The Excellence Of Execution Series: 450° Splashes

Cena's Little Helper

Mid-Card Championship Winner
Wow, I really need to get on top on this...I planned on doing this series, and I only did the first thread more than two months ago!!! All right, we will now continue, and I plan to do it on a weekly basis.

This is the second in a series of (ten) threads dedicated to discussing which wrestler best executes a specific maneuver.

Note: Before I discuss the move of this thread, I just want to make it known that I am aware that I am using one of Bret Hart's sobriquets. However, I couldn't think of a more suitable name for this series.

So, who do you think best executes the 450° Splash (for those who have just as much trouble thinking of the geometry of this particular move as I did at first, just think of it as a splash off the top rope preceded by one-and-a-quarter front somersaults)? Personally, I can't go with anyone else but Hayabusa. While I think it's impressive if any wrestler can pull off this maneuver, no one can top Hayabusa's incredible hang-time. Unlike most other 450° splashes, which have to be viewed in slow motion if we want to completely see the one-and-a-quarter revolutions, we could see the awesome mechanics of Hayabusa's 450° splash while doing nothing to manipulate our video feeds. It was as if the man was literally walking on air. For those of you unfamiliar with Hayabusa, here's a tribute video to him. His execution of the 450° Splash can be seen at 0:27 and 0:45. Also, a corkscrew variation of it can be seen at 2:20:

[youtube]jtmkQmY5EXA[/youtube]​

So, what say you, fellow posters?
 
From the 450° Splash videos I have seen on youtube, a lot of them look very sloppy or just flay out horrible. An example of sloppy would be Jeff Hardy's. An example of flat out horrible is when Kurt Angle did it on Sting.

I had never seen Hayabusa's 450° Splash until now, and it is one of the bests I have ever seen. He seems to not even struggle doing one and does it with ease. I also have to admit, the corkscrew variation was pretty cool and impressive.

Another good one is AJ Style's 450° Splash.

Here is a video of it:

[youtube]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NzlYKGpT1xM&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NzlYKGpT1xM&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/youtube]

He seems to be able to do it with ease too, and the landing was perfect. To me it didn't appear to be sloppy or horrible.
 
Another one that I thought was pretty impressive was this one:

[youtube]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/JmMQEDRfg18&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/JmMQEDRfg18&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/youtube]

Kevin Steen's 450 Splash impresses me because he is on the larger side and you don't usually see guys his size doing moves like that because they are usually done by cruiserweights. But other than his size he also seems calm and comfortable doing it. If I was his size I would be tense and worried that I would mess up.

One 450 splash that I think gets a lot more than deserved praise is Jillian Hall's. She deserves praise for having the guts to do the move but I don't think she deserves praise for the way the move looks when she does it. In my opinion she just looks tense and uncomfortable doing the move. And from the video I will post the landing doesn't seem very good.

Here's the video (I couldn't find one with her just doing the move)

[youtube]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bnnnLn9lkkU&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bnnnLn9lkkU&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/youtube]
 
Hayabusa is, without a single doubt in my mind, the most graceful wrestler to ever step foot in a wrestling ring. So, obviously my choice for him as well. Every high flying move he performed, he did it better than anyone else.

But, I have to give the second spot to 2 Cold Scorpio (who claims to have invented the move, in fact). He was a guy where the move seem to come easy for him. Like Hayabusa, it look like it didn't take any effort whatsoever to pull the 450 off, whereas the names mentioned above and guys like Austin Aries and Juventud Guerrera... it doesn't come natrual for them. It takes a lot of hard work and everytime they perform it, it looks forced and goes by way too fast.

Anyway, here's a video of 2 Cold Scorpio performing the move:

[youtube]1AHxEdwFe34[/youtube]
 
I'm going with 2 Cold Scorpio. Why? Glad you asked...As jmt said, he makes it looks easy, and for anyone that has ever tried even a regular splash, it can hurt you just as bad, if you don't know what you're doing. What makes his more impressive than Hayabusa's for me, is that he's not your average "cruiserweight". He's a fairly big guy, weighing in at 250, I believe. He may not be the inventor of it, but he is the first to do it in the US, and it was just a small piece of his repertoire.
 

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