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Preface
Looking back as far as I can remember, I have always wanted
to author a book. It was a kind of a childhood dream of mine
which later in life lost a lot of its appeal and luster, giving
precedence to much more practical and apparently more
important things, like making a decent living. Such dreams
however don't die readily, they just get shoved aside for a
while, but they always linger on, waiting for the right time to
resurface and to reassert themselves in the minds of each and
every one of us. That time has apparently come for me, so here
I am, producing this e-book for the enjoyment of those who
appreciate and take pleasure in viewing and learning about
ladies professional wrestling.

Women's professional wrestling has been a passion of mine

almost as deep-rooted as the above said desire to one day write
a book. Looking back I can't remember the time when I did not
get excited at the sight of the various in-ring antics that the
women of professional wrestling brought to the screen during
the late 80s and early 90s, when the outfits were tight and shiny
and the gimmicks as far-fetched as humanly possible. The show
that really made me realize how much I liked the campiness of
ladies wrestling was GLOW. I still vividly remember the first time I saw an episode of GLOW
and I remember thinking “this is like someone dug into my most intimate dreams and turned
them all into reality”. I couldn't believe how superbly campy and delightful the show was with its
comedy skits, colorful characters, superbly outrageous outfits and goofy wrestling moves. It
covered everything I had a natural attraction for: campiness, mock-violence, athletics, superb
hosiery and beautiful leotards. Of course, in hind-sight, the entertainment value of the production
was ridiculously lacking, but back then I was quite immune to any lofty expectations, only later
brought about by the abundance of various visually and intellectually stimulating forms of digital
entertainment.

The interesting thing is, I have never had a particular passion towards women's combat sports
involving real violence. Real violence - especially the kind involving women - has always made
me cringe, eliciting a sort of repulsion quite closely related to actually feeling sick. The mock
violence of professional wrestling however was something I could buy into. Being a naturally
athletic person, I was obviously attracted to the physical aspect of it too. The campiness and the
oft- exaggerated theatrics had a sort of peculiar appeal as well. Adding femininity to the mix
created a sort of concoction which I found quite irresistible.
As a ladies’ professional wrestling super fan, it was inevitable that I get somewhat
knowledgeable and passionate about the technical aspects of the sport, namely the various
wrestling holds and moves. I myself have begun taking part in matches, even though these were
mostly limited to mat-based pin/submission style bouts. I do not claim to be a fully trained
professional wrestler, however, given my love for the sport I just cannot stay away from the
ring/mat.

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The bottom line is that when I launched my website (www.women-wrestling.org) I created a
special section dedicated to women's professional wrestling holds.
This e-book is a compilation of some of the wrestling holds presented on the site. The
description of these holds may not be entirely accurate in every instance, nor does this e-book
aim to be a professional guide for wannabe wrestlers. In fact it is safe to say that it is merely a
collection of some of the holds that I personally find appealing/interesting for one reason or
another, and I would like to caution readers not to even attempt to execute any of the
holds/moves presented below without professional guidance and supervision. Although at
the time when this e-book was written it did contain all the female wrestling holds from our
site’s wrestling holds section, in time, new holds were added there.

Ladies Professional Wrestling Holds and Moves

When it comes to a professional wrestling match, the

quality of the sports entertainment spectacle it
generates depends entirely on the quality, the degree
of difficulty and the proper execution of the various
wrestling holds, moves and interlinking elements used
by the protagonists. A sense of urgency/energy is also
induced by the speed with which the moves/holds are
done, but proper execution should always take
precedence over how fast one acts out her repertoire. I
have split the wrestling holds/moves into four basic
categories: throws (body-slams, suplexes etc.), pins (actual maneuvers through which eventual
winners hold their opponents’ shoulders/shoulder blades to the mat), submission holds/hooks
(special moves used to force wrestlers to submit the match), and a special category called “other
moves” which includes everything else not covered in the first three sections.

Ladies’ Wrestling Throws

Throws are some of the most spectacular and in the same time riskiest women’s wrestling
moves. They’re difficult to properly do and they are physically rough on the wrestlers, because
of the high impacts involved, but to some, they represent the very essence of professional
wrestling. Here are my favorites, in alphabetical order.

Airplane Spin

The airplane spin is a high amplitude and altitude women’s wrestling move, which is highly
spectacular and which is meant to hurt the victim by dazing her. The airplane spin requires a
great deal of strength and balance on the part of the attacker as she needs to take the entire
weight of her victim onto her shoulder and spin her around without losing balance.
The attacker sets the victim up for the hold by slamming and knocking her around a little to get
her dizzy and winded. She then grabs hold of one of the victim’s wrists, pulls her arm up and
over her shoulder while squatting down about halfway, and getting her other arm through
between the victim’s legs. She starts to lift, gradually slipping her victim onto her shoulder.
When the attacker stands up all the way, the victim stretches out her arms and the attacker starts

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 spinning around. After a few revolutions, she stops and
deposits the victim onto the mat either by dropping her down
face-first (which I personally find a little disappointing) or by
flipping her over and slamming her down through a high
impact driver/ body-slam.
Possible escape: because the Airplane spin is a move which
involves delicate balance, the cooperation of the victim is
required. The victim can unbalance the attacker relatively
easily, although in that case she should probably prepare herself
for a pretty rough landing.
Rating: the Airplane Spin is rather efficient at what it’s
supposed to achieve. It will daze the victim alright, the only
problem is it will daze the attacker too, and it will probably
take a lot more juice out of the attacker than the victim. Due to its spectacular nature though, it is
used quite frequently in professional female wrestling.

Armdrag

The armdrag is one of the most basic female wrestling moves.

If you go to wrestling school, this one is sure to be among the
moves they teach you before just about anything else.The
attacker grabs hold of one of the defender’s arms and pulls the
victim towards herself while twisting to the site and leaning
forth in the same time, putting all her body-weight into the
move. The victim will thus be lifted off her feet and tossed
forward eventually flipping over and landing on her back. The
armdrag toss will not take the wind out of the victim it will
most likely just frustrate her. A series of armdrags though can
have a pretty good effect of taking the fight out of the girl. On
top of that, being the high amplitude move that it is, a well
executed armdrag is also pretty spectacular.
The armdrag is a relatively easy move to botch (by not getting
enough swing and amplitude it will end up looking flat and
fake).
Possible escape: the defender can dig her feet in and prevent her attacker from sending her
flying. She can also reverse the move and execute an armdrag takedown on the initial attacker.
Rating: the armdrag is a great move to add momentum to a match. It all depends on how well
it’s executed though. It is by no means suited as a finisher as it lacks impact and it doesn’t cause
pain either (unless it goes wrong and someone gets hurt by mistake).

Atomic Drop

The atomic drop is a maneuver used almost solely in professional women’s wrestling. It is a
crotch attack, and it is extremely spectacular: audiences seem to love crotch attacks of all sorts.
The attacker is behind her victim. She hugs her and lifts her upward as high as she can, suddenly
coming down to one knee and letting the victim land on her other knee, crotch first.

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The goal of the atomic drop is to take the fight out of the victim and to set her up for a follow-up
move. An atomic drop alone will never win you a match, nor will several of them applied
consecutively. Another goal is obviously to provide the public with entertainment and to give
them their money’s worth.
Possible escape: the Atomic Drop requires the victim’s co-operation. Therefore, you’ve guessed
it, it is extremely easy to counter. When your opponent picks you up and thrusts you upward, just
keep your legs straight and there’s no way you’ll land on your crotch on her knee.
Rating: the Atomic Drop is considered a medium efficiency move. Its goal is to wear the victim
down, and to soften her up for something much more efficient.
For actual illustrations of the move take a look at: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/atomic_drop.html

Backdrop Suplex

The backdrop suplex is a truly high impact female wrestling throw, one that is a true pre-finisher
move in the sense that it sets up the victim for the pin. The backdrop suplex is a high-amplitude
throw, which is quite dangerous for the victim and which takes a lot of energy and power on the
part of the attacker to execute. The backdrop suplex can be executed from a variety of positions.
The attacker can surprise the victim with it as she attempts to climb the ring ropes to execute a
move of her own. The backdrop suplex can also be snapped on from a standing position in the
middle of the ring.
The attacker approaches the would-be victim from behind. She pushes her head under one of the
victim’s arms from behind, while hugging her waist with one arm. She grabs hold of one of her
legs with her free arm, right above the knee-bend and then she stands up hoisting the victim into
the air. At the top of the motion, the victim is up almost as high as the shoulder of the attacker, in
a sitting position. The attacker then simple stiffens her body and falls backwards, slamming the
victim onto her back. If this move doesn’t drive the air out of your opponent, nothing will.
Possible escape: some skilled lady wrestlers are able to tumble backward in the hold and then
land on their feet behind their attacker, effectively reversing the move into a reverse headlock,
which can then be worked with in a variety of ways. For the regular female wrestler though, once
up at the peak of the move, escape is quite impossible. All one can do from there on is to brace
for the impact.
Rating: the backdrop suplex is highly spectacular and its impact shakes the entire ring too. Most
of the time it is used to deliver that final blow to the victim before hooking her leg for the 1-2-3.
It is indeed a very efficient and powerful women’s wrestling move.
For moving illustrations of the move take a look at: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/backdrop_suplex.html

Bodyslam

The bodyslam is one of the most basic and often used female wrestling moves in professional
wrestling. It is a move which is meant to weaken the opponent, knock the air out of her, and set
her up for a possible finisher. It is in the same time a power-move, and its high-impact nature
makes it extremely spectacular, too.

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 While even a single body slam can take a heavy toll on the victim, a
whole salvo of them will take the fight out of even the best prepared
wrestler. If the impact of hitting the mat or ring-floor doesn’t get to
you, the motion itself will make you dizzy and soon nausea will settle
in.
Both the attacker and the defender are on their feet facing each other.
The attacker reaches down between her opponent’s legs and grabs her
by the crotch. With her other arm, she reaches over her opponent’s
shoulder (the one on the same side as the attacker’s free arm) and lifts
her up by the crotch. As she hoists her up, she gradually turns her so
that at the top of the motion, the victim ends up face down bottom up,
with her weight resting on the attacker’s arm which is around her
shoulder.
The attacker then slams her to the mat releasing both grips. There are
quite a few variations to bodyslams, and only the imagination (and
physical strength) of the attackers sets a limit as to how she decides to complete the slam. Some
girls push downward on their opponent’s crotch when executing the slamming motion to add
momentum to their body before the impact with the floor.
Once in the bottoms up position in the hold, the victim is pretty much at the mercy of her
opponent.
Possible escape: once the victim’s feet leave the floor, she will find it extremely hard to do
anything contrary to her aggressor’s will. Before that happens though, she can hook a leg around
her attacker’s leg to block the lift. Once lifted, she may be able to roll her opponent over using
her weight as leverage in case her attacker is weak and struggling to get her all the way up.
Efficiency: by itself, a single bodyslam is spectacular but only a moderately efficient move.
When it comes in salvos though, it becomes a very efficient way to wear down an opponent. Be
careful, unleashing a salvo of bodyslams on your opponent will take up a lot of energy on your
part too.

Brain Buster

There’s no doubt about it, the Brain Buster is positively one of the most spectacular, high-impact
finishers in women’s wrestling. It is also one of the most dangerous moves, so it’s definitely not
recommended that beginners give it a shot. Botch this one and your opponent may never walk
again.
The attacker starts out by slipping a hand between her opponent’s legs and grabbing her crotch.
She then picks her up, the same way she would if she were planning on executing a bodyslam. At
the top of the move though (when the victim is completely upside down), instead of throwing her
opponent down to the floor, the attacker pauses for a split second, and then crashes to the mat
with the victim, driving her head-first into the canvas. Basically it’s as if she jumped into the air
with her before bringing down the house.
The moment of impact is the critical moment of the move. The victim has to pull her head
forward looking down onto her chest, so she doesn’t land on it, but rather on her shoulders. If she
fails to do that, she will end up with a broken neck.

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Possible escape: once hoisted into the air, the would-be victim has few options to escape. I have
seen Japanese female wrestlers make use of their momentum though to land on their feet behind
the attacker and thus to reverse the move.
Rating: due to its high-amplitude nature, the Brain Buster is almost always used as a finisher in
women’s professional wrestling. The victim of the move is always left spread-eagled, a sure
mark for the pin in the wake of this truly devastating move.
For actual moving illustrations of the brain buster, click through to: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/brain_buster.html

Brainbuster Suplex

The brainbuster suplex is a variation of the traditional suplex. The twist included in the
brainbuster suplex is meant to make the move look much more spectacular, and at the end of the
day: much more formidable. The high-impact nature of the brainbuster suplex makes it fit to be
used as a finisher and that is exactly how many a famous Mexican luchadora uses this move
indeed.
The brainbuster suplex starts out the same way a regular suplex does. The attacker goes through
the moves, securing her opponent’s head under her arm and grabbing her bathing suit with her
other hand, or slipping it under her stomach to be able to better control the victim’s body during
the lift phase of the move. Once the suplex-lift reaches its peak though, the attacker stops for a
fraction of a second (or longer if she’s strong enough to), holding her opponent upside down, and
then instead of falling backward, slamming the victim onto her back, she drives her head-first
into the mat, so that the victim will land on her shoulders rather than on her back (the victim is
required to bend her neck forward, in order to avoid a potentially catastrophic injury). The way
the victim lands and often bounces off the ring floor leaves no doubt that she can be considered a
sure mark for the pin.

Possible escape: the brainbuster suplex can be countered just like the regular suplex: by hooking
one’s leg around the attacker’s leg before the lift, or by completely reversing it. Once up top
though, there’s nothing left for the victim to do but to accept her obviously none-too-enviable
fate.

Rating: due to its highly spectacular, high impact nature, as well as on account of its difficulty,
the brainbuster suplex is indeed a fully legitimate finishing move. Neither the audience nor the
attacking wrestler will expect anyone to kick out of a pin administered immediately in the wake
of a brainbuster suplex.
For moving illustrations take a look at: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/brainbuster-suplex.html

Bulldog

The Bulldog is what women wrestling specialists call a stunner. It is a high impact move that
stuns the victim setting her up for a pin. The bulldog is often used as a finisher in women’s
wrestling.

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 The attacker secures a side headlock on her victim. She works
the headlock for a while then backs the victim into a corner
(she has to do that in order to make sure she has room to
execute the move). Then she takes a running step forward and
leaps into the air still having the headlock on. At the peak of the
motion, she releases the victim’s neck but she makes sure she
has her weight behind her (the attacker sits down) when she
drives the victim head-first into the mat. The impact should be
enough to knock the victim cold for a few seconds, or even if it
doesn’t knock her out, it well certainly stun her.
Possible escape: Once the bulldog is locked in, you can’t really
escape or reverse it. You’d do better to make sure your
opponent can’t secure the headlock or that she can’t back you up into the corner.
Rating: the Bulldog is an extremely efficient hold. Because of the impact it delivers it is
frequently sold as a finisher.

Buttdrop

The buttdrop is a high-impact, highly spectacular female wrestling move which punishes the
posterior of the victim. Besides being highly spectacular, the move is somewhat funny as well, as
at the end of it the victim lands flat on her bum, often from considerable heights. There is
nothing funny about the potential for spinal injury that it carries though. I personally find it
puzzling to this day how some ladies can pull off positively hair-raising buttdrops without
injuring themselves.
There are several ways the buttdrop can be set up. One variant sees the attacker get behind her
victim as they’re both in an upright standing position. The attacker reaches down and slips a
hand between her opponent’s legs, lifting her up by the crotch. At the peak of the motion, instead
of falling backward, she pushes forth on her opponent a little, letting her drop onto her bum.

Another – more spectacular – version of the buttdrop has the attacker bending her opponent
forward (as if setting up a pile-driver), putting both arms around her waist then suddenly lifting
her upward while falling backward. The victim will flip over completely and eventually she’ll
land flat on her bum.
Possible escape: like so many other women’s professional wrestling moves, the buttdrop
requires cooperation from the victim. She can’t really be slammed onto her bum unless she
voluntarily holds both her legs straight out. Thus, the escape is simple: don’t hold your legs out
and you won’t be buttdropped.
Rating: though extremely spectacular, the butt-drop isn’t exactly an efficient move, in the sense
that it doesn’t weaken any of the limbs of the victim in order to set her up for a submission hold,
nor does it leave her sufficiently stunned to facilitate a pin. It is a medium efficiency move,
which the audience seems to enjoy greatly, therefore it is sometimes included in the moves
repertoire of matches to give some additional salt and pepper to the action.
For moving illustrations of this move, check out: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/buttdrop.html

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Chokeslam

The Chokeslam is one of women’s wrestling’s true power moves. It is not a

frequently used move, probably on account of the fact that few of the
women involved in wrestling possess the physical attributes to pull it off
well. The chokeslam requires loads of upper-body strength on the part of the
attacker, especially in the arms and shoulders.

The move itself is a rather simple one. It stars out with the attacker grabbing
hold of the victim’s throat with one hand then with the other. The attacker
then quite literally lifts the victim up by the throat. This lift is a rather tricky
one. The attacker can’t exactly lift the victim by the throat only, it would be
way too dangerous. The victim cooperates by grabbing onto the lower arms
of her attacker and supporting most of her weight with her arms. Once the
top of the lift is reached, the attacker can opt to hold on a bit a take a few
steps displaying the victim like a trophy, or she can throw her to the ring-floor onto her back
immediately, effectively knocking all the wind out of her. After the “slam” part of the
chokeslam, the victim is usually a sure mark for the pin.

Possible escape: don’t let the attacker set up the hold. Once you’re lifted up, you WILL be
slammed down whether you want it or not, if for no other reason then for the fact that the
attacker will run out of steam and won’t be able to hold you up any longer.

Rating: in female wrestling, the chokeslam is pretty much always used as finisher, and given its
spectacular nature it does indeed make an awesome bout-ending maneuver. With that in mind,
the rating on this one will have to be “extremely efficient”.

Clothesline

The clothesline is one of the most frequently used professional women’s

wrestling moves. It is more of a “wear-down” move than one meant to
secure a significant edge. If you’re a women’s wrestling fan you
probably know that this move is used in every single match, at least a
few times. Even though it is a very basic move, the clothesline and the
way it’s sold by the victim is extremely important in the overall feel a
match conveys. There’s nothing worse than sloppy clotheslines
executed in a boring and uninteresting manner. This is my personal
opinion and as such, it is highly subjective, but I believe Crystal
Carmichael sold the best clotheslines in women’s wrestling. When she got hit it really looked
like she was swept off her feet. She didn’t just land on her back, she threw her legs up and apart
and when she landed her whole lower body folded up in a jackknife position.

A clothesline starts with the attacker whipping her victim into the ring ropes. The victim bounces
back from the ropes, as the attacker runs towards her and holds out her arm hitting the victim
around the neck/upper chest area (above the breasts). The force of the impact takes the victim
down, onto her back, as if she ran into a clothesline - hence the name of the move. Sometimes

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the attacker takes her victim off her feet via a breast edge chop. When well executed, despite its
simplicity and basic nature, the clothesline is an extremely spectacular move, which contributes
leaps and bounds to the overall success of a bout.

Possible escape: duck under your opponent’s arm when she’s about to unleash the clothesline on
you.
Rating: very efficient at knocking the wind out of the victim, though a clothesline is almost
never used as a finisher. A well executed clothesline is extremely spectacular.

Crucifix

The crucifix is a move designed to immobilize the victim and

possibly to wear her out. It is not a submission hold per se. It is
also meant to expose and humiliate the victim. When a crucifix
is locked on, the attacker has a variety of options to continue
the fight from there, denying all such options to her victim. She
may choose to apply a vicious headlock submission hold,
punch some belly etc.
There are various ways of slipping on a crucifix. It is basically
like a reversed crossbody pin. The victim is on her back with
the attacker under her shoulders (so that the victim’s head rests somewhere on her opponent’s
mid-section). The attacker has one of her victim’s arms locked with her legs and the other with
her arms. Since it’s often possible to restrain one arm with one hand only, the attacker will often
have her other arm free to cause a variety of damage with it.
Possible escape: a well-locked on crucifix is difficult to escape. Wiggling your body left and
right vigorously may loosen your attacker’s grip though.
Rating: In fighting where strikes and punches are allowed, the crucifix is a killer. The attacker
can hit her opponent’s head in a variety of ways there. In wrestling, where such strikes are
fortunately not allowed, the hold becomes more of a show-boating demonstration of dominance.

DDT

The DDT is a high-impact female wrestling move, perfectly suited to be used as a finisher. The
move seems to have been invented by accident, by professional wrestler Jake “The Snake”
Roberts, during the golden age of wrestling: the 80s. The DDT – like many of the ladies
wrestling holds discussed on this site – is a high impact move which is also rather risky, because
it involves the attacker putting her opponent in a front facelock and then suddenly falling
backward, forcing the victim to fall forward, onto her head basically. There are a high number of
different DDT variants, some of which we’ll try to cover on this site. DDT variants can be
classified into three main categories: the front facelock variants, the reverse facelock variants and
the vertical suplex DDT.
There’s quite a bit of controversy surrounding the name of this women’s wrestling hold.
According to some experts, DDT stands for Drop Dead Twice, others say it’s the acronym for

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Demonic Death Trap and Death Drop Technique. The most straightforward explanation is
though that that abbreviation comes from the famous pesticide which can be just as harmful to
humans as the effects of a well-executed DDT.
DDT variants:
Double Underhook DDT
Flip DDT
Implant DDT
Fisherman DDT
…………
Possible escape: once the female wrestler, who is in control of the action, applies the front or
reverse facelock with the intention of executing a DDT, things are pretty much decided. The
victim can only hope she can free her head from the facelock before the boom is lowered on her.

Rating: the DDT looks more than intense enough to be used as a finisher. Some lady wrestlers
DDT their opponents with so much force, they flip over onto their backs, becoming a sure mark
for the pin. Other ladies choose to DDT their opponents onto a championship belt for added
effect (this move has multiple connotations, both physical and mental – the victim being
destroyed by the very object she’s fighting for). The bottom line is: a properly executed DDT –
regardless of which variant it is - always leaves its victim out cold, ready to be put onto her back
for the 1-2-3. Many a famous female wrestler used the DDT as her finisher and even today, one
can see the move applied in various federations all over the women’s wrestling world.
For illustrations of the move check out: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/ddt.html

Dropkick

The dropkick is one of the most basic weapons in a

professional lady wrestler’s arsenal. It is one of the most
efficient ways of taking an opponent off her feet, and it is rather
spectacular as well. Taking a few steps to build momentum, the
attacker leaps into the air and kicks her opponent with both legs
at the same time, putting her entire body-weight behind the
kick. Dropkicks will almost always send the victim to the mat
or into the ropes, unless the weight difference between the
attacker and the defender is too big in favor of the latter.

When a big wrestler unleashes a well executed dropkick on a small opponent, it can be quite a
devastating move. I’ve seen Reggie Bennett almost dropkicks girls out of their bathing suits, and
I think I’ve even seen a KO scored via a dropkick once.

The important thing is that both your feet connect when you execute the move. Watch your
landing.
Possible escape: if your opponent “telegraphs” you the move, you can simply sidestep it letting
her fall to the floor and hurt herself.
Efficiency: depending on the weight put behind it and the technique, the dropkick can indeed be
a very efficient wrestling move.

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Electric Chair

The electric chair has got to be one of the scariest women’s

wrestling moves. A high amplitude throw I personally have
never had the “pleasure” of being on the receiving end of, the
Electric Chair is a devastating yet simple throw, which is used
almost exclusively as a finisher. It does require cooperation
from the victim, but the result is indeed visually impressive.
The attacker approaches her victim from behind, the then
crouches and sticks her head between her legs. She then stands
up, with the victim sitting on her shoulders. At this stage, the
victim will usually flail and plead, but the attacker is merciless:
she grabs hold of the victim’s feet and pulls them upward,
unseating the victim and causing her to fall backwards – all this
while standing straight up. The victim usually hits the ring floor
back first and, having fallen from such a height, she
immediately becomes a sure mark for the pin.

The electric chair used to be Sue Sexton’s finisher in the LPWA. Alison Royal fell victim to this
finisher more than once I think, and not even Heidi Lee Morgan, a much hyped face wrestler was
able to avoid having her leg curled to her chest for the 1-2-3, following one of Sue’s electric
chairs.
Possible escape: Provided she has enough fight left in her, the victim can reverse the electric
chair into a victory roll.
Rating: The electric chair is one of those ring shaking, pulverizing moves that just have to be
used as a finisher. It just wouldn’t seem plausible that a girl walk away from a hold like that
without being pinned then nursed back to consciousness first.

Face Buster

The face buster is a women's professional wrestling move which requires near-perfect
cooperation and coordination between the victim and the attacker. It is also a high amplitude and
relatively spectacular move which is often indeed used as a finisher even by wrestlers as
experienced and as skilled as Jazz (who uses the face buster as her signature finisher, calling it
the Jazz-stinger).
The move starts out with the attacking wrestler getting her opponent to bend over while facing
her. She can set her up for the hold with a swift kick to the belly. As the would-be victim bends
over, the attacker grabs hold of the hair on the back of her head with both hands. They then both
to jump into the air, and as they come down, attacker spreads her legs, effectively sitting down
and driving her victim's face into the canvas.
During the motion, the victim falls forward, giving the impression that she does indeed land on
her face. If coordination between the two wrestlers involved is faulty, the attacker may well end
up with a fistful of her opponent's hair in her hands.
Possible escape: within kayfabe, the face buster is seldom if ever escaped or reversed. That
would mean that the hold is quite inescapable, although because of coordination involved in the

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move, between attacker and victim, talking about a possible escape doesn't make a whole lot of
sense.
Rating: the face buster is a high impact move which is well suited to be used as a finisher. As
such, we must say that it's a highly efficient female wrestling move indeed.
For actual illustrations of the move check out http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/face_buster.html

Fall-away Slam

The fallaway slam is one of the most spectacular and dominant female wrestling throws. Its high
amplitude and spectacular nature make it a great wear-down move, possibly even a decent
finisher. The impact delivered to the victim’s body by the fallaway slam is quite possibly bigger
than the one produced by a regular body-slam, so the efficiency of the fallaway slam should
theoretically be better too.
The fallaway slam starts out the same way a regular body-slam does. The attacker slips a hand
between her victim’s legs and picks her up by the crotch, turning her sideways so her body
becomes approximately perpendicular to the victim’s body. Once the lift is secured, the attacker
can elect to take a few paces with her victim in her arms to showcase her dominance. She then
suddenly jerks her victim upward and back as she bridges backward in the same time, throwing
the victim over her head. The victim hits the floor sideways and rolls over after the initial impact.

Why is the fall away slam so impressive? It requires quite a bit of physical strength from the
attacker to maneuver her victim into position, and then to throw her backward. The way the
victim hits the floor is one that deals tons of spectacular “kayfabe damage” too.
Possible escape: the would-be victim can attempt to unbalance her attacker before she tosses
her, simply by squirming around in her grip. Once the throwing motion gets underway though
there’s not much more one can do but to brace for the impact.
Rating: due to its high amplitude, spectacular nature, the fall away slam is supposed to take a lot
of fight out of the victim, so in that respect it is indeed an extremely efficient throw. The size of
the impact involved and the amount of strength and energy required on the part of the attacker
make it a decent finisher too.
For moving illustrations of the move take a look at: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/fallaway_slam.html

Fisherman’s Suplex

The Fisherman’s suplex is one of the sexiest, most spectacular and highly efficient women’s
wrestling moves. It is a variation of the common suplex, with a few extra twists thrown in, which
make this throw a truly outstanding wrestling maneuver.
The attacker locks the victim’s head under one of her arms. Puts the victim’s free arm over her
head and reaches out with her other hand. Instead of slipping her fingers under her opponent’s
bathing suit though (at the leg-hole) to use that for leverage, she hooks one of her opponent’s
legs, by bending it at the knee and pulling it up. She will use that hooked leg for leverage instead
of the thin nylon-lycra material of the bathing suit/leotard. Once in position, she lifts her
opponent upward while falling back, and executing the suplex. The cool thing about the
fisherman’s suplex is that upon landing, the victim will fall right into a leghook pin, which –

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 given the impact of the move – has good chances to finish her
off on the spot. All the attacker needs to do is to keep the
leghook locked and to keep bridging.
Possible escape: don’t let your opponent set you up for the
hold and hook your leg. Once you’re flying, there’s nothing
you can do to avoid the impact and the humiliating pin that
follows.
Rating: The Fisherman’s suplex is an extremely spectacular
move and it’s highly efficient too. It can be used as a finisher
without any problems.

Glam Slam

The Glam Slam is a spectacular, high-impact move used by WWE’s Beth Phoenix as one of her
signature finishers. We’re not sure who invented the move or if it’s known under a different
name as well, so we’re open to suggestions in this respect in our women’s wrestling forum
section.
The Glam Slam is a true power-move, obviously aimed at highlighting Beth Phoenix’s physical
domination over her opponents. The move can start out from a standing position, or from one in
which the would-be victim is laying face-first on the mat. From the standing position, the
attacker hooks both her victim’s arms behind her back. She then suddenly lifts her upward by the
hooked arms, fully extending her own arms at the peak of the move. The victim pulls her legs up
(that’s some pretty obvious cooperation on her part) and positions her lower legs/feet on both
sides of her attacker’s waist. The attacker then suddenly lets the victim fall, while sitting down.
The victim hits the mat face-first. After landing, she’ll be pretty much spread eagled, with the
attacker sitting between her legs. The attacker can then lock her legs under her arms and reach
forward to secure a camel-clutch submission combo, or she can grab her by the hips and roll her
over as she gets up and sits back down on her opponent who is now face-up, shoulder-down on
the mat. The attacker then holds on to one of her victim’s legs to secure the pin. She can slide her
bottom backward too to make it a facesit/leghook combo pin.
The Glam Slam is executed the exact same way from the victim’s lying-down position too,
though that variant takes more cooperation from the victim and more strength on the part of the
attacker.
Possible escape: the Glam Slam can be escaped by simply not cooperating. If you don’t pull
your legs up and place them around the attacker’s waist, the Glam Slam cannot be executed.
Rating: the Glam Slam is a true finisher. It is a high impact move that makes it believable that
the victim is stunned enough in its wake to represent a sure mark for the pin.
For illustrations of the move please check out http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/glam_slam.html

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Gorilla Press

The gorilla press is a true power move and as such, it is rather

scarcely applied in ladies’ professional wrestling. It takes
extreme power on the part of the attacker to apply the gorilla
press, as she needs to pick her victim up and hold her above her
head arms extended.
Only female wrestlers like Asya and Chyna attempted the hold.
Possibly, old-school wrestlers like Reggie Bennett and Denise
Storm could’ve gorilla pressed a lightweight like Cheryl Rusa
too, although I’m not quite certain they ever attempted to.

When setting up the gorilla press, the attacker reaches down

and grabs her opponent by the crotch, lifting her up. At the
peak of the motion, the victim is up, her body parallel to the
floor, held up by the crotch and the upper chest (slightly below
the neck). It is quite intimidating for the victim to find herself helpless that far off the floor.

