A wrestling veteran who has competed in just about every promotion recently revealed that his finisher pays homage to the classic animated show The Simpsons.
At 36 seasons and fast closing in on 800 episodes, The Simpsons is one of the longest-running and most successful shows in television history. Along with the lengthy list of A-list guest stars, iconic musical numbers and legendary one-liners, many of which are still referenced decades later, the show has bled over into the wider world of pop culture and real-life events.
On top of scarily predicting that Donald Trump would one day be the President of the United States in an episode that aired back in the year 2000, the show also made reference to Disney acquiring Fox and Cypress Hill performing with the London Symphony Orchestra decades before the events materialised.
The Simpsons has also highlighted the world of pro wrestling numerous times in its history, most notably with Bret Hart and John Cena each guest starring in episodes of the show and the 2013 episode Gorgeous Grandpa recounting Abe Simpson’s time in the squared circle, former ROH World Champion and AEW exectuive Christopher Daniels has the show to thank for insipring his finisher.
Christopher Daniels Credits The Simpsons For Best Moonsault Ever
While speaking with Chris Van Vliet on the July 3 episode of Insight, Daniels first spoke about how he decided on the Best Moonsault Ever as his finisher:
“Okay, so I was always a moonsault guy. I always wanted to do a moonsault. The Great Muta inspired me to do a moonsault. And so I started to learn a moonsault, like early 94 95 I was even doing it. I remember doing it for the first time in Puerto Rico when I was in WWC. So I was training one day in windy city, and there was a Mexican wrestler that was there, it wasn’t anybody famous, I don’t even remember the gentleman’s name, but I saw him bounce from the second [rope], bounce to the top, do a cross body. And I thought, Oh, that’s cool. At the time, I was playing with this moonsault where you stand on the top rope and then you jump up and bounce. You basically turn and bounce, like Mark Mero had done. So I was doing that for a little bit and having sort of good success with it. But then I thought. Oh, maybe it’d be easier if I just did this bounce-bounce thing. And so for the longest time, I just called it the double bounce moonsault. I wasn’t doing it on television at that point, so no one was calling it the double bounce moonsault, no announcers were calling it. It was just me when I would say, Hey, okay, this, this, this, and then I’ll hit you with the double bounce moonsault.”
Continuing, Daniels stated that the name of the move was inspired by Comic Book Guy, whose catchphrase was “Best/worst episode ever”:
“So somewhere along the lines in TNA, you know, I’m a Simpsons fan. So everything that Comic Book Guy said was like best comic book ever. And I thought, haha! So I was like best moonsault ever. So that was where I got that from.”
WWE fans now see a variation of the move from current Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton, who calls her finish the Prettiest Moonsault Ever. When asked about Stratton, Daniels stated that while he has not met Stratton, he is a fan of the homage to his own move:
“Which was very, very cool of her. I don’t know Tiffany at all. I’ve never met her. But the fact that she didn’t just copy it, she sort of adjusted it, which is what the greats do. I feel like they don’t just steal. If we are inspired by something, we try to put our own little spin on it. And so the fact that she goes from the bottom all the way up and then to sort of like, pay homage, call it in that same vein, PME, I was like, that’s pretty cool. I can’t be mad at that.”
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Featured image: FOX/Disney.
