Eventually, Adams would jump to WCCW in Texas, where he’d become the evil “Gentleman” Chris Adams and trained and/or helped mentor guys like Steve Austin, Scott Hall and fellow superkicker Shawn Michaels.Ĭhris Adams was one of those talented guys whose glories would mostly come second-hand through the wrestlers he helped or inspired. Appropriately, Adams originally played an agile martial arts master, and one of his signature moves was the deadly judo kick, which today’s wrestling fans would recognize as the superkick. He invented the superkick and hung out with Norman Smiley? Chris Adams, renaissance man.Ĭhris Adams was a member of the British Olympic Judo Team, before breaking into the world of pro wrestling in the late 1970s. Guys like Kevin Nash and Batista made the powerbomb more central to their success, but again, this is Lou Thesz we’re talking about. This is the dude who created the template for every “technical” pro wrestler to come, unified all the disparate world title belts to create the modern NWA World Championship in the late ’40s, and then went on to hold that title for more than 10 years. It’s hard to argue against Lou Thesz being the best, no matter what you’re talking about. ![]() Basically, all wrestling fans should have a little Lou Thesz shrine somewhere in their house. ![]() Oh, and while we’re on the subject, Thesz also invented the STF, German suplex and, of course, the Lou Thesz press. From that point on, Thesz would occasionally break out the powerbomb to deal with a particularly physical opponents. Thesz likely innovated the move in the early 1950s, when he unexpectedly grabbed Antonino Rocca around the waist, herked him up, and dumped him on his head. The legendary Lou Thesz is generally remembered as an old-school grappler and technician, but he also wasn’t afraid to straight-up powerbomb a dude on his head from time-to-time. ![]() Of course, technically, Taker uses a reverse Tombstone Piledriver instead of the classic version, so you could be picky and say Longson is still the piledriving king. Ultimately, though, Longson didn’t beat 21-consecutive guys in front of stadium-sized WrestleMania crowds, so Taker gets the nod. Longson used the move to dominate almost an entire decade as heel champion, while Taker used it as the foundation of a longer, but slightly more uneven run on top. The only real challenger for Longson’s piledriver supremacy would be The Undertaker, but it’s still a very close race. Other guys like Jerry Lawler made the piledriver even more central to their act, but Lawler didn’t have anywhere near the worldwide success Longson had. ![]() He Did It First, But Did He Do It The Best? Using his patented piledriver, Longson won the National Wrestling Association World Championship (not to be confused with the later National Wrestling Alliance Championship that guys like Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes would win) three times, holding the title for more combined days than any other champion. He could have kicked Babe Ruth’s chubby ass, too. During the height of Longson’s career in the mid-’40s, he was making more than $100,000 a year, which was more than even Babe Ruth was pulling in. Born in 1906 in Salt Lake City, Wild Bill Longson was basically the original arrogant heel, and was the hated rival of everybody from Gorgeous George to Lou Thesz during the 1930s and ’40s.
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