DDT (professional wrestling)

[1] Although widely credited as an invention of Jake Roberts, who gave the DDT its famous name, the earliest known practitioner of the move was Mexican wrestler Black Gordman, who frequently performed it during the 1970s before Roberts popularized it nationwide.

"[4] The abbreviation itself originally came from the chemical dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, a notorious pesticide, as stated during shoot interviews and Jake's Pick Your Poison DVD.

Although not its innovator, Kenta Kobashi popularized the move throughout Japan, calling it the Burning Hammer.

A variation, known as a hammerlock cradle DDT, involves the attacking wrestler lifting the opponent into a bear hug, applying a hammerlock, then a front facelock, then finally driving the opponent's head into the mat.

British wrestler Joseph Conners uses this variation, known as the Righteous Kill, and Nia Jax has also utilized a version of this move.

This version of a DDT has many names like draping, hangman's, rope-hung and spike which first sees an attacking wrestler place the opponent on an elevated surface, usually the ropes or the turnbuckle, while applying a front facelock.

The move is sometimes referred to as a spike DDT, because the defending wrestler lands in an upside-down, almost completely vertical position (known as the "spiked" position, which refers to when a wrestler is actually dropped vertically upside down).

This move is usually performed with the defending wrestler's feet on the middle rope but Tommaso Ciampa uses this move to an opponent attempting to enter the ring as his finisher; called Willows Bell in honor of his daughter.

The wrestler applies a front facelock and then falls backwards, much like a normal DDT, but instead of the opponent's head impacting the mat, the wrestler falls to a kneeling or sitting position driving the face of the opponent on to their knee.

A slight variation where instead of just falling backwards, the wrestler jumps up while holding the front facelock and then uses the weight and momentum to pull the opponent down on their head.

It was also used by Robert Roode, who uses a swinging variation as a finishing move, calling it the Glorious DDT.

With the opponent placed in a front facelock, the attacking wrestler performs a Moonwalk maneuver across the ring and then proceeds to execute a classic DDT slam.

In another variation the wrestler wll also push the opponent up with their free arm, performing a spike DDT version of the move.

The wrestler then jumps down onto their back, swinging their legs forward, bending the opponent, and driving them down to the mat face, forehead, or head first.

Yujiro Takahashi also performs a variation where he delivers the DDT to a kneeling opponent, calling his version Pimp Juice.

The wrestler then falls backwards, driving the opponent vertically down to the mat head first.

One of its users was Sabu, who used a tornado DDT by performing a springboard off the middle rope as his finisher.

The wrestler then applies a front facelock and swings their opponent around, slamming them head first into the mat.

The wrestler then jumps forward and swings around to fall backwards and drop the opponent's head into the mat.

This subsection lists DDTs that involve the opponent being dropped on the back of their heads.

The move was popularized by Sting in the late 1990s after he adopted it as his new finisher and named it the Scorpion Death Drop.

Dustin Rhodes uses this move as the Curtain Call while D-Von Dudley used this as the Saving Grace.

British wrestler Eddie Dennis of NXT UK uses this as a modified version move calling it as the Neck stop Driver.

A wrestler puts the opponent into a ¾ facelock, then runs up the corner turnbuckles or ring ropes and jump backwards performing a backflip, and landing face down driving the opponent down to the mat back-first.

Sometimes a standing variant is performed by wrestlers with adequate leaping ability or when assisted by a tag team partner.

[5][6] In a slight variation named the sitout shiranui the wrestler lands into a seated position instead, driving the opponent's head between the legs.

Indy wrestler Matt Sydal used this move called Standing Sea Fire as a signature.

A slight variation of this sees the wrestler reach under the opponent while setting up the move to grab their far arm.

This move was the original finisher of The Miz when he made his WWE Debut, dubbing it the Mizard of Oz.

Using the momentum from the jump, they falls forward and slam the back of the opponent's head into the mat.