Suplex City

I seem to distinctly remember the German suplex more or less going away for a while in the WWE – certainly the rolling version that Angle and Benoit did – and I always assumed it was an unspoken ban of sorts after seeing what it did to the bodies of guys like Kurt and Benoit (and in hindsight, guys who had long series of matches with them, like Edge and Austin). I love the Suplex City thing as much as the next guy, but as concerned as they are about wrestlers being safe these days, it seems a bit odd that they deem it ok to have guys take a dozen german suplex bumps on their neck and shoulders within a single match, while a move like the piledriver remains taboo. Is it just a case of WWE being lenient with Brock because he’s Brock and only wrestles occasionally?

​Probably. I think the distinction as well is that guys like Angle and Benoit did the really high angle suplexes, where the guy’s head and neck were being driven into the mat a lot more dangerously. Brock’s version looks impressive, but the victim is more or less just taking a basic flat back bump on the way down. ​