The Dragon Suplex is a professional wrestling move that could be generically called a full nelson suplex. It was invented by Tatsumi Fujinami, pioneer of junior heavyweight wrestling in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, who also used the Dragon Sleeper (as you can tell, he has a dragon theme about him). In addition to Fujinami, Chris Benoit and Shinjiro Ohtani have used the Dragon Suplex as a finisher, though Benoit rarely uses it outside of Japan nowadays.

The basic concept behind the Dragon Suplex is fairly simple. The attacker applies a full nelson to the victim, and then suplexes his victim, throwing the victim backwards over his head, making the victim hit the mat with head, neck and shoulders. It is frequent for the attacker to bridge for the pinfall. A simple description of it would be as a German suplex with a full nelson instead of a waistlock.

In terms of ring psychology, the Dragon Suplex can be set up by working on the arms as well as the upper back, shoulders, and neck to make the application of the full nelson more credible. This is a good simple move psychologically because the areas that should be worked to make the move more easily applied are the same areas that are targetted by the impact. That said, the move looks good enough and is credible enough in and of itself as a suplex variation with a full nelson, so that it can generally be used as a sensible finisher in most matches.

The Dragon Suplex is rarely performed in the United States, though Chris Benoit has used it on occasion, especially when he has wrestled Chris Kanyon. Since it's so rarely performed in the US, it's not very frequently a finisher. However, in puroresu promotions in Japan, the Dragon Suplex is considered a crippling move and will usually get a pinfall, which isn't suprising because it's an amazingly brutal looking move when performed competently. While it's not easy to execute, especially trying to keep the victim's shoulders down when bridged, it's a great move because it naturally looks more painful than it is when performed correctly. The victim can take the bump on their upper back/shoulders, but the momentum of their lower body flying over will put them into a position that almost looks like they broke their neck. Usually the victim will be "folded in half", balancing with their feet to keep their shoulders to the mat. Check out Chris Kanyon's sell of this move (and clotheslines and punches and just about every move ever) for an idea of what a proper sell of this should look like.

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