The Brainbuster - Who Did It Best?
The Brainbuster is one of the most awesome wrestling moves ever created. It’s a move that’s both simple to execute but extremely dangerous at the same time. After all, the whole premise of the move is to lift your opponent up and then drop them (presumably) head-first into the mat from a vertical suplex position.
However, before we look at which wrestler did the best Brainbuster, we need to get one technical matter out of the way. Many wrestling moves are either created or popularized in Japan, before being used in North American promotions. Even in Japan, commentators use English names for wrestling moves because wrestling is predominantly an English-speaking market. Yet in Japan the word ‘brainbuster’ is used differently.
Any vertical suplex, even ones that end with the victim landing on their back, is called a ‘Brainbuster’. We’re talking about the Vertical suplex lift drop into a head-first, DDT-style spike, which in Japan is called a ‘sheerdrop’. So technically the move we’re talking about here is the ‘sheerdrop Brainbuster’.
The Brainbuster is an expert’s wrestling move; only the most skilled and experienced wrestlers can be trusted to use this move without injuring or killing their opponents. Only a select elite could use this move on a regular basis, and when they did, they made the move look amazing.
So which one of them hit the best Brainbuster ever?
#7 Tomohiro Ishii
Tomohiro Ishii is New Japan’s resident brawling machine. Since about 2013, Ishii has made an explosive impact on NJPW’s roster, having all these outstanding matches with anyone and everyone. While most people know Ishii for his brawls and stiff strikes, his main finisher is a Brainbuster that he hits with devastating force.
Ishii is incredibly strong for such a short man, and he has shown this by lifting wrestlers bigger than himself up for the Brainbuster with ease. Of course, this applies to almost everyone in New Japan as Ishii is one of the shortest wrestlers on their roster.
Perhaps his most impressive Brainbuster was on Bad Luck Fale, who is billed as weight almost 350 pounds. Yet Ishii was able to land his signature Brainbuster without any effort.
It takes an exceptionally strong and skilled wrestler to lift someone that heavy into a vertical suplex and drop them in a way that only makes it look like they land on their head and neck without actually doing so.