The Pedigree was invented and popularized by Triple H, but The Game isn’t the only one who’s used it. These are the best Pedigree users in wrestling.

The 450 splash is the embodiment of this movement. While there may be more creative moves, the sheer ability of someone to rotate 450 degrees in the air, not to mention do so safely and in a way that it lands as a believable offensive maneuver can be simply breathtaking. A surprising array of talents have managed this move over the years.

10Scott Steiner

Scott Steiner Was Surprisingly Agile In His Physical Prime

• It’s hard to decisively say who first executed the 450 splash.
• Scott Steiner claimed to have innovated the move.
• Steiner hit the move carefully out of concern to not injure anyone and jeopardize his bookings.

Like many major moves in professional wrestling, it can be hard to put a finger on who truly invented the 450 splash. One of the few people to credibly claim to be the first to hit it was Scott Steiner. Indeed, one of the major revelations from his visit to Chris Van Vliet’s podcast was his suggestion he’d innovated this aerial spectacle.

Steiner has conceded his version wasn’t the prettiest, explaining that he hit it very conservatively, making sure his legs hit the mat first so he wouldn’t hurt his opponent. He cited that the culture of the time was that injuring someone attempting a flashy move like that might’ve gotten him blacklisted by promoters. Whether he literally invented the move or not, his use of it, like the Frankensteiner, was a testament to what an athletic freak he was, and he deserves credit for at minimum being an extremely early adopter.

9Hayabusa

Some Credit The Japanese Star With Inventing The 450 Splash

• Hayabusa was the face of Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling.
• Before Scott Steiner’s claims, Hayabusa was generally touted as the first wrestler to use the 450 splash.
• Hayabusa had an impressive arsenal of ahead-of-his-time aerial offense.

While Hayabusa may not exactly be a household name to modern WWE fans, he was a major star and important figure in wrestling history, particularly in his native Japan where he was the face of the violent Frontier Martia- Arts Wrestling (FMW) promotion.

Outside of Scott Steiner’s claims, one of Hayabusa’s most noteworthy resume items is having innovated the 450 splash. He hit the move keenly, and with other moves like the Phoenix Splash and Asai moonsault, he makes clear claim as an all-time great high-flyer and a wrestler who was way ahead of his time, wrestling from the late 1980s to 2001.

8Kevin Owens

The Prize Fighter’s Versatility Never Fails To Impress

• Kevin Owens may not look like a high-flyer.
• Owens’s moonsault and pop-up powerbomb highlight surprising agility and power on his behalf.
• Pre-WWE, Kevin Owens was known to hit the 450 splash.

Kevin Owens has emerged as one of the top WWE stars of his generation. He’s great on the mic and while some might view his “average” look as a black mark against him, one could also argue that appearance makes both athletic moves like his frog splash and strength moves like his pop-up powerbomb all the more impressive.

Case in point, wrestling as Kevin Steen pre-WWE, he was known to bust out the 450 splash on occasion. He executed the move well and it was shocking to see a man of his proportions flip and fly like that across the ring.

7Bianca Belair

The EST Is A Physical Anomaly

• Bianca Belair is a vaunted powerhouse.
• Belair has used the 450 splash plenty of times.
• Despite how impressive it looks, The EST has never used her 450 splash as a proper finisher.

Bianca Belair has developed into one of WWE’s biggest stars on account of her unique combination of physical abilities. She’s a powerhouse who has had incredible moments featuring her feats of strength range from hitting her KOD on women as large as Piper Niven and a memorable spot of carrying Sasha Banks, pressed above her head, from the floor, up the ring steps, into the ring in the main event of night one of WrestleMania 37. She’s also an athletic phenom.

Indeed, one of The EST’s best looking moves is her 450 splash. She’s hit variations on it throughout her career, and though she hasn’t used it as a finisher, it nonetheless remains a recognizable spot that few wrestlers—male or female—can hit nearly well.

6PAC

The Underappreciated Death Rider Is A Star

• PAC’s aerial offense has been a major factor in his success.
• His 450 splash is highly impressive.
• PAC has als used corkscrew and inverted variants.

PAC is an incredible athlete whose aerial exploits brought him fame as Neville under the WWE banner, but have more broadly contributed to his success all around the world and in the indies, up to and including his current AEW run.

PAC has been one of the most gifted high-flying wrestlers and proficient strikers in wrestling for over a decade.

Few performers in wrestling history have demonstrated PAC’s intensity or technical precision in his entire offensive move set. His 450 splash is a thing of beauty, only made all the more impressive by inverted and corkscrew variations on it he has introduced.

