Wrestling Move of the Week: The People's Elbow — The Official Website of Pharoah Bolding

The Rock, mere seconds away from hitting Billy Gunn with the People’s Elbow.

Move Name: The People’s Elbow

Created/innovated by: Dusty Rhodes; The Rock

Notable users of move: Disco Inferno

Notable variations of the move: People’s Moonsault (Standing Moonsault with theatrics to a prone opponent) - Ricochet

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Professional wrestling: it’s beautiful, ugly, artistic, acrobatic, athletic, riveting, intriguing…and goofy as hell.

Look, I love professional wrestling. I love pro wrestling with the same fervor that many people reserve for their kids and pets. But let’s be honest: part of the spectacle of professional wrestling is the ridiculousness of the entertainment component of the sport. Larger-than-life characters, gimmicks that are basically caricatures of social classes and occupations (Google Irwin R. Schyster), cartoonish levels of the concepts of good and evil, a dramatic aesthetic that oscillates between western soap operas and telenovelas depending on the storyline…

Pro wrestling is goofy as hell.

But, as a fan, that goofiness is part of what makes being a fan so exhilarating. In between my being wowed by the action in the ring I regularly find myself engaged in the auras of the larger-than-life characters and their personas. The truth is when it comes to the performance side of the art of professional wrestling there are some in-ring performers that embrace the theatrics and separate themselves from the pack due to their sheer entertainment value. One in-ring performer who, once they found their footing, embraced the goofiness of professional wrestling and elevated himself to international superstar status is actor and producer Dwayne Johnson. Y’all can call him Dwayne. But to pro wrestling fans?

He’s the most electrifying man in sports and entertainment, the Great One, The People’s Champion, The Rock!

The Rock, the son of legendary Black wrestler “Soul Man” Rocky Johnson and Ata Maivia (the daughter of legendary Samoan wrestler High Chief Peter Maivia), was a natural talent in the squared circle and on the microphone. The Rock was one of the top money draws in professional wrestling, mainly due to being as over-the-top as they come. He wore gaudy and expensive dress shirts, talked about himself in the third person while presenting himself as the greatest thing to happen to sports and entertainment since, well, the invention of sports and entertainment, and packaged it all with a wit rarely seen in professional wrestling. The Rock was a genuine star, a once-in-a-lifetime entertainer that eventually transcended professional wrestling to become a household name all over the world.

During his time as an active in-ring performer, and at the peak of his in-ring popularity, The Rock partook in the time-honored tradition of unleashing the “Moves of Doom.” In some respects, the “Moves of Doom” is a rite of passage for pro wrestlers who reach a level of popularity with their in-ring persona that overshadows the need to have a vast repertoire of moves in their arsenal. The “Moves of Doom” is a phenomenon where a pro wrestler utilizes a particular series of moves very match in the exact same order with a 97% rate of success in keeping their opponent down for a three count. The number of moves in the finishing sequence? It varies. But the end result is pretty much always victory. A recent example of the “Moves of Doom” phenomenon is wrestler-turned-actor John Cena, who has the “Five Moves of Doom”: Running Shoulder Tackle (A variation of the shoulder block maneuver that sees a wrestler strike their opponent by flying through the air and ramming them with a shoulder), Running Shoulder Tackle, Spin Doctor (A variation of a belly-to-back powerbomb, usually beginning in a back suplex position in which the wrestler stands behind their opponent and puts their head under the arm of the opponent. They then lift the opponent up using one arm around the waist of the opponent and another under their legs), Five Knuckle Shuffle (a jumping delayed fist drop, meaning a wrestler performs a series of theatrics before jumping or falling down, driving their fist usually to their opponent's forehead), Attitude Adjustment (a fireman's carry toss slam, which involves the wrestler holding the opponent in place over both shoulders followed by tossing the opponent off their shoulders as they drop down to their knees causing their opponent to land on their back).

1. 2. 3.

Cena’s success rate when he hits his opponents with the “Five Moves of Doom” is damn near 100%.