The continuation of the gorilla press usually sees the victim slammed to the mat/floor.
Possible escape: because the hold requires quite a bit of cooperation from the victim (the
attacker would otherwise never be able to lift her up, regardless of how strong she was), talking
about possible ways out of it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Usually, when lifted up in a
gorilla press, the victim doesn’t retaliate in any way.
Rating: given the amount of power and energy it takes on the part of the attacker, the gorilla
press is considered a finisher. When slammed onto the mat from a gorilla press, the victim is
usually out cold, and the attacker will often pin her by merely placing a boot on her chest as a
sign of utter dominance.

Hair Mare

Even though it’s based on hair-pulling and as such, it’s illegal,

the hair mare is a frequently used throw in women’s
professional wrestling. It is an extremely spectacular move, but
it does require cooperation from the victim, otherwise the
attacker may end up with a handful of hair in her hands and an
extremely pissed-off victim.
The hair mare is quite similar to the snap mare. The only
difference is that instead of grabbing hold of the victims
neck/head, the attacker grabs hold of her hair. The attacker then
turns with her back towards the victim and kneels down onto
one knee, pulling the victim’s head down and forward by the hair. The victim will end up flipped
over unto her back.
Possible escape: when someone grabs you by the hair, you’d do better to cooperate, otherwise
you will end up with your hair torn out. Just play along with the hair mare and flip over. Trust
me, you do not want to counter this move in any way. You should also grab your attacker’s wrist

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and hold on to it through the move, just to make certain the brunt of any possible yank is not
taken by your hair.
Rating: as a throw, the hair mare is fairly spectacular. Its efficiency is not all that great though. It
is only supposed to soften up the victim a little and to break her fighting spirit.

Headbutt to the Groin

The Headbutt to the groin is one of the most efficient ways to knock the fight out of a girl. If
after a well executed head butt to your groin you’re still feeling like you want to continue, you’re
a tough little scrapper for sure. The headbutt to the groin is used to prepare an opponent for a
submission hold or a pinning maneuver. In the LPWA, Black Venus (member of the tag team
Bad Black and Beautiful) used this move on several opponents (I know of one instance when she
used it on Cheryl Rusa and of one when she head-butted Baby Face Nellie to kingdom come).
The victim is on her back on the ring floor. The attacker gets hold of both her legs at the ankles
and holds them up and apart thus exposing the crotch and groin area. She then dives forward,
putting a considerable amount of her bodyweight into the move as her forehead hits her
opponent’s groin. A muscular neck and a hard skull are required to make the move an optimal
one indeed.
The headbutt to the groin is not a frequent move in women’s professional wrestling. When the
attacker holds her legs apart – knowing what’s coming – the victim usually waves at her foe and
begs her not do go through with the maneuver, which the crowds seem to love, as she always
gets what’s coming regardless of her pleas.
Possible escape: The Headbutt to the groin is a professional wrestling move and it does require
some cooperation from the victim, therefore it’s not that tough to wiggle out of it if the victim
really intends to. If you do not want to be head-butted in the groin, make it tough for your
opponent to pry your legs apart.
Rating: Moderately efficient. More of a wear-down move employed for its spectacular nature
than a potential match-decider.

Hiptoss

The hiptoss is one of the most basic female wrestling moves. If you
decide to go to wrestling practice, chances are the hiptoss will be one of
the first moves you’ll be taught. It is one of the simplest and most
straightforward ways to take your opponent down to the mat while
gaining an advantage over her.
The attacker secures a standing headlock on her opponent then pulls her
forward while thrusting her hip across in front of her opponent’s body.
Being forced forward and not being able to support herself with her legs
the victim will fall over onto her side or preferably her back, with the
attacker falling on top of her with the headlock still locked.
As a women’s wrestling hold, the hiptoss qualifies as a throw. It is
widely used in grappling, professional wrestling as well as freestyle wrestling.
Possible escape: the victim can use her legs to scissor her opponent’s head (especially if the
latter fails to hold her down) and essentially reverse the hold, turning it into a neck-scissors.

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Rating: while it is definitely not a hold fit to be used as a finisher, the hiptoss is in fact very
efficient at what it is supposed to achieve: a takedown and a quick position of control for the
attacker.

Irish Whip

The Irish whip represents one of the most fundamental

women’s pro wrestling moves. If you’ve ever seen a
professional wrestling match in your life, the Irish whip was
probably one of the first moves you’ve seen.
The attacker grabs hold of one of the victim’s arm and pulls on
it building up momentum and sending her running into the ring
ropes. The victim then bounces back from the ropes and rushes
back towards the attacker who can then perform a throw or
move on her (like a clothesline, a dropkick or a powerslam).
The fact that you are the attacker (the initiator of the Irish whip)
doesn’t mean that your opponent won’t turn the tables on you
and clothesline, powerslam or do some other variety of evil on
you on her way back.
Possible escape: the Irish whip can be reversed relatively easily. When your opponent throws
you towards the ropes, just hold on to her arm, dig in with your feet and put your body-weight to
work stopping and throwing her into the ropes instead.
Rating: for what it’s supposed to achieve, I suppose the Irish whip is fairly effective. It is neither
a submission hold nor a high impact toss though, it’s merely a move meant to set one up for
another maneuver, so analyzing its efficiency doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Keister Bounce

The Keister Bounce is one of the most efficient ways to take

some fight out of a girl when grappling on the mat. The
attacker sits behind the defender with her legs wrapped around
her waist. She secures a full nelson on her victim (in order to
gain control of her arms) and pulls her back unto herself. At the
peak of the motion she extends her lower body (with her legs
still around the waist of her victim) and punches her upward
bringing her down hard as the victim hits the ring floor with her
unprotected bottom. The move shakes the spinal cord and it
certainly softens up the victim’s bottom.
A variation of the Keister Bounce has the attacker grapevining her victim’s legs and pulling them
apart before slamming her bottom into the ring floor. Such a move will definitely exert some
strain on the victim’s hamstrings, weakening her legs and making her vulnerable to leg
submission holds.
Possible escape: pull your legs underneath yourself when you’re coming down at the end of the
move. If your legs are spread and under control though, you’ll definitely know you were in the
ring the next day when you sit down anywhere. Try to untangle your legs and roll to the side if
possible.

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Rating: the Keester Bounce is a high impact move. If properly executed, it can lead to a lot of
pain and if repeated enough times, it can completely kill off the fighting spirit of the girl on the
receiving end.

Kneeling Piledriver

The kneeling piledriver is a variation of the traditional piledriver, being a more benign looking
yet equally devastating take on the sit-out piledriver. This professional women's wrestling move
is set up the same way the traditional piledriver is: the attacker punches/kicks/knees the victim in
the bread basket, making her bend forward. She then pushes her head down, getting it between
her legs.
The attacker herself leans forward, getting both arms around the waist of the victim. She then
pulls up on the victim’s bottom, until she has her completely upside down. Female wrestlers who
deliver the kneeling piledriver like to pause with their opponents hanging upside down helplessly
for a while, before they drop down onto their knees, driving their opponents head- and often
face-first into the canvas. Needless to say, the move is a rather devastating one for the victim. It
is an efficient finisher, because after a kneeling piledriver the victim will seldom ever kick out of
a pin attempt. While not quite as spectacular as some of the other piledriver variants, the
kneeling piledriver has its fair place in the vast arsenal of ladies’ wrestling finishing moves.

Possible escape: once the move is set up, a kneeling piledriver is quite impossible to escape.
Therefore the victim should do everything in her power to prevent your opponent from setting it
up in the first place.

Rating: as said above, the kneeling piledriver may not be the most spectacular ladies’ wrestling
finisher, but it is a high impact move nonetheless and it is efficient enough to be used as a
finisher on regular basis. A downed lady wrestler kicking out of a kneeling piledriver is a rather
unrealistic thought indeed.
For illustrations of the move take a look at: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/kneeling-piledriver.html

Knock Out

The knockout is not a wrestling hold per se. It is more like the result of
a hold, a throw or a submission hold, which leaves the victim
unconscious and unable to continue the match. In this case, the
knocked out wrestlerette’s opponent is declared the winner.
Although strikes are forbidden in women’s professional wrestling,
knockouts can occur. Some throws are violent in nature and can lead to
the victim’s passing out. Various sleeper holds (never try these at home or anywhere for that
matter- they’re extremely dangerous) can also lead to KOs. Some submission holds are so
painful they can lead to the victim losing consciousness. In female wrestling, especially cruel
wrestlerettes have a technique to keep their victims from passing out in such submission holds:
they pinch their victim’s inner thighs. Because the skin is so sensitive there, such practices will
often succeed in re-invigorating a fallen wrestlerette.

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Most pins are attained as the result of a brief KO delivered to the victim.
Possible escapes: because it is not a wrestling hold, there is no specific way to escape a KO. Just
try to stay out of situations that may result in one.
Efficiency: doesn’t apply here.

Lariat

The lariat take-down is another ladies wrestling move designed to inspire awe through its sheer
brutality. The lariat is nothing more than an over-brutalized version of the clothesline. If the
victim is indeed capable of properly selling the lariat, the visual effect of the move becomes truly
impressive. As you can see in the illustrations below, the move does indeed possess a ring
shattering potential provided the lady wrestler taking it knows how to flip all the way over and
land on her face.
The only difference between the lariat and the clothesline is that instead of simply holding her
arm out, the attacker actually swings it, driving it into her victim's upper chest, often with a
clearly audible thud or splat. As with most professional wrestling moves, the essence of the lariat
is in the way the victim sells it. Instead of simply falling backward and landing on her back, the
victim will often go out of her way to sell as big an impact as she possibly can. For the best
effect, it is recommended that the person dishing out the lariat be of a much stronger and sturdier
physical stature than the wrestler taking it. This way, the two can basically create the illusion of
the victim being blown out of her wrestling boots by the impact of the blow.

Possible escape: of course, the lariat requires full cooperation from the victim, but within the
confines of kayfabe, the would-be victim can escape the hold by ducking under her attacker’s
arm.

Rating: on the spectacle scale, a properly sold the lariat is a thing of beauty indeed.
Theoretically, it can be used as a finisher, however most of the time it is simply used as a filler
move which fleshes out a bout, lending it some pretty spectacular substance indeed.
For illustrations of the move go to: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/lariat.html

Leghook Sitout Scoop-Slam Piledriver

The leghook sitout scoop-slam piledriver represents one of our first forays into higher-level
women's wrestling. An extremely complex and visually impressive move, the leghook sitout
scoop-slam piledriver is only used by highly skilled ladies in high quality matches. As such,
you're probably best off looking at Japanese ladies wrestling or Mexican Lucha Libre Femenil if
you want to spot this move, although TNA has also had its ladies use it. The move requires a lot
of strength and balance on the part of the attacker, but if she manages to pull it off well, it is
indeed a thing of beauty.
The move starts out with the attacker kicking or punching her victim's midsection to make her
bend forth. Once she does, the attacker gets her neck under her arm. With her free arm, she
hooks one of the victim's legs. Using that hooked leg as a point of leverage; she lifts her upward
until she has her completely upside down. At the peak of the hold, she pauses for a few fractions

18
of a second, she then sits back with her legs stiff and straight while dropping her victim head-
first to the floor.
Possible escape: when the attacker hooks her leg, the victim can attempt to fall backward in
order to reverse the hold into a small package. Needless to say, once the attacker gets her up,
there's not much more she can do to escape or to counter the move.
Rating: with an impressive name like leghook sitout scoop-slam piledriver, this hold had better
be a highly efficient one. That it is indeed. A high impact move which is visually impressive as
well, the leghook sitout scoop-slam piledriver is the definition of a top finishing move.
For motion illustrations of the move check out: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/leghook_sitout_scoop_slam_piledriver.html

Michinoku Driver

The Michinoku Driver has got to be one of the most

spectacular high impact women’s wrestling throws ever. It is
one of my personal favorites, despite the fact that it is rather
risky. Executing it takes skill and strength so you can’t just
climb into the ring and start hitting Michinoku drivers from the
get-go. There are several versions to this move, and I’m pretty
sure the one presented on this page is the Michinoku Driver I.
The move starts out like a bodyslam. The attacker reaches
between her opponent’s legs, grabs her crotch and hoists her
up. This is where things get interesting. Instead of
bodyslamming her the usual way, she turns her completely
upside down (makes sure she pulls her head in so she doesn’t
land on it) and sits down with her legs thrust apart. The victim
hits the floor between the attacker’s wide-spread legs,
neck/shoulder first. Sometimes the attacker keeps the victim’s
leg hooked right after the landing, so the referee can begin to
slap the 3 count right away.
Possible escape: as the attacker lifts the victim up, she can wiggle around eventually slipping out
of the crotch hold and landing on her feet behind the attacker, thus gaining an advantage. Other
than that, if the attacker reaches the peak of the lifting motion with the victim, there is no escape.
Rating: The Michinoku Driver is used as a finisher. That pretty much says it all when it comes
to rating. The bottom line is, this slam involves a landing the victim is not likely to walk (or even
crawl) away from.

Missile Dropkick

The Missile dropkick is one of female wrestling’s most

spectacular moves. It is a true finisher which almost literally
makes the ring implode in its wake. The missile dropkick is a
move only skilled and athletic lady wrestlers can deliver, who
aren’t afraid of taking a bit of a bump either. Also, it takes an
opponent who can properly take the move and sell it too.
The missile dropkick is basically taking the plain old dropkick to

19
a whole new level: the missile dropkick is delivered from the top rope, and the lady wrestler who
receives it, will most of the time be knocked out cold by it (as far as kayfabe goes of course).
Any mistakes made on either the part of the attacker or the victim can indeed result in an actual
knock out though, so this move is definitely up there in high-risk territory.

The attacker sets up her opponent by dazing her through a bodyslam/clothesline/whatever, so she
gets the chance to climb to the top rope without being disturbed. Once up there, the attacker
stands up, waiting for her opponent to move into the perfect position. When ready, she launches
herself from the top rope and both legs fully extended, delivers a massive dropkick to the
face/upper chest of the victim. The impact of the move – even when perfectly executed, without
the risk of injury, will often send the victim tumbling all over herself. The name of the missile
dropkick depicts the shape of the attacker’s body in the moment of the impact: with her legs
extended and body held straight, she looks like a missile hitting its target.

Possible escape: because the attacker needs to climb to the top rope in order to set up the move,
she will leave herself exposed to attack for a while. If not sufficiently dazed, the would-be victim
can catch the would-be attacker in a vulnerable position and turn the tables on her. If sufficiently
alert, the victim can also side-step the attacker right before the moment of impact. Rating: the
missile dropkick is an old-school finisher in the truest sense of the word. It is a high-impact
move which is always expected to leave the victim a sure mark for the pin.

Monkey Flip

The Monkey flip is a high amplitude female wrestling move meant to

get the victim onto her back in one of the most spectacular ways. A
properly executed monkey flip will not hurt a victim in any way. It’ll
just get her onto her back shaking her up a little and setting her up for
a subsequent move by the attacker.
The monkey flip begins with the attacker putting both her hands
behind the victim’s neck. The attacker then jumps upward and pulling
her legs up mid jump, puts her feet onto her opponent’s laps, as close
to the lower stomach as possible. She then uses the momentum
conferred by her own weight to pull downward on the victim’s neck
while pushing forward with her legs. She falls backward onto her
back, effectively lifting the victim off her feet and flipping her over onto her back.

A smoothly executed monkey flip is quite a move to behold, although when botched, it can turn
out rather ugly too. Make sure you do not hurt your opponent by flipping her onto her head and
make sure she does not fall on top of you at the peak of the motion.
Possible escape: while I have seen strong girls fend off a monkey flip simply by digging their
feet in and not moving (and subsequently pushing their attacker off onto her back) if the attacker
is about the same weight as the defender, the monkey flip is quite impossible to escape.
Rating: like some of the other women’s wrestling throws, the monkey flip is not a move meant
to inflict actual damage. It just sets the victim up for something that follows. At what it’s
supposed to achieve though (getting the victim onto her back in the middle of the ring), it is
extremely efficient.

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Piledriver

The Piledriver is one of the most high-risk finishing maneuvers. Never

try the piledriver at home under any circumstances as it may lead to
extremely serious injuries: leave it to the trained pros to do it. Used only
in professional ladies’ matches, the piledriver is a maneuver after which
the victim is always supposed to pass out, becoming a sure mark for the
pin.
The attacker kicks her victim in the stomach to make her lean forward,
then pushes down on her head and stuffs it between her legs. She then
reaches under her waist with both arms and gets her up until she us
completely upside down, with her head between the attacker’s legs. The
attacker then positions her victim so that she is looking out between the
legs of her victim too. She then either kneels down letting her
opponent’s head hit the mat or sits down. In some joshi puroresu
matches I’ve seen the attacker jump into the air before sitting down.

The victim is usually instantly KOd by the move, and the pin is a mere formality after that. Mind
you that it is entirely the responsibility of the attacker to execute the move in a way that avoids
injury for the victim. A well-executed pile driver will not only achieve the sought after visual
effect, it will also make certain the victim doesn’t get hurt.
Possible escape: don’t let the attacker get you up in the position for the piledriver. Once you’re
up there, you’re quite helpless about it. Don’t ever execute piledrivers in fun wrestling matches.
Rating: one of the most efficient moves: it always leads to a pin.

Powerbomb

The powerbomb is one of the most intimidating and dominating

women’s wrestling maneuvers. It is a high-amplitude, ultra-spectacular
move which has a terrible impact on the victim. It requires quite a great
deal of strength on the part of the attacker.
The attacker usually kicks or hits the victim in the belly forcing her to
lean forward. She then traps her neck between her legs and sets up the
move. After having trapped her victim’s head, the attacker leans forward
too, and hugs her opponent around the waist. She then pulls up on her
opponent’s waist, lifting her feet off the ground, while pushing down on
the head with her crotch. The move has to be delivered with full force.
The victim is flipped upward, so that she ends up sitting on her
attacker’s shoulder with the attacker’s face between her legs.

The attacker then slams her to the mat with all her might. The victim hits the mat with her back.
Possible escape: The victim needs to prevent the attacker from lifting her bottom. Once her feet
leave the mat, she is at the mercy of her attacker.
Efficiency: extremely efficient. It is often used as a finisher as the victim is not likely to kick out
of a pin following a power bomb.

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Powerslam

The Powerslam is beyond doubt one of the most dynamic and spectacular moves in ladies’
wrestling. It’s a high amplitude, high impact move than can be used as a finisher too, because it
is not unreasonable that it could knock the victim out cold.
The powerslam can be executed in a variety of ways too. One way to do it is to send the victim
into the ropes with an Irish whip. As she bounces back, the attacker picks her up by reaching
between her legs (as in the case of a normal bodyslam) then using the victim’s own momentum,
she drives her into the mat/ring floor landing on top of her and adding her own bodyweight into
the impact. Another way to execute a powerslam is through a fireman’s carry (see the pics
below). The interesting thing about the powerslam is that the attacker lands on top of the victim,
ready to pin her as soon as they land. The powerslam is supposed to work by driving the air out
of the victim and by knocking her out in the same time through the force of the impact involved.
Possible escape: once the scooping/slamming motion begins, the victim can’t escape. Before
that, the move can be reversed the same way a bodyslam attempt can (through a small package, a
dragon sleeper etc).
Rating: the powerslam is one of the most efficient high-amplitude moves in women’s wrestling.
Even if it does not result in an instant pin, it will take a lot out of the victim.
To see actual illustrations of the move go to: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/powerslam.html

Samoan Drop

The Samoan Drop is a highly spectacular, high amplitude

female wrestling move which is often used as a finisher. The
move starts out as a torture rack, but when she has her
opponent hoisted up, the attacker falls backwards instead of
keeping the victim in the hold and applying pressure.
The attacker crouches down and pulls her victim over her
shoulders. When she’s hoisted up in a torture-rack like position,
the attacker stands up with her. She pauses for a second then
falls backwards, letting the victim hit the mat/ring-floor with all
her weight. The impact of the move is supposed to knock the
victim out briefly, so she’s left an easy mark for the pin. The
move does take a certain amount of strength on the part of the
attacker, after all, she has to support the entire weight of her
victim before driving her into the mat.
Possible escape: not letting yourself be hoisted up is a good idea. Once you’re up on your
opponent’s shoulders though, try wiggling, maybe you’ll manage to unbalance her. Try rolling
down her back: you may even end up in a position where you’ll be able to roll her up. If you can
get your legs free, you may even be able to reverse the hold into a dragon sleeper.
Rating: a high impact house-rocking move, the Samoan drop is considered a very efficient
women’s wrestling hold. As such, it is often used as a finisher.

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Sidewalk Slam

The sidewalk slam is one of the high-amplitude, spectacular

women’s wrestling slams that are so impressive if properly
executed, yet can end up looking quite ridiculous if botched.
Execution is everything when it comes to the sidewalk slam.
The attacker picks up the victim by getting an arm under her
legs and another one around her body, with her armpit towards
the victim’s face. She then takes a step with the victim and lifts
her up a bit before letting her come crashing down on her
bottom onto the ring floor.

The Sidewalk slam is relatively easy to botch because it

requires quite a lot of strength from the attacker. Many of the
wresting girls lack the kind of strength that’s needed to
properly execute the move, so the victim may end up slipping
from their grip before the peak of the lifting motion. When
executing the Sidewalk slam, make sure you get a really good grip on your opponent.
Possible escape: because the victim’s legs are free, and they’re dangled in exactly the right
position at the peak of the motion, she can secure a neck-scissors on the attacker and she can flip
her over, thus not only escaping the predicament but turning the tables on her opponent too.
Rating: the sidewalk slam is a high impact move aimed at driving the air out of the victim.
Despite that, it is seldom if ever used as a finisher. It’s most often used as a wear-down hold, to
soften up the opposition before the decisive move.

Slingshot

Where this female wrestling move originates from is hard to tell, what I
can tell you though, is that I first saw it on GLOW. Later, when the girls
began using it again in WOW, I read some reviews bashing the move as
a GLOW era fossil. Then again, there were lots of reviews bashing
WOW those days for various reasons, so it could be just one of many
points brought up by experts who probably looked at the McLane
promotions through the prism of joshi puroresu or lucha libre femenil.
Apparently however, the move was used in the LPWA too, by none
other than Reggie Bennett, so it may be much more than just a GLOW
era remnant of goofy, over the top comedy wrestling.

The victim of the hold is on her back on the ring floor. The attacker picks her legs up and grabs
hold of them as if she was going for a boston crab. Instead of turning the victim unto her stomach
though, the attacker steps closer to her, so that her knees are pressed against the victim’s
buttocks. The attacker then falls backward bending her knees and pulling on the victim’s legs in
the same time. The victim is lifted off the mat and catapulted across the ring by the momentum
built up by the hold. If the attacker releases the legs at the peak of the motion, the victim will be
flung across the ring. If the attacker doesn’t release the legs, the victim will hit the mat face first.

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Possible escape: once the slingshot is initiated, theoretically there’s nothing the victim can do to
escape, practically though, the move requires her co-operation, which means it doesn’t really
make sense to talk about a possible escape at all.
Rating: a mildly efficient move, the slingshot is used to soften up the victim. It is not a decisive
move, though if properly executed it can look rather spectacular.

Snap Mare

The Snap Mare is one of the most basic female wrestling

moves. I remember I read a review about an obviously poor
ladies’ wrestling match a while ago, in which the reviewer said,
all those ladies did was to slap and to snap mare each other.
The snap mare is indeed among the first things would be
wrestlers learn at the wrestling school but it is by far not
enough to carry them through a match.
In order to execute the snap mare, the attacker grabs hold of the
neck of her victim then twists around so that she is standing in front of her, facing away from
her. She then drops to one knee and pulls her opponent’s neck forward, taking her over and
flipping her onto the mat. The victim usually lands on her bottom, with her attacker’s arms still
around her neck. The attacker then has the opportunity to take advantage of that fact and to turn
the move into a sleeper or a surfboard. She may also opt to dropkick her victim in the back.
Possible escape: if a skilled opponent gets her hands around your neck and she’s really set on
snap-maring you, you can’t really do anything about it. You’ll be on your butt before you realize
what’s happening. The only way to escape the snap mare is not to allow your opponent to get a
grip on you.
Rating: The snap mare is not a high amplitude move, nor is it one that’s supposed to knock a lot
of fight out of a victim. If the attacker snap mares the victim several times in a row though, it can
be very dizzying and it can take a lot of fight out of the girl.

Snap Suplex

The snap suplex is among the most frequently used throws in

women’s wrestling. It is among the few moves where the
attacker can use her opponent’s bathing suit against her.
Despite its frequent nature, the suplex remains among the most
spectacular, high amplitude moves.
The attacker takes her opponent’s neck under her left arm in a
front headlock. She then reaches under her opponent’s bathing
suit with her left hand (she can slip her fingers under it at the
leg-hole) and pulls upward on it while pushing down on the
neck and falling backward in the same time. The victim is
hoisted high up in the air and she comes crashing down on her
back. The goal of the snap suplex is to drive the air out of the
victim and to stun her, setting her up for a finisher (a
submission hold or a pin). The suplex has been used as a

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finisher in itself. Following its execution, the attacker can flip on top of her winded victim in
almost one fluid motion.
Several variants of the suplex exist.
Possible escape: the defender can hook her leg around her opponent’s leg while still standing,
thus preventing her from lifting her bottom up. She can also reverse it into a small package this
way. In order to deny the grip on the bathing suit, the defender can wear a slippery-shiny nylon
lycra unitard, in which case the attacker can’t grab hold of anything on her waist area.
Resourceful attackers have been known to reach between the legs in such cases though and to
secure a lifting grip on the crotch area.
Rating: the snap suplex is extremely spectacular, and it is efficient at what it’s supposed to
achieve too. Provided she fails to counter the move, the victim will almost certainly become a
sure mark for a pin.

Spike Piledriver

The spike piledriver is a positively mean and nasty twist on

an already vicious ladies wrestling maneuver. As if the
victim's own weight weren't enough to cause her to black out
when dropped on her head, the spike piledriver has one or more
partners of the attacker adding further momentum to the
unfortunate victim’s drop. While kicking out of a piledriver is
generally quite unrealistic, seeing someone kick out of the spike
piledriver is downright ridiculous.
The spike piledriver is executed the same way any other version of the piledriver is: the attacker
sets up the victim by making her bend forward, tucking her head between her legs and lifting her
bottom up, until she has her completely helpless, upside down. In the case of the spike piledriver,
this is where the attacker's companions come into play. They usually scale one of the ring posts,
after which the attacker moves into position so they can grab hold of the victim's legs. As the
attacker drops the victim on her head, her accomplice(s) jump off the top turnbuckle still
grabbing the victim's ankles, effectively driving her into the mat, as if they wanted to drive her
right through it. Needless to say, the spike piledriver is a high-risk maneuver. With so many
parties involved in the move, there are several ways things can go wrong. It is therefore
recommended that the spike piledriver - like just about every other version of the piledriver -
only be executed by highly skilled and experienced professional lady wrestlers.

Possible escape: we are going to have to be brief with this one: none.

Rating: the spike piledriver is quite possibly the most vicious finisher in women's
professional wrestling. The victim of the move should be thankful to escape it all without
permanent damage to her spinal column. Actually kicking out of a spike piledriver is
absolutely unrealistic. In Japanese ladies wrestling, the spike piledriver has actually made at
least one notorious victim: a lady who ended up with a broken neck at the end of the move.

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Spinning High Crossbody

The spinning high crossbody is another example of a more advanced ladies wrestling move. The
move is basically a modification of the high crossbody block, but it takes things much-much
further skill-wise. The result is a highly spectacular, high-impact move which just begs to be
used as a finisher.
The move starts out the same way a cross-body-block does: the attacker throws the victim into
the ropes and she bounces off the opposite side of the ring too to gather momentum. She then
jumps up and hits the victim's upper body as her own body gets into a position parallel with the
ring floor. Instead of just hitting the victim though and knocking her off her feet, then landing
across her chest, the attacker spins around in the air at the moment of the impact. Some, like
Velvet McIntyre in the illustration below, have perfected the move, so they can execute a 360
and land in the same position they would have in a simple crossbody block. Others twist just 180
degrees or only 90. In case of a 90 degree spin, the attacker lands on top of her victim facing
towards her feet, in a perfect position to execute the pin, with or without hooking the leg(s).
Possible escape: the victim can duck under her opponent's body to let her fall to the floor without
hitting her mark.
Rating: as far as we here at women-wrestling.org are concerned, the Spinning high crossbody is
one of the most impressive and spectacular ladies' wrestling moves. It seems to be done a lot in
joshi puroresu, but some US lady wrestlers have mastered it as well. The move is seldom used as
a finisher, despite the fact that it would make an excellent one.
For illustrations of the move check out: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/spinning_high_crossbody.html

Splash

Meant to wear the victim down, the Splash, also known as the
Big Splash is a high impact wrestling move used quite
frequently in professional ladies’ matches. The victim is lying
face down or face up on the mat. The attacker throws herself
upon her with all her weight, knocking the air out of her thus
setting her up for a subsequent move, throw, submission hold
or pin. The attacker can execute the splash standing next to her
victim on the ring floor or from one of the ring ropes. In order
that the move shouldn’t backfire, the attacker needs to make
sure her opponent is numb enough not to roll out of the way or
pull her knees up.
Jumping onto the victim from the top rope carries huge risks
for the attacker but huge potential rewards as well.
If the victim rolls away the attacker will hurt herself hitting the
floor, and if she pulls her knees to her stomach the attacker will get hurt even worse.

As any high impact wrestling move, the Splash is definitely not something to be used in fun
wrestling matches.

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Possible escape: rolling aside or pulling her knees up will not only get the defender out of
trouble, it’ll make the Splash backfire and give her an advantage. A Splash is probably the
easiest wrestling move to escape from.
Rating: if carried through successfully, a Splash is an extremely efficient wrestling move,
therefore it is used quite often despite the varying success-rates.

Superplex

The superplex is a brutal and ring-imploding ladies wrestling finisher, which is indeed one of the
most spectacular throws in the sport. Like many other high impact finishing maneuvers, the
superplex is executed of the top rope. It is basically a suplex from the top rope, which means that
the impact it involves is quite possibly greater than that of any other ladies wrestling throw.
The superplex can start off in several different ways. One of its more dominant versions sees the
attacker knock the air out of her victim, and then push/drag her up to the top rope, from where
she executes a suplex or a German suplex, falling backward, with the victim hitting the ring floor
close to the middle of the ring. The attacker then gets up and quickly covers her fallen foe for the
1-2-3. The superplex can also be used as a counter against an opponent who is planning to
execute a move off the top rope and climbs up there by her own will. Suppose a girl is planning
on doing a missile dropkick on her opponent, but the would-be victim is not sufficiently banged-
up and dazed and she realizes what’s going on. She catches the attacker when she’s vulnerable
on the ropes, and she superplexes her into the middle of the ring, thus turning the tables on her.

Possible escape: a would-be victim of a superplex can fight off her opponent during the
preparation-stage of the move, by simply pushing her off her and into the ring. Once the attacker
hooks her neck under her arm though and grabs her bathing suit at the leg-hole, resistance is
pretty much futile.

