Jushin 'Thunder' Liger is one of the most innovative wrestlers in history, and arguably the single greatest cruiserweight wrestler of all time. It was thanks to Liger that the junior heavyweights of pro wrestling started getting recognised on a larger scale, as his matches were among the greatest ever seen.
But Liger was more than just a legendary cruiserweight wrestler; his style and revolutionary approach have influenced many wrestlers in a multitude of ways.
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They say that nothing’s actually original in pro wrestling, and this applies to wrestling moves more than anything else. It’s common for younger wrestlers to take elements and moves from other performers and add them to their own repertoires. This is the same for Jushin Liger, who has been wrestling almost nonstop since 1984.
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Since then, Liger has changed his style many times over to reflect the changing wrestling world around him. He was a high-flyer for over a decade, becoming synonymous with cruiserweight wrestling throughout the 1990s.
By the early 2000s, Liger didn’t want to stop wrestling, so he adopted a more technical and power-oriented style. Even though he was still a relatively small wrestler, it did not stop him from coming up with inventive ways to defeat his opponents. That is what we’ll look at today: five moves that Jushin Liger has popularised over the decades which have since been adopted by other wrestlers.
#5 The Wheelbarrow Facebuster
A.J. Styles is one of WWE’s most innovative wrestlers. Unlike most of WWE’s superstars, who usually end their matches with one or two finishers, Styles has several go-to moves that have been built to end matches. One of these moves is the Wheelbarrow Facebuster, a move that he has adopted from Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger.
The Wheelbarrow Facebuster is one of the most innovative and impressive moves in WWE. Styles lifts up his opponent up for a Belly-to-Back Suplex, but instead of falling backwards, Styles pushes their face forward, smashing it into the canvas.
Styles uses this move as a signature move of sorts but never as a finisher. This is unlike Liger who actually ended many matches with this very same move, which he called the Crash Thunder Buster (CTB). Liger used this move regularly during the mid-2000s when he couldn’t fly around as much as he used to.
#4 The Surfboard
When people imagine complex, unusual, unrealistic submission holds that look like they really hurt, this is probably the first one that comes to mind.
The Surfboard stretch and its variations all look like they hurt a lot. After all, it looks like your arms, legs and back are all being stretched at once by one person putting immense pressure on all these body parts.The Surfboard stretch has been used by many wrestlers over the years, usually by smaller and more technically-skilled grapplers.
The most recent person to use this move was Daniel Bryan, who did this move to show off his technical skill at the expense of his size and raw power. But Bryan was only one of many people to have used this move long after Jushin Liger first popularised it over two decades ago.
Liger used this move against many of his fellow cruiserweights, and when he did so, it always got an intense reaction, even from the normally-silent Japanese audience.
#3 The Running Powerbomb/Ligerbomb
(see the 4:00-minute mark in this video)
This is one of those wrestling moves that, while relatively safe when done correctly, can lead to serious injury if botched. During the 1990s, a lot of smaller wrestlers were using power moves to show their skill, and D’Lo Brown was among them. Back in 1999, D’Lo used this move as a finisher, and he botched it during a match with Darren ‘Droz’ Drozdov.
Something went awry, and the Powerbomb led to Droz suffering a severe spinal injury that rendered him a quadriplegic. Because of this, no one has used the move in WWE since then. Which doesn’t make much sense, considering there’s very little difference between this Powerbomb and other variations.
After all, Jushin Liger used this move, which he called the Ligerbomb, for years without incident. The only real difference between his version of the move and others was that Liger would extend his legs out before his opponent even landed, which allowed him to pin their arms and shoulders to the mat instantly.
All in all, this is an incredible move that Liger has used for decades, and even though it has something of a mixed history in WWE, it would be awesome to see one of today’s WWE Superstars use this move as a tribute to the legendary Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger.
Also read: Superstar Spotlight: Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger
#2 The Tilt-a-whirl backbreaker
A common move throughout wrestling, the Tilt-A-Whirl Backbreaker is a simple yet effective move at taking one’s opponent’s momentum and using it against them. It serves as the perfect counter to a running opponent as they’re spun in the air and land on their opponent’s knee back-first. No matter how big or small of a wrestler you are, this move always looks like it hurts.
Many wrestlers have used this move in WWE, from Drew McIntyre and Alberto del Rio to Sheamus, Cesaro, CM Punk, and Eddie Guerrero. The move has long been popular among smaller Lucha Libre-oriented wrestlers, part of which stems from Liger using the move a lot during the early 1990s. Because Liger used this move so frequently, other wrestlers started emulating him over time.
#1 The Shooting Star Press
No wrestling move is more associated with Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger than the legendary Shooting Star Press, a move he first created all the way back in 1987. It’s the very definition of a gravity-defying wrestling move. Every time it’s used, it brings fans to their feet because it’s such a breath-taking move. Almost any wrestler can do a standard diving splash, but very few can pull off a Shooting Star Press correctly.
While Liger’s original SSP was first done about thirty years ago, his was very different from the version seen today. Liger didn’t extend his legs out as much as most of today’s wrestlers do and tucked himself in more to make the rotation easier.
Nevertheless, the SSP was an unthinkable move when it was first seen, and even after three decades, it’s still an impressive move in every respect.Liger’s influence on pro wrestling has been so profound that many, many wrestlers have adopted some of his moves.
Though most of the moves seen on this list so far have been adopted by a handful of wrestlers here and there, countless have paid tribute to Liger by using his SSP. Evan Bourne, Vampiro, Neville, Ricochet, Billy Kidman, Paul London, Hayabusa, and even the mammoth Brock Lesnar have all done an SSP from the top rope because they all know how risky the move is, and how the fans will react if they see it.
The Shooting Star Press might very well be the single-greatest diving move in the history of professional wrestling, and Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger can rest easy knowing that his legacy will live on forever through the continued use of this move.
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