I know well that wrestling is testosterone theater. The outcomes are predetermined. The violence is choreographed.
From what I have seen, the choreography of the moves do not defy laws of motion, or project that out to the fans, except one. The laws are exaggerated and embellished. When a wrestler hits his opponent, the opponent will react by falling away in the same direction. The opponent will even give a push when being picked up for a slam.
The move that does not comply with motion is when a wrestler has his opponent pinned, The opponent’s tag-team partner/manager/valet rescues him with a boot stomp, which knockes off the pinning wrestler.
Shouldn’t a boot stomp push the wrestler farther down? Reinforcing the Pin? But this never happens. Wouldn’t the better move be to kick the pinner “field goal” style?
Okay, now that we got that explained, somebody explain the physics of the standing drop kick to me.
You jump up, kick a guy in the head with both feet, fall to the ground and you’re fine. You jump up, somehow miss the guy you’re trying to kick (say he grabbed the ropes), you fall to the ground and you’re damn near dead! What gives here? It doesn’t look like they’re landing that much differently. Is this something that’s done purely for effect (“Whoa! This is the turning point of the match, folks!”), or is there really supposed to be a difference?
Um, that is explained how, oh yeah. You see, when you connect with the kick, your body is in a certian postion, and er, when you miss, its in another, barely preceptible position. And ah, the difference is not noticed by the naked eye, or even slow motion, but it is horribly crippling for, say, 30 seconds or so. Now don’t you feel silly for asking such an obvious question.
Next people will be wanting to know why the good guys always distract the ref while the bad guys team up on his partner.
I can’t believe I’m even reading a wrestling thread (you roped me in with the whole physics tie-in), but here goes. This is an issue in pretty much any martial art that does committed punching or kicking. When you launch a jump kick, you plan to land in a certain way so that you will be balanced. If you miss your target, you have to adjust your landing or you can hurt yourself severly. Try it yourself with front or side-kicks against a heavy bag; if the bag swings out of the way and you miss, you’re likely to lean in and end up in splits. A lot of defenses capitalize on this. Rather than blocking a kick (which provides the opposing force the kicker expects), you try to deflect and pull the kick to over-extend the kicker.
Real martial artists spend a lot more time learning to execute these kicks in controlled ways than they do learning the movement itself. That is, it’s fairly easy to learn a big spinning kick, but harder to learn to be in control at every point in the motion so you can adapt to changing circumstances.
The above is based on real martial arts and its application to pro wrestling is tenuous at best, but it explains the effect the wrestlers are trying to mimic.
I think you may have missed a nuance that the kick is done to the side of the head. This dazes the opponent who then is unable to make the pin. Occasionally the move will be done so hard that it knocks the man out and he will then roll on to his back as a consequence of this.
The thing that gets me (and yes, I am an avid wrestling fan) is how some of these guys can get hit with a steel folding chair and be knocked out … but only for a minute. I’m sorry, I like to think that I have a high threshold for pain, but if someone hits me with a steel chair, I’m not getting up.
Ah, the joys of testosterone theater.
-Syko
“My cat’s breath smells like cat food.” - Ralph Wiggum
I think this will answer your question. The kick to the pinner is designed not to move him from the pinnee but rather to stop the 3 count. You see, when a tag partner enters the ring the referee has to stop the count so he can eject the offending wrestler, thereby saving the pinnee from being pinned.
Muscle spasm? Like the reflex of the knee kicking OUT toward the hammer when struck under the kneecap (Patellar tendon?). Tap on a trap muscle and the head tends to arch back too.
The stomp is used for one single reason: It impresses inbred yokels more than anything else.
The above law applies to all of wrestling moves. Especially the “I land beside you and touch you with my arm and you get hurt, but I do not, unless you turn and ‘trick’ me as scripted.” I’m waiting for them to start adding “pscht!” sounds to punches to show how “strong” they are.
