Since its accidental invention, the DDT has always been one of the most popular wrestling moves among fans. The move’s invention is credited to Mexican wrestler Black Gordman, who used it as early as the 1970s -- but the more famous origin story is that it was created by accident by Jake Roberts, who took a tumble on his behind while holding an opponent in a front facelock. Given that the internet was not around at the time and information didn’t necessarily travel as fast as it does now, both men might have legitimate claims to inventing the DDT.

To this day, however, Jake Roberts’ version is widely praised as being one of the best: he hooks his opponent’s head with his left arm and raises his right, then slaps the back of his opponent, creating a larger fluid motion to underline the impact. Given that Roberts is 6 foot 6, the move looked devastating, and needless to say, nobody ever kicked out of Jake’s DDT. The move became so popular that, during his WWE run, Jake had to eventually be turned babyface because crowds were chanting for it.

Thanks to its popularity, other wrestlers naturally started to use the DDT. Dusty Rhodes had a rather poor looking version. Sting would jump into the move, much like the Undertaker would later on. Barry Windham began to use an Impaler version. But one wrestler may have done the traditional version better than anybody else, including Jake: Double A, Arn Anderson.

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Arn’s DDT was a masterpiece, and similar to Jake's he would hit the move quick. He would use his right hand to either slap his opponent’s back like Jake or underhook the arm. This would turn the move almost into a snap suplex, with opponents landing more on the top of their head instead of on their forehead and face.

That is the key to making the DDT look impressive: quick movements by a lot of moving parts. It is like a magic trick – most of the motion is deception, but it adds to the illusion. The more movement, the better the move will look.

Over the years, the DDT has seen a lot of variations, from Hangman’s DDTs like Randy Orton’s, where the opponent's feet are propped up on the ropes, to Masato Tanaka’s Tornado DDT, to the float-over DDT The Rock used to do in his younger years, to Reverse DDTs as popularized by Sting’s Scorpion Death Drop, and many others.

However, no version looked better or more credible than Double A’s. After a few years, he would even drop the front suplex gordbuster as his finishing move for the DDT. During that time, he came up with different scenarios to set the move up. Sometimes he would catch his opponent going for a backdrop, or he would slip out of a vertical suplex attempt while keeping his opponent in the front facelock position and hit the DDT.

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The most famous setup though was probably the fake punch: Arn would theatrically throw his fist back as if he was going for a big left hand. His opponent would duck in anticipation and Arn would capitalize by hitting his opponent with the DDT. As the move gained popularity and more varieties started to show up, it was used even more frequently. The downside to that, though, was that the move ended up getting watered down. The DDT is not alone in that development. Over time, powerbombs, powerslams, or even suplexes have seen more new varieties pop up, leaving older varieties to die out.

Today, the DDT is still going strong, but is mostly used as a transitional or setup move. It will still get a pop, but does anybody still buy it as a credible finishing move? Whatever the future holds for the DDT, it remains an incredible, devastating-looking, believable move in any wrestler's arsenal.

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