10 wrestling finishing moves that don’t work anymore (With Pics)

5. Sleeper Hold

via wrestlementary.blogspot.com

Be it Sgt. Slaughter’s “Cobra Clutch,” Ted Dibiase’s “Million Dollar Dream” or even Roddy Piper’s traditional application, there was a day when the sleeper hold was applied that it would be just a matter of moments until the referee would drop the loser’s arm for the third time and the match was over. Once Brutus Beefcake became “The Barber,” the sleeper hold was the anticipatory signal that some poor loser was about to get their hair cut. Now, when the move periodically pops up, either the wrestler doing the hold is smashed into a turnbuckle, or the wrestler in the hold miraculously comes back to life. So much for the science of the hold Gorilla Monsoon was trying to teach us all of those years.