TJR: WWE’s Top 25 Coolest Moves Of 2023 Review
This top 25 list is a review of a WWE-produced video ranking the coolest moves of 2023.
These videos are posted to WWE’s YouTube account. Normally they do Top 10 countdowns, but for this one, it’s a Top 25 list. Let’s go through it and I’ll give you my thoughts along the way.
25. Seth Rollins’ Top Rope Stomp
Seth “Freakin” Rollins faced the big man Omos at Backlash. Since Omos is bigger than most, Rollins did a special edition of The Stomp by hitting his signature move off the top for the pinfall win. The Puerto Rican fans loved it.
24. Piper Niven’s Triple Crossbody
This was a Raw match where Piper Niven hit a running cross body block on a seated Carmella, Candice LeRae and Michin. It drew a good reaction.
23. Solo Sikoa’s Mid-Air Spike
Cruz Del Toro was on the top rope looking to dropkick Jimmy Uso, who was across the ring. However, Solo Sikoa went into the ring and hit the Samoan Spike on Cruz to knock him down out of mid-air. That also drew a big reaction.
22. Ivar’s Moonsault
Ivar hit a moonsault off the top rope onto Kofi Kingston to win their Viking Rules match. It was an impressive move for a 300+ pounder like Ivar.
21. Roman Reigns’ Table Spear
This was at SummerSlam when the “Tribal Chief” Roman Reigns hit a running Spear on cousin Jey Uso that drove Jey threw a table that was in the corner of the ring. That ended their match since Reigns got the pinfall win right after.
20. Dominik Mysterio’s Counter
The father-son match at WrestleMania 39 saw Rey Mysterio face his son Dominik. At one point in the match, Rey charged at Dominik, who caught his dad and flipped him over his head so that Rey went crashing face first into the bottom turnbuckle. Ouch. It looked great and they timed it perfectly.
19. Logan Paul’s Tornado DDT
It was back to SummerSlam when Logan Paul faced Ricochet in the opening match. Paul jumped off the middle turnbuckle, Ricochet caught him, but then Paul was able to turn it around into a DDT. It only got a two count. It was an amazing move.
18. Tommaso Ciampa’s XL Air Raid Crash
This was from Raw when Tommaso Ciampa picked up Bronson Reed on his back and Ciampa delivered an Air Raid Crash slam on the 300+ pounder. It was an impressive show of strength.
17. Bianca Belair’s KOD
A Raw match where Piper Niven was climbing to the top rope, but Belair grabbed a hold of Niven and put her on Belair’s shoulders. Belair hit an impressive KOD slam on her larger opponent. The fans popped huge for it as Belair got the win.
16. Liv Morgan’s Sunset Flip Powerbomb Off A Pod
This was at Elimination Chamber when Natalya was battling Raquel Rodriguez by the turnbuckle. That’s when Liv Morgan jumped off the top of a pod and gave Raquel a Sunset Flip Powerbomb. That was a cool-looking move. The only thing I didn’t like was that Raquel had to wait about three seconds for Liv to jump. It could have been timed better, but it’s not a big deal.
15. Street Profits’ Revelation Through The Table
The Street Profits started using a double team finisher this year on Smackdown. It’s called the Revelation. In this instance, Angelo Dawkins picked up Ridge Holland and Montez Ford finished the move with a neckbreaker. There was a table in the ring too, so they hit the Revelation and drove Ridge through the table at the same time. Ford covered Ridge for the win.
14. Reigns and Sikoa’s Spear and Spike Combo
It was Money in the Bank when Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa teamed up against The Usos. During the match, Reigns and Solo hit a cool double team move. Reigns ran off the ropes while Solo delivered a Samoan Spike at the same time. Even though it looked cool, The Usos managed to come back and get the win.
13. Ricochet’s Tower Of Doom
This was from WrestleMania 39 when there was a tag team match featuring multiple teams. They did an incredible Tower of Doom spot with Otis and Ivar holding Chad Gable and Erik on their shoulders while Montez Ford was held by Gable/Erik upside down in a suplex position. That’s when Ricochet jumped off the top and hit a cross body block to knock the pile of five men down. The fans popped huge for it.
12. Becky Lynch’s Table Manhandle Slam
Becky Lynch faced Zoey Stark on Raw in a match where they fought into the crowd. They were standing on top of some platform and Lynch gave Stark a Manhandle Slam through a table nearby. Lynch covered Stark to get the pinfall win since it was a Falls Count Anywhere Match.
