Sharpshooter (professional wrestling)
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The Sharpshooter, originally named the Scorpion Hold, is a professional wrestling submission hold. The move is also known by the names reverse figure four, cloverleaf leg-lace crab, grapevine boston crab, Grapevine crab, Scorpion Deathlock, and despite its original scorpion hold name, the move is still commonly known by its Bret Hart-given nickname The Sharpshooter.
The hold begins with the opponent supine on the mat with the applying wrestler stepping between the opponent's legs with one leg and wraps the opponent's legs at shin level around that leg. Holding the opponent's legs in place, the wrestler then steps over the opponent, flipping him over into a prone position before leaning back to compress the legs.
The main objective of the Sharpshooter is to put pressure on the lower back. However, most users of the submission hold often attack their opponent's legs rather than the lower back.
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[edit] Variations
Through the many methods of performing the Sharpshooter (other than the usual method), it has been demonstrated that the Sharpshooter can be performed from virtually anywhere.
While Bret Hart is the wrestler with whom the Sharpshooter is synonymous, it was actually Sting who first popularized the move in the United States while working for WCW. Called the "Scorpion Deathlock", Sting used the move as his submission finisher throughout his career, particularly during the era when Hart was still a tag team wrestler (with the Hart Foundation) and not using the Sharpshooter in any of his matches. The one notable difference between both wrestlers' use of the move is that Sting would cross his opponent's legs over his own right leg, while Hart would use his left leg.
It is also notable that Hart originally referred to the move as the "Scorpion Deathlock" when he initially asked Konnan to show him how to apply it (according to his 2005 DVD).
The Rock's version of The Sharpshooter sees him hooking an opponents legs at the ankles instead of at shin-level (as most users do).
Edge uses an inverted version of the Sharpshooter dubbed the Edgecator. This variation sees the wrestler starting off the move as a normal Sharpshooter, but after crossing the opponent’s legs over their own, the wrestler does not mount the opponent, instead remaining to the side of the opponent with the opponent’s legs hooked around the wrestler's own leg.
Bret Hart alone has demonstrated various methods of performing the Sharpshooter - most notably when an attacking wrestler performs a leg drop to the chest which Bret will block, cross their legs and flips them onto their stomach while he stands up, thus completing the move. Hart first used this block/reversal in his now-classic encounter with Curt Hennig at Summerslam 1991.
At SummerSlam 1997 during the main event for the WWF Championship, Bret Hart performed an altered version of the Sharpshooter in which utilized the corner ringpost (tying his opponent The Undertaker's legs around the ring post and proceeding to compress his legs). Variation was actually a figure-four leglock in which the user (Bret Hart) entrapped The Undertaker's legs around a ringpost.
At Survivor Series 1997, Shawn Michaels applied the Sharpshooter to Bret Hart when Vince McMahon ordered referee Earl Hebner to ring the bell even though Bret didn't tap out. This match became known as the Montreal Screwjob.
[edit] Reversals
There are four main ways to counter or escape the Sharpshooter:
- Breaking out of the Sharpshooter: The opponent proceeds to "regain" strength within his body and uses it to "break free" from the Sharpshooter.
- Reversal: Performed by Bret Hart on many occasions, the opponent trapped in the Sharpshooter would grab his opponents foot/leg and proceed to pull him off balance. Once off balance and on the mat, they would then cross the wrestler's legs and create a Sharpshooter of their own.
- Blockage: A simple and most common method of reversing the Sharpshooter - the opponent would block the wrestler's foot when trying to perform the sharpshooter.
- Flip: If the wrestler who is applying the maneuver is not too close to the ground, the victim can flip under the wrestler, thus going back into the second stage of the sharpshooter. There the wrestler who has reversed the maneuver can kick his adversary off.
[edit] Users
This hold was first popularized by New Japan Pro Wrestling star Riki Chōshū, who called it the Sasori-gatame (Scorpion hold), so named because the move bends the wrestler's legs over his back in a shape that resembles a scorpion's tail.
In North America, it was first popularized by Sting in the National Wrestling Alliance and later World Championship Wrestling, under the name Scorpion Deathlock.
The move's most popular name in North America, Sharpshooter, was made popular by the World Wrestling Federation star Bret "The Hitman" Hart. On the DVD "The Best There Is...The Best There Was...The Best That There Ever Will Be", Bret Hart states that Konnan originally taught him the Sharpshooter.
- Other wrestlers to use the Sharpshooter:
[edit] Trivia
- Konnan does not normally use the Sharpshooter, despite having taught it to Bret Hart.
- Although Bret Hart is right-handed he hooks his opponents legs with his left, while hooked to his left legs as well. Because of this, often in matches, when he reversed the sharpshooter applied on him, Hart would have his right leg hooking the others and would grab it with his left hand, thus making the move look quite peculiar and less powerful.
- The Rock used the hold as a homage to Owen Hart, but was never directly taught the move, hence his "sloppiness" while applying it. He has, however, performed the Sharpshooter "correctly" on one occasion, that being the 1998 Survivor Series, in an ending designed to mock the Montreal Screwjob - which occurred at the same event the previous year.
- In Canada, American wrestlers performing the Sharpshooter usually results in loud booing from the crowd and references to the Montreal Screwjob.
- The Undertaker was the first wrestler to break free of Bret Hart's Sharpshooter.[citation needed]
- At Unforgiven 2006, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in her final match before her (legit) retirement, WWE wrestler Trish Stratus -- a native of Canada -- defeated Lita for her seventh WWE Women's Championship by using the Sharpshooter and was heavily cheered by the crowd.
- When the Sharpshooter is performed by any wrestler in the WWE, it is common for the annoucers to make references to Bret Hart, despite the fact that Bret was not the only wrestler whom primarily used the Sharpshooter as a finishing move (another being Owen Hart).
