In the international wrestling community, one of the go-to icebreaker questions is asking a fellow fan about their Mt. Rushmore of professional wrestlers. One’s Mt. Rushmore of wrestlers is shaped by wrestling eras, match quality, and nostalgia for iconic performers, all without crowning one over the others. While my Mt. Rushmore shifts from month to month, I’ll never change my mind on the wrestling move I fuck with more than the other 1,000 holds in wrestling: the suplex. 

A suplex is a wrestling maneuver where a wrestler lifts their opponent into a bridging position before slamming them onto the mat. While it might seem like a basic throw, its deceptive simplicity allows for a wide range of physical expression. Wrestling moves — like words on a webpage — come in different fonts, each infused with a unique style. Before I wax poetic about my favorite suplexes, I will set the stage explaining how wrestling moves come in more permutations than Fanta flavors. 

Wrestling Moves For Dummies

Suplexes and fundamental moves like drivers, powerbombs, busters, and splashes are the bedrock of a wrestler’s arsenal. While anyone can do them, how they're delivered truly sets them apart. A performer’s gimmick, technical prowess, and artistic flair can turn one of these simple maneuvers into a spectacle worth popping out of your chair in unbridled excitement. 

Take The Undertaker’s Tombstone Piledriver. It’s a devastating finisher that the WWE’s “Deadman” has performed for three decades because it wins him matches. It begins with a signature throat slash gesture, signaling to the crowd that his opponent is about to meet his end. Taker then flips a dude upside down, cradling their head between his thighs, and spikes them headfirst into the mat. He then methodically crosses their arms like they’re being prepped for a funeral (because they are), and rolls his eyes back at the hard cam — holding the pose unti the referee’s three count seals their kayfabe fate. 

Despite the Tombstone Piledriver being a certified “move I wouldn’t want to take,” it's far from the riskiest in the grand scheme of wrestling drivers. There’s the Package Piledriver, where a wrestler locks their opponent tightly upside down in the feeble position before drilling them into the mat; the Canadian Destroyer, a piledriver variant where a wrestler front flips while holding their opponent before driving their head into the ground; or, my personal favorite, Kenta Kobashi’s Burning Hammer, an inverted twist on the Death Valley Driver where instead of flipping his opponent onto their back from a fireman’s carry drop, he spikes them neck-first into the canvas. 

When a wrestler masters a move, it becomes one of their signature moves. If a move reliably results in their victory, it becomes their finishing move. Over time, that move earns a legacy by renaming its modification and variation after the person who perfected it, passing it on to a new generation of wrestlers to add to their toolkits, like Jushin Thunder Liger’s sit-out powerbomb the “Liger Bomb,” or Mitsuharu Misawa’s double underhook powerbomb the Tiger Driver. 

Suplexes come in different shapes and sizes

As mentioned above, wrestling moves are like fonts. But the real magic happens with a move’s modifiers. Like how text can be bolded, italicized, or underlined to change its impact, wrestling moves transform depending on speed, elevation, and execution. And the anatomy of a suplex has a plethora of variations. 

If a wrestler executes a suplex from the top turnbuckle, it transforms into an “avalanche” suplex. If they burst into the suplex without a drawn-out wind-up, prioritizing speed over theatrics, it’s classified as a “snap” suplex. Sitting between these two variants is the Brainbuster, a suplex with a distinctly brutal twist. 

The Brainbuster, often called a Delayed Vertical Suplex, begins with the wrestler locking their opponent in a front face lock — one hand gripping their hip, the other tucked behind their neck. Unlike a standard suplex that follows a graceful arc, a Brainbuster cuts the rotation short. Instead of rolling into a controlled fall, the wrestler delays the drop and spikes their opponent straight down onto their head in a sheer whiplash-inducing impact.

My Favorite Suplexes

Now that I’ve thoroughly explained the ins and outs of wrestling throws and the variations of suplexes, here are my all-time favorite suplexes in no particular order. 