Rating: The superplex is not only EXTREMELY efficient in knocking out an opponent, it is
also extremely spectacular and if executed properly, it will almost literally bring down the house.
It is one of those moves that qualify as finishers by default.
For illustrations of the move check out: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/superplex.html

Swinging Neck-breaker

The swinging neckbreaker is a highly spectacular women’s wrestling throw which can in theory
be used as a finisher. It is a high impact move which certainly looks spectacular-enough to end a
bout in style. It starts out with the attacker kicking or punching the victim in the belly to make
her lean forth.
She then gets an arm around her neck and grabs hold of one of her arms with her free hand. She
does a couple of back and forth swings (the move can be done without such textbook swinging
too), then suddenly twists around with her opponent’s neck still locked, until they both face
upward, with their backs toward the floor. The attacker then simply falls backward, driving her
opponent back and neck-first into the canvas.
There is a swinging neckbreaker variation, in which the attacker – instead of grabbing the
victim’s arm with her free hand, hooks one of her legs in standing position. She holds on to that

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hooked leg all through the move, only letting go after impact. The hooked leg certainly makes
the move more spectacular because it makes the victim look even more exposed and unable to
counter the move that’s about to rock her.
Possible escape: by hooking a leg around your attacker’s leg before she twists into the move,
you can block the hold. Other than that, there’s not much else you can do but suffer.
Rating: the Swinging neckbreaker (especially the hooked-legged version) is extremely
spectacular, and though the amplitude of the actual throw is not that impressive, the impact does
end up being a solid one if properly executed. Definitely suited to be used as a finishing move.
For illustrations of the move check out: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/swinging_neckbreaker.html

Tilt-a-Whirl Slam

The tilt a whirl slam is not something you’ll see in every ladies’ wrestling bout. As a matter of
fact, at the moment I can only think of Reggie Bennett as the only female wrestler I have ever
seen use the move. Regardless of its frequency and popularity with wrestlers, the tilt-a-whirl
slam is a truly awesome move, one of my personal favorites.
The reason I love this slam so much is that it’s such a sleek combination of power, grace and
impact that it really shakes the entire ring when performed on a big girl. It is a pretty credible
finisher too. I suppose it takes quite a bit of strength to apply, but when it comes to big women, it
is quite a ring-shattering experience to behold indeed.

The tilt a whirl slam starts out with the attacker sending the victim into the ropes. As she bounces
back and comes running towards her, the attacker grabs her around the waist in a reverse manner
(attacker’s right hand goes on the left side of the victim and her left hand on her right side). She
then lifts her up and rolls her around mid-air so at the peak of the motion, her grip on her victim
becomes a normal one. She then brings the victim down hard onto her back. In order to add
emphasis to the impact, the attacker may jump into the air a little so she comes down together
with the victim and slightly on top of her. All she has to do then is to hook the stunned victim’s
leg and wait for the 1-2-3.
Possible escape: all the victim can do to prevent the tilt-a-whirl slam is to not allow her attacker
to secure the needed grip around her waist. Once lifted into the air, it’s tilt-a-whirl time for sure.
Rating: I’m going to give the tilt a whirl slam the highest possible rating. I love this slam, it’s
the complete package of strength, dynamism and impact. Reggie Bennett used it as a finisher… I
suppose nowadays girls would kick out from a pin attempt following a tilt a whirl, but in my
book, it’s still a good enough end to any ladies’ bout.
For pictures and moving illustrations of the move check out: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/tilt_a_whirl_slam.html

Vertical Suplex

The vertical suplex is one of the most efficient ways to wear down an opponent in a professional
ladies wrestling match. It is used frequently too, because being the high-amplitude throw that it
is, it’s also extremely spectacular.
The attacker stands facing her victim. She then makes her bend forth (a kick to the gut will do or
any other procedure) and hooks her neck under her arm with the victim facing the floor/mat. She

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then reaches down with her free hand to her opponent’s pubic mound and starts lifting her while
keeping her neck locked. The attacker can also choose to slip her fingers under her opponent’s
leotard (in the leg-hole) and pull upward on her suit to achieve the lifting momentum.

After the victim is turned completely (head-down legs up), the attacker falls backward with her,
letting her hit the mat/floor. Experienced and powerful wrestlers execute the vertical suplex fast,
in one fluid motion, so that the poor victim doesn’t even know what hit her when she’s almost
slammed out of her bathing suit.
Possible escapes: if not completely taken by surprise, the victim can counter by hooking one of
her legs around the attacker’s leg before being lifted up. Because the lift becomes impossible if
she manages to get that leg around her attacker’s leg, the suplex is made impossible too. She can
then potentially counter via a small package rollup.
Efficiency: When correctly executed, the vertical suplex is very efficient at knocking the air out
of the victim and thus setting her up for a finishing pin or submission hold.
For illustrations of the move take a look at: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/vertical_suplex.html

Women’s Wrestling Pins

Pins are wrestling maneuvers through which one of the wrestlers forces both of her opponent’s
shoulders onto the mat for a pre-determined amount of time. The referee will count to 3 or to 5,
before awarding the fall to the victorious wrestler. The pin-count is done through the slapping of
the mat, so everyone can see that there are no fast or slow counts. Thanks to their rather
dominant nature, pins are some of my favorite wrestling holds. Here’s a short list of the ones
which I’m most fond of.

Backbridge Pin

Also known as bridging pin or bridging folding pin, the

backbridge pin is one of the most spectacular and intricately
delicious ways to finish a women’s wrestling match. The hold
showcases the domination of the attacker through its intricacy
and through the exposed, bottoms-up position in which the
victim ends up. Backbridge pins most often end up in a 1-2-3.
There are several ways to apply the backbridge pin. One way is
to get the victim onto her back. The attacker then grabs hold of
the victim’s legs folds them over and placing her head between
them at the knees, flips over into a bridge. She can keep the pressure on via the bridge. Attackers
often stand on their tiptoes while bridging to add more leverage to the hold.
Another way to apply the backbridge pin is to get behind the victim, roll over backwards
together with her and then, when she’s with her shoulders on the mat and bottom up in the air, to
bridge backwards over her.
Needless to say, both versions of the backbridge pin require quite a bit of athleticism on the part
of the attacker. The fact that the victim ends up in a folded-up and exposed position, as well as
the position in which the attacker secures the hold make this move, one of the most spectacular
ladies’ professional wrestling holds.

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Possible escape: the victim can attempt to collapse the hold sideways. Trying to free her legs
isn’t really supposed to be an option, but because the setup involves precarious balancing, it can
be disrupted by simply refusing to cooperate.
Rating: though it’s a low-impact move, the backbridge pin is a very efficient hold. Due to its
complexity and spectacular nature, it is most often used as a finisher.

Backslide Pin

The backslide pin is one of the less frequent pinning moves in

women’s professional wrestling. The move is mildly
spectacular, although some girls do add a sexy twist of their
own to it to improve on that aspect.
The attacker hooks both her arms under both the victim’s arms
standing back-to-back to her. In a classic test of strength
manner, she then leans forward and kneels down, effectively
hoisting the victim onto her back. She then raises her bottom and pulls her head in, rolling the
victim through onto her shoulders. The victim will thus end up in a folding pin, with her arms
hooked. The move itself is not all that difficult to execute, but keeping the opponent’s shoulders
down for the 3 count afterwards is.
Some girls add a twist to the hold in order to increase its efficiency and its visual impact. After
they roll the victim through, they get on their feet, holding their bottom up high with their legs
spread apart. This will add leverage to the attacker making the hold more difficult to escape. It
also provides a great crotch-shot opportunity for female wrestling photographers.
Possible escape: the backslide pin is not exactly difficult to escape. If it’s not put on in a
peculiarly tight manner, the victim can just fall to the side to break the hold.
Rating: not one of the most efficient women’s wrestling pinning maneuvers, and as such, it is
seldom used as a finisher. It is great for an in-match pin attempt though.

Cradle

The Cradle is one of the most basic not to mention efficient

women-wrestling holds.
Used in professional wrestling as well as in freestyle, the cradle
immobilizes the victim in a rather humiliating way, allowing the
attacker to pin her victim relatively unopposed. The cradle looks a
bit like a leghook pin, as the attacker hooks the leg of her victim.
The difference is that while in a leghook pin the attacker will push
down on her victim’s head/neck, in a Cradle, she gets her other arm around her neck, then grabs
her own hand, effectively creating a noose around the victim’s neck and knee. She can then
tighten that noose, pulling her opponent’s knee towards her face, curling her up in the fetal
position. Once the cradle is locked in, the attacker rolls the victim onto her shoulders for the pin.
There isn’t a lot the victim can do at this stage to get her shoulders off the mat.
The cradle is mostly used in freestyle women’s wrestling, but one can see it applied in
professional wrestling bouts too. The advantage of the cradle is that the victim doesn’t have to be
dazed to be pinned through this hold.

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Efficiency: The cradle is extremely efficient. Applied with enough force it pretty much spells
game over for the victim. It’s a visually appealing hold as well: the attacker has the victim
completely at her mercy in it, without any sort of physical impact ever being involved.
Possible escape: Some girl wrestlers can power their way out of sloppily applied Cradles, but
provided the attacker knows what she’s doing and provided she has enough strength in her arms,
the hold is quite inescapable.

Crossbody Pin

The Crossbody Pin is one of the most basic women’s

wrestling maneuvers and one of the most efficient ways to
attain a pinfall both in pro and competitive wrestling matches.
Unlike most pro pinning maneuvers, the Crossbody Pin is
designed to keep the victim’s shoulders on the mat while she
is very much capable of fighting back (not knocked out by a
previous maneuver).
The victims is on the mat on her back as the attacker mounts
her lying across her chest so that her entire body-weight is pressing her opponent’s shoulders
into the mat. She immobilizes one of her opponent’s arms with her hands the other one with her
legs, either by kneeing on her arm or – more frequently – by catching the other arm between her
legs.

The defender’s legs are left free. Most pin victories in competitive female wrestling are scored
via this pin.
Possible escape: a well-applied Crossbody Pin is extremely difficult to get out of. The defender
may pull her legs back above the attacker but that won’t help her in any way. Squirming to the
site is usually futile as well. Attempting to buck the attacker off is the only thing that seems to
work in this predicament. I’ve seen several girls get out of Crossbody Pins that way. In
professional matches, the attacker will often arch her back in the hold to enhance the visual
element involved.
Rating: Extremely efficient. The fact that competitive wrestlerettes use it as well is a clear
indication in this respect. The attacker has to spend very little energy to keep her foe pinned,
while the defender has to spend a disproportionately large amount of energy to attempt a break-
out.

Double Leghook Folding Pin

The double leghook folding pin is one of the most spectacular women’s wrestling pins. It’s like a
cross between the matchbook pin and the leghook pin. The attacker gets the victim down onto
her back. The victim needs to be thoroughly dazed for the hold to look good. She then drops
down besides her, grabs hold of both her legs (the same way she would hook the single leg in the
leghook pin) and pulls them both up, leaving the victim bottoms-up and legs hooked to suffer the
humiliation of being counted out. Needless to say, the best and most beautiful ladies’ wrestling
pins are about humiliating the victim, and in that respect, this one is right up there with the best
of them.

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Possible escape: the double leghook pin is not that difficult to escape, as most of the time the
attacker doesn’t get to put an arm around the victim’s neck and to clasp her hands together. The
easiest way to escape the double leghook pin is to simply fall sideways. Most of the time, the
victim, who is basically displayed and paraded in this hold by her conqueror, is knocked cold
before its application and she cannot fight back in any way. In this respect, one may as well say
the double leghook folding pin is like a victory pose.
Rating: As far as actual efficiency goes, the double leghook folding pin is definitely not off the
scale. It is an extremely spectacular hold though, and more than humiliating for the victim who
has both her knees brought to her chest, having her bottom exposed and not being able to do
anything about the situation.
For illustrations of this hold take a look at: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/double_leghook_folding_pin.html

Double Pin

The Doublepin (or double pin) is the ultimate expression of tag

team superiority and the ultimate defeat for the victims. A
double pin is attained in a tag team match when both members
of one team are pinned by their opponents in the same time,
regardless of the type of pin used. Double pins are much more
frequent in Mexican Lucha Libre Femenil where synchronized
double pins are a popular way to finish ladies’ tag matches.
You’ll often see the luchadoras on one team trap their
opponents bottoms up with their backs to each other for the victory.
Double pins can also be found in handicap matches, when one wrestlerette pins both her
opponents holding them both down for the three count.

However you look at it, a double pin is probably the most humiliating way to lose a tag match
(except for the double submission when both team members tap out at the same time) and the
most impressive way to win one. One such double pin victory is probably worth two regular
ones.
Possible escape: make sure you don’t get overwhelmed when both of you are in the ring.
Efficiency: doesn’t apply here

Flip-over Backbridge Pin

The flip over backbridge pin is one of the more commonly

applied pins in women’s professional wrestling. It can
theoretically be used as a finisher too, although most of the
time it’s just a mid-bout pin attempt.
The flip over backbridge pin is basically a folding pin. This
version of it sees the attacker flip over the victim, hence the
name. The victim is on her back on the mat, feet towards the
attacker. The attacker picks up both her legs, leans forward and
places her head on the victim’s stomach. She then flips over,
landing past the victim’s head with her feet. All the time, she holds on to the victim’s legs, so

32
when she flips over, she’ll end up in a bridge, with the victim pinned under her and with her legs
held up and apart.

One version of the flip over backbridge pin sees the attacker completely fold her victim in half,
so that the victim ends up with her knees on the mat on both sides of her head. The attacker then
flips over and locks her in that position. This version of the move is one of the most spectacular
female wrestling pins and as such it is more than suited to be used as a finisher. It leaves the
victim completely helpless and exposed.
Possible escape: The normal version of the flip over backbridge pin can be escaped by hitting
the attacker on the stomach with both arms, thus forcing her to collapse her bridge. The second
variant can only be escaped by collapsing the hold sideways.
Rating: both above presented versions of the flip over backbridge pin are spectacular, but both
of them are kind of easy to escape. I think we’re looking at a case of trading efficiency for in for
the sake of the show, which – given that it’s women’s pro wrestling we’re talking about – is
perfectly ok.

German Suplex

The German Suplex is a basic, yet extremely spectacular and

high amplitude female wrestling move, which has a double
purpose: to stun the victim and in the same time to keep her
shoulders on the mat for the three count. The German Suplex is
also quite humiliating for the victim: it has her exposed in a
rather compromising position for the pin.
The German Suplex starts out with the attacker executing a go-
behind (also described in this section). Once she’s in position
behind her victim, she gets her arms around her waist. She then
lifts her up, and using the momentum of her upward swing, she
bridges backward, throwing the victim back and onto her
shoulders, while keeping her arms locked around her at all
times. Once the victim lands on her shoulders/back of her head,
the attacker maintains the bridge, keeping the victim pinned.
All she has to do then is to wait for the 3-count. The victim will be pinned bottoms-up, with her
legs folded back.
Possible escape: if the victim is as stunned as she should be after the impact taken in such a high
amplitude move, she will not kick out of the hold. If she manages to keep her composure though,
she can escape the hold relatively easily, simply by rolling sideways (letting her bum fall
sideways).
Rating: the German Suplex is highly spectacular, and it can be used as a finisher in women’s
wrestling without a second thought. The victim will not just be stunned, she’ll be humiliatingly
exposed too. Because escape is relatively easy though, I’ll have to give the move a “spectacular
and pretty efficient ladies wrestling hold” rating. The German Suplex is another female wrestling
hold insufficiently skilled wrestlers should never attempt as it can lead to serious neck injuries.

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Grapevine Pin

The grapevine pin is a spectacularly sexy and in the same

time extremely efficient way to end a match. The defender is
on her back with her legs spread wide open by the attacker
who lies on top of her (belly-to-belly) and uses her legs
wrapped around the victim’s legs (like a grapevine) to spread
them. In the same time the attacker pins the defender’s arms
to the mat.
The defender cannot use her legs to bridge or to kick out of
the pin, thus being rendered completely helpless by the attacker. A powerfully applied grapevine
spread also doubles as an efficient submission hold as the pain in the inner thighs of the victim
(near the crotch) often grows unbearable.
Possible escape: if you’re in a powerfully applied grapevine you’re only going to escape if you
submit before you’re counted out.
Despite that, the hold is often used mildly in semi competitive matches and in pantyhose
wrestling.
Rating: very efficient and difficult to get out of.

Hurricanrana

The Hurricanrana is definitely a high-risk/high reward/high impact/highly spectacular ladies

wrestling move. It pretty much sums up the essence of pro wrestling. At the end of a successfully
executed Hurricanrana, everyone is happy: the attacker, the victim, as well as the public and
quite probably even the TV commentator if it’s a televised match we’re talking about.
The move is an extremely complex one: the attacker sets up the victim for the move by kicking
her in the abdomen/groin, and she then takes a couple of steps back. She then runs towards her
victim, grabbing hold of her shoulders and leaping upward (obviously, assisted by the victim)
until she basically gets both her legs above the victim’s shoulders, affectively sitting on her
shoulders and straddling her head. The attacker then squeezes her legs together, trapping the
victim’s head as she leans backward, flipping her victim over. At the completion of the move,
the attacker sits on the victim’s chest, and has both her legs hooked in a perfect pin. Skilled lady
wrestlers can hook their victim’s leg as they flip them over, so basically the Hurricanrana ends
up as a single smooth motion. Other wrestlers may opt to flip their victims over before reaching
back and hooking their legs for the 1-2-3. There are Hurricanrana variants, which don’t
necessarily end up in a pin as you can see in the attached pic below.
Possible escape: the Hurricanrana requires the victim’s full cooperation so there’s not much
point in talking about an escape.
Theoretically, she who doesn’t want the move applied will simply not help out: that pretty much
nixes her opponent’s chances of getting the move together.
Rating: the Hurricanrana is a highly spectacular female wrestling move which is more than
suited to be used as a finisher. It is a high risk move but it will never fail to ignite the audience
and – as said above – to make everyone (with the possible exception of the victim) look good.
For moving illustrations of this ladies wrestling move go to: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/hurricanrana.html

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Jackknife Pin

The jackknife pin is without a doubt one of the most sensual

and sexy female wrestling holds. Its appealing nature probably
stems from the fact that the victim is completely and utterly
defeated and exposed in it, with her bottom up and face down,
looking more helpless than at any other time during the match.
The jackknife pin has several variations and it’s also known as
the matchbook pin (because the attacker folds the defender in
half like a book of matches) or folding pin (mostly in the UK).
The below description is that of only one jackknife pin
variation. In our holds section you’ll probably see other jackknife/folding/matchbook pin
variations too, under different names.
The victim is on her back on the floor/mat, set up for the finisher by a high amplitude
slam/throw. The attacker picks both of her legs up at the ankles, and takes them up and over,
folding the victim into half, then she slips onto her opponent’s folded legs stomach down to
punctuate the hold with her body-weight.

A reverse variant where the attacker locks the victim’s leg under her arms while sitting on her
face is also popular.
Possible escape: once you’re in a jackknife pin, there’s not much you can do but attempt to
power your way out of it or try to collapse the hold sideways, thus effectively getting your
shoulders off the mat.
Rating: besides being one of the most spectacular pins, the jackknife pin is also a quite efficient
move. Once you see it put on and sunk in, you can be pretty certain that the match is over.

Leghook Pin

The leghook pin is the most common way to finish a

ladies’ wrestling match. The hooking of the leg of the
defeated wrestlerette is on one hand a practical move,
on the other hand it is meant to humiliate by
displaying the fallen girl in a trophy-like manner.

A very dominant womens’ wrestling hold, the

leghook pin can be applied from a variety of
positions, but the most common way is with the
attacker lying perpendicular to her KOd opponent
(who is on her back) placing a forearm across her neck and/or upper chest (above the breasts)
and pressing down on it, while hooking one of her opponent’s legs with her other arm and
bringing her knee up towards her chest. The leghook is meant to deny the defender the
possibility to kick out of the pin. As said above, the leghook pin would also qualify as a victory
pose because of the way it showcases the victor handling her opponent like a predator handles
prey.

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The attacker needs to make sure the victim is rendered fairly helpless before applying the
showboating leghook pin, as leaving one of her legs unhooked gives her the possibility to kick
out.
Possible escapes: if the victim is not worn down enough or KOd before the leghook pin is
applied, she can attempt to kick out of it by using the leg her opponent left unhooked.
Rating: not very efficient at restraining movement, but extremely spectacular, dominant and
humiliating for the pinned girl.

Legsplit Facepin

The Legsplit facepin is a female wrestling hold mostly used in fetish-themed matches, and not
that much in legit women's wrestling bouts. The move is a lot like the facesit (also known as the
facepin), although there are a few significant differences. While everyone – even untrained girls
– can execute a facesit without problems, only those flexible enough to be able to do a leg-split
are able to execute this hold.
The legsplit facepin can be slapped on from two different starting positions. The attacker may be
straddling a victim's face already, deciding to shift the hold into a legsplit facepin without ever
easing the pressure.

The attacker may also stand over the victim who lays face-up on the floor. She may execute the
split from a standing position, basically lowering her crotch onto her opponent's face as she
completes the split. The move is not just humiliating, it also involves more discomfort for the
victim as she ends up with a higher percentage of her attacker's body-weight pushing down on
her face.
Possible escape: don't let your opponent catch you in this hold. Once caught in it, you can also
attempt to squirm free, by bridging and by generally attempting to push your attacker off-
balance.
Rating: although this hold is seldom if ever used in pro wrestling matches, it is certainly
spectacular and humiliating enough to be used as a finisher. Because it does actually require
cooperation from the victim, we cannot give it an "extremely efficient" rating.
For illustrations of this hold go to : http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/legsplit_facepin.html

Matchbook Pin

The matchbook pin is one of the most dominant ways to

win a girls’ wrestling match. It’s also a very spectacular
move which has the defeated girl bottoms up, completely
at the mercy of her victor, folded up into one tight little
package which is unable to exert any sort of resistance.
The attacker folds the defender up by pulling her legs over
next to her head (sometimes even over her head) and
locking them there. There are several varieties of
matchbooks pins, all of them extremely humiliating and impossible to get out of. The side
matchbook is a spladle-like move. The reverse and the front matchbook pins can be augmented
with the addition of a facesit. The combo hold which results from this is a truly annihilating one.

36
The matchbook is usually reached from a grappling position, although one of its most
spectacular versions, the bridging matchbook pin is obtained from a standing position. The
defender is on her back with her attacker holding her legs up and apart. The attacker then folds
the defender up and flips over her into a bridge, while keeping her in the matchbook position.
Possible escape: try to roll to your side when the matchbook pin is snapped on you. If your
opponent is savvy enough though, she’ll probably prevent you from doing that. If you can’t roll
to your side, all you can do is to wait for the 1-2-3.
Rating: a very efficient ladies’ wrestling hold. Extremely spectacular as well.

Pile-Up

The pile-up is a tag-team move/hold, in which two or more

girls pile up on top of a stronger opponent to keep her down for
the 3-count and to earn the pin. While illegal according to
standard rules, the pile up is used often in various pro-style
women’s matches where the rules allow it. I’ve seen girls pile
up to gain the pin in lucha libre matches, and in handicap
matches (where one strong woman takes on two or more
weaker and lighter girls). By piling up the attackers combine
their weight to give the defender all she can handle. Successful
pile ups do lead to pins most of the time.
Another circumstance in which you’ll see pile ups in women’s wrestling is when the winners of a
tag team match pile their fallen opponents on top of each other to humiliate them and to display
them in a victory pose.

Often times, the losers are piled up in a compromising position (like a 69) to add to their
humiliation.

End of the match pile-ups are usually performed after matches in which one side has been
completely obliterated by the other. After a double pin or double submission, a pile up may well
be in the books for you, just to add insult to injury.
Possible escape: If you’re a victim of a pile up pinning maneuver, you’d better do your best to
squirm your way out of it, although if your opponents manage to get on top of you while your
shoulders are down, you’re probably not going to be able to do anything about it. If you’re being
piled up to be humiliated: make sure you never lose by that kind of a margin.
Rating: the pile up pin may be illegal in most cases, but when rules allow for it, it is extremely
efficient.

Reverse Legspread Pin

Besides being a hold meant to humiliate, the Reverse legspread pin is also an efficient way to
end a match, so one might say it’s a double purpose female wrestling move.
The move is a rather efficient one because it exerts several types of pressure on the victim. The
attacker gets the victim onto her back on the mat/ring-floor and straddles her upper body sitting
on her chest basically, facing her feet. That alone would normally be enough to keep a depleted
victim down, but the Reverse legspread pin is about much more than that. The attacker grabs

37
 hold of the victim’s legs at the ankles and picks them up,
holding them up and apart. She then pulls the legs back, putting
pressure onto the hamstrings. This way, by keeping her legs
locked, the attacker prevents the victim from kicking out of the
pin. By putting pressure onto her hamstrings, she piles on
additional pressure, further draining the victim’s strength and
willpower to fight her fate.
Possible escape: the only way to escape the reverse legspread
pin is to prevent your attacker from grabbing hold of your
ankles. Once the pin is sunk in, it becomes rather impossible to escape.
Rating: the reverse legspread pin is an extremely spectacular and in the same time efficient
women’s wrestling pin. Its humiliation rating is high as well. The attacker finishes off the victim,
and in the same time places her in a compromising position.

Schoolgirl Pin

The schoolgirl pin is the most basic pinning maneuver in

women’s wrestling. It probably got its name from the fights
school-kids so often engage in, which usually end up in this
position: with one of the girls sitting on her opponent’s
stomach or chest, straddling her.
The defender is on her back with her opponent sitting full
weight on her stomach or chest, with her knees holding down
her opponent’s upper arms. The attacker can also use her arms
to hold down the victim’s hands.
Possible escape: Because the defender’s legs are not restrained in any way, she can use them to
buck her opponent off bridging out of the pin, or to hook them around her opponent’s shoulders
and push her down that way. The latter is a risky maneuver though as the defender’s legs may be
hooked by the attacker and thus she may end up in a matchbook pin, an even worse predicament.
Rating: The schoolgirl pin is a very basic maneuver, it’s efficiency depends on the weight of the
attacker and the power and energy left in the defender. If the attacker decides to slide forward
until she sits on her opponent’s throat, the hold can be positively vicious.

Small Package (also known as Short Package)

The small package is a “reversal” move, often used as a

surprise finisher in women’s wrestling. The small package is
obviously spectacular enough to be used as a finisher. The
victim of the hold ends up in a compromising bottoms up
position, folded up and with both her legs locked tight by the
attacker. On one hand it is extremely humiliating, on the
other, it’s quite uncomfortable to be put in a small package.
The fact that it’s used as a “surprise” finisher means that the
wrestlerette who has been dominated for most of the match
uses it to pin the dominant girl and to secure the win.

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In order to slip a small package on, the attacker needs to be very swift. She catches the victim’s
neck under her left arm, then reaches down with her right hand grabbing the victim’s leg at the
knee-bend. She then falls backward and down, using her weight to bring the victim down to the
mat. While falling down she hooks her right leg around the victim’s free leg. Once she rolls her
opponent up, she’ll have a nice and tight bottoms-up pin which is extremely difficult to escape.
Possible escape: very skilled lady wrestlers can use the momentum involved in the flip to
reverse the small package. For most girls however, escaping a small package pin is quite
impossible especially that the victim has the surprise factor working against her too.
Rating: Certainly spectacular enough to be used as a finisher, the small package pin is a weapon
often used by the underdog to steal a win from the mouth of defeat. It is a highly efficient
pinning move.

Spanish Press

The Spanish press pin is one of the most spectacular ways to

finish up a women’s wrestling bout. I have personally seen the
hold first applied in GLOW, where it was Spanish Red’s
signature move (hence the name?), but I must admit I don’t
really know where the hold originates from. Since then, the
hold has been used in several public and private women’s
professional wrestling matches.
The attacker rolls her opponent up and folds her legs over her
head. She then places her body either across her opponent’s folded body or face to face with her
opponent, holding the victim’s legs locked. She then spreads her legs to prevent her opponent
from rolling out of the hold side-ways, and placing all her weight on her, begins to bounce up
and down flattening her opponent tighter into the fold. She eventually completes the press by
staying down on her victim until the ref does her counting.

Besides being an extremely spectacular pinning maneuver, the Spanish Press is meant to
humiliate as well. The attacker has the victim in a very exposed position, pounding away at her
with her body and eventually locking her into that position for the win.
Possible escape: once your opponent begins to pound you into the mat, there’s not a whole lot
you can do, except power your way out. You can also try to wiggle out of the hold by turning
sideways. Don’t be fooled by the apparently erotic nature of the hold: it is more than
uncomfortable for the victim.
Rating: The Spanish Press pin is a relatively efficient pinning maneuver, though the reason it is
done is mostly visual. The victim’s utter helplessness and compromising position serves to
underline the aggressor’s utter dominance.

Sunset Flip

The sunset flip is one of the more spectacular women’s wrestling finishers. It is a relatively high
amplitude move which is what I call a reversal pin. That means that the projected victim of a
beforehand move turns the tables on her attacker through this move, rolling her up for the pin
and possibly defeating her through it. Due to its spectacular nature, the sunset flip is used
relatively often in women’s professional wrestling matches.

39
 The eventual attacker begins the move as the victim. She is
Irish whipped into the ropes and as she bounces back, her
attacker leans forward to make her fall over her and hit the mat
hard on the other side. Instead of falling over though, the victim
leaps upward and grabs hold of the bent-over attacker’s waist
when in mid-air. She then pulls her head in and tumbles to the
mat over her opponent, flipping the former attacker over onto
her back and with her legs up. The position that the couple
lands in after the sunset flip, allows the now attacker to control
her victim and to prevent her escape attempts at least till the
three count is slapped.

The attacker also has the option to roll her victim over even
further, effectively turning the move into a matchbook pin.

The sunset flip can also be executed in more acrobatic ways, like from the second turnbuckle, or
even the top rope. A variation of the Sunset flip is the move that some wrestlers call the Victory
Roll.
Possible escape: the Sunset flip is always supposed to come as a surprise for the victim, so
considering that she’ll be surprised as well as dazed, escape is unlikely. One possible escape is to
kick the attacker on the side of the head after the rollup with both legs, thus shocking her into
releasing the hold. After that, turning sideways should make sure your shoulders are off the mat.
Rating: because of the surprise element that it involves, the Sunset Flip is considered to be a
better than average pinning maneuver. Due to its spectacular nature, it is certainly suited to be
used as a finisher.

Sunset Flip Powerbomb

If properly executed, the Sunset flip powerbomb is quite probably the most spectacular pinning
maneuver in ladies' professional wrestling. The move is a relatively intricate one, which – like so
many of the other more intricate and spectacular women's wrestling moves – requires quite a bit
of coordination between attacker and victim.
The move starts out with the attacker getting the would-be target of the move to bend forward.
The attacker then vaults over the victim's head effectively landing on her back, with her legs
hanging down the sides of her victim. The attacker then hooks her feet behind the victim's knees
and leans backward a little, possibly even raising her arms. She then suddenly swings forth, and
sticks her head behind the victim's legs from behind, having built up enough momentum to flip
her over completely. At the end of the Sunset flip powerbomb, the attacker is sitting with her
legs on the victim's arms, holding her locked in a folding pin.

When it comes to proper execution, the amplitude of the movements is everything in the case of
the Sunset flip powerbomb. In sloppily executed Sunset flip powerboms, the "powerbomb" part
is pretty much missing. The victim is simply pulled down and rolled up. In a proper Sunset flip
powerbomb though, the victim hits the floor with an actual impact, adding a lot to the overall
"credibility' of the move.

