While the humble leg slap is divisive among fans, it turns out that it isn’t especially popular with one particular AEW star either.
Depending on who is speaking, leg slapping is either an integral part of the artform that is professional wrestling, or it is a blight on the industry that needs to be thrown into the sun. Across wrestling’s fanbase opinion split, with the right’s and wrong’s often stirring heated debate.
For the uninitiated, leg slapping has been used for decades as a way making strikes sound like they’ve landed much harder than they actually have.
Interestingly, despite being known for his strike-heavy in-ring style, it appears that Bobby Fish is not a fan of the divisive practice. During an appearance on the Two Man Power Trip podcast, Fish went as far as to say that it made him sick.
“It makes me sick. It really makes me want to get sick, especially when people do it on a leg kick, because if you know anything about leg kicks, the ones that hurt the worst are the ones that don’t make noise. Those are the ones where the shin has really dug almost down to the bone,”
Expanding further, Adam Cole’s right-hand man said that the whole thing has been overdone, adding that it drives his nuts.
“I get it, back in the day when Christopher Adams would throw the superkick and then Shawn Michaels with the sweet chin music and the slap, I get it, but like a lot of other things, especially in pro wrestling, too much of a good thing can be just that. Slapping was one of those, for sure. To see them on leg kicks, I think because I take so much pride in throwing proper leg kicks, it drives me nuts.
If you understood anything about it, if you took five minutes to understand the actual art, you would know that slapping your leg defeats the purpose of doing that. If it makes that loud of the noise, it’s not what you’re going for. I think pro wrestling fans have been conditioned to react to sound, so it’s been overdone, and some people, they get to the point where they can’t not slap something.
I don’t want to get into the tricks of the trade because there are a lot of slaps that go on in pro wrestling, but it’s overdone for sure.”
On the August 3rd edition of AEW Dynamite the Undisputed Elite imploded as Fish, O’Reilly and Adam Cole attacked The Young Bucks. This set into motion the return of Kenny Omega who has since reunited with the Bucks in the AEW World Trios Championship Tournament.
Cole and O’Reilly haven’t wrestled in a number of weeks due to injury and there has been no word on when they may return.
H/t to Fightful for the transcription.