The World’s Most Devastating Pro Wrestling Moves: Moonsault

Kimberly Schueler
Charlotte moonsaults off the barricade in a match against Ruby Riott. (Source: WWE.com)

Move type: Moonsault

Notable users: The Great Muta, Shawn Michaels, Lita, Charlotte Flair

The moonsault—also called a moonsault press or backflip splash—is one of pro wrestling’s most simple and effective aerial maneuvers. In this week’s installment of RondaRousey.com’s World’s Most Devastating Pro Wrestling Moves feature, we take a closer look at how this aerial move works and the wrestlers who have made it one of their signature moves over the decades.


Though he ends up missing—recovering to land on his feet—and hitting his opponent with a kick instead, the above video is a textbook example of the set-up for a standard moonsault by The Great Muta, from his match against Sting at Starrcade 1989. The move was innovated by Mando Guerrero, son of Gory and brother of Eddie, in Mexico but popularized in the United States and Japan by Muta.

The standard moonsault is usually attempted from the top rope, with the wrestler facing the audience. The wrestler then does a backflip into the ring, landing on their opponent (and knocking them down if they happen to be standing). The rotational speed from the backflip increases the impact of this move, which is often used before a pin attempt.


Lita won many matches by hitting her signature moonsault and excited fans by using the move when she returned to WWE for the first Women’s Royal Rumble match.


Charlotte Flair currently makes the move her own in WWE, using it in both traditional and non-traditional—like in the above video’s flip off the barricade—ways.


Former WWE Diva Eve Torres used both the standard and standing moonsault as a finisher.


Apollo Crews is the current king of the standing moonsault in WWE, which he used in his debut match at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn to take out Tye Dillinger (after a Gorilla Press set-up).


Here, you can see Superstars like Shawn Michaels, Rob Van Dam, Chris Jericho (with his springboard variation, the Lionsault), Sami Zayn, and Chad Gable make the moonsault a signature move in WWE.


It’s more typically a move used by cruiserweights and other smaller wrestlers, so it’s always extra exciting to see big men (like Wolfgang in the 2017 WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament) bust out this high-flying maneuver.


Other moonsault moments have been memorable because of extra risks taken by wrestlers executing the move. Cody Rhodes did the backflip splash off the top of a cage at Madison Square Garden in 2013, and John Morrison knocked over several opponents by doing a moonsault to the outside while holding a ladder at WrestleMania XXIV.


One of the most creative high-flying moments of this year was during the Kickoff Show match of the Royal Rumble pay-per-view, when Lucha House Party (Kalisto, Gran Metalik, and Lince Dorado) hit coordinated moonsaults on Jack Gallagher, TJP, and Drew Gulak. It’ll be exciting to see whoever tops this.

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