The history of WWE finishing moves: Spear

Goldberg’s Spear at WrestleMania XX

Finishing moves have always been a weakness for the WWE fans since they were the most anticipated action that would’ve come out from a wrestler. Over the years, there have been many moves which gave Goosebumps to the fans and this will be a series which takes an in depth look into those finishers. The second installment of the series is going to look into Spear.

Basics

Basically, the spear is a shoulder block in which the wrestler strikes down his opponent with the help of his shoulder. To increase the force, the performer runs and makes contact with the opponent’s abdomen taking him down. While performing the move, the wrestler’s body is in parallel with the mat which contributes to the name as it resembles the spear which was used as a weapon. The opponent thus loses balances and is slammed back first into the wrestling mat with some good amount of selling which marks the conclusion of the move.

Technique

In order to perform a spear, the first thing which is to be done is to get to some distance away from the opponent. Three to four steps is ideal as it gives enough time to make a good run. Once the distance is gained and the opponent turns around, run towards the opponent and take him down. When the taking down occurs, the shoulder should be in contact with the midsection while the arms of the shoulder should be used to aid the opponent going down. One thing which should be avoided while doing this is to never use your head to take down as it can cause serious injuries.  

First used

There is a lot of confusion about who used the spear first, but the majority suggests that it was Goldberg. Though some superstars used the shoulder block before Goldberg, he was the first one who made if famous with the name. Back in his WCW days, Goldberg had a long winning streak and the spear had a lot of contributions to this record run. There are a lot of reference of the shoulder block from territory days itself and Jim Duggan also have a move which was similar to Spear. But the move got it’s recognition thanks to Goldberg who deserves to be credited for using it.  

Famous Superstars who use the move

Goldberg started off the use of spear on mainstream level and soon got replicated by Rhino. Rhino called it the gore but there weren’t many alterations. While Rhino made the move famous in ECW and Goldberg did the same in WCW, it was Edge who bought the move to WWE. Edge used the move throughout his career and won some major matches with this one. Batista then followed up the move some times while Big Show delivered a gut breaking one aided by his size. And most recently, Roman Reigns brought back the aura which went dead after the retirement of Edge.

Memorable Spears

Arguably the best spear to ever happen inside the squared circle has to be the one that Edge pulled off from the top of the ladder in between the three way tag team match. The match was full of some exciting spots but this one still manages to make us skip a heartbeat. Mick Foley being speared through the flaming table is another scene which doesn’t go out of our memory as it showed the limits that the two wrestlers were willing to go in order to entertain the fans. Chris Jericho was on the end of two devastating spears as well with one coming from Goldberg through a pod in the Elimination chamber while the second one from Rhino which ended up with the two wrestlers crashing through the big led lit screen at the entrance area.