40
Possible escape: don't let your opponent get into position to execute the move. Once she swings
into it, the match is pretty much over.
Rating: due to its highly spectacular nature, the sunset flip powerbomb is wonderfully suited as a
finisher. It is a high-tier move at any rate, although execution pretty much makes it or breaks it.
As far as efficiency goes: I'm not sure if any lady wrestler has ever managed to kick out of the
pin in which the sunset flip powerbomb ends.
For illustrations of this move check out: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/sunset_flip_powerbomb.html

Victory Roll

The victory roll is one of the hottest pinning moves in ladies professional wrestling. As its name
shows, the victory roll is well-suited to be used as a finisher. The appeal of the hold stems from
the fact that it is in fact a complete reversal, which not only enables the victim to turn the tables
on her opponent, it allows her to move from a distressed position into one of complete
dominance, which eventually leads to victory.
The victory roll is used to reverse a hold like the electric chair, in which the would-be victim is
lifted up, sitting on the shoulders of her attacker. From this position, there are usually few things
the victim can do to prevent a high impact move performed on her. The victory roll is just about
the only way to escape a move like the electric chair. The first task of the victim is to unbalance
her opponent and to fall forward instead of falling backward. As she falls forward, the victim
curls up in a ball, and this way she gets to stick her head between her opponent's legs before
reaching the floor. Exploiting the momentum of the fall, she then flips her opponent over using
her legs while at the same time grabbing her at the ankles. What results is a matchbook pin,
which has the new victim bottom-up, completely at the mercy of her former victim. A victory
roll usually ends the match.
Possible escape: due to its high amplitude and spectacular nature, the victory roll is seldom
escaped by the victim. Just about the only way to escape it is to reverse it, but assuming that the
victim is completely taken by surprise by the move, and that she is dazed by the sudden reversal,
an escape is usually not part of the kayfabe.
Rating: the fact that the victory roll is pretty much only used as a finisher, means that as far as
professional women's wrestling is concerned, it is an extremely efficient move. The sudden
reversal coupled with the appealing position in which the two wrestlers end up, makes it an
extremely spectacular move as well.
For moving illustrations of this move take a look at: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/victory_roll.html

Ladies Wrestling Submission Holds

Submission holds are obviously among the most exciting holds in wrestling and in women’s
wrestling in particular. There’s no better way to rack up a mark in the W column than to force
one’s opponent to verbally admit her inferiority. Here are some of my favorite submission holds
or hooks as they also used to be known.

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Abdominal Stretch

The abdominal stretch has to be one of the most basic women’s

wrestling submission holds. It’s easy to apply and a properly
applied abdominal stretch can indeed be rather spectacular. I
don’t think I have ever seen a lady wrestler submit to the
abdominal stretch, but it is being used all the time in ladies’
professional bouts anyway.
The attacker stands behind the victim and hooks her left leg
around the victim’s left leg. She then grabs hold of the victim’s
right arm (sometimes the hold commences with the grabbing of
the arm and then proceeds to the hooking of the leg), and
catches it under her own left arm, forcing the victim to lean to
the left in an attempt to alleviate the pressure of the hold. The
attacker can them press down with her left leg while leaning
backward to place pressure on the victim’s abdominal area.
The cool thing about the abdominal stretch is that it leaves the
attacker’s right hand free. She can use it to apply an abdominal
claw or to slip her fingers under the leg-hole of her opponent’s
leotard and to pull it upward. She can also dig her elbow into her opponent’s side.
Possible escape: if you’re caught in a properly executed abdominal stretch, you’re just going to
have to ride it out or you’ll have to surrender. If you’re in a tag-match, your tag-team partner
may bail you out.
Rating: even though it does look fairly spectacular and efficient, the abdominal stretch is mostly
used as a hold to weaken the victim, setting her up for something worse to come.

Armbar

There are many different types of armbars in women’s

professional wrestling, but they’re all about putting pressure on
the elbow joint, essentially causing pain by forcing the arm to
bend the way it’s not supposed to.
An armbar can be applied in several different ways. As far as
I’m concerned, there are two different versions: the pro
wrestling one and the grappling one.
A typical example of a pro wrestling armbar is in the image below where Su Yung is trying to
wring a submission out of Josie. For this armbar, the attacker uses her arms only, the legs aren’t
involved (unless there’s a malevolent knee to the face to further deepen the victim’s distress).
Essentially, the attacker puts her right arm around the victim’s arm, then places her hand with a
4-finger grip on her other lower arm. The then puts the palm of her left hand on the victim’s
shoulder socket and the hold is on.
The grappling armbar is about isolating one of the victim’s arms. The attacker then grabs that
arm with both hands and puts her legs across the victim’s chest. He can then pull back on the arm
and thrust her hips upward to pour on the pressure. This type of armbar is sometimes used in
women’s professional wrestling too (I once saw PGWA champ Tracy Taylor lose a match by
submitting to such an armbar).

42
Possible escape: the grappling style armbar is quite inescapable. You should try to prevent your
opponent from slipping it on, because if she does, you will submit in a matter of seconds.
Rating: Pound for pound, the armbar is one of the most efficient submission holds ever. Yes, it
can be used as a finisher in women’s professional wrestling matches too, despite the fact that the
above described “pro style armbars” are mostly used to soften the victim up and not to bring
about a fall.

Attacking the Face

In women’s professional wrestling, in Japan and the US alike,

competitors often attack their opponents’ faces, pulling and
contorting them into painful grimaces, pulling upward on the
nose or getting a finger into the victim’s mouth and pulling on
the side of the mouth. Besides being obviously painful, above
all, this move is supposed to humiliate by exposing the victim’s
vulnerability. Indeed there are few things more unpleasant for a
woman who takes great care of her face and who wears makeup
to the ring, than having her face mangled by an overzealous
opponent. A while ago I talked to someone from Japan and the
popularity of this move in Joshi Puroresu somehow came up.
Back then I didn’t quite understand why Japanese female
wrestlers were so fond of this move but I was told that turning a
proud and powerful female warrior into a caricature of herself –
against her will - was supposed to express domination while in
the same time humiliating the victim.
The opponent can apply the move from a variety of positions. One of the situations that seem to
be begging for a face mauling is the camel clutch. With her opponent’s face so handily exposed,
the attacker will often resort to some face mangling, to add further discomfort to an already
formidable submission hold.
I’m not sure whether the move is legal or illegal, I do have a strong suspicion though that the
referee will count the attacker out if she doesn’t break it up.
Possible escape: if you’re in a camel clutch with your arms locked, you won’t be able to do
anything against a facial attack. If your hands are free just use them to protect your face.
Rating: the face attack is a malicious humiliation move. It causes pain but it doesn’t inflict any
sort of damage of any significance in the economy of the bout.

Baby Swing Bow and Arrow

The baby swing bow and arrow (most often referred to in wrestling circles simply as baby swing)
is one of the most spectacular and dominant women’s wrestling submission holds. There’s no
better way to showcase one’s dominance over her opponent than by picking her up, all limbs tied
up and swinging her back and forth while there’s absolutely nothing she can do about it.
The baby swing starts out with the victim lying on her stomach on the mat/ring floor and the
attacker standing above her. The attacker first picks up the victim’s legs in a boston-crab fashion,
with the only difference that instead of facing the other way, the attacker will face the same way
as the victim. Once the legs are secured, the attacker leans forth, letting the victim’s feet slip

43
 back under her arms. She grabs hold of both the victim’s arms
and stands up, effectively having both the victim’s legs and
arms trapped. The victim will basically dangle between the
attacker’s legs like a swing, hence the name of the hold.
The victim can then elect to swing her opponent around. Some
ladies will inch close to a corner with their victims dangling
and small their heads/faces repeatedly into the first turnbuckle
of the ring. The baby swing can be applied in a reverse manner
too, in which case the attacker won’t face in the same
direction as the victim.
Possible escape: don’t let your opponent slip the hold on you.
Once she does, with all your limbs trapped, you’ll be
completely at her mercy. The good news is the hold is kind of
difficult to maintain over a longer period of time, so the
attacker may tire out sooner than the word “uncle” takes flight from your lips.
Rating: the baby swing bow and arrow is a killer submission hold. It is extremely efficient and
more often than not, the hapless victim will cry uncle in it. Its only shortcoming is that it takes a
tremendous amount of energy from the attacker to keep the hold locked in.

Body Breaker

The body breaker is an extremely interesting ladies wrestling

submission hold, which I must admit I could barely research
completely. While I did see the hold applied to great effect in
various lucha libre femenil matches, I simply didn’t know what
it was called, until I came across a photo and a mention of it on
an English-language site. The reason I say it is an interesting
hold, is that it is one of those Mexican female wrestling holds
which should not be efficient at all in theory, yet one can see
lady wrestlers submit to it all the time. I cannot really tell you
why, but I find such female wrestling holds particularly
appealing.
The submission hold starts out with the attacker performing the
same setup maneuver she would in the case of a backslide pin
(also described in this section). Instead of sliding her opponent
all the way through to have her shoulder hit the mat, she stops around halfway through the hold
and locks the victim’s legs and arms (with a little bit of cooperation from the victim) to have her
effectively stretched out and bent over her back. The attacker can then decide to bounce up and
down, to add pressure to the victim’s back and thus to force the submission.
Possible escape: despite the fact that the Body Breaker is not exactly a high amplitude move nor
is it particularly complicated, it is not easy to escape at all. I’d dare say once locked in properly,
it is impossible to escape. One option for the victim would be to swing her legs upward (before
they’re locked) and back, to roll over backward and to lend on her feet head-to-head with the
attacker. This move requires quite a bit of athletic prowess though.

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Rating: despite appearing rather mild, the Body Breaker will most often yield a submission in a
women’s wrestling match. For this reason, I’ll have to call it a very efficient ladies’ wrestling
submission hold.

Body Scissors

A well applied bodyscissors is a feared weapon in women’s competitive

mat wrestling. In professional wrestling, body scissors are generally
regarded as wear-down holds, most often used to prepare one’s
opponent for a much more spectacular (finishing) move. Skilled
submission wrestlerettes are able to apply body-scissors with deadly
force, rendering their victims completely defenseless in mere seconds.
Body scissors can be applied from a standing position (some female grapplers specialize in this
move) or from a grounded position. The attacker slips her legs around her opponent’s waist,
clutches them together at the ankles and begins to squeeze. The hold is extremely efficient
because it takes up very little energy on the part of the attacker, while the defender is compelled
to waste a lot of energy resisting and trying to escape.
Watching DWW’s fully competitive matches or any other fully competitive female wrestling
match, you’ll realize that the quickest way to victory can be secured through body or head
scissors. Body scissors can be applied in mud wrestling or oil wrestling matches as well, with the
same efficiency.
Possible escape: the defender can attempt to separate her attacker’s legs at the ankle thus
neutralizing the hold. If you’re body-scissored by a wrestler like Helen von Mott though, you’re
better off tapping out in order to avoid serious injury.
Rating: though less efficient than a headscissor, the bodyscissor can still be a match-deciding
factor when applied by a skilled wrestler. In professional ladies wrestling, a match will probably
not be decided by body scissors.

Boston Crab

The Boston Crab is one of the most widely used submission

maneuvers in professional wrestling but I’ve seen it applied
efficiently in competitive mat wrestling matches too.
The hold starts out with the defender on her back. The attacker takes
hold of both the victim’s legs, hooks them under her armpit and turns
the victim over onto her stomach. Then, she leans back into a semi-
squatting position, pulling the victim’s legs towards her head. Really
flexible victims can sometimes ride this one out because they don’t
feel the pressure in their lower back the same way regular wrestlerettes do, but they too can be
broken.
In joshi puroresu (Japanese women wrestling) matches you’ll often see a girl hang on in this hold
for several minutes without submitting – a sign of extreme resilience.
Possible escape: if you can power out of the hold by catching your attacker off –balance and
flipping her over, you’re lucky. Most of the time though, your only escape is to tap out. Crawling
forward using your arms to get to the ropes and have the hold broken is also a solution.

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Rating: once sunk in deep enough, this hold is sure to have your opponent in tears within
seconds. Extremely efficient.

British Leg-spread

I’m not sure at all whether this is the right name for this ladies
wrestling hold, but since we already have a “legspread” on this
site, I’ll have to differentiate somehow, because the hold I’m
about to describe is a different one indeed. The reason I decided
to include “British” in its name is that I mostly see the British
ladies apply this hold, and obviously it originates from Britain.
The attacker and the victim sit on the mat/floor facing each
other. The attacker placer her feet on the inside of her victim’s
legs and starts spreading them. Because she has her feet on the insides of the victim’s legs,
spreading her own legs at a smaller angle will cause her victim’s legs to be forcefully spread at a
much larger angle, causing tons of discomfort.

Some ladies will further increase the spread by breaking the hold and by placing their feet on the
inside of one of the victim’s legs and hands on the other leg to increase the pressure too.
Efficiency: given the fact that I have never seen a girl actually submit to this hold, I’ll have to
say the British legspread is a move designed to weaken the legs rather than to bring about a
decision.
Possible escape: escaping this legspread hold is relatively easy. The victim can use her arms
(which remain free through the hold) to lift her bottom off the mat and to pull her entire body
backward, thus annulling the pressure applied by the attacker. Sometimes I suppose though the
pressure and the pain can be just too much to even attempt escaping this way.

Camel Clutch

The camel clutch is one of the simplest and most efficient

submission holds in female wrestling. The victim lies face down
on the mat with the attacker straddling her back. The attacker
then slides both her hands under the defender’s chin, clutches
them together and pulls backwards.
It takes very little energy on the part of the attacker to inflict and
maintain a very nasty predicament which eats up the defender’s
stamina in seconds. The camel clutch is used in competitive
ladies wrestling matches too, to great efficiency.

It may not be the most spectacular women’s wrestling hold,

however, the camel clutch is a very efficient weapon in a good
wrestler’s arsenal.

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Possible escapes: if the defender’s arms are not locked up, she may try to use them to crawl to
the ring-ropes and grab a hold of them to have the Camel Clutch broken. If she has her arms
locked though and the hold sunk in well, the only way she’s getting out of it is through
submission. Bucking off the attacker is not really an option.
Efficiency: extremely efficient. Almost always leads to submission within seconds. A camel
clutch can be efficiently combined with a double toed leglock to add to its potency.

Crippler Crossface

The crippler crossface is an extremely efficient, not to mention

spectacular submission hold used as a finisher by many a great
female wrestler. A well applied crippler crossface will almost
always lead to a submission.
With the defender lying on her stomach on the mat, the attacker
traps one of her arms between her legs, and lying across the
back of her victim, reaches forth with her arms and pulls back
on her chin. This way, the attacker will assume a leisurely
position which allows her to maintain the hold without too
much effort. The victim will find the hold extremely painful especially in her neck and back. A
well applied crippler crossface will also place some stress on the victim’s shoulder-socket.

Furthermore, because only one of her arms is left free (so she has something to tap with) the
victim will find it extremely difficult to crawl forth on her stomach and to reach a ring-ropes this
way.
Possible escape: the defender can make the most of what she has left in the hold if she’s close to
the ropes. Reaching out with her free arm to grab hold of one of the ring ropes thus forcing the
attacker the release the hold, makes perfect sense. If you’re not close to the ropes though, you’ll
probably only use your free arm to signal your surrender.
Rating: A very efficient submission hold, which probably explains why many lady wrestlers like
to use the crossface crippler as their finisher.

Double Toed Leglock

The Double toed leglock is one of the most basic women’s wrestling holds. Watch a ladies’
professional wrestling bout and you’ll probably see this hold applied within the first minute of
action. The double toed leglock would probably qualify as a submission hold because it is meant
to cause pain for the victim, but it is mostly used to immobilize and to frustrate.
The victim is on her stomach, on the mat or ring floor. The attacker picks up both her legs, and
crosses them, while in the same time bending them at the knee. She then secures the locked legs
somehow, and continues to push down on them. Because the attacker can free up both her hands
while keeping the double toed leglock secured with her knee or crotch, she has the option to
combine it with another hold like a chinlock or a camel clutch. By locking the victim’s arms, the
attacker can deny her opponent any possibility of escape. When combined with other holds, the
efficiency of the double toed leglock can be doubled.

The double toed leglock can be turned into an overhead bow and arrow too.

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Possible escape: because both her arms are left free, the victim can use them to crawl to the
ropes and to get a rope-break. If her arms are locked too, she will just have to ride the hold out,
or submit I suppose.
Rating: the double toed leglock is not a really efficient submission hold, although it is based on
putting pressure on the victim’s knee joints, and on stretching the calf muscles. It is more of a
transition hold, used as a precursor to a more intricate submission hold, like an overhead double
toed leglock bow and arrow or a double toed leglock/camel clutch combination.
For illustrations of this hold take a look at: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/double_toed_leglock.html

Dragon Sleeper

The Dragon sleeper is one of those holds which are not breath-
takingly spectacular but are extremely efficient. The dragon sleeper
is a women’s wrestling move which is used both in pro and in
competitive matches.
The victim sits on the mat and the attacker is positioned behind her.
The attacker then pulls the victim’s hair or uses another maneuver
to pull the victim’s head backwards. She then locks the victim’s
neck under her arm, with her lower arm right under the back of the
head of the victim. From this position she can inflict extreme discomfort and pain by forcing her
lower arm upward and by pushing down with her armpit. The dragon sleeper either ends in a
quick submission or it puts the victim out if she hangs on for too long.
Possible escape: the dragon sleeper usually leaves the victim’s arms free, so if you wake up with
your face jammed into your opponent’s armpit use those arms and don’t just flail aimlessly. Pull
hair, slap around, whatever it takes. Chances are you won’t be able to break the submission hold,
but you have to try. You may also swing your legs upward and catch your attacker in a
headscissors. If all else fails, start tapping with those free arms…
Efficiency: The dragon sleeper is an extremely efficient female wrestling submission hold. The
attacker uses little energy to position her victim in an extreme predicament.

Facesit

In a facesit, the victim is on her back, face-up on the mat or

floor, as the attacker quite literally sits down on her face
covering it with her posterior. Don’t let the apparently erotic
nature of the hold fool you. It is one that’s extremely painful
and uncomfortable for the victim, not to mention humiliating.
Because a facesit causes such an extreme predicament, we
decided to catalog it as a submission hold, as more often than
not the relief for the victim is only brought about by
submission, although it is used as a pinning maneuver too.
A facesit can be a front facesit, which is basically a slid-
forward variation of the schoolgirl pin. It can be a reverse
facesit when the attacker rides the face of her victim facing her
legs, a squat facesit or even a side-facesit.

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There are countless variations of the facesit with the attacker locking up the legs of her victim in
a jackknife fashion, effectively small-packaging her, hooking her legs back by the ankles to
immobilize them, spread them holding on to them at the knees etc.
Possible escapes: when trapped in a facesit, there are several ways you can lose the match, and
very few that will get you out if it. You’ll either be counted out as your shoulders are on the mat,
or you’ll submit. You can attempt bridging out of it, which is much more efficient than trying to
push your attacker off with your legs as the may hook them and you’ll end up face-sat and bent
in half.
Efficiency: very efficient, and also visually appealing – which means it is often used in erotic
matches.

Figure 4 Ankle Lock

The figure 4 ankle lock is a decent ladies wrestling submission hold,

mostly used by Mexican Luchadoras. Indeed, come to think of it, I
don’t think I’ve ever seen that hold used anywhere else. The hold
may appear intricate, but it’s rather simple really. Some of its variants
require substantial cooperation from the victim.
The attacker gets the victim onto her back then she picks up both of
her legs as if she were getting ready to put her into a boston crab. She
then simply crosses the victim’s legs, putting one over the other as
she holds one of the legs steady. She then steps over the leg she just
positioned over the other, to hold it down with the back of her knee.
From that point on, she has several options to inflict torture. She can
focus on the victim’s straight leg, more precisely the ankle, by
twisting the foot, or she can push down on the victim’s bent knee.
In some cases, the attacker will also grab hold of the victim’s hand which is put through the
figure 4 that her legs form. In other Figure 4 ankle-lock variants, the attacker is positioned facing
the other way, in which case she will often kneel onto the victim’s chest or neck to further her
distress.
Possible escape: once tied up tight as a drum, the figure 4 ankle lock is quite impossible to
escape. I’d have to say in this instance only a quick ‘I give’ will give you a break.
Rating: the figure 4 ankle lock is a relatively spectacular hold, thanks to its tied-in-knots nature.
It is a reasonable finisher too, although it may not be used to that end as often as it could be.

Figure 4 Foldover Armbar

The Figure 4 foldover armbar is an extremely interesting and subtle female wrestling submission
hold. The interesting thing about it is that it doesn’t look painful at all from the outside, yet once
you find yourself in one of these Figure 4 foldover armbars, you realize it’s causing pain in areas
and pulling muscles you never even knew existed.
The victim of the hold is sitting on the mat as the attacker approaches her from the front. The
attacker takes one of the victim’s legs, crosses it over the other leg (which remains extended) and
secures it by putting her foot right in front of it. She then pulls the victim’s head forward (by the
hair if necessary) and pulls one of her arms over her head (usually the one on the same side as
the crossed-over leg) and secures an armbar. The attacker also has the option to secure a double

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 armbar, in which case we’re talking about the Figure 4 double
foldover armbar.

Though it looks innocent enough, if properly executed, the move

is almost certain to result in a submission.
Possible escape: if you’re ever put into a Figure 4 foldover
armbar, you’ll realize that once sunk in, escaping this hold is not
really an option. Prevention is the only way to escape it: don’t let
your opponent slip it on you.
Rating: despite its innocent appearance, the Figure 4 foldover
armbar is an extremely efficient female wrestling submission hold.
Because it targets subtle muscle-groups, it is likely to take the
victim completely by surprise, thus further increasing its
efficiency.

Figure 4 Headlock

The figure 4 headlock is positively among the most vicious

women’s wrestling holds. The whole setup is quite paradoxical:
one would think that getting those smooth, silky pantyhose-
covered thighs around your neck is pleasant, but obviously it’s
everything but, especially when your opponent starts to jerk her
lower body around threatening to rip your head clean off your
shoulders. The victim is in a very vulnerable position in this hold and the attacker is able to pour
a lot of power into it, virtually unopposed. This makes the Figure four headlock a very efficient
hold.
The attacker gets the victim onto her back on the mat. A snap mare is great for this purpose
because it will leave the attacker in the best position: behind the victim. The attacker then wraps
her legs around the victim’s neck and closing the noose with one of her lower legs in a figure 4
fashion, starts squeezing. She can then tighten the hold or she can lean back using her arms to
prop her upper body up and she can jerk her bottom around to add to the misery of the victim.
Efficiency: the figure 4 headlock is extremely efficient and though in theory it is an excellent
submission hold, in professional women’s matches wrestlerettes rarely submit to this move. It is
rather used as an overall wear-down move.
Possible escape: a properly locked on figure 4 headlock is quite impossible to escape while
staying within the confines of the rules of women’s professional wrestling. Some girls will bite
their way out of the hold though, while others will thrust around until they manage to loosen it
enough to escape. If the attacker decides not to relinquish the hold though, be prepared that
you’ll probably have to give it up.

Figure 4 Leglock

The figure 4 leglock is one of the most efficient female wrestling submission holds. Because the
move involves a bending of the knee the way it’s not supposed to bend, and because it is
extremely difficult to get out of it is likely to extract submission from even the toughest
wrestlerettes.

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 The defender (better call her victim) is on her back on the floor, with the
attacker holding her legs up. The attacker steps between the defender’s
legs and then spins around holding one of the legs. The spinning motion
will bend the leg at the knee. The attacker them picks up the other leg and
holding it out straight, tucks the bent leg (usually the victim’s ankle)
above the knee of the straight leg. She then steps forward with her free
leg past her opponent’s locked foot and falls back. When it’s locked in,
the stretched out leg of the victim has the foot resting on the attacker’s
lower stomach. The attacker can then increase pressure on the knee by
thrusting her pelvis forward.
Possible escape: the victim can turn unto her stomach turning her
opponent too and thus reversing the hold.
Rating: extremely efficient submission hold. The attacker uses very little force and energy to
cause a disproportionate amount of discomfort for the victim. The fig 4 will almost always result
in “I give” cries.

Front Facelock

The front facelock is one of the nastiest and in the same time most
subtle women’s wrestling submission holds. It is an extremely vicious
hold because it puts pressure on the spinal cord as well as on the neck of
the victim. The hold itself is not highly spectacular, but it is extremely
efficient. It is extremely frustrating for the victim to have to tap out to
such a straightforward and simple ladies wrestling hold.
The attacker starts out by getting the victim onto her back on the mat. A
bodyslam or even a clothesline will do just fine. The attacker then
mounts the victim straddling her thighs, and sits her up (either by
pulling her up by her hair of slipping a hand behind the back of her
head). The attacker then gets the victim’s head under her arm and sits back pulling on the locked
head of her opponent, while pushing it downward. The pressure on the spinal cord will soon have
the victim yelling uncle and tapping out.
Efficiency: despite the fact that it looks so simple, the front facelock is a truly devastating
female wrestling submission hold. Because it’s relatively easy to slip on, the victim won’t really
get a fore-warning of what’s about to come.
Possible escape: Shouting “I give!” and tapping the mat or your opponent’s back is a pretty
good way to escape this hold. Seriously though, once it’s locked in properly, there isn’t really a
whole lot one can do to escape but to submit. Try to prevent your opponent from locking it on.

Full Nelson

The Full Nelson is one of the most basic female wrestling holds. If you go to a professional
wrestling school or take up freestyle wrestling, it’ll be among the first holds you’ll be taught. The
hold does not qualify as a submission hold or as a throw either. It’s aim is to offer the attacker
control over the victim.
The full nelson can be applied from a standing and from a sitting position. In the standing
position, the attacker needs to stand behind the victim, facing her back. In the seated position, the

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 attacker sits behind the victim in a similar fashion. She then
proceeds to slip her arms under her opponent’s arms from behind
and then to reach up to grab the back of her neck with her hands.
Once there, the attacker can opt to clutch her hands together. She
can then easily apply pressure by simply straightening her arms.

The full nelson can be combined with other holds too. A Body-
scissors complemented by a full nelson is an extremely potent combo hold, even in competitive
women’s wrestling.
Possible escape: when in a loosely locked in full nelson, the victim can raise her arms and them
bring them down hard, making the attacker’s clutched hands slip open. She can then proceed to
reverse the hold. A solidly locked in full nelson is pretty damn inescapable.
Rating: the full nelson is not a particularly spectacular hold, but it is extremely efficient when
used to control the victim, or in combo holds, where it may just make the difference between a
submission and a ride-out.

Hangman

The Hangman is technically a ladies’ wrestling submission hold, but it is seldom used to actually
extract a submission from the victim. It is more of a weakening move, used to set up the victim
for another submission hold. The hangman weakens the victim’s neck, as the distress it causes is
similar to the effects of the camel clutch. The attacker and the victim stand back to back. The
attacker reaches up and back with both her arms, clutching her hands around the chin of her
victim. She then begins pulling the victim’s head upward and back (hence the name of the hold).
Some wrestlers will lean forward while pulling on their victim’s chin, and they may even end up
getting the victim’s feet off the ground, having them draped over their bent backs.
Possible escape: if the attacker decides to be really nasty about it, the victim can do little to
escape the hangman. Basically if the attacker decides to rip her head off she can do that. What
mostly happens in ladies’ pro wrestling bouts though is that the attacker breaks the hold after
torturing her victim in it for a while.
Rating: though not the most efficient submission hold ever, the hangman is spectacular enough
to be used as a believable weakening hold. A girl caught in it for a while will most likely easily
surrender to a camel clutch applied afterwards. Is the camel clutch suited to be used as a finisher?
I have never seen it wrap up a ladies wrestling match ever, though theoretically it could be a
finisher too.
For illustrations of this hold go to: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/hangman.html

Headscissors

Headscissors are some of the most often-used and efficient holds

in women’s competitive mat wrestling. A Headscissor is an
extremely efficient way to extract a submission in competitive
female wrestling (see some of the DWW matches) and though it
is used in professional matches too, it will seldom yield a
submission there, as much more spectacular holds are used as

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finishers there.
A head scissor can be applied from a variety of positions, however the most efficient way is with
the defender on her back on the mat and the attacker applying her scissors from the side. This
way, she can even immobilize one of the defender’s arms.

Head scissors are usually applied from a ground-wrestling position, after the two opponents have
been struggling on the mat for a while. The attacker maneuvers herself into position catching her
opponent’s head between her legs. She then clutches her legs together at the ankle and begins to
squeeze. In competitive ladies wrestling matches, a well-applied headscissor will often yield a
quick submission.
Possible escape: provided the attacker doesn’t pour too much pressure into the hold
immediately, the defender can attempt to separate her attacker’s legs at the ankles with her free
arm. Once she succeeds in doing that, her opponent will find it impossible to tighten the hold.
Rating: very efficient in real competitive wrestling, more of a wear-down hold in professional
women’s wrestling.

Indian Deathlock

The Indian Deathlock is a very spectacular submission hold,

although I have my doubts regarding its efficiency.
With the defender lying face down on the floor, the attacker
first secures a double toed leglock then spinning around, she
key-holes it (threads her leg between her opponent’s locked
legs) and leans back into a bridge, grabbing her opponent’s
chin and pulling it upwards.

Though the stress on the victim is obvious, the attacker herself

is in a rather precarious position. It takes a great deal of effort and energy on her part to maintain
the hold, and that kind of ruins the efficiency of this hold. If the defender can hang on and not
submit immediately, the attacker will sooner or later have to break the hold unable to maintain it
herself.

Regardless of its shortcomings, the Indian Deathlock is a very spectacular hold often used in
professional wrestling matches where the accent is on the visual impact. Whenever it results in a
submission, it is a real crowd-pleaser.
Possible escape: just hang on and ride it out. If your opponent is not one of those Terminatrix
Japanese wrestlers, she’ll have to break the hold.
Efficiency: moderately efficient.

Japanese Twist

The Japanese twist looks a lot like the abdominal stretch and therefore you’ll see people confuse
the two holds all the time on youtube and on different women’s wrestling sites. The truth is
though that by applying a Japanese twist, the attacker targets a different area of her opponent’s
body and does it in a different way: by using her legs.

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 The Japanese twist is such a positively vicious-looking female
wrestling hold, it puzzles me every time how a girl can get out
of it.

The attacker bends her opponent (by delivering a belly punch

for instance) and then gets her right leg over and around her
neck, effectively catching the neck of the victim in her knee-
bend. She grabs hold of the left arm of the victim and pulls it
backward, while leaning back and pushing forward with the leg
which is around the victim’s neck. The attacker can choose to
just stand on her other leg, or she can wrap it around the
victim’s supporting leg, in which case she is able to put more
power into the hold.

For some reason it always seems to me like the attacker could

rip the victim’s head clean off pretty much at will in this hold.
A fully sunk-in Japanese twist has the victim bearing the entire weight of her opponent as she is
subjected to extreme physical abuse.
Possible escape: on my part, I think the only escape from a Japanese twist should be through
tapping out. In pro women’s matches though, the victim often escapes the hold, by simply
collapsing to the mat or by having the opponent break it for some unknown reason.
Rating: the Japanese Twist should be an extremely efficient female wrestling submission hold. It
looks positively vicious and it hurts like hell too. No female wrestler should ever be able to
escape a well executed Japanese twist.

