Our Ten Best: Set Up Moves in Professional Wrestling

In professional wrestling, one’s finishing move is obviously important in ending a match, but often times, it’s the move that comes beforehand that ends up turning the tide the most. Able Here’s ReviewFix.com’s list of the Top 10 set up moves in the industry.

10: The Great Muta: Dragon Screw Leg Whip- Usually followed up with a moonsault or a figure four leglock, Muta was a smooth operator, as these moves flowed beautifully into one another.

Video: From a video game, but it shows Muta applying the hold and transitioning it into a figure-four.

9: Lex Luger: Forearm Smash- Perpetuated by the fact that Luger had a steel plate in his elbow, the move was the precursor to the Torture Rack, a submission move no one ever escaped.

8: Goldberg: Spear- As a testament to its proficiency, Rhino uses this move as his finisher, but for Goldberg, this tackling maneuver was the perfect set up to the Jackhammer.

7: Chris Benoit: Multiple German Suplexes- A man of many moves, this one usually meant that a flying headbutt or a crippler crossface was on its way.

6: Eddy Guerrero: Brainbuster- Dropping someone on their neck is bad enough, but sliding them down on it in the vertical suplex is another. Done in the middle of the ring, this move was a great way to set up the frog splash.

5: Scott Steiner: Belly to Belly Suplex- After his persona change, Steiner used the Steiner recliner, but before that would always come a silky smooth swinging belly to belly suplex that everyone would kick out off. Nevertheless, it was pretty to watch.

4: Christopher Daniels: Last Rights- One of the niftiest versions of the Ace crusher to every be created, Daniels has a great moveset, but this was always a nice segway to the Angel’s Wings.

3: Taz: Tazplex- Much like Samoa Joe, this suplex transition into a choke-out finisher always worked in the ring.

2: Undertaker: Chokeslam- It didn’t matter what finisher ‘Taker was using in the ring, the chokeslam always brought the crowd down.

1: A.J. Styles: Pele Kick- You never see it coming. A backflip leg lariat, this move would work as a finisher, but as a set up move, it’s easily the most captivating in the industry today.

A special thanks to the Youtube community for providing the videos for this piece.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13821 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

2 Comments

  1. wheres Shawn Micheal’s sweet chin music?
    lex luger’s torture rack?
    kevin nash’s power bomb?
    WHERE’S STONE COLD’S STUNNER????
    HOPE U DO PART 2 OF THIS

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