When it comes to The Rock, one of his go-to match-ending maneuvers was the Rock Bottom, which is a side slam variation of the judo ura-nage. This move sees a wrestler stand face-to-face with their opponent, slightly to their side. The wrestler tucks their head under their opponent's near arm and reaches across the opponent's chest and around their neck with their near arm. The wrestler then simultaneously lifts the opponent up, often with a 180-degree turn, before falling forward, slamming their opponent back and/or neck-first into the mat. Here’s The Rock’s version of that maneuver:

And here’s the original version of the maneuver, adapted to the pro wrestling ring by Puroresu (the term used to identity the Japanese style of professional wrestling) legend Hiroshi Hase:

As you can see, The Rock’s version of the maneuver is…nice in comparison to its roots.

The Rock Bottom wasn’t The Rock’s only finishing maneuver, however. His primary bread and butter, his “Two Moves of Doom”, were the spinebuster (a momentum-exploiting maneuver often performed on a charging opponent where a wrestler facing their opponent grabs their opponent around their waist, lifts them up, then slams their opponent down while landing on top of them, or tossing them forward on to their back) into the setup for The People’s Elbow.

Success rate? Again, damn near 100% (starting to see a pattern with these “Moves of Doom” scenarios?). People kicking out of The People’s Elbow once The Rock connects with it is a huge deal because of this.

So what is The People’s Elbow?

It’s damn ridiculous is what it is.

It’s an elbow drop that take 45 minutes to connect with an opponent’s sternum (I kid about the 45 minutes; it’s probably more like 30). It’s showy, flashy, goofy…and it electrifies the crowd. When The Rock hits that spinebuster of his on his foes then lines them up for The People’s Elbow millions of wrestling fans pop out of their seats and scream their approval, from home, from the stands, everywhere. And that’s part of what makes professional wrestling such an interesting sport and form of entertainment: it walks this line between athletics, high drama, comedy, and action in such a way that it allows you to suspend your disbelief and at least for a moment embrace the spectacle for what it is. And The People’s Elbow is a spectacle. The funny thing about it being a spectacle, though, is that without the theatrics of the move’s execution and follow through it is a regular ol’ elbow drop. So what’s an elbow drop? It’s literally dropping your elbow on someone.

Sometimes the world of professional wrestling moves ain’t all that complicated.

An elbow drop is a striking move in which a wrestler jumps or falls down on an opponent driving their elbow into anywhere on the opponent's body. The standard elbow drop sees a wrestler raise one elbow before falling to one side and striking it across an opponent. Some wrestlers who deliver the move like to add some elevation to it, jumping upward before crashing downward onto their opponent with their elbow. WWE wrestler Dolph Ziggler utilizes both falling and jumping variations of the elbow drop for his Heart Stopper elbow drop combo:

The People’s Elbow, however, is considered a running high impact elbow drop because of the momentum gathered by the person delivering the move before slamming their elbow into their opponent. The People’s Elbow is actually very similar to pro wrestling legend Dusty Rhodes’ Running Bionic Elbow in this sense, as both moves utilize similar styles of execution:

To execute The People’s Elbow, The Rock tends to find an opening to level his opponent with a spinebuster. Once his opponent is prone? That’s when the theatrics begin. The Rock makes his way to his opponent’s head, kicks their right arm in with his right foot to make room, builds the crowd up to a fever pitch by either slowly removing his right elbow pad (if he’s executing the move while wearing his wrestling attire) or taking a moment to do some posing and posturing for the fans, sprints to his left, bounces off the far-left ring ropes, skips over his opponent’s prone form while sprinting to the right, bounces off the far-right ring ropes, charges toward his still unconscious opponent, pauses, kicks out his leg, then snaps his body down elbow first into his opponent’s sternum.

Yes, that’s all one move.

Yes, it’s far-fetched to expect a person to lay on the ground for 45 minutes while someone does 18 different moves and gestures before hitting them with their elbow.

And yes, it is magnificently goofy and entertaining as hell. But that’s kinda the heart of professional wrestling, at least from an entertainment front.

The People’s Elbow, and The Rock, are prime examples of how there’s something in professional wrestling for everyone. As I fan I’m constantly electrified by technical wrestling, high-flying maneuvers, and stiff strikes. But I’m also electrified by a running elbow drop. I wouldn’t have it any other way.