Pro Wrestling Moves That Work in MMA: The Powerbomb
by Geno Mrosko on Jul 27, 2010 7:39 PM EDT
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So in the first part of the series of pro wrestling moves that work in MMA, we covered the bulldog. After watching the Sarah Kaufman-Roxanne Modafferi fight this past weekend on the Strikeforce Challengers 9 card it naturally led into the next move; the powerbomb. From wikipedia:
A powerbomb is a move in which an opponent is lifted up into the air and then slammed down back-first to the mat. The standard powerbomb sees the opponent placed in a standing headscissors position (bent forward with their head placed between the wrestler's thighs), lifted up on the wrestler's shoulders, and slammed back-first down to the mat.
If you've ever watched any wrestling then you know what this is. It's a perfect move in so many ways because it has all the criteria to get over. It looks great, it's rather easy to do when your opponent isn't sandbagging you and it can legitimately cause some serious damage. In fact, there have been many instances of this. Big Van Vader injured Cactus Jack with it while in WCW and he also broke Joe Thurman's back.
Of course, as with almost all moves in pro wrestling there are many variations of it. Because of how good it looks a lot of top guys used it as a finisher. The previously mentioned Vader, Sid Vicious, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Undertaker and Batista all used it in some form or another as their finishing move. Hell, with Batista wanting to come over to MMA and possibly getting to fight for Strikeforce we might get to see him finish an MMA fight with it. Yeah, I doubt it too.
Of course, in a mixed martial arts fight a guy will never just be "dazed" enough to let you powerbomb his ass. It's typically used as a line of defense against a submission attempt. In the video below you'll see one of the most famous slams in MMA history. Rampage Jackson was taking on Ricardo Arona at Pride Critical Countdown 2004. As Rampage is in Arona's guard, Ricardo is moving his legs to get into position for a triangle choke. Rampage brings his free arm around and clasps his hands together and the rest is history:
As you can see it is just a devastating move. The power of the slam drove the back of Arona's head into the mat and knocked him out, although he would later claim that he was knocked out by the ensuing headbutt. This is probably the most famous powerbomb KO in MMA history but definitely not the most recent. I mentioned previously the inspiration for this post was the slam that Sarah Kaufman delivered to Roxanne Modafferi. Video below and the slam comes at around the 23 second mark.
It's really amazing that she could get her up like that considering the positioning of Modafferi. With Rampage, Arona was tightly wrapped around him. All he had to do was put his hands together and generate the power and Arona was just along for the ride. In the case of Kaufman, you can see that Roxanne is working on the arm and trying to get her leg over. She also tries to get underneath the left leg of Kaufman. This is important because that, along with her right leg being so high, put her out of position to try and stand up instead of letting Sarah pick her up. So instead she lifts her head up and pulls guard. That just assisted Kaufman in finishing the slam and the fight. Truly a thing of beauty.
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Fedor should of done this
Fedor should tried for a powerbomb when he got caught in that choke/arm bar last month. It seems like the simplest counter in the world to avoid being choked. Just pick em up and SPLAT.
Fedor Would Never Pull it Off
Werdum would have cut the angle, underhooked his leg and put him on his side thus making the choke worse in terms of position. Arona didnt do that he placed both hands putting force on the choke. Powerbombs dont tend to work for Triangle defense, that was a once in a million type thing that worked for Rampage
by AintNoSunshine on Jul 28, 2010 2:58 PM EDT up reply actions
Slams from triangles are pretty risky. Firstly, it takes a lot of energy which clearly you don’t have a lot of if someone has you in a triangle. Secondly, when you lift someone off the ground, it makes it easier for the bottom guy to tighten the choke. Thirdly, there is a decent chance the person can hook your leg and roll you into a mounted triangle, which is pretty much impossible to get out of. With the Arona one, he was being lazy. It was loose as hell and he didn’t even try to tighten it
"Ten more seconds is all I ever ask. That's the good thing I learned about being KO'd twice. You don't see it coming -it's like death- you don't plan for it so don't wait for it. So many people are afraid of getting Ko'd that their hands stay home, but not me. I got to go out there and shoot the lights out and fall down" Jens Pulver
Case in point: Matt Hughes vs. Carlos Newton. Matt used the powerbomb to KO Newton and win the title, but picking him up also let Newton tighten the choke to the point that Hughes was out cold as well.
by gzl5000 on Jul 28, 2010 8:00 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Fun read. Thanks for this.
The Gerald Harris power bomb is my current favorite.
RIP, Coach Wooden.
Thank you, Geoff Petrie.
That was more like a spinebuster
Considering he pulled guard. Spinebusters would be much easier to do, even off a lifting double leg takedown. The problem is you may put yourself in a guillotine choke, and you need to make sure you don’t spike your own head like Gray Maynard did to Rob Emerson.
great post
I’ve always thought about this line of conversation… Glad to see somebody writing on it, keep up the good work.
If you search for shamrock vs hume you can see Ken Shamrock use a nice northern lights suplex to setup a kimura finish. I’ve heard that fight was fixed, but I could see a strong wrestler that cuts a lot of weight pulling something like that off.
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