Wrestling Move of the Week: Lariat

Stan Hansen hitting “Dr. Death” Steve Williams with his patented Lariat.

Move name: Lariat

Created/innovated by: Unknown, but often attributed to Stan Hansen

Notable users of move: Kenta Kobashi, JBL, Satoshi Kojima, Tomohiro Ishii, Riki Choshu

Notable variations of the move: Kazuchika Okada - Rainmaker (Wrist Clutch Recoil Lariat); Nigel McGuinness - Rebound Lariat (Lariat delivered after rebounding off the middle rope); Hulk Hogan - Axe Bomber (Crooked Arm Lariat); Kenta Kobashi - Burning Lariat (standing strong lariat)

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For decades pro wrestling purists, smart marks, and jabronies have engaged in one of pro wrestling’s longest-running debates: is there a difference between a clothesline and a lariat? The answer is simple:

Now don’t get me wrong; clotheslines and lariats share similarities that can make it easy for a casual wrestling viewer or even long-time fan of the art of pro wrestling to not be able to differentiate between the two. But there is a difference between clotheslines and lariats, and that difference lies in the follow-through. Allow me to explain.

A clothesline is a move in which one wrestler runs towards another, extending their arm out from the side of the body and parallel to the ground. The attacker’s arm then connects with their opponent in the neck or chest, knocking them over. A lariat, on the other hand, is performed when an attacking wrestler runs towards an opponent and wraps an arm around the opponent's upper chest or neck, forcing them to the ground. The lariat is quite similar to the clothesline, is it not? The difference, however, is that when executing a clothesline the wrestler's arm is kept straight to their side during the move. When executing a lariat the attacking wrestler strikes their opponent with their arm often in a swinging motion and sometimes dropping face-first besides the opponent. In short, a clothesline is akin to pushing someone over with an outstretched arm and momentum. A lariat is like throwing your whole arm at an opponent with all of your might like a haymaker punch!

Still not convinced there’s a difference between clotheslines and lariats? Well, here’s a video of the execution of a textbook clothesline:

In contrast here’s a compilation of lariats for your viewing pleasure:

See? Similar but different!

Clotheslines are in many respects basic additions to any pro wrestler’s repertoire, a great staple move that can add to an opponent’s accumulated damage and even stop an opponent’s momentum. But a lariat? A lariat is a match-ender. It’s a perfect finishing maneuver for a strong style (the shoot-based striking, grappling, and mixed martial arts-influence wrestling style most often associated with Puroresu, the homegrown predominant style of Japanese professional wrestling) or brawler-type wrestler. And, in my opinion, there isn’t a pro wrestler dead or alive that personified the line between Puro and brawler and showed how dangerous a Lariat can be than Stan “The Lariat” Hansen.

Stan Hansen was a stiff brutal competitor in the ring. He was a brawler, lambasting his opponents with heavy strikes and slams. The man was also damn near blind. He had horrible eyesight, which is why he developed a physical close-quarters brawling style. It’s because of his iffy eyesight that Hansen developed his Western Lariat. The Western Lariat is recognized as the original version of the Lariat maneuver, although not much is known about the accuracy of that statement. I mean it makes sense: if your eyesight is a hot mess and you can’t always gauge that objects in the rearview mirror may appear closer than they are then a maneuver that basically allows you to use your left arm to swing for the fences is not a bad way to go as far as match-ending maneuvers are concerned. Stan Hansen threw his Western Lariat like someone throwing a haymaker punch with bad intentions in a boxing match. And the truth is if you watched the compilation of Western Lariats above, you can see they clearly landed like vicious haymaker punches across his opponents’ chins, necks, and sternums. The Western Lariat is really the basis for practically every lariat you see in pro wrestling, from JBL to Satoshi Kojima to Tomohiro Ishii and everyone in between. And, as I said earlier, it’s all in the follow-through.

As with many pro wrestling maneuvers, there are quite a few variations of the lariat that have garnered great praise and have been staples of many wrestler’s repertoires over the years. Ring technicians like Nigel McGuinness, brawlers like Hulk Hogan (when he wrestled in Japan earlier in his career), and hybrid athletes like Samoa Joe have utilized variations that brought them all great success. With that said, in my opinion, the most notable lariat variations outside of the Western Lariat are Kenta Kobashi’s Burning Lariat (a standing strong lariat executed while holding an opponent’s head to keep them in place)…

…and Kazuchika Okada’s Rainmaker (a wrist clutch lariat, often set up by recoiling the opponent out by their wrist before executing the short arm lariat).

Like Stan Hansen, both of the aforementioned gentlemen found a way to make a vicious move even more vicious by adding their unique twists that made the moves legitimate match-enders. To be honest, that’s the real purpose of the lariat in my eyes: to hammer home that you ain’t messin’ around anymore and that this match is definitively over. Clotheslines, while versatile in their way, just do not have the match-ending/momentum-shifting impact of a well-placed and well-timed lariat.

The lariat - it ain’t a clothesline!

I rest my case.