Kinniku Buster

The kinniku buster is one of the most dominant and spectacularly

humiliating women’s wrestling holds. The girl who puts her
opponent into this submission hold needs to have a serious size and
strength advantage over her, otherwise it just won’t work out.
The move starts out with the attacker putting the victim onto one of
turnbuckles. She then pulls her head down and gets one of her
shoulders right behind the victim’s neck. She grabs both the victim’s
legs at the knee-bend and she quite literally pulls her onto her
shoulder. The move requires great balance and strength on the part of
the attacker, because – at the peak of the hold – she will quite
literally support the entire weight of her victim.

The victim will be completely helpless in the hold, turned upside

down, with her legs pulled up behind her head, more than 5 feet off
the ring-floor. If there is a truly precarious position to be in, in
women’s wrestling, this has to be it.

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The attacker can then simply opt to tighten the hold even more by wrapping the victim into a
ball, and bouncing up and down with her to add pressure. She can also fall to a knee to achieve
the same effect.
Possible escape: scream “I Give!” or hope that your opponent runs out of steam and puts you
down. Landing from this position isn’t exactly a walk in the park either, so be careful what you
wish for.
Rating: The Kinniku buster is a highly acrobatic move, and it is highly spectacular as well. It is a
pretty efficient pro submission move (it obviously cannot be done in competitive matches), but
the truth is, it is extremely straining on the attacker too, who has to bear the whole weight of her
opponent through the hold.

Kneespread

The kneespread is a low efficiency submission hold meant to

put pressure on the inside of the thighs. British lady wrestlers
seem to use this hold a lot, so one may as well say it’s a
traditional British hold. Despite its low efficiency, the hold can
be used to great effect if applied properly and with sufficient
force.
The attacker has the victim in a sitting position. She then folds
her legs up in front, securing the lock with one of her feet. The
attacker then places her hands on the insides of the victim’s
knees and starts pushing downward on them.
Efficiency: although I haven’t really seen a girl wrestler submit to the kneespread, the potential
is certainly there. The hold can cause excruciating pain. With all that, the kneespread is mostly
used as a wear-down hold, meant to set the victim up for a different – more efficient -
submission hold.
Possible escape: once the attacker pushes down on her knees with force, the victim will find it
rather difficult to get her bottom off the mat and to pull herself backward. Most wrestling women
are flexible enough to have their knees pushed to the limit though without experiencing a whole
lot of pain, hence the low efficiency of the move.

Leg Step-over Hold

The Leg Stepover Hold is one female wrestling hold I can tell
you a lot about, because I have been caught in it more than
once and I was forced to tap out in it too. The first thing that
comes to mind about the leg stepover hold is that it’s a vicious
and mean move indeed. The pain it causes is the kind that can
make one sweat, and nauseous.
The forced leg stepover hold starts out with the victim sitting
on the mat/ring floor and the attacker standing behind her. The
attacker then steps over the left shoulder of the victim with her left leg, and plants her boot on the
inside of the victim’s left thigh. She then leans forward and grabs hold of the victim’s right leg at
the ankle and begins pulling it upward. The neck of the victim will be locked between the
attacker’s thighs. The attacker can pull the victim’s leg clear over her head if needed.

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The move puts extreme pressure onto the leg, from the calves and thighs all the way to the
buttocks and even crotch. It does all that while compressing the spine.
Possible escape: the only sure-fire escape from a well locked-in forced leg stepover hold is by
submitting. Sloppily executed leg stepover holds are often escapable through squirming out of
them, but the real deal is indeed a killer.
Rating: The leg stepover hold is practically guaranteed to yield cries of surrender, so with that in
mind, I have to rate it an extremely efficient ladies’wrestling submission hold.

Leghook Submission

Yes, apparently there is such a thing as a leghook submission.

Although leghooks are usually used to secure a pin, they may also
be used in a more aggressive manner to achieve a submission. The
leghook submission hold is a much more aggressive form of the
leghook, and it takes up a lot more energy on the part of the
attacker.
With the defender/victim on her back, the attacker hooks one of
her legs by reaching around the back of her neck with one arm,
hooking the leg with the other and then connecting the two hands. In the same time, the attacker
scissors the victim’s other leg. When the hold is fully secured, she begins to straighten her body,
by pulling upward with her arms and pushing downward with her thighs. This way, the victim
will be subjected to pressure on multiple fronts. Firstly, her neck will be pulled forth painfully.
Secondly, her two thighs will be split and pulled apart in the hold. All this happens while she’s
completely helpless and immobilized.
Possible escape: If the victim happens to be extremely flexible, she may be able to ride the hold
out without submission. She’ll still be immobilized though, so she won’t be off the hook. The
only way for her to escape really is to power her way out of it.
Efficiency: The efficiency of this hold depends on the strength (upper and lower body) of the
attacker. If she’s strong enough, the leghook submission hold can be a truly devastating one.

Legspread

A tough submission hold, the legspread starts out the same way
a spladle does. The attacking wrestler hooks one of her
opponent’s legs with her legs and the other with her arms from
behind. Then, instead of flipping her opponent backward and
pulling her legs over, she leaves her in an upright position and
pulls her legs apart.
A legspread can be applied in different ways too, like when the
victim is on her back on the mat or in just about any other
position, depending on how the attacker can slip the hold on her.
Possible escapes: If you’re put in a legspread, you’d better show extreme flexibility or you’ll
very soon find yourself extremely eager to declare your surrender. Once the hold is locked on

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and sunk in well enough, you won’t really go anywhere without a submission, unless you are
very flexible and it doesn’t really bother you to sit around like that all day long. In that case, your
opponent may notice she’s not causing you any distress and might break the hold on her own.
Rating: Normally, I’d say this hold is an extremely efficient way of squeezing a submission out
of your opponent. However, given the fact that being extremely flexible completely defeats its
purpose, and that many female wrestlers have dance or gymnastics backgrounds, I’ll have to say
it is very efficient in some of the cases.

Lotus Lock

A submission hold meant to wear an opponent down rather than

to actually decide a match, the Lotus Lock is a relatively often
used hold in professional female wrestling. It looks spectacular,
and there are various ways to make it more punishing for the
victim and possibly even more spectacular for the viewer.
The lotus lock can be applied from several positions. The
standard situation is when the victim is sitting on the mat (ring
floor) with the attacker behind her. The attacker then pulls the
victim’s arms backward and wraps her legs around them
pulling back on them with her arms and squeezing with her legs in the same time. Extreme
discomfort can be caused to the victim, although most women wrestlers are more than flexible
enough to ride out a Lotus Lock without surrendering.

The attacker can choose to rock backward from the sitting position in which she applies the hold,
pulling the victim backwards as well over her. She can also elect to force the victim face down
onto the mat and apply the lotus lock sitting on her back, possibly rubbing a foot into her face too
to make it that much more uncomfortable.
Possible escape: as long as your opponent doesn’t switch the lotus lock into something more
dangerous, all you have to do is wait till she releases you. You can also attempt to wiggle or
power your way out of the hold but since you have to part her legs using your arms, that’s not
going to be easy.
Rating: while the Lotus Lock is a hold which takes up little energy on the part of the attacker to
maintain, the strain it places on most victims is just not enough. It is used to wear opponents
down rather than to bring a conclusion to the match. The fact that it is spectacular means that it
will be used in pro matches quite often. The attacker also has quite a few options available to
continue on from a locked in Lotus Lock.

Matchbook Submission

While the matchbook is pretty much a maneuver used

exclusively for pinning, it can apparently be used as a
submission hold as well. The matchbook submission hold is a
peculiar variant of the matchbook, which allows the attacker
to put pressure on the victim’s spine to force the submission.
The hold can be slipped on in a variety of ways. For instance,
the victim is vulnerable to it when sitting on the floor (trying

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to pull herself together following a bodyslam for instance). The attacker can then stand over her,
with her neck between her legs pushing her head forward, and reach down and pick up her legs.
The attacker then sits back and presto, the matchbook submission lock is on. On top of being an
extremely spectacular female wrestling hold, the matchbook will also completely restrain the
victim, thus it may well yield a submission, even if the attacker fails to cause pain. Pain is caused
by the compression of the victim’s spine which also leads to extreme discomfort as it squeezes
the air out of the victim’s lungs.
Possible escape: I think it’s safe to say that once locked on properly, the matchbook submission
hold is impossible to escape. The attacker has her opponent completely at her mercy in this one.
Rating: extremely spectacular and efficient too. Because it is impossible to escape, a submission
is virtually guaranteed in this hold.

Mexican Ceiling

The Mexican Ceiling, also known simply as the Ceiling or Romero,

is one of the most complex and in the same time spectacular
women’s wrestling submission holds. Because of these attributes it
is almost always used as a finisher.
The victim is face-down on the mat with the attacker stepping onto
the back of her thighs. The attacker then tucks the victim’s feet onto
the inside of her lower leg and leans forward to slap the victim’s
sides. This is done in order to cause the victim to swing her arms
backward, so that the attacker can grab hold of them. Once the arms
are secured, the attacker sits back, pulling on the victim’s arms
while pushing forth with her legs. She continues the motion rolling
onto her back and lifting the victim up eventually completing the
hold at the top of the motion.

The Mexican ceiling can then be combined with a dragon sleeper (by letting go of the arms and
securing a sleeper on the neck, while still holding the legs up) to add to the distress of the victim.
Possible escape: none. Once trapped in this hold you’d better start screaming as with both your
arms trapped and high up in the air, you won’t even be able to tap.
Rating: while the hold does indeed look spectacular and while there’s no question that the
victim’s legs and back are subjected to tremendous pressure, the efficiency of the hold is still
questionable from a technical perspective. It does require cooperation from the victim, and it
takes a tremendous leg-strength on the part of the attacker to pull it off.

Over the Knee Backbreaker

The Over the knee backbreaker starts out just like a bodyslam. The
attacker reaches between her opponent’s legs and hoist her up by the
crotch, with her other arm over the shoulder/neck of the victim. She
then proceeds to turn her bottom up while slamming her downwards. In
the last moment she kneels down slamming her opponent across her
extended knee. She then has the option to let her fall to the mat and
then possibly repeat the move, or to keep her draped across her knee

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and push down on her chin and knee in order to exert pressure on her back.
Some wrestlerettes might be flexible enough to ride out the hold without submission. Those who
do not bend enough will have few options other than surrender.

Over the knee backbreaker s can also be used to weaken the opponent’s back and to set her up
for a Boston Crab or a Camel Clutch.
Possible escape: if your opponent aims to keep you in the hold, it will be quite impossible to
escape. Wiggling about might destabilize the knee you’re draped across and thus break the hold.
Rating: extremely efficient

Over the Shoulder Backbreaker

The over the shoulder back breaker is a true power-move in

ladies’ professional wrestling. It is a submission move with
rarely if ever misfires. It is also more than spectacular enough
to be used as a finisher. The difference between the torture rack
and the Over the shoulder BB is in the victim’s position in the
hold. In the case of the torture rack, she’s is in a sideways
position, her spine being bent to the side. In the case of the over
the shoulder BB, her back is parallel to the ring-floor and her
spine is bent backwards.
The attacker needs to stun the victim somehow before she can set up the over the shoulder
backbreaker. She then approaches the victim from the side, and she basically sticks one of her
shoulders into the victim’s lower back, as she hoists her up by grabbing her neck with one hand
and one of her legs with the other (right above the knee). As the attacker stands up, the hold is
locked in for good. Once the victim is up on her attacker’s shoulders, she’s quite helpless. The
attacker can then pull her chin and knee downward with her arms, while bouncing up and down
with her burden. This allows her to bend her victim to the point where she’s forced to admit
defeat.
Possible escape: from a well sunk-in over the shoulder back breaker, there’s just one way out:
screaming Uncle. From a sloppily applied hold, the victim can escape by turning sideways and
rolling off her opponent’s shoulders. She can then even go for a rollup or some other similar
offensive move.
Rating: while the over the shoulder backbreaker is extremely hard on the attacker (she bears the
entire weight of her victim) the distress it causes for the victim far exceeds that, thus the overall
efficiency of the hold remains very good. Due to its spectacular nature, the over the shoulder
back breaker can be used as a finisher without a second thought.

Overhead Double-toed Leglock Bow and Arrow

That’s quite a name for a female wrestling hold, isn’t it? Anyway,
the Overhead double toed leglock bow and arrow is among the more
frequently applied holds in women’s professional wrestling. The
hold is a good solid “softening” move which doesn’t require
outstanding skills from any of the two wrestlerettes involved, yet the
hold manages to be spectacular enough to stay interesting.

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The attacker turns the defender onto her stomach and secures a double toed leglock on her with
her right arm. She then kneels down onto her lower back and grabs hold of her chin with her left
hand. Pulling the legs and the chin of the victim upward she stiffens her legs and rolls onto her
back, hoisting her opponent up into a genuine torture rack. The Overhead double toed leglock
bow and arrow is extremely uncomfortable to say the least and it is possible that it could yield a
submission. Once the hold is locked in, the attacker can move her knees to make it even more
excrutiating. Being bounced around like that is no joyride, believe me.
Possible escape: if the hold is sunk in properly, it’s extremely difficult to escape. If the
attacker’s hand slips off your chin though you can roll off her knees, right onto her chest to pin
her. If you’re fast enough you may even end up hooking one of her legs.
Rating: the Overhead double toed leglock bow and arrow isn’t really used as a finisher, though
it could probably pass for one too. It is generally used to soften up the victim’s lower back, so
that a subsequent hold (like a boston crab) can finish her off easier.

Persian Carpet Ride

The Persian Carpet ride is one female wrestling move you

should not expect to find in any wrestling holds glossary. The
reason is simple: it was a gimmick move of Farrah, the Persian
Princess (something tells me there aren’t many princesses by
that name running around in ancient Persia’s current day
location) from the now defunct WOW (Women of Wrestling).
The Gimmick behind the move was obvious: she was Persian,
she was a princess, and she obviously rode magic carpets to
work every day. And in her spare time, she wrestled for WOW.
Makes perfect sense.
Anyway, looking beyond the ridicule of WOW’s gimmicks, the hold was a very solid combo
submission hold, to which Sandy of the Beach Patrol almost fell victim during their tag match.

The attacker (Farrah) starts the hold by grabbing the right leg of her victim, who’s face down on
the mat. She steps over the leg, and she bends it around, locking the other leg in the process, into
a position closely resembling a double-toed leglock. She then grabs hold of her arms (in a
Surfboard-like manner) and begins to pull backward on them, while keeping the legs locked.
Possible escape: probably none. The double toed leglock/surfboard combination is an extremely
solid submission move, and had her partner Summer not come to her aid, Sandy would’ve
probably been forced to surrender in the hold.
Rating: the hold does indeed look like a very solid submission move, so I’ll have to give it a
rating of extremely efficient.

Pretzel

The pretzel hold is another difficult-to-categorize women's wrestling move. The pretzel is a
submission hold and a pin in one. The victim suffers pain in her legs while she is pinned, so she's
basically faced with the choice of picking her own poison: submitting or being pinned.
The attacker flips the victim onto her stomach, so she's lying face down on the mat. She then
puts a double toed leglock on her, threads her leg through her opponent's legs to secure the hold

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 (just like in the case of the Indian deathlock) then she sits back
and grabs hold of her opponent's wrists. She then rolls onto her
back holding on to the victim's wrists and pushes her legs
forward and up. This way, the victim will find herself with her
shoulders firmly planted on the mat and with her legs tied up in
a painful submission hold. The attacker can then lift her legs up
higher to increase the pressure on the hold if needed and to deny
any possibility for escape.
Possible escape : a well locked-on Pretzel hold is pretty damn near impossible to escape.
Because you only really have 3 seconds to do anything about it, your perspective is pretty bleak
indeed.
Rating : The pretzel hold is a very efficient women's wrestling move. It's effective both as a pin
and a submission hold. Due to its spectacular nature and to its efficiency, the pretzel can be used
as a finisher anytime.

Reverse Indian Deathlock

The reverse Indian Deathlock is a variation of the Indian

Deathlock, a spectacular and efficient submission wrestling
maneuver in its own right, which we have already covered on the
pages of this website. The difference between the Reverse Indian
Deathlock and the square Indian Deathlock is the fact that
instead of being positioned on her stomach, the victim of the
move will end up on her back. The attacker basically threads her
leg through her opponent’s intertwined legs the same way she
does in the case of the Indian Deathlock. Of course, given that the victim is in a sitting position
when the hold is applied, the reverse Indian Deathlock is a bit more difficult to lock in.
Once she manages to tie up her opponent however, the attacker pretty much has the match in the
bag. Most of the time, the attacker doesn't even have to stand up in order to increase the pressure,
before the stricken victim cries her surrender. A professional female wrestler who often uses the
reverse Indian Deathlock as her finisher is Tenille Tayla, who doesn't just stand up in order to
better her leverage and increase the pressure of the hold, she will often do a back-bridge as well,
taking her unfortunate victim to the limit indeed. Needless to say, the back-bridge element adds
further visual appeal to the hold too. The victim will find herself with her back arched and in an
incredible amount of pain, as submission becomes an ever better looking option with every
passing second. It is usually only a matter of seconds indeed before screams of "uncle" fill the
ring and the hold is broken.

Possible escape: we can positively state that barring any outside interference, the reverse Indian
Deathlock is an inescapable submission hold. The victim can only possibly get out of it if and
when she surrenders.

Rating: the reverse Indian Deathlock is a top ladies wrestling hold, both visually and efficiency-
wise. It is definitely finisher material, and that is exactly what most of the ladies who decide to
employ the move use it for.

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Rocking Horse

The Rocking Horse is a relatively seldom seen women’s

wrestling submission hold. It is quite on the spectacular side,
but it’s an intricate hold, one that’s relatively difficult to apply
too. The victim is face down on the ring-floor and the attacker
is sitting right behind her.
The attacker takes the victim’s legs and folds them, trapping
them under her armpits as she slides forward. Once the legs are
securely in place, the attacker stretches her own legs out, under
the victim’s shoulders and grabs hold of both her wrists pulling
her arms backward. As soon as the hold is locked in, the attacker begins to rock back and forth
(hence the name of the hold) with her victim, increasing the tightness of the combination. The
Rocking horse targets the back and the shoulder-sockets, but interestingly enough, it puts
pressure on the knees as well. At the peak of the rocking motion, the victim’s knees will pretty
much have to support her entire weight while in a rather awkward position.
Possible escape: if you’re flexible and hardy enough, you can simply ride out the rocking horse.
It is a hold that saps the attacker’s strength too, so it’s only a matter of time before she decides to
break it. Other than that, you can prevent the hold being applied by not allowing your opponent
to get into position to set it up.
Rating: the rocking horse is spectacular enough to be used as a finisher, although it is seldom
used to that end. It is generally a move which weakens the victim’s back, setting her up for a
Boston crab or a camel clutch submission.

Scorpion Crosshold (Queen Angelito Stretch)

The Scorpion Crosshold (apparently also known as the Queen

Angelito Stretch) is a female wrestling submission hold most
often used by the Mexican ladies. Some Japanese girls are
known to have used it too (Bull Nakano if I’m not mistaking)
but for some reason, it never really got popular with the
wrestling ladies in the US. The hold, which I have never tried
myself, looks positively vicious and really painful for the
victim.
The move starts out with the victim on her back and the
attacker standing in front up her, holding her legs up and apart.
The attacker then ties the victim’s legs up the same way she
would in preparation for a sharp-shooter or for a scorpion
leglock. She even turns the victim into the hold (onto her
stomach) but then, instead of securing the legs with both her
hands and leaning back, she only secures the leglock with one
hand, and with the other, she grabs hold of one of her victim’s arms and lifts her off the mat/ring-
floor completely. She leans back slightly to reposition her center of gravity to compensate for her
opponent’s weight and the hold is locked in.
Truly skilled lady wrestlers can keep the hold locked in with only one arm, freeing up the other
to gesture and victory-pose with.

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Possible escape: on my part I have only ever seen the victim escape a Scorpion Crosshold when
her tormentor got tired to keep the hold locked in. The Queen Angelito Stretch does indeed take
up a lot of energy from the attacker, so in that respect, the victim has a chance of riding out the
hold if she can hold on without submitting for while. Other than that, the Scorpion Crosshold
pretty much does its job: it makes the victim cry Uncle.
Rating: the Scorpion Crosshold looks like one mean women’s wrestling hold and it does indeed
yield a submission pretty much every time it’s applied. It is a very efficient submission hold
indeed.

Sharpshooter

The sharpshooter is one of the most efficient submission holds in the

professional women wrestling world. It is kind of like a cross between
a figure 4 leglock and a boston crab. Since both of those holds are
vicious and extremely efficient, you can imagine the sharpshooter is
not a walk in the park either.
The victim is on the ring-floor, on her back, face up. The attacker
holds her legs up and apart (the same way she does when she’s about
to deliver a groin buster). She then steps through between her
opponent’ legs and folds one of them under the other in a figure 4.
When she has the fig 4 locked in, she turns around, turning the
defender onto her stomach as well. Once there, she just leans back and
pulls back on the victim’s locked legs. Cries of “uncle” are basically
guaranteed, unless the victim manages to reach the ropes somehow.

For a video example of a sharpshooter submission, go to our media page, the WOW section and
check out the Summer vs Phantom match, which ends in such a hold. What’s more, Phantom
puts the same hold on Sandy who rushes to her teammate’s help, and submits her in the
sharpshooter too.
Possible escape: try to prevent your opponent from locking your legs and turning you onto your
stomach. Once the hold is locked in, you’ll still have your arms free and you’ll be able to attempt
to crawl to the ropes for a rope-break, but if the ropes are far, you’re probably not going to last
long enough under the pressure.
Rating: extremely efficient. Many a female wrestler has had her will broken in this hold. It is an
extremely spectacular finisher as well that the crowd will probably love.

Single-leg Boston Crab

A single leg Boston crab is a variation on the basic Boston crab. Both of these holds are vicious
and almost guaranteed to extract a quick submission from the stricken victim, but – if at all
possible – the single leg Boston is probably even more efficient than the full one.
With the victim face down on the mat, the attacker hooks one of her legs under her armpit, gets
hold of the knee and pulls it backward, sitting back onto her opponent’s back.

A move used both in professional and in competitive mat matches, the single leg Boston leaves
little room for escape. While in the case of a regular Boston crab the victim may be able to power

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 her way out flipping her opponent forward, in the case of the Single
leg Boston, she is not likely to muster enough strength through the
single leg involved in the hold.
Possible escape: if the attacker manages to properly sink the hold in
I’d say the only escape is through surrender.
Rating: a truly effective weapon, the single leg Boston is guaranteed
to put a quick end to your match.

Spladle

As somebody who had been caught in a Spladle herself, I can

positively tell you it is one of the nastiest, most complex and most
efficent Ladies’ wrestling holds out there.
On one hand, it is extremely humiliating to end up in a hold like
that, it is like the ultimate expression of superiority on the part of
the attacker, on the other hand, it is a hold which – though not
particularly painful – creates extreme discomfort which will most
often result in submission. The nature of the hold allows the attacker to exert full control over the
victim with little effort, thus making her escape impossible and her situation desperate.

The attacker maneuvers the defender into a position in which she hooks one of her legs with her
arms and the other one with her legs. Folding the victim up, the attacker will be able to pull the
victims legs over and apart and even to tighten the matchbook on her.

When really sunk in, the Spladle literally squeezes the air out of the victim’s lungs forcing her to
take short and fast breaths in an effort to compensate. The degree of discomfort can easily lead to
a submission, and because the hold is virtually inescapable, it most probably will too. The
victim’s flexibility can bail her out in the beginning, but since it is at the latitude of the attacker
how much she wants to tighten the hold, even that will only serve to delay the inevitable.
Possible escapes: none
Rating: extremely efficient

Stacked Camel Clutch

The stacked camel clutch is quite positively one of the weirdest women’s wrestling holds you’ll
ever see. It’s quite rare too, so don’t expect to see it in just any female pro wrestling bout you
pick up, or go to. The actual efficiency of the hold is rather questionable to be frank, but the
humiliation factor gets the A+. The move can only be used in handicap matches (2 vs 1) where a
more powerful and skilled lady wrestler takes on two smaller, weaker and possibly less skilled
girls.
The attacker places the first victim face down onto the mat, she then proceeds to stack her tag
team partner on top of her in a similar fashion (she can achieve this by successive bodyslams or
any other way she prefers to). She then gets on top of the pile and applies a camel clutch on the

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girl on the bottom. This way, the wrestlerette on the bottom will be subjected to some quite
extreme pressure, and her tag team partner will actually contribute to her distress rather than to
help alleviate it.
Possible escape: don’t let your opponent overwhelm you and stack you up. It shouldn’t be that
difficult really unless you’re both knocked cold.
Rating: First of all, the stacked camel clutch is an extremely spectacular move. To see two girls
beg for release in a hold easily maintained by a single attacker is quite something. As far as
actual efficiency goes: the victim on top won’t really have her neck pressured, but the girl on the
bottom will have to endure the combined weight of two ladies while her neck is cranked
backward. A submission in this hold, coming from the unfortunate victim on the bottom of the
pile, is almost guaranteed. The verdict: the stacked camel clutch is an extremely efficient
submission hold.
For illustrations of the hold go to: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/stacked_camel_clutch.html

Standing Headlock

The standing headlock is one of the most basic wrestling moves, one
that every kid is likely to have already applied in his/her life. The side
headlock is one of the first moves a wrestler makes to control her
opponent. The attacker gets an arm around the victim’s neck and pulls
downward on it while turning to the left (if she applies the hold with her
right arm) or right (if she uses her left arm). This motion forces the
victim to yield to the pressure and to bend in the direction her opponent
wants her to.
The side headlock is the starting point for a variety of different throws,
all meant to capitalize on the momentary control obtained by the
attacker to take the victim’s peril further.
Possible escape: the victim can either force her way out of the hold, or
she can let her opponent toss her and then attempt to reverse the
situation afterwards.
Rating: Because it is an extremely basic hold, the standing headlock
will never be used as a finisher or anything close to that. It usually
initiates action, and sets the victim up for a follow-up move. It is
efficient though at what it’s trying to achieve.

Stepover Toehold

The stepover toehold is basically a submission hold, although you're not really likely to see a
women's wrestling match end in a submission brought about by one such hold. The stepover
toehold is most often used to control the victim and to weaken her legs, setting them up for a
subsequent - more efficient - submission hold targeting the same area.

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 The attacker gets the victim on her back, then picks up the
targeted leg, steps over it (hence the name of the hold) and
locks her foot under her upper arm. The attacker has the option
of twisting the victim's foot, thus putting more pressure on the
ankle. She can just tighten the hold with the foot locked under
her upper arm, in which case the knee will be targeted. By
pushing downward on the locked leg, she'll put pressure on the
hip and the knee.

The stepover toehold is one of the most frequently used

submission-type holds in women's wrestling, despite its limited
efficiency.
Possible escape : the stepover toehold can be reversed
relatively easily, and if you see it applied in a ladies match,
you're likely to see it reversed too. Because it leaves one of the victim's legs free, it offers her
room to maneuver. Skilled wrestlerettes will put their free foot on the attacker's chest and push
her backwards, while standing up in the same time. Because of the nature of the lock, that way
they'll have the stepover toehold locked on the former attacker in a complete reversal.
Rating : As said above, the stepover toehold is not exactly the most efficient submission hold. It
is most often used to weaken an opponent's legs. Applied repeatedly, it can be pretty efficient at
that though.

STF

The STF is truly one of the most vicious looking submission

holds, and one of the most efficient ones too. It is a combo
submission hold, which means both the victim’s leg/knee joint,
and neck/upper back are under serious strain in the hold. Most
girls tap out extremely fast in the STF as the combined attack
on the various body-parts is something almost no one can cope
with for more than a few seconds. A well applied STF (Step-
Over Toehold and Facelock?) will certainly yield a very urgent
tap-out and possibly some welcome “I give!” screams as well.
The victim is on her stomach on the ring floor/mat and the
attacker stands behind her. Stepping between her legs, the
attacker isolates one of them and bends it at the knee after which she locks it with her legs by
lying sideways on her opponent’s lower back/bottom. She then has her arms completely freed to
reach forth and clutch the chin of her victim, pulling back on it. The victim’s body is not only
bent upward but sideways too at the same time.
The funny thing about the STF is, although the victim has both her arms and one leg free, she
will be completely at the mercy of her opponent.
Possible escapes: None (tapping out).
Rating: given that it takes the attacker a lot less energy to keep her victim in the hold than it
takes the victim to even attempt to hold on, I’ll give the STF the highest efficiency ranking in
female wrestling. The STF can be applied in real women’s wrestling too, with devastating
results.

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Stomach Claw

I suppose the stomach claw can be used as a submission hold,

and due to its nature (the attacker inflicting static pain to the
victim) it has to be categorized as one. Most female wrestlers do
not use the stomach claw to wring a submission out of their
opponent though. The stomach claw is used to break out of
holds (it works excellently when the defender tries to break a
body scissors), or to torture a fallen wrestlerette who is no
longer able to defend herself. As such, the stomach claw is
usually the mark of a heel, a villainess causing as much distress
as she can to the damsel in her grasp.
The victim lies face up on the mat and the attacker reaches out, sinking her fingers into the
victim’s abdominal region. The attacker can use both her hands or only one of them.
Possible escape: just rolling to the side should be enough to break the stomach claw, as the
attacker won’t be able to exert the same amount of pressure once the victim’s position is altered.
Most often though the stricken victim seems to be paralyzed by pain thus unable to break out of
her tormentor’s clutches.
Rating: I suppose it’s theoretically possible to attain a submission through a stomach claw,
though – as I said above – this hold is seldom used towards that end. It is one hell of a painful
hold though so I’ll have to say it is a very efficient one too.

Stretch Muffler

The Stretch Muffler is a pretty exotic and spectacular female

wrestling submission hold. The hold looks vicious enough to be
efficient although it is a little difficult to apply and without some
cooperation from the victim, some girls may not be able to apply it at
all. Te defender (victim) is lying face down on the ring floor.
The attacker squats down beside her and picks up the leg of the
victim that is on her side. She then bends the leg at the knee and
wraps it around her own neck, while stepping over the victim’s head
with her left foot (or right one, depending on which side of the victim
she positions herself). This is necessary to prevent the victim from
simply spinning out of the hold.

As soon as the attacker has the leg of her victim around her neck, she holds on to it with both
hands. One hand close to the foot of the victim and the other on her upper thigh. She can even
elect to get her arms around the leg at the specified points and to clut
Possible escape: if the attacker fails to step over the victim’s head, she can use her free arms to
just spin free of the hold moving her upper body away from the attacker’s foot and then
eventually sitting up. If the hold is locked on properly though, there’s little one can do to escape.

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Efficiency: when properly locked on, the Stretch muffler will almost always result in a
submission, or at least it should. In women’s professional wrestling miraculous escapes are
possible though.

