Welcome to another edition of #FinisherFriday! This is Wreddit_Regal giving you an analysis of the Cerebral Assassin's world-renowned finisher.
When you know the ins and outs of the wrestling world like the back of your hand, you're already destined to stay in the top for a very long time. Triple H definitely used this to his advantage, playing mind games with all who dared cross his path towards the WWE summit. Although he has received his comeuppance a number of times, it cannot be denied that when The Game sets his eyes on something, he can definitely get it.
Inside the ring? He was a fourteen-time world champion: a nine-time WWE Champion, and a five-time World Heavyweight Champion, won the 1997 King of the Ring, the 2002 Royal Rumble and 2016 Royal Rumble, and was the second Grand Slam Champion. Outside the ring? He and a group of friends held, at one point in time, virtually all booking power within the WWE. Nowadays he serves as WWE's Executive Senior Advisor, and is in charge of talent development, focusing on worldwide recruitment, training and character development of future WWE employees.
Hunter was not known for being the flippy type, but he definitely had the tools in his arsenal which methodically delivered a good amount of damage, keeping up with his character of systematically dismantling the opponent in cold-blooded fashion, the Pedigree becoming his weapon of choice.
Fun fact (thanks to my Wreddit chap u/biker_taker and his thread): did you know that the move was actually invented by Andre the Giant? Yes he did! Here's a clip of him performing his slow (but definitely scary) version:
Other notable wrestlers who have done variations of the double underhook facebuster are:
Katsuyori Shibata
CM Punk
Christopher Daniels
Let's break down the move into simple chunks:
- Triple H tucks the opponent's head between his thighs
- He grabs both arms and places them in the double underhook position
- He makes a small jump, and lands on his knees
- The opponent's head/face crashes onto the mat
This is an extremely efficient way to deliver a facebuster, because the performer just relies on his own weight for that downward force. Since the opponent's arms are underhooked, the opponent can't effectively cushion the impact (trying to make the knees or feet land first just tilts the upper body downwards even more, contributing to a greater risk of the opponent's head landing first).
And landing on your head during a Pedigree is something you don't want to happen, as with the case of Marty Garner in 1996:
Using my Regal Rating, I'd give it a
8/10 for aesthetics. It should be a 9 or a 10, but in recent times he has a habit of releasing the double underhook mid-air, and pressing down on the opponent's back so they wouldn't suffer the same fate that Marty Garner did.
10/10 for damage. As stated above, it's a move that can be done by anybody, and could practically achieve the same amount of damage proportional to the performer's weight.
And that's it chaps, the Pedigree deconstructed! What version of the Pedigree do you like best? Let us know in the comment section below!
*****
Wreddit_Regal is the resident sports kinesiologist of Reddit's wrestling forum, r/squaredcircle. From the most basic of punches to the most intricate double-team maneuvers, he can explain them within the realm of human anatomy and physics, because when doing absolutely nothing wrestling-related, he also happens to work as an operating room nurse.
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