented by Kotetsu Yamamoto in the 1970s and made popular by Kenta Kobashi in the late 1990s (he even won an award for it), the Burning Hammer is an inverted Death Valley driver executed from the Argentine backbreaker rack position. The wrestler executing it falls in a sideways direction, driving the opponent’s head to the mat. It is an incredibly risky move that requires absolute precision, considering that the opponent’s body can’t roll with the momentum to absorb the impact.
Kobashi himself only executed the move half a dozen times in his career.
Are these moves banned?
Many of the most dangerous moves in wrestling have never even made it to the WWE because of the risk involved. Tyler Reks briefly used a heavily modified Burning Hammer – much safer than the original that would never be allowed in the WWE. The Canadian Destroyer is basically a modified piledriver – and the latter is already on the ban list. And the Diving Headbutt was only allowed to be used by a handful of wrestlers.
