Follow TV Tropes

Following

Lightning Bruiser / Pro Wrestling
aka: Professional Wrestling

Go To

  • Samoa Joe. Any time you have a near-300-pound Samoan who can not only keep up with the likes of AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels, but actually show them up in an X Division match, you can definitely call him a Lightning Bruiser.
  • Sean O'Haire, similar to Samoa Joe. Who showed up the other depended on who was the technico that night.
  • Ultimo Guererro. Maybe not so big by American standards, but compared to his fellow Luchadors, he's massive. His finishing move is a moonsault off the top rope while holding onto the opponent.
  • The late Mike Awesome. 6ft 7in, nearly 300 pounds, and could fly around the ring like a Luchadore.
  • Vader. For much of his career, he moved quicker and more gracefully than a guy of 460 has any business doing.
  • Rob Van Dam, able to do stuff usually reserved for the smaller high flyers, like back somersaults from a standing still position, while weighing close to 250 pounds of muscle.
  • Bray Wyatt stands at 6'3 and weighing 285 lbs. Back when he was called Husky Harris, he styled himself "The Army Tank with a Ferrari Engine", and for good reason.
  • His late stablemate (Luke) Harper (aka Mr. Brodie Lee in AEW) as well, standing about 6'7" and weighing around 275. He could execute a hurricanrana and a suicide dive as easily as he could execute a chokeslam and a powerbomb.
  • Not as pronounced as some people on this list, but The Undertaker was pretty spry for most of his career, compared to other similarly sized (or bigger) wrestlers in the WWE. Before retiring in 2020, he slowed down a bit with age, but could still do some impressive stunts (such as during the epic WrestleMania XXV match against Shawn Michaels). In his earlier days he was known to walk on the ring ropes!
  • Also Kane before his Badass Decay occurred when he was unmasked.
    • The main reason he slowed down a bit was that shortly after his unmasking, he performed a number of Tombstone Piledrivers to people on the steel stage and concrete floors backstage, injuring his knees in the process. He's still one of the faster big men in the business, having a very athletic arsenal.
  • Brock Lesnar is probably one of the best examples. After all, how many other near-300-pounders can pull off a Shooting Star Press?
  • Goldberg is agile enough to do a backflip (which he did against Hugh Morrus), was also a pro football player, so he had explosive speed and power. Could lift Big Show and Jackhammer him with one arm, and was able to tear a limo's glass with his bare hands, although it cut his flesh.
  • Bobby Lashley. Not only is he a physical match for Brock, but he could also match Brock's speed and agility.
  • Takeshi Morishima, a chubby guy of around 300 pounds. Would probably qualify as a bishonen if he weren't so hefty. And not just phenomenally agile for a guy his size, but in good enough health to carry 20-minute matches at his fast pace.
  • Hulk Hogan, back when his hips were still made of bone and his knees were still in good shape (i.e. back before his second WWE run), was fairly light on his feet, capable of pulling off a hurricanrana in his younger days. Not bad for a guy listed anywhere between 6' 6" and 6'8" and 280 to 310 lbs.
  • This was Warrior's whole shtick. He would run full-pelt to the ring, splatter his opponent in a matter of minutes and rush out again. He was only slightly shorter than Hogan, built like Superman, and no-sold to the point of appearing invincible. His main weakness was limited endurance, something that was effectively masked by booking him mostly in Squash Matches.
  • Sheamus is strong enough to knock around Mark Henry, and his berserker fury can give even John Cena trouble. He also uses an awesome slingshot shoulder block, and can do the "skin the cat" trick.
  • Masato Yoshino from Dragon Gate is a Fragile Speedster minus the fragile. He's the second smallest guy on the roster, but he can press guys his own size over his head, and knock guys much bigger than himself flying across the ring with a dropkick.
  • AJ Styles, while not as big as the others, is not only lightning fast and agile, but can casually lift and tackle behemoths like Samoa Joe and Abyss, and can stand up and carry someone who is using a jujigatame (crucifix armbar) on him.
  • "Stone Cold" Steve Austin was a technical juggernaut in his younger days, wrestling a more agile and technical style. A botched piledriver by Owen Hart put an end to this, but Austin still managed to remain a swift and merciless force of destruction.
  • The Rock, who is strong enough to use power moves on people like Big Show yet typically uses a lot of high flying moves and can do a kip-up.
  • Lance Hoyt, who is 6'9" yet typically uses a lot of cruiserweight-style moves like the moonsault.
