How to Do Professional Wrestling Moves

In this guide, we’ll outline how to do pro wrestling moves for beginners. Learn techniques by watching our free video lessons taught by professional instructors!

How to Do a Body Slam Wrestling Move

Let’s start by going over how to do the iconic body slam. This move is a good way to get control of your opponent—and to hurt them pretty bad. Here are the basics:

While locked onto your opponent, push their elbow up out of your way. This is similar to how a Duck Under begins.
Now, you’re going to lift your opponent up off the ground.
To get control of your opponent, put your hand under their throat. Make sure you have a good hold on your opponent by crossing your other arm around their leg.
Once you’re sure you have good control over your opponent’s head, finish the body slam.

To get a better visual of how this should look, watch the video at the beginning of this section.

How to Do a Clothesline Wrestling Move

The clothesline is one of the most powerful wrestling moves for beginners due to its simplicity and the strength behind it. This move works, because when a moving object meets a not-moving object, the impact will knock it down.

Here’s how you do the clothesline wrestling move:

While your opponent is coming off the rope and back at you, hook your arm so that it catches on your opponent’s upper chest area (make sure NOT to get their throat).
Ensure that you’re putting plenty of pressure on your opponent’s upper torso as they’re running into your hooked arm.
The force will cause your opponent’s legs to go up in the air and knock them down onto their back.

Sounds simple enough, right? To see exactly how this should be done, watch the tutorial video at the beginning of this section.

How to Do a Hammerlock

The hammerlock is a pretty brutal move in wrestling, and is another great way to control your opponent. Here’s how you do the hammerlock:

First, you and your opponent need to be locked in the Referee’s Position.
From there, you’re going to do a Twisting Wristlock to your opponent.
You’ll break their elbow, and step so that you’re out of the way, behind them.
One of your hands will be on your opponent’s wrist, and the other will be pushing up and putting pressure on their elbow.
The further your opponent’s wrist is up their back, the more pain they’re going to experience.

While this is a simple move, it’s important that you do it properly to get the most out of it (and avoid doing too much damage to your opponent). Watch the video to see how the pros do it.

How to Do a Backdrop Wrestling Move

The backdrop is designed to wear your opponent down and weaken the muscles in their lower back. Typically, wrestlers use the backdrop when there’s not enough time to do the clothesline we talked about earlier. Like the clothesline, you start preparing for the backdrop while your opponent is coming off the rope.

Here’s how the backdrop is done:

Start by getting low down, similar to a football stance.
While your opponent is coming back from the rope, they’ll need to use you as a sort of stabilizer.
As your opponent pushes into you from the rope, rise up. Your opponent will push off of you and flip over onto their back.

If this sounds a bit complicated, don’t worry. In Howcast’s video, the Monster Factory crew goes over this in more detail and shows you a step-by-step breakdown.

How to Do a Headlock Suplex Wrestling Move

Now for the headlock suplex! This move is generally used when your opponent de-neutralizes the collar-and-elbow hold by putting you into a headlock. It helps you get control of the situation again and is going to hurt your opponent pretty badly.

Here’s how to perform a headlock suplex on your opponent:

While you’re in the headlock, secure your hands around your opponent’s waist.
Once your hands are secure, step back to the side.
Now lift your opponent up off the ground and throw them down onto the canvas.

Watch the video at the beginning of this section to see how this move should look, step-by-step, from the pros at the Monster Factory.

Learn More Professional Wrestling Moves!

By now, you should have a better idea of how to perform the most popular professional wrestling moves. If you don’t feel quite ready to practice yet, you can go through this article again and watch each video until you’re more comfortable trying out these pro wrestling moves yourself. To learn even more pro wrestling techniques, watch the rest of the videos in this series below!

ABOUT THE EXPERT

Monster Factory

The Monster Factory has become the world's most famous wrestling school, with good reason: Its list of notable graduates reads like a virtual Who's Who in the pro wrestling world -- King Kong Bundy, Kevin Von Erich, The Pit Bulls, Raven, just to name a few. Founded in 1983 by "Pretty Boy" Larry Sharpe and "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers, the Paulsboro, NJ-based training facility turned into The Monster Factory under Sharpe's sole ownership and is now owned by Sharpe protege Danny Cage.