Surfboard

The Surfboard is theoretically a submission hold because it

targets joints and inflicts pain with no impact involved, but it is
not really an efficient submission hold at all. In women’s
professional wrestling, you’ll mostly see it used as a wear down
hold, the goal of which is to weaken the victim’s arms and
shoulders in order to prepare her for a more efficient
submission hold targeting the same joints.
The victim is on her stomach on the mat, or she’s kneeing or
sitting on the floor. The attacker grabs hold of both her wrists
and pulls both her arms backward and up, while placing a boot
between her shoulder blades. She then pushes forward with her
leg and pulls back on the arms in the same time to increase the
pressure. The attacker has the option to push forth with her leg and then to suddenly release to
victim’s arms to drive her face into the mat. Thus a twist can be added to the hold.
Possible escape: Some girls can roll forth in a Surfboard, thus ending up face-up on the mat in
front of their opponents. From that position they can kick their attacker or they can even flip her
over to turn the tide for good.
Rating: although it does target joints and it does aim to cause pain through limb-twisting and
pressure, the Surfboard hardly qualifies as a legit submission hold. You’ll see it often in
women’s wrestling matches, but most of the time you’ll see it used to wear an opponent down
rather than to bring a conclusion to a bout.

Tarantula Rope Backbreaker

The Tarantula Rope Backbreaker is a spectacular women’s

wrestling submission hold made popular by TNA’s Tara
(WWE’s Victoria) who used the hold often on her opponents.
The Tarantula rope backbreaker is a relatively complicated
hold, and there’s one major problem with it: is uses the ring
ropes. While it is supposed to be a submission maneuver, it
can’t really be used for an actual submission in a women’s pro
wrestling match, because the victim cannot submit while she’s
in the ropes (or she can, but it won’t count).
Anyway, the tarantula rope backbreaker’s spectacular nature makes up for this tiny slip-up.

The attacker starts out by sitting on the top turnbuckle. As the would-be victim charges her, she
picks her legs up then gets it around the victim’s arms/upper body. She then turns onto the top
rope so her stomach’s on it and turns the victim with her too, so that the victim is now facing the
inside of the ring. The attacker then dives (slips) over the top rope while maintaining her scissors
and grabs hold of the victim’s legs at the ankles, effectively getting her up off the ground and

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suspending her in the ropes. The victim can then pull her opponent all the way through, so her
lover back is bent over the top ring rope.
Possible escape: as most of the really complicated women’s pro wrestling holds, the Tarantula
Rope backbreaker requires cooperation from the victim, and quite a lot of it actually. If she so
chooses, the victim can pretty much disrupt the hold any time she wants to, the way she wants to.
Rating: while extremely spectacular (and as such, a very useful component of the women’s pro
wrestling holds and moves arsenal) the tarantula rope backbreaker is not really an efficient hold,
for the above named reasons. The hold is mostly used to weaken the victim’s back before an
actual submission hold is applied.

Tequila Sunrise

The tequila sunrise is an intricate and pretty sexy women’s wrestling submission hold. It is what
they call a combo-hold: it combines several holds to create a combination which is more difficult
to escape for the victim. The victim is face down on the mat and the attacker starts out by putting
her right leg over her extended left arm and then twisting it back over her lower leg in a
hammerlock kind of way.
As she twists the victim’s arm back, she sits atop the victim’s back, locking the trapped arm
under her bottom. With the victim’s left arm thus secured and with both her own arms free, the
attacker then proceeds to secure a single leg boston crab on the already locked-up victim. She
then simply maintains the hold until cries of uncle are heard. Due to its intricacy and to the
obvious peril in which the victim is in the hold, the Tequila sunrise is probably one of the most
spectacular ladies’ wrestling submissions.
Possible escape: a well locked-in tequila sunrise is quite impossible to escape. Unless the
attacker chooses to release her, the victim will only escape by submitting.
Rating: due to its intricately spectacular nature, the tequila sunrise is more than suited to be used
as a finisher. The victim only has one arm left free, so she can use it to tap out – this hold really
has everything covered.
For illustrations of the hold click through to: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/tequila_sunrise.html

Venus Flytrap

The Venus Flytrap is quite possibly one of the hottest, but in the same time meanest women’s
wrestling submission holds. I’m not even convinced that the hold officially exists. I’ve only ever
seen pro wrestler Venus use it, and since it’s one of her signature finishers, I’ve concluded that
she was the one who developed the hold. The Venus Flytrap is an incredibly intricate hold to
apply. Only locked on though, it is not only highly spectacular, it is quite impossible to escape
for the victim, so it basically guarantees an extremely spectacular and humiliating tap-out. At
first glance, the hold may look like a spladle but it’s much more than that.
The Venus flytrap starts out with the attacker putting the victim into a hammerlock. She then
steps under the victim’s free arm, while keeping the hammerlock on. She then bends the victim’s
head forward, and puts her right leg behind the victim’s right leg, so when she rolls her over
forward, the victim’s leg will end up hooked by her own, similarly to a spladle. Once the victim
is rolled forth onto her back, the attacker hooks her free leg with her arm and secures the small
package on her, while keeping the hammerlock locked in at all times. The victim will thus end

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up with her bottom pointing upward and both her legs completely folded up and secured, while
the attacker still has her arm in a hammerlock under her body. All the attacker needs to do then is
to gently tug on the hammerlocked arm of the victim, and cries of uncle are guaranteed to fill the
ring soon.
Possible escape: none. The Venus Flytrap is a highly spectacular finisher, the appeal of which
lies in the very fact that it has the victim completely and utterly exposed and helpless.
Rating: the Venus flytrap is an extremely efficient and in the same time spectacular ladies’
wrestling submission hold. The humiliation factor shouldn’t be ignored either: the Venus
Flytrap has got to be the most humiliating female wrestling hold I have ever personally
witnessed.
For illustrations of the hold click through to: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/venus_flytrap.html

Torture Rack

The Torture Rack is positively one of the most vicious submission holds in women’s pro
wrestling. Generally, only powerhouse lady wrestlers can execute the move properly, because it
involves the lifting of the victim clear off the ground. Reggie Bennett used the torture rack as her
finisher during her LPWA days and possibly later as well and made many women wrestlers
declare their submissions in the hold. I remember two distinct occasions on which she destroyed
Rustee Thomas in the LPWA using the “Reggie Rack”.
The attacker picks the victim up, gets her up over her shoulders, so that the victim is lying on her
side as her legs are trapped by the right arm of the attacker and her neck by the left arm, her face
pointing forward. The attacker then proceeds to pull down on the legs as well as on the neck of
the victim effectively bending her in half. The victim is with her left or right side toward the
floor and not with her back pointing downwards. The attacker will often bounce up and down to
add to the predicament of her victim whose situation is truly dire because – her feet off the
ground – she’s completely at the mercy of her conqueror. She can’t even tap out as the floor is
quite some distance away. The torture rack usually ends with the victim flailing wildly and
vocally declaring her submission. After the surrender, the attacker usually drops her to the floor
for good measure.
Possible escape: Don’t get caught in the torture rack. Once you’re up there, start flailing girl and
let the ref know you’re giving it up before you get hurt.
Rating: One of the most efficient submission holds in ladies pro wrestling. Not sure of its
efficiency in competitive wrestling.
For illustrations of the hold check out: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/torture_rack.html

Tree of Woe

The Tree of Woe involves using the ring ropes and the ring posts to control an opponent. The
attacker gets the victim up to the top turnbuckle (this can be done in a variety of ways), and then
hooks one of her boots or both under the element which links the turnbuckle to actual ring post.
She then hangs her head down on the inside of the ring. Besides the fact that it is extremely
painful, the Tree of Woe will leave the victim’s crotch, belly, and face pretty much open to
attacks of any sort.

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Because it is achieved through the use of the ropes, the Tree of Woe is practically an illegal hold.
As such, you can’t submit in Tree of Woe as you’re not in a legal position to do so.
Possible escape: try to pull yourself up with your arms via the ropes, try to untangle your boots
and then fall to the ring floor. If you’re way too exhausted/banged up to do it, you’ll probably
hang there at your opponent’s mercy till she decides to get you down or till the referee untangles
you.
Efficiency: the Tree of Woe puts extra stain on the victim’s legs, which means a submission hold
involving the legs would be in order after such a rough ride. Being illegal, its efficiency cannot
be considered directly.
For pics/moving illustrations of the hold go to: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/tree_of_woe.html

Triangle Leglock

The triangle leglock is a ladies’ wrestling submission hold and

it is a rather weird and awkward one at that too. The interesting
thing about it is that it doesn’t look like it’s particularly painful
for the victim when applied. Once you have the hold put on you
though, you’ll understand why it is indeed a more or less legit
submission hold.
The hold works via the compression of the internal organs of
the victim as well as the strain that it exerts on the glutes, and
the thigh of the victim. The attacker knocks the victim off her
feet and puts her onto her back on the mat. She then takes one
of her legs and crosses it over the other, placing one of her legs
in front of it to prevent escape. The attacker then leans forward
and places a headlock on the victim, sitting back while pulling
the victim’s head forward, toward her own knee. Keep this hold locked in long enough and it’s
only a question of when rather than if, till the victim starts flailing wildly or screaming uncle to
signal her surrender.
Possible escape: once the Triangle leglock is locked on, there’s little hope left for the victim,
other than the mercy of her attacker. The only way to avoid being locked in this hold is to squirm
out of it when the attacker tries to lock it on.
Rating:it may not be particularly spectacular, but the Triangle leglock is actually a rather
efficient submission hold. If locked in properly, it is almost guaranteed to yield a submission. It
is seldom used in main-stream women’s pro wrestling though.
That wraps up my submission holds section. The next category is about miscellaneous moves
that do not fit in any of the above covered categories. I call them “other moves”.

Other Ladies Wrestling Moves

Arm Wringer

The Arm Wringer is one of the most basic control moves in women’s wrestling. Its goal is
mainly to control the victim and not to actually inflict lasting damage on her, although prolonged
or successive arm wringers can be used to weaken the arm thus setting the victim up for an arm

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submission (like an armbar). The arm wringer is not a particularly spectacular hold but it is very
efficient at what it’s supposed to achieve.
The attacker grabs hold of the victim’s wrist and starts twisting it. That’s all there is to it.
Possible escape: despite the fact that it doesn’t look at all like an impressive move, the arm
wringer can be extremely painful for the victim. There are several possible ways to escape it. If
you have your left arm in an arm wringer, you can put your right hand down onto the floor and
flip over your head to relieve the pressure. You can also flip backwards if the direction of the
twist on your arm requires it. A good boot to the gut may also convince your attacker to release
the hold.
Efficiency: While you’re not likely to see a wrestler tap to an arm wringer, it will allow the
attacker to control and to maneuver the victim, and applied repeatedly, it will weaken the
targeted limb.
For illustrations of the Arm Wringer go to: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/arm_wringer.html

Axe Handle

The axe handle is one of the most basic women’s wrestling moves. It
is one of the few ways to legally deliver an impact using the fists, to
an opponent who is either standing or rising from the floor. The move
– also known as the double axe handle- is as simple as it gets: the
attacker climbs the ropes and then jumps off the middle or the top
turnbuckle, with fists clenched together and raised above her head.
She then strikes her victim, conveying the impact of her fall through
the move too. At the peak of the move, the attacker’s position is
similar to a person’s who holds an axe above her head ready to strike
– hence its name.
In ladies professional wrestling, the axe handle is rarely used to strike
the head of the victim (it may be too dangerous due to the fact that the
attacker has somewhat limited control over the impact she delivers). It
is instead used to strike a joint, like the shoulder with the intention of
weakening it, and thus setting it up for a subsequent hold targeting the same area.
Possible escape: the most straightforward way to escape a double axe handle is to simply side-
step it. When delivered from a double teaming situation, with one attacker holding the arm of the
victim, that is quite impossible though.
Rating: the axe handle is not considered to be a particularly efficient wrestling move, in or out of
kayfabe. The impact delivered by the move is usually only enough to weaken a joint. It is not
something one should ever even think about using as a finisher.

Back Mount

The backmount is one of the most basic women’s wrestling moves. It’s more of a control
position than an actual hold, through which the attacker gets herself into a position of advantage
over the defender, looking to slip an actual hold on her. The backmount also allows the attacker
to place pressure on the victim, without wearing herself off in the process.

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 The move is really simple. The attacker gets behind her
opponent and forces her stomach-down onto the mat. She then
mounts her back putting her entire body-weight on top of the
victim. This way, simply by making use of gravity and her
body-weight, the attacker will have the victim under pressure,
without actually having to exert any real effort.

The great thing about the back-mount is that the attacker has a whole bunch of options at her
disposal to continue the match from that position. She can opt to go for a devastating camel
clutch, or she can just lock in a full nelson or a leg grapevine (or a combination of the two) to
secure the position and to enjoy her advantage as well as the peril of her victim. She can also
bounce up and down on her victim to add to the pressure.
Possible escape: having your back exposed to your opponent in a female wrestling match is
never a good idea. You basically offer her a whole list of options while you completely blind
yourself. Therefore, you need to do everything you can to buck her off and to spin out of the
backmount as soon as possible.
Rating: the back-mount is extremely efficient at what it’s supposed to achieve: control and
effortless pressure. The attacker will be able to control her victim perfectly while making her
consume precious energy by just hanging on in the hold.

Bearhug

The bearhug is a true power-move in women’s wrestling. It’s one of the few moves which are
not based on agility and flexibility but rather on raw strength. The attacker puts her arms around
her victim’s waist (effectively hugging her) then lifts her off her feet and begins to squeeze. She
can shake her around in the hold to tighten it even more. Make no mistake, a well sunk-in bear-
hug by a powerful female wrestler is not a joke.
Possible escape: when put into a bearhug, you should take advantage of the fact that your
opponent’s arms are tied up and yours are both free. Just slap her on the side of the head and
she’ll release you, if for no other reason then to get her hands on you.
Rating: Though it may not be overly spectacular, the bear hug can be an extremely efficient
hold. I’ve seen women’s wrestling matches where the bear hug resulted in a submission , so it’s
definitely a serious and efficient hold. The fact though that it leaves the victim’s arms free, takes
a lot out of its potential. It also takes up a lot of energy on the part of the attacker, which can be
costly in the overall economy of a match. It’s one of those holds where it takes the victim less
energy to resist the hold than it takes the attacker to keep it up.
For illustrations, go to: http://www.women-wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/bearhug.html

Big Boot

The big boot is quite probably one of the least sophisticated ladies' wrestling moves. Its very
appeal is however in its raw nature. The attacker simply kicks the living c*** out of the victim,
and when it comes to wrestling, a little bit of well-sold raw violence is never over the top.
The attacker sets up the big boot by sending her opponent into the ropes to bounce back, as if she
were setting her up for a clothesline. As the victim bounces back, the attacker simply raises one
of her legs, so that the victim runs face-first into her boot. The big boot can be delivered to the

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mid-section, to the upper chest or even to the face. Obviously, the big boot which is skillfully
delivered to the face (and equally skillfully sold by the attacker) is the one to attain the best
effect. A properly sold big boot looks formidable enough to be used as a finisher, although the
hold is seldom if ever used to that end.
Possible escape: the victim can duck to avoid running into the big boot, or she can attempt to
sidestep it.
Rating: a properly executed big boot deserves a maximum impact rating. It is a move which -
under the proper circumstances – looks positively brutal. As such, it would probably be suited as
a finisher too; however no one seems to use it for that. It is mostly used as a softening-up move,
to keep the victim down for a few seconds until the attacker plots her next move.
For illustrations, check out: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/big_boot.html

Boot to the Neck

The boot to the neck is one of the more popular female

wrestling maneuvers. It is relatively spectacular, in the sense
that it makes the attacker look like she’s dealing a whole lot of
damage to the victim. If the victim sells the move well, the
effect can appear even more dramatic.
The attacker backs the victim into a corner (this can be
achieved through a series of kicks or breast edge chops) she
then lifts one of her legs up and puts her foot across the
victim’s throat, pushing on it. The move is supposed to inflict
damage to the victim’s neck, possibly setting her up for a hold that targets the same area.
The victim will usually sell this move by walking in place and generally looking distressed.
Possible escape: The boot to the neck is a relatively easy to escape hold. The attacker wastes a
lot of energy applying it and the defender can use her arms to divert the attacker’s leg over the
top ring rope and thus to put her in a vulnerable position.
Efficiency: the boot to the neck is not exactly a match-finishing hold, nor is it particularly
efficient at wearing down the victim. It’s more like a show-boating type of move, meant to
express the attacker’s dominance over her opponent.

Breast Edge Chop

The breast edge chop is one of the few women’s wrestling moves that involve striking. Sure
enough, in women’s professional wrestling, no close fisted strikes/punches are allowed,
therefore, the breast edge chop is delivered with an open hand. One may as well call it the breast
edge slap. It’s not actually supposed to cause serious damage to the victim (thank God for that),
but if delivered with enough force, it stings and burns like hell.
The attacker backs the victim up into the ropes or into a corner of the ring. She then pushes her
head back with one hand and with the other (again, with an open hand) delivers a thunderous
slap onto her exposed chest, ABOVE the breasts. It is very important that she does not slap the
defender’s breasts. She can deliver the breast edge chop with a backhand or a forehand, and she
can repeat it as many times as she deems necessary to soften up the victim.

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Possible escape: In professional female wrestling, you’ll often see the recipient of a (or a few)
breast edge chops grab hold of her opponent’s wrists and fling her into the ropes, after which she
gives her a taste of her own medicine. The best breast edge chop escape is its reversal.
Rating: While it’s definitely not a decisive move, the breast edge chop is one intimidating
bugger. It stings and hurts like hell, without actually causing any lasting damage. A couple of
well delivered breast edge chops are almost certain to stun a victim, making it easier for her
attacker to set up a follow up maneuver.
For illustrations, go to: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/breast_edge_chop.html

Breast Smother

The breast smother is a non conventional wrestling hold, used

rather frequently nonetheless, even in women’s professional
wrestling matches. The goal of the hold is quite the same as that
of the facesit: it dazes (and possibly even knocks out) the victim
by impeding her breathing. A regular hold in fetish wrestling,
the breast smother will usually leave the victim limp, ready to
be pinned with ease.
The breast smother can be applied from several different positions. It can also be used to prevent
the victim from kicking out of a pin. In a grapevine pin for instance, the attacker (the girl on top)
can push her breasts into the victim’s face smothering her, and preventing her from making a
focused effort to escape the hold.
The breast smother can also be applied from a reverse position, with the attacker’s head pointing
towards the victim’s legs. In this case the attacker’s head will usually end up on the victim’s
upper stomach area, and her breasts in the victim’s face.
Possible escape: the breast smother usually comes in combination with another hold, mostly to
augment its efficiency. Whether you can escape or not and how you can escape depends on the
hold used with the breast smother.
Rating: at first glance, one would hardly consider the breast smother anything more than a fetish
wrestling artifice, but I have seen it applied in absolutely serious and hard-fought competitive
ladies’ matches, so there has to be something to it, as difficult as that may be to believe. Though
it’s not likely to knock the victim out, it can certainly add discomfort and pressure on top of
whatever it’s used in combination with.

Bridging

Bridging is one of the most basic women’s wrestling moves, pro, amateur, freestyle, whatever. If
you’ve ever attended a gym-class in your life, you’ve probably done the bridge. In women’s
professional wrestling, the bridge is used both by attackers and defenders. Bridging is one of the
most common ways to escape a pin (see the gif attached below) but it can also be used to secure
one.
When attempting to escape a pin through a bridge, the defender is on her back with her opponent
on top of her, trying to pin her shoulders to the mat. The defender then arches her back and
pushes down with her legs while flexing her neck in the same time to get her shoulders up off the
mat.

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When bridging to secure a pin, it is the attacker who arches her back in order to keep her
opponent’s shoulders on the mat. Such bringing pins can occur after an underhook suplex, and
some folding pins are executed while bridging too.
Possible escape: On one hand, the bridge itself is an escape maneuver, so there’s no sense in
even considering the idea of an escape here. On the other hand, when used to secure pins, the
bridge can be escaped relatively easily. Because the attacker places herself in a precarious
position through the bridge, the defender can just roll to her side and collapse the hold.
Rating: as a means to escape, the bridge is extremely efficient, provided the defender has
enough strength left in her. As a way to secure a pin, the bridge is less efficient, however
bridging pins are always extremely spectacular.
For illustrations, check out: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/bridging.html

Bronco Buster

The bronco buster has got to be one of the most humiliating

female wrestling moves, although its technical legitimacy is a
bit questionable simply because the rings ropes are used for its
execution. The bronco buster is an offensive move designed to
inflict damage on several levels. It actually takes the fight out
of the victim by delivering repeated physical impact on her
chest area. On top of that, it humiliates as well, because of the
way it is executed.
The attacker gets the would-be victim into the corner of the
ring, then knocks her off her feet somehow getting her to sit in
the corner with her back leaning against the first turnbuckle. The attacker then gets her legs over
the bottom rope on both sides of the victim’s body and grabs onto the top rope with both her
hands, facing towards the turnbuckle. She then starts bouncing up and down, hitting the victim
repeatedly in the chest and face with her crotch/bottom. If ideally executed, the attacker’s bottom
needs to land on the victim’s upper chest. Although the move is not particularly spectacular, nor
is it outstandingly efficient, the crowds seem to love the humiliation it entails, therefore it’s a
pretty popular move in ladies’ wrestling. It is an easy move too, the only risk factor in it is the
potential for injury if the attacker happens to hit the victim in the face/nose.
Possible escape: the victim can try to slide down all the way to the floor to escape the trouncing
but such course of action is not recommended as it will position the victim’s face into the
danger-zone even if only for a brief period of time. The best way to escape is to just wait till the
attacker stops.
Rating: the bronco buster is not a highly efficient, nor highly spectacular move. It has the
humiliation factor working in its favor though, and that makes it quite popular with the crowds.

Choking

Choking the opponent is illegal in female wrestling, yet some girls continue to resort to this
move to soften up their opponents. Some of these “dirty” wrestlerettes will pretend that they’re
applying a sleeper hold, but they’re actually choking their opponents rather than putting them to

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 sleep. Others do not bother to mask their move, they
just grab hold of the victim’s neck and began to
squeeze and shake.
The choke is an infinitely simple hold: the attacker
grabs hold of the victim’s neck with both hands and
begins to squeeze her throat, cutting off her air supply.
The choke can be applied from just about any standing
or down position. Because the hold is so obvious, the
referee will always intervene to break it up. Still,
because it takes time to break and because it will not
get the attacker disqualified, it can be used efficiently to wear the victim down.
Possible escape: because it is illegal, it is quite impossible to see the choke coming. Once your
opponent starts to choke you though, your arms are free so you can slap her or cause some sort of
other damage with them to make her break the hold.
Rating: its illegal nature prevents the choke from attaining any sort of efficiency. Because it can
be applied for a limited time though, mostly without any consequences, the attacker can use it to
wear down her opponent.

Collar and Elbow Lock-Up

The Collar and Elbow lockup is how women’s wrestling matches

usually begin. The two wrestlerettes lock up using this move. The
collar and elbow lock up is supposed to establish contact and to
allow one of the women to secure an advantage over her opponent,
mostly through sheer strength.
After having circled each other, the two combatants come together
and lock up. Each of the girls grabs hold of her opponent’s neck
with one hand and puts the other hand on her opponent’s arm, at
the elbow bend. Thus, with one hand each wrestlerette works her
opponent’s neck (that’s the “collar” part or of the hold) while with
the other she attempts to get her opponent’s arm off her neck (that’s the “elbow” part).

If one of the girls manages to get her opponent’s hand off her neck, she’ll gain the advantage and
she’ll be able to put her opponent into a side headlock instantly. If none of the girls gains the
upper hand, the stronger wrestlerette can push her opponent into the ropes or into a corner.
Possible escape: by getting your opponent’s hand off your neck, you won’t only escape, you’ll
gain advantage on her. Kicking your opponent in the groin is also an option, but if you do not
want to get tangled in a C&E lockup, you should just avoid it.
Rating: the collar and elbow lockup is just a transition move. It cannot be rated because its only
objective is to put one girl into a position of advantage over the other.

Crotch Bomb

The crotch bomb is a positively awesome ladies’ wrestling move. It is a high-amplitude move,
which generates a high impact and which does have the potential to indeed knock the victim out.
When properly executed, the crotch bomb may be used as a finisher as well: it will not

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disappoint. Despite that fact, the move is rarely if ever used as a finisher. It is used a lot in US-
based ladies wrestling matches, but if one wants to see a truly awesome crotch-bomb, one will
have to watch joshi puroresu for it. The Japanese ladies dish them out by the handful sometimes
unleashing entire crotch-bomb salvos on their opponents.
The crotch bomb starts out with the attacker sending the victim into the ring ropes. As the victim
bounces back, instead of clotheslining her (or executing another devious move on her) the
attacker jumps into the air, parting her legs, so the victim’s head is between her legs facing her
crotch at the top of the movement. The victim then falls backward, with her face in the crotch of
the attacker, who lands on her feet, driving the victim’s head into the mat with her crotch. If
sloppily executed, the move loses a lot of its appeal. When properly executed though, the margin
of error for the attacker is an extremely small one. She does have to appear as if she lands on her
opponent’s face, but in reality, if she happens to overdo it, serious injury may result from the
move.
Possible escape: if the victim is sturdy on her feet, she can catch the attacker at the peak of the
movement and then reverse the crotch bomb into a powerbomb. Other than that, there’s not
much one can do but to play along.
Rating: the crotch bomb is a positively spectacular move with a relatively high level of
difficulty in execution. As such, it is extremely spectacular too. Despite its potential as a finisher,
it is seldom used to that end. Mostly, it is a simple wear-down move, thrown into the mix to add
substance to ladies’ bouts.
For illustrations, click through to: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/crotch_bomb.html

Crotch Claw

The Crotch Claw is a move which is illegal in freestyle women’s wrestling, and probably illegal
in the pro ring as well, but some girls use it nonetheless. Rather than to inflict actual damage, the
crotch claw is meant to provoke extreme humiliation, which will cause the targeted wrestlerette
to abandon pretty much everything she is doing, break her hold and try to twitch free of the claw.
The attacker simply reaches between her opponent’s legs and grabs hold of her crotch digging
her fingers into it. While the move may cause some pain too, its effects are mostly psychological.
Not expecting to be groped in her private areas, the targeted wrestlerette will instinctively react
to the hold.

The crotch claw is most often used by a besieged wrestlerette to make her opponent break a hold
or to prevent her from executing a throw. In that respect, it’s more of a desperation move than
anything else. Some wrestlerettes will reach into their opponent’s bathing suit to execute the
crotch claw, thus bypassing the protection of the fabric and making it more efficient.
Possible escape: under normal circumstances, the crotch claw is easy to escape. Designed to
disrupt, the move is not meant to be a difficult one to escape to begin with.
Efficiency: at what it’s supposed to achieve, the crotch claw is an extremely efficient move.
Don’t expect it to be a match finisher though.
For illustrations, check out: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/crotch_claw.html

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Crotch Stomp

In women’s professional wrestling, attacks involving the crotch

are rather frequent and popular with the wrestlers as well as
with the audience. As they say, everyone likes a nutshot, except
the person receiving it. The crotch-stomp’s role is a dual one:
on one hand, it creates physical pain for the victim, on the
other, it humiliates, and thus it saps the victim’s will to carry
on.
As far as technique is concerned, the crotch stomp is definitely
among the simplest women’s wrestling holds. The attacker puts
the victim onto her back and grabs both her legs by the ankles,
holding the legs up and apart. She then places a foot on the
victim’s crotch and begins to push, possibly moving her foot
about in the process. The move does NOT target the back of the
thigh, it targets the crotch. While the crotch stomp does indeed
deliver a certain amount of pain, its true impact is in the way it humiliates the victim who gets
her private parts used as a doormat by the attacker.
Possible escape: you must prevent your opponent to set up the hold. Once she does, there’s
nothing you can do but suffer.
Rating: the crotch stomp is not going to win you the bout, nor will it take you any closer to
winning it. It is a spectacular move that the audiences love (quite probably on account of the
humiliation factor involved), and one that is great at achieving what it’s supposed to, but as far as
actual efficiency is concerned, it is not that great.

Crotched on the Middle Rope

Getting crotched on the ring ropes isn’t exactly a rare

occurrence in women’s professional wrestling, but
the move is usually performed on the top rope. How
does one get crotched on the middle rope then? It is
in fact quite simple, trivial even. The wrestler who
intends to crotch her opponent on the middle rope,
sets a trap for her: she invites the would be victim
(who is usually outside the ring) in, by sitting down
on the middle rope thus pushing it down, and lifting
the top rope with her arms. In ladies professional
wrestling, it will often happen that one of the contestants is outside the ring looking to enter. It
may be that she got tossed out by her opponent, she exited of her own will in order to escape her
opponent’s onslaught and to regroup, or she is just entering the ring at the beginning of the bout.
As soon as the victim steps through the top and middle ropes (which is where lady wrestlers
usually enter the ring anyway) she’ll have the middle rope between her legs. It is then that the
attacker stands up and yanks the middle rope upward, right into her opponent’s crotch. Kicking
the middle rope upward is quite often done as well. Some girls make a habit of stepping through
the ropes when under pressure in the ring, in order to gain some breathing space. Opponents may
counter this by kicking the middle rope upward, thus forcing the victim to either get out and be

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counted, or to step back into the action.

How to counter: one can avoid getting crotched on the middle rope by not standing halfway
through the ropes during the bout, and making sure her opponent is not anywhere near the
middle ring rope on the side where she intends to enter the ring.

Efficiency: this move is as much about causing pain as it is about humiliating one’s opponent. It
isn’t a particularly efficient ladies’ wrestling move, but the crowd seems to love it.

Double Team Irish Whip

The Double Team Irish Whip is a professional ladies' wrestling move which is obviously only
applicable in a tag-team setting. It is hard to say whether or not the move is a legal one, because
both members of both teams are involved in it, which should theoretically be illegal, but officials
never quite do anything about it, which would suggest that the move is in fact legal or accepted
as such.
Anyway, the double team Irish whip starts out the same way the simple Irish whip does. Both
attackers get their opponents into a corner (preferably the two diagonally opposed corners of the
ring), or they push them into the ring ropes on two opposed sides of the ring. They then execute a
simple Irish whip at the same time, which means that instead of sending the victims into a corner
or into the ring ropes, they will basically smash them into each other face-first, knocking them
both off their feet. The efficiency of the move is clear: the attackers use of their victims bodies as
weapons, delivering a blow to both opponents at the same time.
Possible escape: the double team Irish whip can (and often is) reversed by the victims. Instead of
smashing into each other in the middle of the ring, they hook their arms together, swing around
and preserving the momentum of the double Irish whip, they clothesline or shoulder-tackle their
attackers.
Rating: the double team Irish whip is a rather spectacular move, but it is not considered to deliver
enough of an impact to justify its use as a finisher. Also it is quite unclear whether the move is
legal or not in mainstream ladies professional wrestling. While unsuited as a finisher, the double
Irish whip adds substance and spectacular action to tag team bouts, and we know there can never
be enough of that.
For illustrations, go to: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/double_team_irish_whip.html

Double Teaming

As far as I’m concerned, double teaming is one of the most

sensitive issues in women’s wrestling. Though theoretically
illegal, some amount of double teaming seems to be allowed in
some women’s matches.
Correct me if I’m wrong here (you can use our female
wrestling forum for that), as I’m not 100% sure what the rules
say in this respect, but it seems to me like a single double
teaming move is allowed after a tag is made. That means the
woman who’s tagging out slaps her partner’s hand, after which

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the two of them can execute a double clothesline, double suplex or a double combo move on the
victim.
Most double teaming occurs when the victim gets stuck in the other team’s corner though and it
usually goes down illegally. Handicap matches may feature perfectly legal double teaming.
Possible escape: Make sure you don’t get caught in the opposing team’s corner. Other than that
if your opponents decide to double team you, all you can do it try to get out of it as unscathed as
possible. Hope that your teammate will jump in too to even the odds.
Efficiency: Through its very nature, the double team is one of the most efficient moves. When
the action goes two on one, someone is going to end up seriously roughed up, and it’s not going
to be the girls who work together.

