5 WWE Superstars with Submission Finishers You Didn’t Know About
WWE tends to keep its wrestling relatively simple and straightforward. For better or for worse, RAW and SmackDown Live action is largely storyline centric with the in ring action pitched in such a way as to be accessible to a casual audience.
There are quite a few performers who have deceptively deep repertoires of moves, strikes, and holds that they rarely if ever put to use in front of a WWE audience.
However, based on performers’ earlier work in smaller promotions, abroad, or even NXT, there a number of them who have revealed themselves to have submission finishers that most fans may not be aware of.
Some of these finishers pay homage to stars past, and some are deceptively creative. Some don’t fit current WWE characters, or aren’t as TV friendly as the finishers that they now use instead.
This article takes a look at five current WWE Superstars who have at one point or another demonstrated that they can pull off impressive submission hold finishers that most of the WWE audience may not have known about.
#5 Daniel Bryan’s Cattle Mutilation
Daniel Bryan is widely regarded as one of, if not the single most proficient submission grapplers and technical wrestlers in WWE today.
Indeed, while Bryan didn’t necessarily have the look or style WWE typically privileges in its recruits—and that’s particularly so when he properly signed with WWE in 2009—it was his technical skills that got him a look.
Bryan had garnered a reputation as one of the best wrestlers, in the ring, in the world, and as such garnered an opportunity with the biggest wrestling company in the world.
Cattle Mutilation—a bridging double chicken wing hold—was a signature finishing hold for Bryan before signing with WWE, including during his celebrated Ring of Honor run. Many hardcore fans lamented that Bryan gave up this brutal looking submission, and were quick to blame WWE for dumbing down the technical wizard’s repertoire.
Bryan himself has rebutted the point in numerous interviews, though, citing that Cattle Mutilation isn’t the most TV friendly hold—particularly because it tends to obscure both wrestlers’ faces—and thus simply wasn’t a good fit for the WWE product.