WWE: 5 Better Strike Attacks Than Roman Reigns’ Superman Punch

3. The Discus Elbow Smash

The elbow is one of the hardest joints in the human body. Getting hit with this body part is definitely going to hurt, which makes it a perfect wrestling finisher. Many wrestlers have used elbow smashes as finishers, from Chris Hero to Nikki Bella to Mitsuharu Misawa. In each of those cases, the elbow smash was sold as a big deal because of the natural hardness of the elbow joint hitting someone in the face.

No one uses a spinning version of this move in WWE right now. The only wrestlers who use anything resembling a rolling elbow are Luke Harper (with his discus lariat), Nikki Bella (same elbow smash), and A.J. Styles (a springboard forearm, which could easily be an elbow smash instead).

If Roman Reigns started elbowing people as hard as possible in the face, it would work much better for him. Not only would the move look unique and help him stand out from everyone else (as every wrestler in WWE uses either a dropkick or some kind of clothesline), but it would also help make his matches feel less phony. As mentioned earlier, everything about the Superman Punch screams ‘fake’ or ‘phony’, to the point that it isn’t even believable as a signature move.

If he were to, for example, take a punch from an opponent, spin around, and then smash his elbow in their face, that would help him a lot more than taking a punishment, only to stop selling out of nowhere and jump to do his awful Superman Punch.