A finishing move in the world of wrestling is crucial. Something that can make or break a pro wrestler, often the coolest looking moves don't click, while something as goofy as "The People's Elbow" becomes iconic. Each wrestler has a different method to their madness when landing on their signature, match ending match up. In this series, "Making A Finisher," Fightful.com will go in depth with wrestlers as they explain their moves, discuss how they were developed, who took it the best, the worst, why they stopped doing some of them, and the psychology behind them.
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Not every finishing move leads you to the top, and some are more memorable than others, but they all have a story. Duke "The Dumpster" Droese never won a title in the WWF, but he won plenty of matches, and usually it was with his tilt-a-whirl slam, the Trash Compactor.
Droese would rotate his opponents in mid-air, sending many enhancement wrestlers crashing to their doom. It was the reaction in a practice session that motivated him to do the move.
"We were practicing in a ring behind a guy’s house, the guy I worked with in Sunshine Wrestling Federation, way before I ever went to the WWF. We would just go and practice, goof around in the ring, and think of stuff. I remember there was a much smaller guy at practice that day that just took bumps from everybody. I just remember he was standing next to me one day and I reached, grabbed him, threw him up on my shoulder and powerslammed him. Everybody was like, ‘Oooh.’ You know, that moment in practice where everyone goes ‘Oooh,’ you know you’re onto something good. I said, ‘Let me see if I can do that off the ropes.’ I threw him off the ropes, he came running, and I flipped him up on my shoulder, spun around and powerslammed him. They popped. When they pop in practice, you know it’s good," Droese told Fightful. "So, that became the finish move and it was called, at that time I was wrestling as ‘the Garbage Man’ Rocco Gibraltar, and I originally called it ‘the Falling Rock’ for a long time. I changed it to ‘the Trash Compactor’ when I went up to the WWF."
Unfortunately for Droese, the move didn't always go according to plan. In the mid 90s WWF, typical side slams were a staple in the company. They were easy to take, and easy to do for many of the green, musclebound prospects that came in. However, Droese found that sometimes his move would wind up being confused for the other.
"The problem with it was, the guy you were throwing had to understand the leverage and how to flip and get up to your shoulder. Because a lot of guys were used to just taking sidewalk slams and they would hold onto your shoulders for dear live. But, if they held on, they wouldn’t go all the way up around onto your shoulder. So, it was hard to teach some guys. They couldn’t get it, so they’d get stuck. There’s a few matches on YouTube where it would end in a sidewalk slam because they didn’t know how to take it. The very first guy I wrestled was Mike Bell on Superstars. He didn’t go up for it right. It was taped, but I didn’t know anything about redoing it so they could edit it. So, I just didn’t redo it. They were yelling at me outside the ring, ‘Redo it! Redo it!’ I didn’t do it ‘cause I was just so caught up in the moment, my first WWF match. So, my first match I screwed up my finishing move," Droese said.
"Yeah, that was a mess up."
WWF was known as the land of the giants in the 1990s especially, and plenty of guys were just too big for the big man himself in Droese. Enhancement talent ended up taking the move best, but Droese had a backup method whenever that didn't go to plan.
"Man, there was quite a few guys that took a lot of pride in being able to go for it. Chris Kanyon went up great. Reno Riggins went up for it great. That’s why I got hired. Because they saw the best Trash Compactor you could see. ‘Cause Reno Riggins went up for it fantastically. Duane Gill went up for it great. Barry Hardy went up for it great. Thing was, if somebody couldn’t go up for it, I would just slam them and do the ‘the Nature Boy’ Buddy Landel corkscrew elbow. That’s what I did. I stole from Buddy Landel. That was my backup. So, if you ever saw me do the corkscrew, it was ‘cause the guy couldn’t go up for the Trash Compactor," Droese revealed.
In an odd twist of fate, Landel would actually come to WWF, and Droese witnessed him destroy his knee on a patch of ice outside the hotel, ending his planned run.
Past editions!
Adam "Hangman" Page's Rite Of Passage
Damien Priest's South Of Heaven Chokeslam
Stevie Ray's Slapjack, Harlem Heat's Harlem Hangover
"Switchblade" Jay White's Blade Runner
Chritopher Daniels' Angel's Wings
Magnum TA's Belly-to-Belly Suplex
Darren Young's Crossface Chickenwing