5Swerve Strickland

The AEW Main Eventer Can Fly

• Swerve Strickland had an underwhelming run in WWE.
• Strickland hit his stride in AEW, including a world title run.
• The 450 splash is one of Swerve Strickland’s most impressive moves.

Swerve Strickland has emerged as one of the top wrestlers of his generation. He’s one of the few guys to overcome a lackluster WWE run in which was dramatically under-utilized only to find himself a world champion in AEW.

After his WWE release, Swerve Strickland said he wanted them to regret letting him go. In AEW, he certainly has.

Strickland has grown more stern and serious in his presentation over time with an impressive variety of offense to breakout as different situations warrant it. Among the greatest spectacles in his repertoire, though, remains his sensational 450 splash.

4Juventud Guerrera

Juvi’s 450 Stood Out In WCW

• Juventud Guerrera stood out from the pack of WCW luchadors.
• He hit his 450 splash in WCW and later in WWE.
• Guerrera’s velocity on the move made it look especially vicious.

One of the double-edged swords of Monday Night War era WCW was that it featured a high volume of incredible luchadors in action on a regular basis, but the company rarely gave any of them a meaningful push. That made it easy for one masked wrestler to bleed into the other as casual fans lost track of them.

Juventud Guerrera was one of handful wrestlers who was able to stand out from the pack, emerging as a crowd favorite. It’s debatable whether WCW made the right call in unmasking him, but this step may have contributed to him also getting a WWE run in the years to follow. Along the way, his 450 splash was an excellent move, hit with a little extra velocity and malice to make it come across more vicious than the average execution of this high spot.

3AJ Styles

Though Styles Has Toned Down His High Spots, He’s Still An Athletic Phenom

• AJ Styles has become a defining legend of his era.
• Styles caught fans’ attention with eye-catching moves like his Spiral Tap.
• Despite getting more mat based, Styles can still fly and his springboard 450 splash is impressive.

AJ Styles is a bona fide wrestling legend. After a decade-plus period when it looked as though he’d go down as the greatest wrestler of his generation never to have garnered a WWE contract, he finally signed in 2015. From there, he went on to not just be a quiet part of the roster, but emerge a world champion, proving he belonged under the brightest spotlight all along.

AJ Styles joined WWE and started stealing the show on a regular basis. Which match was his best?

The Phenomenal One let some of his most spectacular high-flying moves fall by the wayside by the time he signed with WWE, for example no longer using the Spiral Tap finisher that had been so over in TNA. He has still shown flashes of aerial brilliance, though, with his Phenomenal Forearm always a crowd pleaser, besides which he still breaks out his 450 splash. The distance from which Styles has been able to hit this move, not to mention the springboard variation help his versions rate among the best of all time.

2Rich Swann

Rich Swann’s 450 Variation Is Especially Impressive

• Most wrestlers who can hit the 450 do so from the top rope.
• Rich Swann has delivered 450 splashes from the mat.
• The degree of difficulty–to jump high and rotate fast enough without an elevated surface–is off the charts.

Jumping off the top rope and rotating one’s body 450 degrees in the air is inherently difficult, making any successful 450 splash attempt impressive. But then there’s the matter of what Rich Swann brings to the table.

Yes, Swann has hit 450s from the top rope. But he has also hit them from the mat—not leaping off any elevated surface at all, but rather jumping high and spinning fast enough to be able to hit this move from a flat-footed stance. The degree of difficulty is wild, making this move one of Swann’s most underrated contributions to the business.

12 Cold Scorpio

Many Fans Associate The 450 Splash With Scorpio

• 2 Cold Scorpio captured the imagination with his 450 splash in the 1990s.
• Scorpio is often overlooked in favor of cruiserweights and other high-flyers.
• Scorpio’s career spanned WCW, WWE, and ECW.

2 Cold Scorpio has never claimed to have invented the 450 splash. Nonetheless, when mainstream wrestling fans of the 1990s think of this move, Scorpio is often the very first user to come to mind.

Because he never had a really great run in places like WWE, it’s possible that many fans don’t know much about the legendary 2 Cold Scorpio.

While talents like Sean Waltman have gotten more credit for bringing a smaller-sized, fast-paced, high-flying style into vogue, 2 Cold Scorpio’s 450 splash was an incredible finisher in early 1990s WCW, including his tag title run with Marcus Alexander Bagwell. Scorpio would bring the move along with him for runs in ECW, WWE, and into Japan. He may not have been the greatest high-flyer of all time, but he is one of the best—and certainly one of the earliest—wrestlers associated with a 450 splash and consistently hit this move with crazy athletic prowess and expert precision.