The World’s Most Devastating Pro Wrestling Moves: Rounding Moonsault

Kimberly Schueler
source: WWE
Alexa Bliss goes for Twisted Bliss in the Elimination Chamber.

Move type: Moonsault

Notable users: Alexa Bliss, Dana Brooke

RondaRousey.com has already looked at the history of the classic moonsault and its split-legged variation. This week, we’re taking a quick loo at another, less widely-used version of the popular aerial maneuver, the Rounding Moonsault.


The rounding moonsault is currently best known as Alexa Bliss‘ “Twisted Bliss” finishing move. Using her gymnastic ability and willingness to take risks, “Little Miss Bliss” has moonsaulted her way to many significant victories, including against Nia Jax for the RAW Women’s Championship (as seen in the above video).


A standard moonsault involves the attacking wrestling doing a backflip off the top rope to land on their opponent in a splash position. For the rounding moonsault, the wrestler climbs to the top rope and faces away from their opponent, but instead of backflipping, rotates their body horizontally. Some performers, including Bliss, add additional momentum to increase the impact of the move by rotating midair in cartwheel-like fashion.


Dana Brooke has been known to use both the rounding moonsault off the top rope and a rounding splash on the ground, as seen in the above clip of her match against Billie Kay on an episode of SmackDown in 2016.

The cartwheel aspect of the move becomes a lot more obvious in the splash version. While not as high impact, the splash takes less time to set up than the moonsault, can be executed in a wider variety of places, and has helped Brooke earn a few Ws.

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