The World’s Most Devastating Pro Wrestling Moves: Cutter
Move type: Cutter
Notable Users: Johnny Ace, Diamond Dallas Page, Randy Orton
The week’s Devastating Pro Wrestling Move, the Cutter, has been responsible for many exciting moments in sports entertainment. Whether it’s called the “Ace Crusher,” the “Diamond Cutter,” the “RKO,” or everything in between, this versatile, quick maneuver can change the course of a match out of nowhere. Let’s take a closer look at how it’s done.
We get a good look at two Diamond Cutters—Diamond Dallas Page’s version of the move—in the video above. Page signals to the crowd that his finisher is incoming by forming a diamond shape with his hands before he uses it to win a match on WCW Monday Nitro. He then unleashes another on Scott Hall after he pretends to join the nWo. The cool move elevates an already cool moment for the people’s champ.
We can also see in the video that a cutter, diamond or no, is a three-quarter facelock front face bulldog maneuver. The three-quarter facelock portion sees the wrestler stand in front of their opponent, back to belly. The wrestler uses their near hand to grab their opponent from behind the head, then pull their head over the applying wrestler’s shoulder. When this hold is used as part of a cutter, the free arm is usually placed on top or to the side of the opponent’s head.
A bulldog is a move in which the attacking wrestler jumps forward while holding their opponent’s head, landing so they drive that wrestler’s face into the canvas. When a wrestler puts these maneuvers together—though with the attacking wrestler falling backward during the bulldog portion of the move—we get a cutter.
Though the move was popularized by DDP, it was John Laurinaitis, in his “Johnny Ace” days, who innovated it. In this highlight reel, you can see him use a modified version of the move he called the Ace Crusher to take out two opponents.
In present-day WWE, Randy Orton is the undisputed king of the cutter. His jumping version—the RKO, which he started using during his Legend Killer period—is so popular it even inspired a meme. The undisputed greatest RKO, executed after the above compilation was put together, is from WrestleMania
“The Viper” has used this move to strike opponents unexpectedly so many times that the “RKO Outta Nowhere” is almost its own variation of aÂ
Some of the other most memorable RKOs are those that even the usually stoic Orton knows are so awesome that even he can’t help but celebrate:
No matter the user, the cutter’s speed and versatility have made the move a cool part of wrestling for decades past, and almost certainly for decades to come.