Wrestling Move of the Week: Ace Crusher

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Diamond Dallas Page hitting his Ace Crusher, the Diamond Cutter, on Christian.

Diamond Dallas Page hitting his Ace Crusher, the Diamond Cutter, on Christian.

Move Name: Ace Crusher

Created/innovated by: Johnny Ace

Notable users of move: Diamond Dallas Page, Randy Orton, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mikey Whipwreck, Matt Hardy, Mark Mero, Homicide, Kevin Owens

Notable variations of the move: Stone Cold Stunner - Stone Cold Steve Austin (Sit-out Ace Crusher); Lethal Injection - Jay Lethal (Running Handspring Cutter); Oscutter - Will Ospreay (Springboard Ace Crusher); TKO - Marc Mero (Fireman’s Carry into an Ace Crusher); Osaka Street Cutter - Manami Toyota (Inverted Suplex Ace Crusher); Dudley Death Drop - Dudley Boyz (Flapjack into an Ace Crusher - Tag Team Maneuver)

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The mark of a great wrestling move is, in my opinion, the level of versatility it gives its user. Any wrestling maneuver that gives you the ability to utilize it as a counter-attack, a sudden strike, and a final blow anywhere in or out of the squared circle while offering multitudes of space for innovation is truly a legendary maneuver. And legendary is probably the greatest way to describe the Ace Crusher, arguably the most versatile maneuver in professional wrestling history.

Created by Johnny Ace (a retired professional wrestler, talent executive, and producer that many WWE fans over the past decade will probably recognize as on-air authority figure John Laurinaitis) during his time in All Japan Pro Wrestling, the Ace Crusher is in essence a fairly simple maneuver. The attacking wrestler applies a ¾ facelock to their opponent, which equates to reaching back and grabbing the head of their opponent. This pulls their opponent's jaw above their shoulder. the attacking wrestler then falls backwards (sometimes after running forwards first) to force their opponent face-first to the canvas or floor. See? Simple enough. The result, however?

Supremely quick and high impact.

As you can see in the above video of Johnny Ace hitting his patented maneuver, the Ace Crusher can legitimately come from out of nowhere and damage an opponent’s head, neck, and chest. Its quickness is perfect for knocking the wind out of your opponent and disorienting them long enough to get a three count and a victory. And the ability to nail the move at any time from out of nowhere? It’s amplified when you peruse the variety of situations that Johnny Ace would find an opportunity or opening to nail his opponents with the Ace Crusher. During Ace’s career, he would hit the Ace Crusher:

  • While catching an opponent off-guard;

  • From the apron to the arena floor;

  • Avalanche style, meaning with his opponent perched on the top rope;

  • As a counter, catching someone diving from the top rope ;

  • As a counter, fighting his way out of a rear waistlock;

  • While running toward an opponent;

  • After tossing an opponent into the air, catching them on their way down.

There aren’t many maneuvers in professional wrestling that allow the user that much variability and versatility!

Since the invention of the Ace Crusher maneuver, a litany of wrestlers has added their own twists to the concept. As professional wrestlers began incorporating more influences from puroresu (the Japanese style or pro wrestling) and lucha libre (the Mexican discipline of pro wrestling) the Ace Crusher quickly became a pro wrestling go-to move. It makes sense. I mean, the Ace Crusher is the kind of move that any wrestler could use and perfect based on their agility, strength, power, and ring style, to suit their needs and land a weakening or final blow on their opponent. Just look at all of these variations!

While all of the variations of the Ace Crusher are fairly awesome in their own way I often wonder how prevalent the move would be if the only exposure wrestling fans and tape traders had to the move was via Johnny Ace. Truth is professional wrestling, like all forms of art, athleticism, and expression, are privy to trends and the gauges of popularity. While Johnny Ace was an innovator and a pretty good in-ring competitor his greatest fame was in Japan during the early 90s, a time where the only way fans could be exposed to Japanese wrestling is through tape trading. We can thank Johnny Ace for creating and innovating the Ace Crusher…but wrestling fans as a whole should thank Johnny Ace for teaching Diamond Dallas Page the Ace Crusher during his time as an agent and producer for World Championship Wrestling. Why? Because for many of us Diamond Dallas Page gave us our first exposure to the move. Johnny made the Ace Crusher - but Page made it popular and gave it the shine it deserved.

As you can see from the compilation video above, Diamond Dallas Page took the Ace Crusher and ran with it, innovating a plethora of new ways to nail the maneuver. Dubbing his version of the Ace Crusher the Diamond Cutter, Page’s use of the move came during the height of the fabled Monday Night Wars and placed the Ace Crusher in the annals of pro wrestling move history as he rose to fame and prominence.

While many wrestlers began using the Ace Crusher as a staple of their repertoire (and started pushing the innovation envelope even further, as you could see from the variation video above), only a few wrestlers have utilized the Ace Crusher as their pet maneuver with great success. Sure, wrestlers like Mikey Whipwreck, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Manami Toyota, and even the Dudley Boyz have used Ace Crusher variations with great success. But there are only three professional wrestlers that have truly used the original variation of the Ace Crusher as their patented final blow: Johnny Ace, Diamond Dallas Page, and this man - -

Randy Orton.

In all honesty, Randy Orton might be the deadliest practitioner of the original Ace Crusher in pro wrestling history. His version of the Ace Crusher, which he calls the RKO, is arguably the most efficient offensive and defensive approach to the move wrestling fans have ever seen. Regardless of how wrestling fans feel about Randy Orton (he definitely has his detractors) he has done with his RKO exactly what a professional wrestler should do with a move: always be on the lookout for new ways to elevate the maneuver.

The Ace Crusher is an interesting maneuver. It’s so simple yet so devastating and so open to interpretation and innovation that I believe the best Ace Crusher variation has yet to be unveiled!