Northern Lights Suplex

Key qualities for a grade-A Northern Lights Suplex are how fluid the rolling motion of the throw is, how high the arch of the offensive wrestler’s bridge is, and most importantly, whether they point their toes into the ground and maintain their balance while executing the move. My favorite Northern Lights Suplex belongs to WWE’s Alicia Fox. Her bridge is beautiful, and she makes the move look like a walk in the park. 

German Suplex

I said I wasn’t picking favorites here, but the German Suplex is my favorite. I pop off when I see it in other media, like Kratos taking an impromptu German Suplex from Baldur in God of War. I’m such a slut for a German Suplex that I hoot any time any wrestler executes any kind of variation of this suplex. It can be a deadlift German Suplex, a pop-up German Suplex, or a rolling German Suplex, I don’t care. It’s just something about watching a wrestler slipping under their opponent’s guard, locking their arms around their waist, and snapping their hips into a golden ratio arc into the mat that pleases the caveman wrinkles in my brain. It fucks. Though if I were to pick a favorite wrestler’s German Suplex, it would be my Cinanbon-loving son, Konosuke Takeshita, who wrote a 20-page college thesis on the move. 

Dragon Suplex

The Dragon Suplex is synonymous with Former Stardom-turned Marigold Ace Joshi pro wrestler Mayu Iwatani. The move is like a standard German suplex but has stages like the Power Rangers assembling the Megazord. First, she props her opponent up in a belly-to-back suplex position. While having them suspended in the air, she locks them in a full nelson and snaps them back, neck-first into the mat. Sometimes, if she’s feeling fancy, Iwatani will bridge her back and point her toes into the ground. However, it doesn’t happen often because Iwatani is a sicko who goes incredibly hard in her matches, often crumpling into a heap after delivering super kicks, so she’ll sometimes just settle for hitting the move and crumpling in exhaustion until the three-count sounds her victory. 

Tiger Suplex

The Tiger Suplex is another variant of the German Suplex. Its uniqueness lies in how wrestlers set up their opponents before slamming them into the mat. Instead of locking their opponents from their waist or from a full nelson position, the Tiger Suplex has an offensive wrestler lock their adversary from the inside of their elbow, the cubital fossa if you will, from the belly-to-back position before foisting them from the earth and dropping them from a high angle on their shoulders and neck. The kayfabe psychology of the suplex, and other moves restricting an opponent's arms, is that it would prevent them from breaking their fall, making the impact more devastating. I think it’s neat that suplexes are an equal opportunity naming convention for animals. 

C4 Bakudan Suplex

AZM (pronounced Azumi)’s suplex is so complex that it has its unique name. In fighting game lingo, the C4 Bakudan Suplex (or C4 Bomb) is like a command grab counter move. After deflecting a front kick from her opponent, AZM dips under their guard while folding their kicking leg to their hip like they were crossing their legs like a cool guy. After which, she performs a German Suplex. Yes, it's just a German Suplex with the bare minimum of extra steps, but the velocity with which “High Speed Bomb Girl” executes the move gets all the brownie points from me. 

Twilight Dream

The Twilight Dream is one of the more complicated suplexes on this list. Still, the fluidity of its chain wrestling-eque use case from retired Stardom wrestler Tam Nakano makes it one of those stunning wrestling flourishes in technicality that it makes the list. The move sees the “Top Kawaii of the Cosmos” wrestler place her opponent in a combination of a hammerlock and seatbelt wrist hold, fastening their arms to the front and back of their waist, leaving no room to escape, before hoisting them up for a suplex. She typically punctuates the move by holding her back in a bridge and anchoring her tippy toes into the mat like the showoffy idol she is, and I love her for it. 

Ocean Cyclone Suplex 

Minami Toyota’s Ocean Cyclone Suplex is what happens when a German Suplex meets an Electric Chair (the wrestling move). After crossing her opponent's arms like a straitjacket while holding them in a belly-to-back position, then she lifts them, tucking her head between their thighs. The moment she has them up, she slams them back into the mat. The Ocean Cyclone suplex is one of those top-shelf brandy moves that isn’t broken out very often, so whenever it is, it's probably because a technical wrestler with a huge affinity for the AJW wrestler is paying homage to her, and that rarity only makes the move rock so much harder.