11. Johnny Gargano’s Hurricanrana Off A Pod
It was another spot at Elimination Chamber. This time it was the Men’s Elimination Chamber match. Seth Rollins was going for a Powerbomb on Johnny Gargano off a pod, but Gargano countered it with a hurricanrana to send Rollins and Gargano onto the guys standing below them. It was an impressive move for sure.
10. Logan Paul’s Table Frog Splash
We got back to WrestleMania 39 for this one. Seth Rollins was on the table while Logan Paul’s mascot friend KSI was dressed in a Prime bottle. Paul jumped off the top of the ring post and Rollins pulled KSI onto the table, so Paul hit a Frog Splash on KSI through the table.
9. Montez Ford’s Dive Off The Roof
It’s Elimination Chamber time again as Montez Ford climbed the side of the cage. There were a bunch of guys on the outside of the ring. Ford climbed to the top of the chamber, spun around and dove onto the pile of wrestlers below him. It’s not an easy move to do, but Ford makes everything look easy.
8. Rhea Ripley’s Top Rope Riptide
This was the Smackdown Women’s Title match at WrestleMania 39. They had a fantastic match with Rhea Ripley and champion Charlotte Flair going back and forth. It ended with Ripley hitting this Riptide slam while standing on the middle turnbuckle. The graphic says “top rope” but she was on the middle rope. It still looked great. Ripley got the pinfall win to become Smackdown Women’s Champion, which would become the Women’s World Title.
7. IYO SKY’s Trash Can Crossbody
The Women’s WarGames match at Survivor Series was a lot of fun. IYO SKY is the WWE Women’s Champion and she had a memorable spot in that match. Sky was on top of the cage, she put a trash can on top of her body and jumped off so that she went crashing into a pile of women in the ring. The fans loved it.
6. Becky Lynch’s Superplex
Becky Lynch and Trish Stratus had a tremendous Steel Cage Match at the Payback PLE in September. Stratus tried to get out of the cage, but Lynch was able to grab her on the top rope. Lynch held Stratus against the cage and then Lynch gave her a top rope superplex into the ring. It was a terrific spot.
5. Logan Paul and Ricochet’s Collision
This was at the Royal Rumble in January. Seven men were remaining in the match as Ricochet and Logan Paul stood on opposite ends of the apron. They trash talked eachother from a distance and then they jumped off the top rope with a springboard double cross body block in the middle of the ring. It was a crazy spot that looked incredible. The fans loved that too.
4. Kevin Owens’ Senton In The Crowd
It was Payback in September when Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens were in a Tag Team Title defense against The Judgment Day’s Finn Balor & Damian Priest. It was a Street Fight match so Dominik Mysterio got involved to help The Judgment Day, which led to Owens hitting Dominik with a Senton Bomb that saw Owens jump from the crowd onto Dominik through a table. It looked amazing.
3. Zelina Vega’s Code Red Off A Ladder
This was from the Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder match. Zoey Stark and Zelina Vega were fighting on opposite sides of a ladder when Vega decided to hit a big move by doing a Code Red to Stark onto a ladder that was in the ring. It’s essentially a Sunset Flip Powerbomb off the ladder onto another ladder. That looked cool.
2. Damian Priest’s Broken Arrow In The Crowd
The Backlash PLE was one of the best events of the year. One of the big matches saw Bad Bunny defeat Damian Priest. A big spot during the match saw them fighting in the crowd where Priest got a hold of Bunny while on some sort of platform and Priest gave Bunny a Broken Arrow slam through a table. That drew a huge reaction from the Puerto Rican fans who loved this match.
1. Randy Orton’s Mid-Air RKO
I figured this would be number one. It was at Survivor Series one month ago in Chicago. During the Men’s WarGames Match, Seth Rollins and Sami Zayn got a hold of JD McDonagh, who was standing on the top of a mini-platform near the top of the cage. Randy Orton set up in the ring so Rollins & Zayn launched JD toward Orton, who dropped JD with a RKO in the middle of the ring. It was essentially a 12-15 foot drop for JD leading right into that RKO by Orton. A memorable moment for sure and one of the greatest RKO’s ever.
Check out the full video below or on WWE’s YouTube page.
Final Thoughts
I don’t have many complaints about this one. I think it’s a hard thing to do to compile because there’s so much WWE content that comes out in a year, so it’s not easy to come up with a list of 25 moves. I liked how they picked some unique matches like WarGames, Money In The Bank and Elimination Chamber for some of them because all of those ones were great.
There might be a few things on here that I might have tweaked in terms of the order, but for the most part I think they did an excellent job with this.
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Thanks for reading. Go Los Angeles Rams, Toronto Raptors & Toronto Maple Leafs. You can contact me using any of the methods below.
John Canton
Email: mrjohncanton@gmail.com