Drop Toehold

The Drop Toehold is one of the most basic and often used
female wresting moves. It is destined to get the victim down
onto the mat on her stomach. The Drop toehold is not a
decisive hold, that is, it’s not supposed to bring about a
submission or to set the victim up for a pin. It is a trip-up move
meant to offer the attacker the initiative in the early stages of a
match.
The drop toehold can be applied from a variety of positions.
Most often, it is applied on an opponent who is bounced off the
ring ropes.

The attacker places one of her legs in front of her running

opponent’s leg while falling backward. She then gets her other
leg behind the victim’s leg, effectively tripping her up. After the victim hits the mat, the attacker
already has a hold on her trapped leg, which she can sink in and apply almost immediate
pressure.
Possible escape: if the attacker manages to get into position, there’s not much the would be
victim can do to prevent the drop toehold. She is going to end up with her face in the mat.
Rating: at what it’s supposed to achieve, the drop toehold is an extremely efficient move. It may
not be an overly spectacular move, but it will ground the victim immediately and it will offer the
attacker an immediate advantage as well.

Elbow Drop

The Elbow drop is another element from the basic set of moves that every female wrestler has to
know and master in order to be able to carry a match through. Despite being such a basic
maneuver, the elbow drop can be executed in several extremely spectacular and high-impact
ways too. The basic idea behind the hold is that the attacker jumps up, bringing down her entire
bodyweight onto her opponent, only connecting through her extended elbow, thus delivering a
blow of pulverizing strength.
The victim of the move is on the mat/ring floor, either on her back or on her stomach. The
attacker jumps upward into the air, extends her elbow then comes crashing down, hitting her
opponent with her elbow, on the neck, across the upper chest, or in the back (depending on the

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victim’s position). Make sure you learn to execute the move properly, or you may end up
injuring your opponent. All high-impact women’s wrestling moves carry this risk. The elbow
drop can be executed from the top rope too, for added effect.
Possible escape: The elbow drop is extremely easy to escape. All the victim needs to do is to roll
to the side, leaving “nobody home”, and the attacker will land on her bottom/elbow hurting
herself rather than her opponent.
Rating: a well executed elbow drop can be an extremely spectacular hold (especially if done off
the top rope), and as such, it can theoretically be used as a finisher. I think I have seen women’s
wrestling matches end with an elbow drop, although such bouts are few and far between (and
that’s not necessarily a bad thing). The elbow drop is generally used as a softening move, to set
the victim up for a different hold/possible finisher.
For illustrations, go to: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/elbow_drop.html

Face-on-rope Rake

Raking their opponent’s face using the top ring rope is a

relatively popular move with female wrestlers. Obviously, a
woman’s face is something she takes great care of, therefore
the face on rope rake is an especially sneaky under-handed
attack, targeting one of the victim’s most cherished
possessions. As such, it is not meant to inflict damage of the
type that will directly help the attacker win the bout, it’s aim is
more of a psychological one, undermining the victim’s will to
fight.
How it’s done: the attacker simply grabs hold of the victim’s
hair through which she’ll be able to control her head, and presses her face against the top rope.
The attacker then proceeds to drag the victim’s face alongside the top rope while keeping it
pressed tightly against it at all times. The resulting friction will damage the skin, often resulting
in lasting and visible marks, something every women dreads and something that every woman
would gladly receive a painful gut-punch instead.
Possible escape: when your opponent grabs you by the hair, get your hands onto the top rope
and push yourself away from it. Don’t let her push your face against the rope.
Rating: not a very efficient ladies’ wrestling move in the regular sense, but a very efficient
psychological weapon. As something that has the potential to cause lasting damage to the
recipient, it is a move we at women-wrestling.org do not condone or recommend to be used.

Farmer’s Roll

The Farmer’s Roll is a relatively spectacular female wrestling hold/move, which is much more
efficient than one would believe at first. There are several ways to execute a farmer’s roll (take a
look at the animated gifs below), but they’re all aimed at dazing and disorienting the victim, so
that a pin can be scored afterwards. As someone who has tasted the farmer’s roll from the
receiving end, I can tell you, it’s pretty darn efficient at what it’s set out to achieve. If stretched
out longer, it can make the victim so nauseous, all she’ll will want to do afterwards is get out of
the ring and be left alone.

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 One way to apply the hold is to stand over a sitting victim and
to step over her shoulders with both legs. The attacker then
hooks her legs into the victim’s back and does a tumble,
dragging the victim with her and flipping her over. Then the
attacker rolls sideways with the hold locked in and does the
move again. After 5-6 such flips, I was just about ready to
surrender.

Another way to do the roll is from a sitting position. The

attacker sits down behind the sitting victim and gets her legs
around her waist. She then starts rolling sideways, rolling the
victim onto her shoulders and back to her bottom again. The advantage of this version is that the
attacker can choose to stop when the victim has her shoulders on the mat, and thus she can earn a
pin without any further ado.

Japanese ladies seem to have developed a version of their own, slightly more intricate, where the
attacker hooks one of her legs around one of the victim’s legs and grabs her crotch with a hand.
Possible escape: don’t let your opponent set you up for the hold. Once the rolling begins and
momentum is gained, it’s quite difficult to break out of it.
Rating: despite its rather harmless appearance, the Farmer’s roll is a pretty nasty bugger. It can
take all the fight out of you in a jiffy, regardless of how excited you are to be in that ring.

Fireman’s Carry

The Fireman’s carry is a move used in women’s wrestling to

carry the victim over longer distances in the ring without her
being able to do anything about it, and then setting her up for a
top-rope maneuver or depositing her onto the ring floor via a
powerslam (or another such high amplitude move).
The victim of this move is supposed to have taken some
punishment beforehand, so that she’s reeling on her feet when
her attacker picks her up in a fireman’s carry. There are two
versions of this move. The first one, the front fireman’s carry
(where the victim’s legs are in front of the attacker) is generally
used to carry fallen victims around in order to display them or
to set them up for a top-rope move. In this instance, the attacker
leans forward, pushing her shoulder into her opponent’s groin
forcing her to lean forward. In the same time she reaches
around her legs and then straightens up, picking the victim up.
In the case of the reverse fireman’s carry (the victim’s legs are
dangling at the attacker’s back) the pickup process requires more strength. The attacker picks up
the victim just like in the case of a body-slam, or a piledriver, but instead of following through
on those moves, at the peak of the motion she throws the victim onto her shoulder, quite literally
like a sack of potatoes. This move can be turned into a devastating powerslam.
Possible escape: when your opponent attempts to pick you up in a front fireman’s carry, apply
some solid forearms to her back to make her change her mind. If she does manage to pick you

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up, try to swing back and forth to unbalance her and to land on your feet. In the case of the
reverse fireman’s carry, shift your weight backward so that you land on your feet behind your
attacker.
Rating: to carry a victim across the ring, the fireman’s carry is the best possible move. To inflict
damage or pain leading to a submission it is obviously not.

Forehead Stomp

The forehead stomp is one of the more malicious female

wrestling moves. I personally hate this bugger because it
focuses its energy on a part of the body that doesn’t normally
get hit in women’s wrestling: the forehead. Due to its nature it
can end up causing a rash-like burn too which isn’t exactly a
pleasant thing either. It also pulls on the skin of the face, which
– given that it’s women’s wrestling we’re talking about – is a
sensitive matter too.
The victim of the move is on her back on the ring floor or mat.
The attacker places her foot (the sole of her wrestling boot) onto her forehead, then stomps
downward while pulling her foot to the side as well.
Possible escape: just roll out of the way when you sense your opponent is about to pull this
move on you, or use your arms to push her foot away from your face.
Rating: it’s not exactly an efficient wrestling move, it’s more like a maliciously underhanded
way to hand out additional punishment to an opponent.

Giant Swing

The Giant Swing is an extremely spectacular and in the same

time very efficient women’s wrestling move. The goal of the
Giant Swing is to daze the victim, by taking advantage of the
motion-sickness nausea that most people experience when
moving around in a circle repeatedly at a high speed. As
someone who has experienced the Giant swing first hand, I can
personally attest to the efficiency of this move.
The attacker gets the victim onto her back, by bodyslamming or
suplexing her into position. She then grabs hold of both her
legs, and hooks her feet under her arms, the same way she would if she were to move into a
Boston crab. If the victim is positioned near the ropes, she will have to drag her into the middle
of the ring. Once in position, the attacker picks the victim up off the floor and begins to swing
her around over and over. The more full circles the attacker manages to get into the move, the
more efficient it will be. When she considers she’s dished out enough punishment, she just lets
go of her victim allowing her to crash to the mat on her back. Apparently, single-leg giant swings
are also done in women’s pro wrestling, which means the attacker only needs to hook one of her
victim’s legs in the above detailed way, before she begins swinging her.
Possible escape: once the swinging starts, you can only pray that your aggressor tires out and
lets you go. Before that, you can break the hold by not allowing your attacker to hook your legs
the way she’s supposed to.

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Rating: I can certainly attest to the fact that the Giant Swing is one of the meanest ladies’
wrestling moves. It turns the victim’s stomach upside down killing all fighting spirit in her.
Then, to top it all off, she lands on her back in a less than delicate way. The giant swing can
literally make you sick!

Go Behind

The Go Behind is part of the most basic set of female wrestling

moves. In ladies wrestling, the girl who positions herself behind
her opponent gains a position of advantage. In women’s freestyle
wrestling, the wrestlerette who executes a successful go behind
earns a point, which may prove to be important in the overall
economy of the bout.
The attacker gets behind the defender and clutches her arms
around her waist. That’s what the go behind is all about. How you
get behind your opponent is your own business. Whether you
reverse a hammerlock or whether you duck under a grabbing or a
clothesline attempt, doesn’t matter. The fact that you’re behind
her and that you control her, opens up a wealth of possibilities for
you to continue your offense. You can slip a hammerlock on her,
you can apply a full nelson, or you can try for a german suplex.
You can also just lift her up and bearhug her or slam her to the
mat onto her stomach in order to backmount her.
Possible escape: skilled lady wrestlers have zounds of tricks up their sleeves to reverse a go
behind. You can see an example of such a reversal in the gif below.
Rating: the go behind is not supposed to achieve anything big in a bout. It merely offers the
attacker a position of advantage over her opponent. Basically it offers her multiple options of
holds/moves she can do to put her opponent in greater peril. If one looks strictly at the objective
the go behind is supposed to achieve, it can in fact be considered an efficient maneuver.

Groin Buster

The groin buster is a relatively spectacular women’s wrestling

move, mostly used as a transition move from one hold to
another. The Groin Buster is a high impact move, targeting the
groin area of the victim (hence the name). This is one of those
moves where execution is everything. If done sloppily, the
groin buster can end up looking pretty bad. If done properly
though, it will look good.
The victim is on her back on the mat/ring floor. The attacker
holds her legs up and apart. She then leaps into the air and then comes crashing down with her
legs extended hitting between the victim’s two legs, which she continues to hold on to. Usually,
once the victim realizes what the attacker is up to, she will beg and plead in order to make her
change her mind. The move is always executed despite the pleading though. All this begging,
pretty much counts as part of the move.

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Possible escape: the groin buster requires a certain level of cooperation on the part of the victim.
If you want to escape the move, just don’t allow your opponent to hold your legs up and apart: it
is actually pretty easy to accomplish. Once your opponent leaps upwards though, there’s not
much you can do to prevent her from delivering the groin buster.
Rating: the groin buster is meant to soften the victim up, it is not a decisive move, thus its
efficiency is rather limited. Despite that, the groin buster is applied quite frequently, due to its
spectacular nature, and due to the fact that everyone in the audience loves nut-shots.

Hair Pulling

Although hair pulling is not officially allowed in women’s

wrestling (it is in fact illegal), with those thick and luscious
manes so handy, few wrestling women resist the temptation to
grab a fistful. Some of the best professional female wrestlers
pull hair all the time. They use it to control their opponents, and
some of them are quite adept at hiding it all from the referee.
Hair pulling is what led to the now famous and often quoted
call: “hair ref!”, as the victim complains to the official about
her predicament.
There is no set way to pull hair. For most women wrestlers it
comes natural in just about any position. Most often, hair is
pulled to control the victim, to make her stand up (it is pretty
darn efficient at that) but also to perform more intricate moves like the hair mare and the hair
toss (see one of the gifs below).
Possible escapes: Hair pulling is one of the few moves which are inescapable in women’s
professional wrestling. If you climb into the ring with a female wrestler, you will probably have
your hair pulled at one point or another. In other ladies wrestling genres, hair pulling leads to
automatic disqualification.
Rating: Much more efficient than such a simple move should be. If someone is pulling you up
by the hair, you will scramble and stand, regardless of how banged up you are.

Hammerlock

The hammerlock is definitely not one of the more spectacular

women’s wrestling holds, but it is probably among the most
underrated ones. A professional female wrestling match is
about offering the viewers an outstanding spectacle, which
means that such matches simply cannot have a girl submit to
her opponent’s hammerlock. The crowds would be
disappointed and the entertainment value of the match would
be gone. Despite its simplicity and unspectacular nature though,
the hammerlock could actually be used as an efficient
submission hold. No wonder law enforcement officials often use it to control rogue elements of
society.
The attacker grabs hold of one of the victim’s arms and twists it, bending it at the same time at
the elbow. She folds the arm this way behind the victim’s back and she steps behind her too. She

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can then gauge the amount of pressure applied by pulling the arm upward. If taken to the
extreme, the hold can actually dislocate the victim’s shoulder so extra care should be taken with
it when using it in a wrestling match.
Possible escape: once locked in really deep, the hammerlock is quite impossible to escape due to
the high intensity pain it causes in the joints of the arm. When loosely applied, some wrestling
women can duck under it and reverse the hold, giving their opponents a taste of their own
medicine.
Efficiency: despite its extreme efficiency, the hammerlock is only used as a controlling move in
female wrestling. Make no mistakes though: the hammerlock is a dangerous and extremely
painful move. Use it with caution in the ring.

Headbutt

The headbutt is a high–impact ladies wrestling move aimed at dazing the victim and setting her
up for another move. In ladies’ wrestling, striking the opponent with a closed fist is prohibited.
Thus, delivering a blow that can potentially daze the target is quite problematic.
The headbutt is the solution to this problem. The attacker simply swings her head and strikes the
victim with her forehead. The move carries relatively high risks because injuring the victim is
quite easy. The attacker needs to be extremely careful not to deliver the headbutt to the victim’s
face. The impact needs to be forehead on forehead, and the force needs to be tempered as well,
because both wrestlers may end up knocked down by the blow.

The headbutt will most often knock the victim right off her feet.
Possible escape: if you’re alert enough, you can evade the headbutt by jerking your head aside,
provided your attacker is not grabbing your hair. Making sudden movements when about to
receive a headbutt is rather risky though as your attacker may miss her target and end up causing
more damage than intended.
Rating: the headbutt is efficient at what it’s meant to achieve, which is to momentarily stun and
daze the victim. It’s not a finisher and it’s not particularly spectacular either, however it is an
integral part of any solid female wrestler’s arsenal of moves.
For illustrations of the move, check out: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/headbutt.html

Hip Attack

If you’re a fan of Joshi Puroresu (Japanese female wrestling) you’ve probably already seen this
weird but very efficient ladies’ wrestling move. The hip attack must’ve been first thought of by
the inventor of “Buns of Steel”. The attacker launches the victim into the ring ropes, the same
way she would if she were to unleash a clothesline. When the victim bounces back off the ropes
and comes running backward, the attacker takes a few paces to build momentum and jumps into
the air twisting around so that she hits the victim in the face with her bottom, knocking her right
off her feet.
Besides being more efficient than the clothesline, the hip attack delivers a certain degree of
humiliation too. The amount of mass the attacker is able to put behind the move makes for a
bigger impact, thus it’s safe to say the Hip Attack is more efficient than the clothesline.

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Possible escape: the victim can escape the hip attack only by avoiding it. She can grab onto the
ropes instead of bouncing back off them, or she can sidestep when she sees the ominous bottom
approaching.
Rating: the Hip Attack is a highly spectacular move which can sometimes even be used as a
finisher. Skilled lady wrestlers can execute hip attacks off the top rope, increasing the force of
the impact generated by the move. I will have to rate the hip attack an extremely efficient, and
highly spectacular move.
For moving illustrations, check out: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/hip_attack.html

Knee to the Belly

The knee to the belly is one of the most frequent “soften-up” moves used in a standing position
in women’s wrestling. It is meant to take some fight out of the victim by softening her up. As
many female wrestlers have soft bellies, a blow to the bread basket is meant to exploit this
weakness.
Both the victim and the attacker are in a standing position. The attacker proceeds to restrain the
victim somehow (by having her teammate hook her arms, by backing her up into the corner or by
tying her arms up in the ropes) after which she lifts one of her legs up kneeing the victim in the
stomach.
Possible escape: don’t let yourself be tied up. The knee is quite impossible to land if the would
be victim is freely moving about.
Efficiency: a knee to the belly is always quite a blow, even to a wrestlerette with well developed
abdominals. Due to the sensitive nature of the targeted area, the knee to the belly is extremely
efficient at wearing an opponent down, so yes: at what it’s supposed to achieve, it is indeed quite
excellent.
For illustrations of the move please go to: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/knee_to_the_belly.html

Knee-shot on Ringpost

The kneeshot on the ring-post is one of my least favorite ladies’

wrestling moves. It may be on account of the fact that I
consider my legs to be my most vulnerable assets when in the
ring, or maybe because the kneeshot – besides the fact that it’s
not particularly spectacular – can inflict a horrendous amount
of pain, provided that by mistake, the attacker does manage to
hit a bone or that painful soft-spot in the victim’s knee. If you
need a reason to wear a kneepad for your women’s wrestling matches, this move has got to be it.
The attacker starts out by getting the victim onto her back (through any of the moves that lead to
this result). She then grabs her by her ankles and drags her into the corner of the ring. She slips
outside, grabs one of the victim’s ankles again and pulls her close to the ring-post. She then
proceeds to slam the victim’s knee into the ring-post. Being a women’s pro-wrestling move, the
kneeshot is obviously not looking to hurt the victim, but it can do so by accident, and getting this
move wrong is rather easy.

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Possible escape: don’t let that girl drag you into the corner and if she does don’t let her grab
hold of your leg after she slips out of the ring. Oh yeah: wear those kneepads, will you? I know
wrestling is supposed to be built on trust, and it is, but kneepads will definitely not hurt you and
they don’t look bad either provided you pick the right pair.
Rating: the kneeshot on the ringpost is a move which is mainly used to set up the victim for a
submission hold involving her legs (her knee-joint in particular). A kneeshot followed by a fig 4
leglock targeting the victimized knee is a more than reasonable setup. Everything considered, I’ll
have to say the kneeshot is an efficient women’s wrestling move.

Legdrop

The legdrop is also among the most frequently used women’s

wrestling moves. It isn’t the most spectacular female wrestling
move ever, but a well executed legdrop certainly carries quite a
visual impact. The aim of the move is to knock the wind out of
the victim, setting her up for a follow-up maneuver.
The victim is laid out flat on her back and the attacker is standing
up right beside her. The attacker leaps upward and them comes
crashing down on the victim, hitting her with one of her
stretched-out legs either across the throat (more frequent) or
across the middle (like in the attached gif). The legdrop is not
traditionally considered a move with finishing potential, so don’t
use it for that. For safety reasons, the attacker should make it her
top priority not to land on her opponent with her bottom, as the
move is rather risky and executed the wrong way it can lead to serious injury.
Possible escape: the legdrop is easy to avoid simply by rolling sideways. This will have the
attacker crash bottom first onto the ring floor/mat and will give the defender the upper hand.
Rating: the legdrop is a mildly efficient move, therefore it is not (or rarely) used as a finisher.
It’s more like a link-up element, allowing the attacker to transition from one move to another.
The legdrop does have a potential for injury both for the victim and the attacker so make sure
you only carry it out with professional guidance.

Nerve Holds

Nerve Holds represent the dark side of female wrestling. Skilled female wrestlers, who know the
anatomically weak points of their opponents, can use these holds to great effect, creating an
advantage often deemed unfair by their opponents and by the spectators. The bottom line about
nerve holds is that they’re usually not among the fan favorites.
They’re extremely efficient, make no mistake about that, but they’re not spectacular from the
viewer’s perspective. The question about the use of nerve holds in women’s wrestling is whether
they’re legal or not. I can’t answer that question myself, although from a technical point of view,
there shouldn’t be anything illegal about these holds. Many such nerve holds involve pinching
though, and there are serious questions about the legitimacy of anything involving pinching.

Nerve holds can be used for a variety of purposes in ladies’ wrestling. The victim can use a nerve
hold to force her way out of an otherwise desperate position. The attacker can use them to assert

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control over her victim. The aggressor can also use them to force a submission through them.
When applying a nerve hold, the attacker exerts pressure on some of the nerve hotspots of the
victim, generating some pretty unexpected and needless to say – unpleasant – responses in the
victim’s body.
Examples of areas routinely targeted by such holds are the trapezius muscle, the inner part of the
thigh, the knees, elbows etc.
Possible escape: most of the time, nerve holds generate such intense responses from the victim
that they’re downright impossible to escape.
Rating: although their status as legitimate women’s wrestling holds is questionable, nerve holds
are more than efficient enough in what they’re supposed to achieve. They take advantage of
“built-in” anatomical weak points of the human body and therefore they’re a fearsome weapon
indeed in the hands of an experienced lady wrestler.
For illustrations, go to: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/nerve_holds.html

Nutshot

To begin with, the nutshot is not really a nutshot. It’s a hold

designed to achieve the same visual effect (and for that reason
crowds are nuts about it), but it has nothing to do with the
crotch of the victim. The nutshot targets the area on the back of
the thigh of the victim, where the biceps femoris connects to
the buttock, and despite it not being a crotch attack, it’s by no
means a walk in the park.
This women’s wrestling move begins with the attacker putting
the victim onto her back on the mat/ring floor (she can achieve
that any way she wants to: through a bodyslam, a clothesline or
through a double leg pickup – it’s all the same). The attacker
then grabs hold of her opponent’s feet and pulls them up, holding the victim’s legs straight up
and apart in a V, exposing her crotch area. She then proceeds to stomp-kick the above mentioned
area, causing quite a bit of pain. The attacker can also choose to drive her knee into the target
area instead of kicking it.
The move is a great way to weaken the victim’s thigh, in order to take away her legs and to set
her up for a possible submission hold.
Efficency: the nutshot is mostly used for its theatrical value: it looks positively vicious. The
victim will often flail her arms and beg the attacker not to go through with the move as she is
vulnerably exposed. As far as its actual efficiency goes, it’s not really a whooper.
Possible escape: not letting the attacker position her for the hold is just about the only thing the
victim can do. Because the attacker’s boot tends to stick to bare skin, and thus to pull on it
painfully when she nutshots her victim, it’s a good idea for the victim to wear pantyhose
(preferably of the shiny-slippery kind). Then again, it can be just as annoying to have a run put in
your favorite pantyhose…

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Oil Check

The oil check is positively among the meanest women’s wrestling holds. It is
a semi-legal hold, which means it’s not exactly legal but no referee is going
to stop a match on its account. Wrestling coaches all over teach wrestlerettes
to use it as a means of exerting not just physical but psychological pressure
on their opponents too. As dirty a weapon as it is, the oil check is definitely
part of the darker side of female wrestling.
The oil check is basically about the attacker inserting her finger into her
opponent’s anus. The move is sometimes used in professional wrestling, and
it is surprisingly frequent in freestyle women’s matches, even on the highest
levels (Olympics). The flexible singlets worn by the wrestlerettes in freestyle
matches make it possible for their opponents to use the oil check on them. The attacker’s goal is
usually to force her opponent to switch position, but it is used for intimidation too.

Whether it’s a weapon for bullies or those desperate to gain an edge, the oil check remains in the
moves arsenal of some of the world’s best and most respected female wrestlers (Olympic
medalists and so forth). In women’s professional wrestling, the oil check can be used in a
stealthy way to achieve control, or in an open manner to humiliate. Though it’s extremely rare,
professional wrestlerettes have been known to reach into their all but defeated victims’
bikinis/bathing suits to give them a full oil check (this usually happens in special interests
matches, never in public, live audience ones), with devastating effects for the victim’s morale.
Possible escape: Try to keep your bottom away from your opponent’s reach and wear gear (hose
under your bathing suit) which will ward off such despicable attacks.
Rating: The oil check is extremely efficient both in achieving physical control and in securing
psychological dominance. I have to say it’s amazing what some people would resort to in order
to secure a win…but believe it or not, it does happen.

Posting

Posting an opponent is quite probably one of the most basic

elements of women's pro wrestling. The name 'posting' is a bit
ambiguous because the move is basically about slamming the
victim's head into the turnbuckle and not into the ring-post.
Because the turnbuckle is covered with padding and because
the impact is not as intense as the two wrestlers act it out to be,
the move is really rather harmless. Its apparent brutality renders
it pretty spectacular nonetheless.
Executing the move is really simple: the attacker grabs hold of
the victim's hair on the back of her head and drags her along
towards the turnbuckle. Once there, she slams her head into the top turnbuckle. Some extreme
female wrestlers will sometimes remove the padding from the turnbuckles to inflict more
damage. Other ladies will do the posting on the outside of the ring where there are no
turnbuckles and padding, just the steel ring-post.

Still others may go further, repeatedly slamming their opponent's head into the turnbuckle, from

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a variety of different positions. The crowd will often play along counting out the number of
times the victim's head hits the turnbuckle.
Possible escape: the victim can put her arms out grabbing the top rope just before impact and
stiffening her neck at the same time, thus preventing the impact.
Rating: posting is basically just another element of in-ring brutality. It doesn't stand out in any
peculiar manner, neither through its highly spectacular nature, not through the amount of damage
it's supposed to deliver.

Pulling on the Bathing Suit

Although technically illegal, many wrestlerettes pull their

opponents’ bathing suits/leotards every now and then, for
various purposes.
One reason is to achieve leverage in certain holds. For instance,
the vertical suplex is often executed with the attacker slipping
her fingers under the victim’s bathing suit leg-hole and lifting
her bottom up by it. Some wrestlerettes pull on the bottom area
of their victim’s leotard in a folding pin to make sure her
bottom and thus point of balance shifts back towards her shoulders.
Pulling up on a wrestlerette’s bathing suit at the lower-back area will cause a painful wedgie (if
she wears hose under it, it will diminish the effects of the hold), and it will also help the attacker
maneuver her around easier by getting her feet off the floor.

Other women wrestlers pull their opponents’s bathing suits to humiliate by exposing their
vulnerability. Such leotard-pulls are often executed in a victory-pose like manner .
Possible escape: female wrestling attires are meant to provide few points where they can be
grabbed. If your opponent decides that wants to execute a move on you by pulling your leotard
you probably won’t be able to prevent her, as the leg-holes of your bathing suit are particularly
vulnerable for this kind of handling. By keeping her hands and arms tied up elsewhere though,
you’ll prevent her from slipping a finger under your bathing suit. The tighter the suit the more
difficult it’ll be for her to gain a grip on it.
Rating: Bathing suit pulling maneuvers are usually quite efficient, mainly because the defender
doesn’t expect them.

Ready Position

The ready position, also known under the more intricate name “collegiate style top woman
advantage position”, is a ladies wrestling move which is never used in professional wrestling.
The ready position is only used in freestyle women’s wrestling and in some competitive mat
matches where the parties agree beforehand to incorporate the ready position into the rules.
The ready position is basically meant to offer one of the wrestlers an advantage over her
opponent. Whether the advantage is supposed to be a mere conservation of a previously existing
stance in the battle, or a punishment for one of the wrestlers involved depends on the rules in
place. In freestyle wrestling matches for instance, if the two wrestlers leave the combat area of
the mat at the initiative of the girl on the bottom, they will be brought back to the center and the
girl on the bottom will be sent down by the ref to reflect the situation which existed before the

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 interruption of the hostilities. In competitive mat wrestling, the
girls often agree upon special rules concerning the ready
position. The girl losing the first fall may begin the second fall
on the bottom of a ready position as punishment.
The ready position has one of the girls (the one on the bottom)
on all fours, completely exposing her rear and back to her
opponent. She only has to maintain the position until the
action gets underway. As soon as the match restarts, she’s free
to do whatever she can to defeat her opponent.
Possible escape: skilled freestyle women wrestlers have ways
for escaping the ready position. In freestyle wrestling, a
reversal (escape from the bottom) is scored with 2 points.
Rating: the ready position does indeed get the girl on the
bottom into a pretty dire predicament, so in that respect I suppose it is efficient. Other than that,
we can’t really talk about efficiency when it comes to the ready position.

Rope-Break

Grabbing the ring ropes will always grant you a break in a

professional women’s wrestling match. That means whenever
you’re in any sort of trouble, getting to the ropes and grabbing
them will have you out of it. Suppose your opponent attempts
to pin you, and you have at least one of your legs free while
close to the ropes.
In such a situation, it makes much more sense to just get your
foot on the rope, than to attempt to bridge out of it. The foot
on the rope will have the referee break the pin count and you’ll
have wasted a lot less energy than via bridging. That saved
energy may account for a lot in the economy of a bout.

Dashing for the ropes makes even more sense when you’re in
a dire position in the ring. If your opponent has you locked in
a painful submission hold which you just can’t escape,
reaching and grabbing the ropes is a great way to have the
hold broken. Remember that if you reach the rope and you happen to surrender while grabbing it
(in case your opponent refuses to break the hold), the ref will not consider your submission and
you’ll still be in the match.
Possible escape: doesn’t apply here, since the rope break is an escape move itself.
Rating: the rope break is great. Never forget you have this option when your strength ebbs and
your resolve weakens in your opponent’s submission hold.

Rope-assisted Knee-breaker

The rope assisted knee breaker is a ladies’ professional wrestling move which is definitely one of
the meanest maneuvers and which isn't even legal, since it involves the use of the ring ropes to

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inflict damage on the victim’s knee. Despite the fact that it is illegal, the rope assisted knee
breaker is used quite often in women's professional wrestling matches.
The attacker knocks the would-be victim onto her back and grabs hold of one of her legs which
she then places on the bottom ring rope. She then steps over the trapped leg, grabs the top rope
for balance and sits down on her opponent’s knee repeatedly. While the move does indeed
require a certain level of cooperation from the victim, it can be potentially dangerous in the
sense that if the attacker and the victim fail to properly synchronize, the victim may end up being
hurt for real. Some female wrestlers take the cheating further when they administer the knee
breaker and enlist the assistance of a person outside the ring, who can actually grab the victim's
foot and hold it in place as the attacker does her dirty work, preventing the victim from pulling
her leg away from the abuse. The goal of this controversial wrestling maneuver is obviously to
weaken the victim's leg so that she will yield to a subsequent submission hold easier.

Possible escape: as said above, the rope assisted knee breaker requires a certain level of
cooperation from the victim, which means that she can basically escape the maneuver at her
discretion by simply pulling her leg off the bottom rope (assuming that it's not held there by the
accomplice of the attacker as pointed out above).