I must say, speaking as a pro wrestler myself, 2 of the things I never understood are the aforementioned situations. If I miss a dropkick, I’m supposed to “sell” the miss, thus acting as if I’m so hurt I can’t get up on my own. Yet if I hit the dropkick, I fall the exact same way, the same distance, the same height, etc… Why am I not hurt then? Also, the pin thing. If I’m pinning someone traditionally (me on top of him) and I get kicked in the head by his partner… BIG DEAL?? I’m still on top of my opponent,why would the ref stop the count, or why would I fly off the guy?
But at the same time…I’m the worker here, so I have to do what the promoter tells me to do…
When the top guy (lets call him the Grave Digger) is pinning the bottom guy (The Masked Canadian) The Grave Digger is using all his strength to keep the Masked Candians shoulders to the groun and when the tag team partner (The Crusher) enters, and kicks the grave digger in the head, he cant keep holding down the Masked Canadians shoulders, because he JUST GOT KICKED IN THE HEAD! If you got kicked in the head, it doesn’t matter how many souls you can possess and how many graves you can dig, YOU WILL GRAB YOUR HEAD IN PAIN!!
Ahem…
and thats it.
(Points go to whoever tells me what show the “The Masked Canadian” and “The Grave Digger” reference came from, and which character said it)
Tripple H has The Rock in that one stretchy move that is supposed to hurt/stretch the rubs of the opponent. Tripple H then grabs the ropes behind the refs back and all of a sudden that is 100X more painful than without the ropes.
The wrestling ring is very bouncy. Kick some downwards, and the recoil will bounce them back up, thus bringing the person’s shoulders off the mat, thus disrupting the pin.
Hit with a steel chair:
You’d be surprised how much damage a person’s head can take.
I saw a match between two guys, one of whom was the Rock. They both “beat” the snot out of each other for a while. They get to the end bit where they’re both really “hurt” and rolling around on the floor. Some other guy, who is not involved in the match) runs on and pins the Rock. He wins.
Because the ropes are strung so tightly that pulling on them infuses your body with a mysterious energy that is actually FIVE HUNDRED times what a man can do, not just the 100x that you suggested.
The Ultimate Warrior figured this out a long time ago. Remember his crystal meth-inspired ring entrances? He’d run in and shake the ropes up and down for a while and then kick the beejesus out of anyone in sight. He wasn’t that tough, but he was harnessing the untapped energy of the ropes.
Um, yeah.
And since we’re attacking the “realities” of pro wrestling, I’ll throw out my all time favorite. When someone throws you into the ropes, why would you bounce off and come back? I’d just hold on.
You’d be surprised how little this actually hurts, which is why guys like Mick Foley can get hit by a chair eleven times in one match and just be a little dazed backstage (of course, Foley’s is a rather extreme example of what the human body can withstand, but nevertheless). It’s the hits with the edge of the chair that can really hurt, which is why it’s always done much more carefully than a standard chairshot.
Also, the chair shot should cover a larger area, such as the back.
Using a smaller object of about the same weight, such as an aluminum bat, the focus on a smaller area makes it more painful and damaging.
Wrestlers know this all too well. Being thrown into the “steel” entrance ramp sounds cool, but doesn’t amount to much. Banging your knee on one corner of the ramp, and the knee will sting for a few days.
The ropes can be used for leverage. It creates pully effect, so when the wrestler exerts the same amount of force, more damage can be done. The ropes are more commonly used as a spring effect, so a wrestler doesn’t lose as much speed coming from the ropes as he is going to them. It takes some energy and body control to stop the momentum.
I don’t think that we will see writhing-in-pain after a missed move gimmick much longer, especially after Maven last week got tossed over the top rope, and slipped to the arena floor by accident. In Philadelphia, mistakes like that gets one a “You fucked up!” chant. He got straight up, went to the top turnbuckle as was planned, and delivered a drop kick, almost without missing a beat. For once the crowd shut up.