Anatomy of a Wrestling Hold: Crossfaces – The Crippler Crossface and Lebell Lock

They’re as identifiable as the performers who use them. They’re the moves that kids do in their backyard…right before an ambulance and / or clergy is called. They’re the tools of a show biz trade, that can nonetheless legitimately injure. In the proper hands of professionals, they’re dynamic staples of the wrestling industry. Otherwise, they’re lawsuits waiting to happen. Guy takes a look at these wrestling holds, how they work and how they developed… into things kids shouldn’t try at home.

The Hold: Crossfaces: Crippler Crossface and Lebell Lock

Used By: Chris Benoit and Daniel Bryan

Technical Name: neck crank and omoplata neck crank

Move Type: Submission finishers

Anatomy Affected: Neck, neck and arm

The Mechanics of the Hold

A crossface is when a wrestler pulls on an opponent’s head with both arms, wrenching the neck until the opponent taps.  These two moves are very similar as they involve a neck crank submission with an arm trap.  In the Crippler Crossface, the user will force the opponent to the mat on his stomach by using leverage on an armbar.  He’ll then trap the near arm in a leg scissors and drape his arms around the oopponent’s face, locking hands and pulling back on the head, wrenching the neck.  The Lebell Lock takes this same principle, except instead of a leg scissor arm trap, the user of the Lebell Lock will drape his leg over the opponent’s shoulder, trapping it in an omoplata or shoulder trap.  He then wrenches on the neck with fingers locked on the face like the Crippler.

Selling The Hold

Both user and recipient are called on to grimace facially and show extreme effort in the application of the hold and the endurance of it before submission.  The recipient usually tries to either free his trapped arm or force the user’s locked hands free, without success.  Depending on how long the match has gone or the magnitude of it, the recipient will either tap immediately and vigorously or suffer for several seconds and then give a weak tap signalling exhaustion and inability to break the hold.

Countering the Hold

A rope break is usually how a recipient of the hold gets out of it.  The recipient usually has to crawl sideways to reach for a rope or try to angle himself so he can get his foot on it.  In rare occasions, usually when the recipient is a technical-based wrestler, he can work himself out of the hold.  A power wrestler may be able to break it with sheer strength.  But the rope break is usually the counter that’s seen the most.

Avoiding Injury with the Hold

There is a danger of neck injury, but usually the grapplers are well trained to avoid this.  But it’s really on the user of the hold not to legitimately wrench the neck too much.

History of the Hold

The Crippler Crossface gained fame via its use by the late Chris Benoit, for whom the move is named.  It was Benoit’s signature finisher both during his time in WCW and the WWE.  Probably his most famous application of it was his triple threat match with Triple H and Shawn Michaels in Wrestlemania XX for the World Heavyweight Championship.  Triple H was set to Pedigree Benoit after Shawn Michaels had been ejected from the ring by Benoit.  Benoit reversed the Pedigree and applied the Crossface.  Triple H struggled for over 30 seconds, including trying to roll out of it, but Benoit held tight, finally forcing a weak tap out by Triple H and winning the title.  Despite Benoit’s terrible actions in the murder of his wife and son and his own suicide, the image of Benoit celebrating his victory with longtime friend and then-WWE champion, Eddie Guerrero, and knowing that both would tragically not be with us just three years later, is one of the more memorable moments in Wrestlemania history.

The Lebell Lock is named after former judo champion, stunt corrdinator and professional wrestler, Gene Lebell, who developed it as the omoplata crossface.  WWE wrestler Daniel Bryan started using it in 2010 and called it the Lebell Lock.  It’s his signature finishing maneuver to this day.

The Replay