It doesn’t matter how many times fans have seen it - when a Superstar takes to the top rope, crowds stand in unison. Something amazing is bound to happen when wrestlers ascend the top rope. The wrestling business has evolved and wrestlers kick out of finishers more often these days, but the excitement of watching your favorite Superstars soar through the air off of the top rope never goes away.

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It’s part of the excitement of watching sports in general - the spectacle of it all. Watching wrestlers fly from the top rope takes many of us back to our childhood when we would climb to the top of our couches, pretending we were one of these Superstars and make the leap of faith. Throughout the years, there have been many effective top rope moves. But only a select handful of top rope maneuvers are able to keep a wrestler down for the three count.

10 The Big Elbow

Insane Elbow

Popularized by the aforementioned Macho Man, everything about The Big Elbow is so iconic that it almost doesn’t look right when Superstars try to make it their own. If you don’t climb the turnbuckles, preen to the crowd, and sail as high and as far as you can before driving the point of your elbow into a knockout blow, you’re clearly doing something wrong. The Pirate Princess herself, Kairi Sane, added most of her own body-weight into the move because she was little. The Superstar who has done a great job at making it his own these days is when The Velveteen Dream delivers The Purple Rainmaker.

9 Starship Pain

Starship Pain

John Morrison is possibly the most athletically gifted Superstars to come out of the Tough Enough program. He’s also one of the most well-traveled Superstars the world over, having worked for WWECW, WWE, Lucha Underground, Impact, and more. No matter where he has gone over the years and what he has learned, one move has consistently taken Morrison to the top in every promotion, the split-legged corkscrew moonsault that he calls Starship Pain.

8 Shooting Star Press

Shooting Star Press

Leave it to the legendary lightweight, Jushin Thunder Liger, to create one of the greatest aerial moves of all time. The Shooting Star Press would be a pitch-perfect Olympic dive if the pool was your opponent!

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The move has been pulled off by everyone from Billy Kidman to John Morrison to both of Sable’s husbands, Marc Mero and famously botched by Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania XIX. The move also helped to create one of the coolest images ever when Randy Orton countered Evan Bourne’s version of the move into the RKO.

7 Frog Splash

Frog Splash

La Fiera (The Beast) in Lucha Libre might have invented The Frog Splash, but mainstream fans know and love the versions that Rob Van Dam and "Latino Heat" Eddie Guerrero helped to popularize and make one of the most exciting moves in the business, period. After Eddie’s untimely death, Rey Mysterio coopted the move in honor of his friend. The “Froggy Splash” as Dusty Rhodes would call it has also been done during this generation by "The Architect" Seth Rollins, but not as a finishing move.

6 Swanton Bomb

Swanton Bomb

The Swanton Bomb is the perfect move to showcase Jeff Hardy’s lifestyle and character, a man who throws caution to the wind for the ultimate thrill. On an old episode of WWE Confidential, The Charismatic Enigma explained that he had been doing the move since his days in Omega and that it was inspired by its originator, The Great Sasuke.

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It took some time to convince the announcers that it was a cool name until JR started using it. It has been the standard finisher for Hardy since the day he stepped foot in WWE. But lately, the blond bombshell Dana Brooke has paid homage to the Rainbow Haired Warrior by deploying her own top rope bomb.

5 Superplex

Superplex

While many aerial moves feature Superstars hurling themselves through the air onto their opponents’ prone bodies, The Superolex has been used by so many Superstars of this current and past generation as a transition move. But during a simpler time, the move was actually innovated by The Dynamite Kid and popularized by Barry Windham. As a transitional sight to see, it has been used by Superstars of all kinds, from Bret Hart to Seth Rollins who uses it as a setup for The Falcon Arrow. But "Cowboy" Bob Orton would use the move as a finisher over the years.

4 Red / Black Arrow

Red Arrow

Every now and again, the WWE gets their hands on an amazing Superstar like the former Neville and they just don’t know what to do with the guy. He has been dazzling crowds for years now and continues to do so for AEW as Pac. He was able to captivate crowds as a Babyface and capture the NXT Title using a Corkscrew Shooting Star Press that he calls The Red Arrow. When Neville turned on the fans, it simply became The Black Arrow.

3 450 Splash

450 Splash

When Superstars take to the skies for the 450 Splash, it’s a sight to behold as if someone’s heading for an Olympic level flip with their opponent as the pool. It’s generally thought to be a huge move for Cruiserweights like Juventud Guerrera and Ricochet to pull off as a big finisher. But the move was actually popularized by the much bigger than he looks 2 Cold Scorpio and video has surfaced online of the move being actually innovated by Scott Steiner of all people as far back as 1987.

2 Moonsault

Moonsault

Eddie wasn’t the only fantastic and innovative member of the Guerrero family. His older brother Mando and nephew Chavo were pretty good themselves. Mando was able to invent and innovate The Moonsault in Mexico during the 70s and Chavo Classic would globalize it throughout the world. Since then, wrestlers from Lita to Mansoor have used the dynamic move as a finisher.

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A picture-perfect Moonsalt is one of the prettiest sights in wrestling - hit or miss; from the likes of Kurt Angle and Charlotte to the current NXT Women's Champion Io Shirai.

1 Phoenix Splash

Phoenix Splash

When a 450 Splash just won’t get the job done, you have to put a little torque on the move. The Phoenix Slash was innovated by Japanese wrestling legend Hayabusa. It’s the epitome of “Don’t Try This At Home.” Leaping from the top rope for a 450 Splash is hard enough, but starting from the moonsault position and twisting in midair into the 450 Splash is a breathtaking sight that has been coopted as a finisher by the likes of Rich Swann and Kota Ibushi.

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