• “They shorten careers and destroy the quality of life” – Mick Foley On A Popular Wrestling Move
Aside from several other versions of the Suplex, The German Suplex is actually one of the most popular ones, and certainly one of the most effective Suplexes out there.
However, during a recent episode of his weekly ‘Foley Is Pod’ podcast, WWF Legend Mick Foley didn’t have anything good to say about this particular move.
Here’s what the former WWF Champion said:
“I’ll probably take some criticism for this being the guy who did a lot of risky stuff, but you noticed there’s no scar on my neck. You would think I would have been one of the first guys that would be in line for that surgery.
I did not let people throw me backwards very often. There would be a time a guy like Rick Steiner would throw me, whether or not I wanted to go, but I generally had a plan B. I don’t like German Suplexes. I think that over time, they shorten careers and they destroy the quality of life, so people can attack me for that. Over time, it’s gonna wear you out.
You couldn’t show the (AEW Dynamite) match that (Daniel) Garcia had with (Wheeler) Yuta to any reasonable orthopedic guy who would say that what those guys were doing was not going to lend itself to a poor quality of life.
I just think there’s things we can create with illusions. That back suplex, it used to be a back suplex, now it’s a German Suplex. I would jump up out of my easy chair when I was watching All Japan Wrestling when I would see Dr. Death. I asked Doc and he said, ‘Brother, they’re lining up to take it in Japan. They wanted to take it. Each one wants to take it successively higher.’
In that case, I’m seeing the full arm go up. But this is like alright, here’s the Foley block of the chair, boom, and you know what? If I don’t get the four fingers up there in time, I’m going to take a heck of a jolt, it’s gonna cause a concussion, but it’s not going to paralyze me.
Whereas this, if you don’t do everything right, I just can’t see those things being good for long term health, and not everybody’s going to make a lot of money.
These guys are great workers. I just think they could do without that move. I remember taking a beating when I said, ‘Man, I hated seeing Sasha Banks doing the tope because it was the one move that seemed to lend itself to injury almost every time she was doing it.’ It’s like, take it off the menu. Here’s one of the most astonishing workers of our generation. You don’t need that. You do not need that. If you think you need a dive, come up with something that’s not going to have the boys and men and women jumping out of their chairs.
As crazy as it sounds being the guy that took all that stuff, I don’t want to see any of us in wheelchairs. I don’t want to see any of us needing long-term care and petitioning Cauliflower Alley Club for quality of life care. There’s just other ways around it. And for God’s sake, lighten up on the forearms at the house shows. There’s only so many brain cells to go around.
I know I’m opening myself up for a flood criticism. You see I go to bat when one of our guys is down. I try to raise money. But if you feel in your heart what we’re doing is going to wear people out and is going to put them in a bad way as they age, then let’s try to come up with something else.
We eliminated chair shots to the point where now you see a chair shot to the head, especially on the indies and that’s just flat out stupid. I’ll argue that I blocked the ones to the side. I willingly took the ones to the top of my head because that’s what we did back then, but we know better (now), and I just wonder what it’s going to take for people to say let’s take the German (Suplex) off the menu.”
Also Read: Mick Foley Reveals What He Wants At WrestleMania After His Death
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• ON THIS DAY IN WWF HISTORY (September 18, 1994) – WWF Wrestling Challenge
On this day in 1994, the World Wrestling Federation aired an episode of their weekly TV show ‘WWF Wrestling Challenge’.
It was broadcasted from the Auditorium in Lowell, Massachusetts and featured pre-taped matches, promos & storyline segments on the road to the ‘WWF Survivor Series 1994’ PPV.
The card can be found right here:
– Adam Bomb vs. Todd Mata
– Shawn Michaels & Diesel vs. Scrubs
– Sparky Plugg Holly vs. Tony Devito
– Jim Neidhart vs. Tom O’Sullivan
– The Smoking Gunns vs. Barry Hardy & Duane Gill
– Razor Ramon Interview
– Kwang vs. Ricky Rich
– Lex Luger vs. Nick Barberry
