Professional wrestling aerial attacks

Aerial techniques are maneuvers, using the ring and its posts and ropes as aids, used in professional wrestling to show off the speed and agility of a wrestler. These moves are mainly done by smaller, quicker wrestlers who are unable to do most of the power moves. There is a wide variety of aerial techniques in professional wrestling. Due to injuries caused by these high risk moves, some promotions have banned the use of some maneuvers.

Moves are listed under general categories whenever possible.

The wrestler takes hold of one of the opponent's wrists and twists that arm in an arm wrench. The wrestler then climbs up the corner turnbuckles and walks on the top rope, before jumping down and striking the opponent's chest, back or the back of their neck. This is often referred to as Old School, the name used by The Undertaker, who popularized it.

This move is a forward somersault three-quarter facelock bulldog/jawbreaker performed by an attacking wrestler from an aerial platform. This move involves the attacking wrestler standing on a platform (i.e. the second turnbuckle, or sitting on the top turnbuckle) and facing the back of a standing opponent while applying an inverted facelock. From this position the attacking wrestler leaps forward, somersaulting, to roll the inverted facelock into a three-quarter facelock, as they fall the wrestler drops to a seated position and driving the opponent's jaw into their shoulder for a jawbreaker, or, the wrestler falls back-first forcing the opponent's face into the mat/shoulder for the bulldog. This move was innovated by Masato Tanaka.

This variation of a diving elbow drop sees a wrestler stand facing away from a standing or supine opponent and in an elevated position. The wrestler then dives backwards and strikes the opponent in the shoulder, chest or head with the back of their elbow.

This is a bulldog performed by a wrestler from an elevated position. A bulldog is a move in which the wrestler applies a headlock or face lock to his opponent and leaps forward, so that the wrestler lands on his back or in a sitting position, driving the opponent’s face into the mat. A standard diving bulldog sees a wrestler jump down on an opponent from an elevated platform and apply any version of a headlock to take down the opponent to the mat.

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