Pro Wrestling journeyman and current WWE superstar AJ Styles revealed the origin of his famed yet controversial finishing move: the Styles Clash.
STYLES LOOKED BACK AT THE EARLY DAYS OF HIS CAREER
Speaking to ITN Wrestling, Styles looked back at the early days of his career. His little brother was trying to execute a powerbomb on his friend on a trampoline. While he was dangling upside down and they were talking to each other, Styles went there and hit the first ever instance of the move, with his brother being the receiving party.
“Well, my little brother was trying to powerbomb his buddy on the trampoline,” Styles said. “He’s dangling upside down. They’re talking to each other, And I go, oh and I walked over there and my little brother took the first-ever styles splash on a trampoline,” he said.
THE TECHNICAL DETAILS OF THE MOVE
Styles Clash is a variation of facebuster, in what is technically called a belly-to-back inverted mat slam. From a position in which the opponent is bent forward against the wrestler’s midsection, the wrestler grabs around the opponent’s midsection and lifts so that the opponent is held upside down, facing in the same direction as the wrestler. The wrestler then hooks both arms of the opponent using their legs and falls forward, planting the opponent’s body into the mat face-first.
The move often sees the wrestler keep their legs hooked under the arms of the opponent after hitting the move, using the underhooking technique to turn the opponent on to their back into a Rana style pinning position.
While innovated by Col Debeers, the move was essentially popularised by “The Phenomenal One” as he toured the world, finishing his opponents with the move. He performs the move with a variation, as seen in the photos to the right: he does not hook the opponent’s arms before performing the slam, but takes two steps and moves his legs in front of the opponent’s arms, enabling him to use his legs to cover the shoulders for a pin.
THE MOVE IS HIGHLY DANGEROUS
The move is dangerous though, and has injured multiple professional wrestlers, leading Styles to use other options to finish opponents at this stage of his career.
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