Rating: the rope assisted knee breaker isn't a spectacular maneuver at all, however it is rather
efficient at bending the victim’s knee the wrong way and thus setting her up for a subsequent
submission maneuver that will inevitably target the same area.
For illustrations, go to: http://www.women-wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/rope-assisted-
knee-breaker.html

Rowboat

The rowboat is an extremely peculiar female wrestling move. It

is a tag-team maneuver, and in order for it to be performed, all
4 wrestlers need to be in the ring, which is kind of illegal. The
move has two attackers and two victims. The two victims are
on their backs with their legs towards each other.
The two attackers then pick both victims’ legs up and pull them
closer to one another so that their bottoms almost touch while
holding their legs straight up. Each of the two attackers then
grabs hold of one of each victim’s legs. They then sit back
down holding on to the legs, and pulling them apart like
paddles in a rowboat. They then repeat the motion while sitting.

The move obviously requires cooperation from the victims, and

it’s supposed to target the hamstrings to weaken them, thus
setting up the victims for a subsequent hold.

Besides the damage it’s supposed to inflict, the move is also meant to humiliate.
Possible escape: when the attackers pull their legs apart, the victims can sit up, grab hold of
each-other’s hands and pull themselves up and out of the hold.

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Rating: rather than being a hold that’s meant to achieve any sort of damage, the rowboat is a
humiliation maneuver. The humiliation factor stems from the putting of both opponents into a
compromising position at the same time.

Senton

The senton used to be one of the most basic ladies wrestling moves backs in the heydays of
wrestling, but is seems to have lost popularity with female wrestlers lately. One can barely see a
match where a senton is executed these days. It still seems to be fairly frequent in Mexican and
in Japanese women’s wrestling.
In order to execute a senton, the attacker needs to get the would-be victim onto her back, in a
condition that will allow her to take a few steps back and to
execute a move over her. Once the victim is on her back and
fairly dizzied, the attacker steps back, then runs towards the
victim and leaps into the air feet forward. Mid-flight, she curls
her body up a little, landing on her bottom/lower back right
beyond the victim’s prone body, thus hitting her target with her
upper back basically. The senton is a relatively risky move in
the sense that the attacker needs to be accurate about where the
bulk of her weight lands. It cannot land on the victim, or she
may seriously injure her.
Possible escape: the senton is relatively easy to escape. All the
victim needs to do is to roll out of the way. When rolling away
from a senton, always make sure you roll towards the attacker
and not away from her, as that way she may end up hitting you
with her entire weight and injuring you.
Rating: although it’s rather spectacular, unless executed in
cascade by several tag-team members on one victim, the senton is not considered a move suited
to be used as a finisher. It’s more of a wear-down move, which sets up the victim for something
worse to come.

Shin Breaker

The Shin breaker is positively one of the most vicious ladies professional wrestling moves.
Although on its own it does not achieve much in the way of bringing the attacker closer to
victory, it is an excellent setup move, which effectively weakens the lower leg of the victim,
making her more vulnerable to subsequently applied submission holds involving the legs.
The application of the move is extremely simple: the attacker gets behind her standing victim,
puts one of her arms around her waist and grabs one of her feet with her other hand. She then
folds the victim's legs pulling upward on the foot, and lifts her into the air by her waist. As of the
victim begins to fall back down off the peak of the motion, the attacker kneels, having her
victim’s shinbone come crashing down on top of her thigh. Although it looks relatively benign,
the move can in fact inflict serious damage. The attacker actually needs to be careful not to hurt
her opponent for real. Skilled professional lady wrestlers will be quick to jump on their
opponents and secure a submission hold like a leg-lock or a figure 4, immediately in the wake of
the Shin breaker. Thanks to the Shin breaker, the victim becomes much more likely to surrender

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to one of these holds.

Possible escape: the Shin breaker does require a certain amount of cooperation on the part of the
victim, thus I would have to say that escaping it is as simple as not allowing one's opponent to
actually execute it.

Rating: the Shin breaker may not be one of the most spectacular women's wrestling moves, but
it is certainly efficient at what it is supposed to achieve, which is to weaken the victim’s lower
leg, her shinbone and her knee, thus setting her up for a submission maneuver which is pretty
much guaranteed to have her crying uncle after all the previous abuse.
For illustrations, go to: http://www.women-wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/shin-
breaker.html

Shining Wizard

With the Shining Wizard, we find ourselves entering a

particularly brutal chapter in professional ladies
wrestling. The sport is under continuous pressure to come
up with newer and better ways to shock the audience. The
Shining Wizard is part of a group of women's wrestling
moves the express purpose of which is to elicit screams of
horror and brutality-induced awe in the viewers. As such,
the shining Wizard is a high-impact and high-risk
maneuver, which, under normal circumstances, is not
supposed to hurt anyone, but which is still risky enough to properly execute, so we definitely do
not recommend that anyone even attempt it without professional guidance and supervision.
The Shining Wizard requires a great deal of cooperation from the victim, but in this case that
only means that the risk factors in the move are doubled. The move starts out with the victim
taking up the proper position: on one knee, with her other knee solidly propped up to support the
weight of her attacker. The attacker then runs towards her victim, she steps up onto her victim's
knee and she drives her other knee square into the victim's face. In order to be believable, the
Shining Wizard needs to produce a certain amount of impact. Being able to control the force
with which her knee smashes into her opponents face is definitely not an easy task for the
attacker who is on the move and in a precariously balanced position when delivering the blow.
The victim has her own role in controlling the force of the impact. Any bit of miscommunication
between the two parties may result in serious injuries to the attacker, the victim or to both of
them.

Possible escape: given the degree of cooperation required on the part of the victim by the
Shining Wizard, in the case of this move, we can't really talk about escape maneuvers. After all,
without the victim's facilitating moves, the Shining Wizard is impossible to pull off.

Rating: a properly executed Shining Wizard is indeed a truly awe-inspiring women's wrestling
move. In the wake of the impact, the victim usually falls to the floor, quite unconscious and a
sure mark for the pin. With all the above in mind, we can safely state that the Shining Wizard
can indeed be used as a believable finisher.

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Side Headlock

The side headlock is probably the most basic wrestling maneuver

ever. There probably isn’t a single person on the planet who has
never put a side headlock on someone, when play-fighting or
when wrestling for real. In women’s wrestling, the side headlock
is used to control the opponent and to pressure her into positions
that will lead to other holds/throws. The side headlock can be a
standing one, or it can be one applied on the mat. One can also be
transitioned to the other.
The standing headlock begins with the attacker throwing an arm
around the victim’s neck. She then pulls the victim’s head
downward and she turns in the same time, eventually having her
opponent in a leant-over position, with her neck under her arm.
From this position she can use her bodyweight to take her
opponent off her feet in a variety of ways.

She can use a hiptoss to drive her opponent onto the mat, face up, and she can keep the headlock
on after they both fall to the mat. By spreading her leg apart she can counter the victim’s escape
attempts efficiently.
Possible escape: a standing headlock can be escaped by simply pulling one’s head from the
attacker’s grip while pushing the attacker’s body forward. In professional women’s wrestling, the
victim most often escapes a headlock on the mat by pushing on her attacker’s chin to get her
head into position and then by slapping a neck-scissors on her.
Rating: The headlock is a “work-over” move. Used to set up various other holds and moves it’s
relatively easy to counter. It does remain an efficient weapon in every wrestlerette’s arsenal
though.

Skin the Cat

Skinning the cat may not be a visually impressive ladies’ wrestling move, but it is one that
requires quite a bit of power and athleticism. Only some of the best-conditioned lady wrestlers
were/are able to pull off the Skin The Cat move. The move is aimed at avoiding to be tossed
from the ring over the top rope and it is therefore an important battle royal skill.
During battle royals, wrestlers are eliminated by being tossed from the ring over the top rope.
The ladies who manage to grab hold of the top rope with both their hands on their way out, and
hold on, avoiding to hit the ring apron, can then lift their legs and curl their body to get back
inside, provided they have enough core strength to pull it off. The ladies who effectively perform
the above described more are said to have skinned the cat.

The name of the move is indicative of the fact that the wrestlerette who just got tossed out of the
ring, manages to claim her tournament life back through it, after she was pretty much disposed of
for good. A cat may have nine lives, but skinning it is truly taking things beyond the limit.

Possible escape: doesn’t apply for this women’s wrestling move.

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Rating: the skin the cat is certainly efficient when it comes to staving off elimination. It is also a
nice show of strength and agility on the part of the wrestler, usually rather popular with the
crowd too.
For an illustration of the move, go to: http://www.women-
wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/skin-the-cat.html

Sleeper

The sleeper hold is one of the best known women wrestling holds. It has
a fetish element to it too as many of the viewers feel it’s extremely
appealing to see one female wrestler render her opponent completely
defenseless through this move. In female pro wrestling, victory can be
achieved in 3 different ways: through a pin, a submission or a KO.
Because closed fisted blows and kicks are not allowed (these moves can
knock a person out), just about the only way to knock an opponent out
in women’s pro wrestling is through the sleeper.
The attacker is positioned behind the victim. She slips an arm around
her neck and places her other hand on the back of the victim’s head,
then secures an overhand grip on her own lower arm. She then proceeds
to tighten the hold, thus cutting off the blood supply (by squeezing the
carotid artery) to the victim’s brain, causing her to pass out. Obviously
the move is a very dangerous one and should never be executed by amateurs in an uncontrolled
environment. Even if you do put a sleeper on your opponent in a pro wrestling match, make sure
you do not actually block her carotid artery (that’s right, fake the hold rather than to endanger
your opponent’s life).

The referee then checks on the victim, by lifting one of her arms up and letting go of it. If the
victim is unable to keep her arm up on her own, three consecutive times, the referee calls for the
bell and awards the victory to the attacker.
Possible escape: because of the extreme efficiency of the hold, a victim trapped in a sleeper
barely has time to react, let alone to do something efficient towards escaping. Escape is quite
impossible.
Rating: the sleeper is positively one of the most efficient holds in women’s wrestling (in
women’s MMA too). A well applied sleeper by a powerful female wrestler will send any man or
any woman to sleep in 2-3 seconds.

Spinning Roundhouse Kick

The spinning roundhouse kick is actually a martial arts move which made its way into women's
professional wrestling through girls with a martial arts background. The Spinning roundhouse
kick is an impressive looking move indeed, and it is not a stretch to fathom that it can indeed
knock a wrestler right out. Malia Hosaka was the one who used the move a lot in the LPWA,
scoring numerous wins through it, over competitors like Rusty "the Fox" Thomas and
Magnificent Mimi.

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 The spinning roundhouse kick starts out with the attacker sending
the would-be victim into the ring ropes. As she bounces back,
instead of clotheslining her or shoulder tackling her off her feet, the
attacker spins around and lifts her leg up high at the end of the
motion, roundhouse-kicking the victim in the neck/face/upper
chest. The move is a relatively high risk one, as the attacker will
find it difficult to control the momentum of her kick, which can
cause pretty serious damage to the victim, like cracking her teeth or
breaking her nose. The best place to land a spinning roundhouse
kick is the upper chest, above the breasts but the momentum still
needs to be watched. Too little of it and the move ends up looking
fake, too much and the victim may truly be knocked out the hard
way.
Possible escape: the victim can always duck under the spinning
roundhouse kick, the same way she would under a clothesline.
Rating: the spinning roundhouse kick is a true monster of a move. A well executed one will
leave the victim flat on her back, a sure mark for the pin, or for whatever other devious hold the
attacker may want to slip on her.

Standing Moonsault

The standing moonsault is a sleek-looking offensive female wrestling maneuver, which – when
well-executed – can indeed be used as a finisher. The moonsault looks simple enough, but it’s
rather difficult to execute and it does carry quite a few risks too, therefore we will have to
classify it a high-risk maneuver. The attacker puts the victim of the standing moonsault onto her
back (by clotheslining or by bodyslamming her, or through just about any wrestling maneuver
suited for the purpose). She then stands up, with her shoulders parallel to the axis of her victim’s
body, facing away from her.
The attacker then leaps into the air, bending backwards and flipping over mid-flight, landing
with her chest on the victim’s chest, and her body vertical to that of her victim. Once she lands,
she hooks the victim’s leg/legs for the 1-2-3. The problem with the move is that if there’s a
miscommunication between the two wrestlers, the victim may attempt to roll away thus causing
the attacker to land awkwardly. It is quite a gut-churning undertaking to take such a backward
leap into the unknown too, therefore those who can flawlessly execute this ladies’ wrestling
move are worthy of the viewers’ respect indeed.

Possible escape: the victim can attempt to roll out of the standing moonsault before the attacker
lands. Such an escape does have to be as clean as possible though as it carries significant risks
for the attacker (see above) .
Rating: the standing moonsault is a spectacular enough move to be used as a finisher. It isn’t a
high impact one, it’s rather smooth and graceful, yet it is pretty humiliating for the victim.
For illustrations, go to: http://www.women-wrestling.org/women_wrestling_holds/standing-
moonsault.html

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Standing on the Hair

Standing on an opponent’s hair is a relatively frequent move in

women’s professional wrestling. It might have to do with the
fact that most woman wrestlers have long hair, which their
opponents can use against them in the ring. Standing on your
opponent’s hair will not really further your cause in the match
though. It’ll probably just make your opponent mad, but it’s
still a good way to deliver some pain to one of her more
sensitive areas.
The attacker gets the victim on her back on the mat (for
instance, she can bodyslam or clothesline her to set her up),
then walks over to her head, plants her feet right next to her
opponent’s ears – which means she’ll step on her hair. The
attacker then grabs hold of both her opponent’s hands/wrists,
and pulls upward on her them, while keeping her feet on her
hair.

The move will obviously result in the victim’s hair being pulled, as well as her arms being
stretched.
Possible escape: if your opponent puts you in this malicious hold, try to reach up with your legs
and flip her forward, so you get her feet off your hair. Remember, moving your head in any
direction will result in pain.
Rating: Standing on your opponent’s hair is only likely to deliver some pain to her scalp and to
get her mad, which is OK if that’s what you’re after. Don’t expect this female wrestling move to
have any sort of longer term effect on the victim though.

Summersault Senton

The Summersault Senton is a pimped-up variation of the

Senton. As you can probably guess, the Summersault Senton is
a highly spectacular move which is pretty risky too. The victim
is on her back on the floor.
She needs to keep her arms by her side in order to make sure
they don’t get caught under the attacker when she lands. The
attacker builds a little bit of momentum by taking a couple of
paces before leaping up into the air and executing a
summersault above the victim. She lands with her bottom on
the floor on the other side of the victim, with her upper body
landing on the victim. This creates the illusion that she hits the
victim full weight, but make no mistake, the brunt of her
weight needs to hit the ring-floor clear of the victim’s body in order to avoid injury. The
summersault Senton is not a hold one can afford to botch as it can lead to serious injuries to both
the victim and the attacker.

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Possible escape: the victim can escape the summersault senton the same way she would escape a
regular senton: by getting out of the way, rolling towards the attacker’s take-off point. Never roll
towards her landing point or she’ll land on top of you and hurt you and herself too.
Efficiency: the summersault senton is supposed to knock the air out of the victim. It certainly
looks spectacular enough to be considered a highly efficient move.

Test of Strength

The test of strength is an extremely frequently used hold in women’s

professional wrestling. Matches often begin with a test of strength as
the two wrestlerettes determine the early pecking order this way. I
suppose the test of strength can be considered a submission hold,
because I have once seen a clip with a Mexican jobber girl submitting
to a test of strength.
The wrestlerette who initiates the test of strength holds her hand up.
Her opponent reaches up and clutches her hand. They may do it with
one hand or both hands. The wrestlerette with the stronger grip will
force her opponent onto her knees or onto her back thus gaining a
strategic advantage, not to mention a psychological one.

The test of strength is not the most spectacular women’s wrestling hold, it is merely a way to
initiate action.
Possible escape: don’t accept your opponent’s invitation for the test of strength. If you’re
already in it and feel like you’re losing it knee or kick your opponent in order to break her
concentration.
Rating: not the most efficient submission hold, although it has been known to yield a
submission.

Using the Ropes

In women’s professional wrestling, the ring ropes can be used

in a variety of ways and for a variety of goals. They can be
used for immobilizing opponents (tying them into the ring
ropes) for torturing (pushing the victim’s face onto the top rope
and then sliding it alongside), or for leverage to secure a pin.
All great female wrestlers are adept at using the ring ropes to
their advantage. Although it is theoretically illegal, the use of
the ring ropes is part of the magic of female wrestling.
Many women’s wrestling moves make use of the ropes. Take
the tree of woe for instance. Then there’s the clothesline which
is usually executed when bouncing off the ropes. Some of the
more skilled wrestlerettes are able to walk the top rope to
execute maneuvers, and everyone mounts the ropes every now
and then for a big splash. There are also few things more humiliating for a victim than to find
herself tied into the ropes unable to move, completely at the mercy of her attacker. Placing a foot
on the ropes to secure extra leverage when going for the pin is also relatively common, and it is

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quite efficient at what it’s aimed to achieve. The bottom line is: legal or illegal, as long as the
ring ropes are there, savvy lady wrestlers will always use them as props for various wrestling
maneuvers they execute.
Possible escape: when low on energy and tied into the ring ropes, there’s little you can do other
than to beg for mercy or hope for the referee to release you.
Rating: Most of the time, wrestler girls resort to the use of the ring ropes as a way to increase
the efficiency of the move/hold they’re performing. Using the ropes is a general efficiency
enhancer.

Victory Pose

The victory pose is not even a female wrestling hold per se, but
it is an integral part of the wrestling ring rituals so we’ll include
it in out “others” section anyway. The victory pose is a
celebration performed by the winner of a bout. How simple or
intricate it is only depends on the creativity of the triumphant
wrestlerette. Some winners just slip out of the ring and exit the
arena as soon as they can. Others will settle for raising their
hands or their belt and punching the air.
More creative wrestlerettes will pose over their fallen victims
to display their dominance. The facesit itself can be considered
a victory pose. There are few more expressive displays of
dominance than sitting on the defeated wrestlerette’s face and
fondling one’s own hair in a provocatively sensual way.

Placing a foot on the fallen girl’s stomach, neck, chest or face is also a relatively common
victory pose. Some wrestlerettes insist of placing their victims in compromising positions and
displaying them as trophies.

One of the weirdest victory celebrations I ever saw was the winner giving the hapless loser a
hair-wash in the middle of the wrestling mat (TPC wrestling).
Possible escape: Don’t lose the match and don’t give your opponent a reason to celebrate.
Efficiency: Does not apply here.

Walking the Top Rope

This women’s wrestling move is a highly acrobatic one which requires obvious cooperation from
the victim, and I must admit that I love it. The move is most often seem in Mexican female
wrestling. It is a high-amplitude, high risk move, that – when executed properly – is extremely
spectacular as well.
The move usually begins with the attacker grabbing hold of one of the victim’s hands (in a test of
strength fashion). She then gathers momentum and scales (runs up) the ropes to the top one while
still grabbing her opponent’s hand. She takes a few paces on the top rope, using the victim as
support. She then jumps off the rope rolling over in the air before landing, using the momentum
built up this way to flip her opponent over and to toss her across the ring. Cooperation from the

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 victim is important when the attacker lands too. The victim needs to
slow her fall in order to prevent injury.
Possible escape: because the move requires so much cooperation from
the victim, we can’t really talk about a possible escape here. As a
matter of fact, the victim needs to focus on staying with the flow of the
move to make sure the attacker doesn’t end up injured.
Efficiency: staying within kayfabe, the move is supposed to daze the
victim, especially when used as part of a whole barrage of armdrags. In
actual terms, we can’t really talk about efficiency in the case of this
move.

Wedgie

In women’s wrestling, pulling on one’s opponent’s attire is

more of a statement than a move designed to cause damage.
The dominant wrestler will pull on her opponent’s bikini
bottom or leotard to show off her superiority, as she abuses
her opponent’s private areas and the victim is unable to
defend herself.
The attacker grabs hold of her opponent’s bikini bottom or
her leotard’s panty part and pulls the fabric up towards the
victim’s head. This will cause the fabric to painfully cut into the victim’s private areas causing a
great deal of discomfort. Again, even though it is spectacular, the wedgie is meant to humiliate
rather than cause actual damage.
Possible escape: wear pantyhose under your leotard or bikini bottom and you’ll pretty much
neutralize the effects of the wedgie.
Efficiency: the wedgie is an extremely humiliating move, but its actual efficiency is close to nil.

Widow’s Peak

The Widow’s Peak is a high impact finisher invented by - and correct

me if I’m wrong – Victoria, back in her WWE days. The Widow’s Peak
was in fact her signature move, one to which pretty much all the other
WWE divas fell victim at one point or another. The Widow’s Peak is a
high impact and high risk move for both ladies involved, so it’s
definitely not something anyone should attempt to execute without top
level professional guidance. The move also requires active cooperation
from the victim in order to be pulled off properly.
The attacker starts the move the same way she’d start a powerbomb or a
piledriver. She gets the victim’s head down between her legs and hugs
her around the torso, lifting her up and flipping her over in the same
time. Once the victim flips onto the attacker’s back, she hooks both her
lower legs around the attacker’s thighs (this is where victim cooperation is more than obvious).

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The attacker then proceeds to grab the victim’s chin with both her hands in a camel clutch-like
manner. When the hold is locked in, the attacker drops to her bum, bringing the victim down
with her.
Possible escape: given the fact that the widow’s peak requires active cooperation from the
victim, I’m not sure we can talk about any possible escape scenarios from this hold. If you want
to escape just don’t cooperate, it’s as simple as that.
Efficiency: the widow’s peak is an extremely efficient female wrestling move. The victim is
usually rendered completely helpless by it, a sure mark for the pin. On my part, I don’t think I’ve
ever seen a girl kick out of a pin which came after a widow’s peak.

Wishbone Split

The attacker starts the move the same way she’d start a
powerbomb or a piledriver. She gets the victim’s head down
between her legs and hugs her around the torso, lifting her up
and flipping her over in the same time. Once the victim flips
onto the attacker’s back, she hooks both her lower legs around
the attacker’s thighs (this is where victim cooperation is more
than obvious). The attacker then proceeds to grab the victim’s
chin with both her hands in a camel clutch-like manner. When
the hold is locked in, the attacker drops to her bum, bringing the victim down with her.
Possible escape: given the fact that the widow’s peak requires active cooperation from the
victim, I’m not sure we can talk about any possible escape scenarios from this hold. If you want
to escape just don’t cooperate, it’s as simple as that.
Efficiency: the widow’s peak is an extremely efficient female wrestling move. The victim is
usually rendered completely helpless by it, a sure mark for the pin. On my part, I don’t think I’ve
ever seen a girl kick out of a pin which came after a widow’s peak.

Afterword

The Great E-book of Ladies’ Wrestling Holds does not aim to provide
direct guidance and it shouldn’t be used as a professional reference
when it comes to learning professional wrestling moves and holds. Its
mission is to convey the magic of ladies professional wrestling and the
various subtleties behind some of the moves, thus contributing to the
popularization of the sport. It is basically a book written by a fan for
the fans and it is thus distributed freely only through www.women-
wrestling.org

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Table of Contents

Preface…………………………………………………………………………....1
Ladies Professional Wrestling Holds and Moves……………………………...2
Ladies’ Wrestling Throws……………………………………………....2
Airplane Spin…….…………………………………………….....2
Armdrag…………………………………………………………..3
Atomic Drop………………………………………………….…...3
Backdrop Suplex………………………………..………………...4
Bodyslam………………………………………….……….……...4
Brain Buster………………………………………..……………..5
Brainbuster Suplex…………………………………..…………...6
Bulldog………………………………………………………...…..6
Buttdrop……………………………………….…………….…….7
Chokeslam………………………………………………………...8
Clothesline………………………………………………….……..8
Crucifix…………………………………………………..………..9
DDT………………………………………………………………..9
Dropkick………………………………………………………….10
Electric Chair…………………………………………………….11
Facebuster………………………………………………………..11
Fall-away Slam…………………………………………………..12
Fisherman’s Suplex………………………………………..…….12
Glam Slam………………………………………………………..13
Gorilla Press………………………………………………..…….14
Hair Mare………………………………………………….……..14
Headbutt to the Groin…………………………………..……….15
Hiptoss……………………………………………………………15
Irish Whip……………………………………………………..…16
Keister Bounce…………………………………………………...16
Kneeling Piledriver……………………………………………...17
Knock Out………………………………………………………..17
Lariat…………………………………………………………..…18
Leghook Sitout Scoop-Slam Piledriver…………………………18
Michinoku Driver…………………………………………….….19
Missile Dropkick…………………………………………………19
Monkey Flip…………………………………………………..….20
Piledriver………………………………………………………….21
Powerbomb……………………………………………………….21
PowerSlam………………………………………………………..22
Samoan Drop……………………………………………………..22
Sidewalk Slam…………………………………………………….23
Slingshot…………………………………………………………..23
Snap Mare………………………………………………………..24

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 Snap Suplex………………………………………………………24
Spike Piledriver…………………………………………………..25
Spinning High Crossbody……...………………………………..26
Splash…………………………………………………….……….26
Superplex…………………………………………………………27
Swinging Neck-breaker……………………………………….…27
Tilt-a-Whirl Slam………………………………………………..28
Vertical Suplex………………………………………………..…28
Women’s Wrestling Pins…………………………………………..……29
Backbridge Pin……………………………………………..……29
Backslide Pin……………………………………………….……30
Cradle…………………………………………………………….30
Crossbody Pin…………………………………………………...31
Double Leghook Folding Pin……………………………………31
Double Pin…………………………………………………..……32
Flip-over Backbridge Pin…………………………………….….32
German Suplex……………………………………………….….33
Grapevine Pin……………………………………………………34
Hurricanrana…………………………………………………….34
Jackknife Pin…………………………………………………….35
Leghook Pin……………………………………………………...35
Legsplit Facepin………………………………………..………..36
Matchbook Pin………………………………………………..…36
Pile-Up…………………………………………………………….37
Reverse Legspread Pin…………………………………………..37
Schoolgirl Pin…………………………………………………….38
Small Package……………………………………………………38
Spanish Press……………………………………………….……39
Sunset Flip…………………………………………………….....39
Sunset Flip Powerbomb……………………………………..…..40
Victory Roll………………………………………………………41
Ladies Wrestling Submission Holds……………………………………41
Abdominal Stretch……………………………………………….42
Armbar…………………………………………………………...42
Attacking the Face……………………………………………….43
Baby Swing Bow and Arrow……………………………..……..43
Body Breaker……………………………………………………44
Body Scissors…………………………………………………….45
Boston Crab……………………………………………………...45
British Leg-spread……………………………………………….46
Camel Clutch…………………………………………………….46
Crippler Crossface………………………………………….……47
Double Toed Leglock…………………………………………….47
Dragon Sleeper…………………………………………………..48
Facesit…………………………………………………………….48
Figure 4 Ankle Lock………………………………………….…49

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 Figure 4 Foldover Armbar………………………….…………..49
Figure 4 Headlock……………………………………………….50
Figure 4 Leglock………………………………………………...50
Front Facelock……………………………………………..……51
Full Nelson………………………………………………………..51
Hangman……………………………………………………..…..52
Headscissors…………………………………………………..….52
Indian Deathlock…………………………………………..…….53
Japanese Twist…………………………………………..………53
Kinniku Buster………………………………………………..…54
Kneespread………………………………………………………55
Leg Step-over Hold……………………………………………...55
Leghook Submission…………………………………………….56
Legspread……………………………………………………..…56
Lotus Lock……………………………………………………….57
Matchbook Submission………………………………………….57
Mexican Ceiling…………………………………………….……58
Over the Knee Backbreaker…………………………..………..58
Over the Shoulder Backbreaker………………………………..59
Overhead Double-toed Leglock Bow and Arrow……..……….59
Persian Carpet Ride………………………………………….….60
Pretzel………………………………………………………….…60
Reverse Indian Deathlock……………………………………….61
Rocking Horse…………………………………………………...62
Scorpion Crosshold………………………………………………62
Sharpshooter…………………………………………………..…63
Single-leg Boston Crab…………………………………………..63
Spladle…………………………………………………………....64
Stacked Camel
Clutch…………………………………………...64
Standing Headlock……………………………………………….65
Stepover Toehold………………………………………………...65
STF………………………………………………………………..66
Stomach Claw…………………………………………………….67
Stretch Muffler…………………………………………………...67
Surfboard………………………………………………………….68
Tarantula Rope Backbreaker…………………………………...68
Tequila Sunrise…………………………………………………...69
Venus Flytrap…………………………………………………….69
Torture Rack……………………………………………………..70
Tree of Woe……………………………………………………….70
Triangle Leglock………………………………………………….71
Other Ladies Wrestling Moves…………………………………………..71
Arm Wringer……………………………………………………...71
Axe Handle………………………………………………………...72
Back Mount……………………………………………………..…72

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 Bearhug……………………………………………………..….…..73
Big Boot…………………………………………………………….73
Boot to the Neck……………………………………………………74
Breast Edge Chop………………………………………………….74
Breast Smother…………………………………………………....75

Bridging…………………………………………………………….75
Bronco Buster………………………………………………………76
Choking……………………….……………………………………..76
Collar and Elbow Lock-Up………..………………………………..77
Crotch Bomb……………..………………………………………….77
Crotch Claw…………..…..………………………………………….78
Crotch Stomp……..….……………………………………………...79
Crotched on the Middle Rope……………………………………....79
Double Team Irish Whip……………………………………………80
Double Teaming………………………………………………….….80
Drop Toehold…………………………………………………………81
Elbow Drop……………………………………………………………81
Face-on-rope Rake…………………………………………….……..82
Farmer’s Roll…………………………………………………………82
Fireman’s Carry……………………………………………………..83
Forehead Stomp……………………………………………………...84
Giant Swing………………………………………………………..….84
Go Behind……………………………………………………………..85
Groin Buster…………………………………………………………..85
Hair Pulling…………………………………………………………..86
Hammerlock…………………………………………………………..86
Headbutt………………………………………………………………87
Hip Attack…………………………………………………………….87
Knee to the Belly……………………………………………………..88
Knee-shot on Ringpost……………………………………………....88
Legdrop……………………………………………………………....89
Nerve Holds…………………………………………………………..89
Nutshot………………………………………………………………..90
Oil Check……………………………………………………………..91
Posting……………………………………………………………..….91
Pulling on the Bathing Suit………………………………………….92
Ready Position………………………………………………………..92
Rope-Break…………………………………………………………...93
Rope-assisted Knee-breaker………………………………………...93
Rowboat……………………………………………………………….94
Senton………………………………………………………………….95
Shin Breaker……………………………………………………….….95
Shining Wizard………………………………………………………..96
Side Headlock…………………………………………………………97
Skin the Cat…………………………………………………………...97

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 Sleeper…………………………………………………………………98
Spinning Roundhouse Kick…………………………………………..98
Standing Moonsault…………………………………………………...99
Standing on the Hair………………………………………………...100
Summersault Senton………………………………………………...100
Test of Strength……………………………………………………….101
Using the Ropes……………………………………………………….101
Victory Pose…………………………………………………………..102
Walking the Top Rope……………………………………………….102
Wedgie………………………………………………………………...103
Widow’s Peak……………………………………………………..….103
Wishbone Split………………………………………………………..104
Afterword…………....104
Table of Contents…...105

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