It’s Monday and that means it’s time for some Moves of Doom! This time we’re looking at Yokozuna. This might be light work but let’s see how devastating his moves of doom were.
Savate Kick
This is an Anoa’i family trademark along with the headbutt, the flying splash, and the Samoan Drop. To me, it’s more impressive when the heavier Samoans pop the savate kick because it’s always clean. Rikishi had a clean savate kick as did Yokozuna.
As far as how devastating his kick was, usually he did it standing but if this thing connected when someone was coming off the ropes, some lucky fan was taking home a head as a souvenir after Yoko kicked it off their shoulders.
DOOM Scale: 2.5 out of 5
Yokozuna’s Leg Drop
Honestly, leg drops are what they are unless it’s being done from the top rope or with the assistance of a chair, or even to the back of the head. Yoko’s leg drop had a little extra stank to it because one of his legs and thighs was the size of a kindergartener. That mass dropping across a head or neck is definitely a frightening sight.
DOOM Scale: 3.25 out of 5
Belly to Belly Suplex
Yokozuna had one of those old-school, bedrock-style belly-to-belly suplexes. Like once he grabbed an opponent and suplexed them, they were hitting the mat hard as hell on the fall. It probably didn’t help that the WWE rings were hard as hell back then either.
When Yoko was fed jobbers, he literally flung them on the belly to belly. It was a good setup for the last move on our list. Actually, these two moves were the perfect pair. Even better than our next entry.
DOOM Scale: 3 out of 5
Samoan Drop
While he did the Samoan Drop during his main event run, he used it more in his late WWE run. I actually like his late-career Samoan Drops more as they seemed more like they could finish the match. Before that, it was a set up to the Banzai Drop—when the Savate Kick or Belly to Belly Suplex weren’t used.
On top of that, Yoko didn’t even have the best Samoan Drop in his family.
DOOM Scale: 2.75 out of 5
Banzai Drop
This was the move of doom. Yokozuna was a super heavyweight who used his weight to finish off opponents. After someone got hit with the Samoan Drop or the Belly-to-Belly Suplex, Yoko would drag their carcass into a corner, climb to the middle rope, and drop down on their chest ass-first.
Sure, he did it safely, WWE didn’t want a jobber-shaped hole in their nice baby blue ring but on occasion, Yokozuna landed on jobbers with full ass. Both versions were devastating to see.
DOOM Scale: 5 out of 5
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