  • Roman Reigns stands 6'4" and weighs 265 lbs, and was rightfully pushed as the 'powerhouse' of the The Shield. You would expect above average athleticism from a former Division I college football player, but not to effortlessly clear the top rope on a suicide dive like he does.
  • Cesaro is plainly put, incredibly strong for a man not as particularly large and ripped as some of the other heavyweights in WWE; effortlessly hoisting The Big Show over the top rope and performing other feats of strength such as hitting the Giant Swing on The Great Khali, nonchalantly catching Big E. Langston in the midst of an attempted cross body without so much as a stumble backwards and deadlifting other heavyweights. He also once did a cartwheel on the ring ropes and is perfectly capable of clearing the ropes on a dive.
  • Big E. Langston as well. 285 lbs and has a deadlift of 800 lbs, and very athletic and explosive for a man of his size, routinely diving through the ropes.
  • Kevin Steen/Owens. 6' even and probably about 275. The last guy you'd expect to come over the top rope or perform a moonsault, and yet he does them effortlessly.
  • Apollo Crews: 6' 1", 240, quite strong, and athletic as someone 40 lbs lighter. Ably demonstrated by his finisher which is a military press followed by a standing moonsault.
  • The women have Charlotte Flair, 5' 10", Charlotte regularly throws her opponents around with ease, putting them in a headscissors and basically suplexing them by rolling backwards. She also once moonsaulted, stuck the landing, and immediately flipped over to backsplash her opponent.
  • Donovan Dijak (known in Wrestling/WWENXT as Dominik Dijakovic), 2015 ROH top prospect. Take your standard light heavyweight or super junior and scale him up until he's well into heavyweight territory at 265 lbs. He's just as likely to attempt a corkscrew plancha as he is a back breaker rack.
  • Ken Anderson: A 250 pound man capable of performing both a Swanton Bomb and a Rolling Fireman's Carry from the top rope.
  • Jeff Cobb (a.k.a. Matanza Cueto from Lucha Underground). Despite being under 6ft, he's a former olympic wrestler, weighs around 250 pounds and tends to steamroll his opponents with suplexes and powerslams. Also, one of his signature moves is a standing moonsault fallaway slam, followed by a STANDING shooting star press.
  • Also from Lucha Underground, Cage. Six feet even, and extremely muscular; the man is every bit as strong as he looks and scarily fast for someone his size, effortlessly matching the luchador style of the lighter wrestlers and regularly going aerial.
  • When he first debuted as a member of The Wyatt Family, Braun Strowman was initially another giant who stood around No Selling the moves of others. Ever since breaking away from them however, he's definitely become this trope, showing a surprising amount of athleticism for a man his size, being able to catch up with smaller opponents and execute kip-ups and dropkicks.
  • SAnitY's Killian Dain (Big Damo on the Independent Scene) is a behemoth of a wrestler, being able to effortlessly carry more than one opponent and slam them around the ring. He also happens to be surprisingly agile, regularly employing sentons, dropkicks, tope suicidas and top rope moves in his arsenal and easily getting back up from all of them.
  • John Tenta, alias Earthquake, regularly bounced off the ropes during his WWE matches and jumped around the ring to make it shake in preparation for his Earthquake Splash.
  • Aleister/Malakai Black is regularly known to utilize martial arts strikes and high flying moves like moonsaults and sentons into his arsenal on a regular basis, being able to switch between both styles with relative ease.
  • 'Mr. Touchdown' Mark Angelosetti. Granted, Saturyne isn't a giant or anything, but, being able to hold a fully-grown human being in the air one one hand has to count for something.
  • Perry Saturn was strong enough to hit a Death Valley Driver on the 7'3, 400+ lbs. REESE!
  • Amazing Kong/Awesome Kong/Kharma. 6'2, 272 lbs., and can come off the top rope.
  • Bam Bam Bigelow was 300-400 lbs., 6'6, could come off the top rope and did cartwheels.
  • "The Queen of Wrestling" Sara Del Rey. 5'10, 160 lbs., and hit her Royal Butterfly on Awesome Kong!
  • AndrĂ© the Giant was like this when he debuted back in the 1960s, since he weighed around 400 lbs. and could do dropkicks. Acromegaly slowed him down, turning him into the Mighty Glacier he was later in his career.
  • Oleg The Usurper is 6'4, 250 lbs. and moves very well for a guy his size. One of his big moves is "More Speed," and he can also hit a Somersault Senton and a Superkick with ease.
  • "Limitless" Keith Lee lives up to his name. He's a 320 lbs. fat guy who can do huracanranas and fly around in a way that must violate several laws of physics.

Alternative Title(s): Professional Wrestling

Top