Wrestling Move of the Week: Kudome Valentine
Shane Helms hitting his version of the Kudome Valentine, the Vertebreaker.
Move Name: Kudome Valentine
Created/innovated by: Megumi Kudo
Notable users of move: Cheerleader Melissa, Homicide, Shane “Hurricane” Helms
Notable variations of the move: None.
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There is a smattering of maneuvers in pro wrestling that pose a greater risk of injury or death than, say, a hip toss, scoop slam, or vertical suplex. These moves are often flashy and awe-inspiring - two of the ingredients that, in my opinion, are needed for a wrestling move to stick out in the minds of fans as “one of a kind”. Moves like these often come with a level of precariousness that even viewers and casual fans can agree on how dangerous they are. These are the maneuvers that leave wrestling fans cringing in terror whenever they seem them occur, mystified that anyone in their right mind would be willing to levy out this kind of harm to another person. There have been a couple of handfuls of moves I have seen in my decades of watching pro wrestling that, when I saw them with my own eyes, left me questioning the motives of the user while being flat-out floored by what I’ve just witnessed. But there are about ten professional wrestling maneuvers that I view as the most life-altering or life-ending maneuvers ever executed in a ring. Those moves leave me in awe but also make me, as a fan and an empathic person, pray for the recipient’s safety. One such move that stands out in my mind due to its physical impact on the recipient and the obvious risk that said recipient is facing if even the most minor aspect of executing the move goes wrong is the Kudome Valentine, a move more commonly known to U.S. American wrestling fans of the late 90’s/early 2000s as the Vertebreaker.
The Kudome Valentine is a variation of the classic piledriver. For those not in the know, a piledriver is a move in which a wrestler grabs their opponent, turns them upside-down, and drops into a sitting or kneeling position, driving their opponent head-first into the canvas. Yes, the move is legitimately as dangerous as it sounds. If the person executing the maneuver loses their grip, drops their opponent at an obtuse angle, or a myriad of other factors, the piledriver can severely injure a person’s head, neck, spine, or shoulders. Hell, even if executed properly the piledriver can lead to paralysis, nerve damage, and even death. In some respects, the piledriver might be the first well-known and recognized high-risk pro-wrestling maneuver, as it was invented and popularized by wrestling legend Wild Bill Longson in the 1930s. There’s a reason that WWE banned the piledriver and its variations in the mid-1990s, opting to allow only a few performers to use the move after a litany of neck injuries to various WWE superstars. The classic piledriver and its many variations are dangerous. The Kudome Valentine though? That’s dangerous times one hundred!
The Kudome Valentine is a double-underhook back-to-back piledriver. The move is executed from a position in which the opponent is standing behind the wrestler. The wrestler executing the move underhooks their arms under their opponent's arms. The wrestler then twists their body around so that the wrestler is facing the ground and the opponent is standing with their back resting against the wrestler's back. From this position, the wrestler stands, with their opponent in an upside-down position while both the opponent and the wrestler's arms are still hooked. From this position the wrestler then drops to a sitting position, driving their opponent’s head and neck into the mat. Another way to get the opponent into a position to execute the Kudome Valentine is to approach a standing opponent from behind, hook the opponent's arms, bend forward under the opponent, and then rise up, raising the opponent upside down. Regardless of the setup, the ending is always the same:
Brutal.
The person in the video above executing the maneuver is the creator and innovator of the Kudome Valentine, Japanese Joshi legend Megumi Kudo. Kudo was a phenomenally tough in-ring performer in her day. Her retirement match was a "No Ropes Barbed-Wire 200 Volt Double Landmine Glass Crush Death Match" for wrestling God’s sake! Her creation of the Kudome Valentine allowed her to have a finishing maneuver that used her opponents’ size against them when driving them into the mat, as she was often smaller than her adversaries in the ring. As you can see, executing the move places all of a person’s weight onto their head and neck. This adds additional force to the piledriver-esque drop. This also adds an extra level of possible injury, as anything from not having an opponent’s arms locked high and tight enough to the way the person delivering the move sits out to drive their opponent into the canvas could have catastrophic consequences. It is truly the definition of high risk.
There have been only a few prominent pro wrestlers that have adopted Megumi Kudo’s Kudome Valentine as their finisher, which I have always seen as a sign that for the most part, most wrestlers see the risk of executing or being on the receiving end of such a dangerous maneuver. Those who have adopted it have used the move with great success. Shane Helms, known as The Hurricane by most wrestling fans, put the move on the map in the United States while using it in World Championship Wrestling and dubbing it the Vertebreaker.
Cheerleader Melissa, one of the best wrestlers in the world (and you can quote me on that) has been utilizing the maneuver for over a decade, which she gave the more straightforward homage name of Kudo Driver.
The wrestler Homicide, a former Ring of Honor World Champion and NWA World Tag Team Champion, calls his version of the move the Gringo Killa or Cop Killa, depending on the circumstances and which version of his gimmick he’s using at any given time.
At the end of the day, regardless of who is doing the move, the Kudome Valentine has to be viewed as one of the most dangerous moves in professional wrestling and should strike fear and awe in wrestlers and fans alike!