The Interesting History & Origins Of Frog Splash Wrestling Move, Explained

When looking at wrestling moves, a select few will always cause fans to jump out of their seats. Steve Austins stunner was so popular that when Kevin Owens does it today it still gets a big pop. Randy Ortons RKO is a finisher that can end a match out of nowhere. Fans lost their minds

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When looking at wrestling moves, a select few will always cause fans to jump out of their seats. Steve Austin’s stunner was so popular that when Kevin Owens does it today it still gets a big pop. Randy Orton’s RKO is a finisher that can end a match out of nowhere. Fans lost their minds with every Rock Bottom and Tombstone Piledriver. When it comes to highflyers, no move is more spectacular to watch than the frog splash.

There are so many great aerial moves used today from the top rope, with the likes of Ricochet and Pac twisting their bodies into seemingly unnatural motions before they hit their opponents. Nothing beats the simple elegance of the frog splash though. The move gained its most prominence over two decades ago with Eddie Guerrero. RVD made great use of it as well with his Five Star Frog Splash. Neither of them are the inventor of the move, however. That distinction goes to two other men, one whose history ties directly into Guerrero’s.

Mexican Wrestler La Fiera Was The First To Use The Frog Splash

The first known wrestler to use the frog splash was Mexican wrestler Arturo Casco Hernández, who went by the name La Fiera. La Fiera’s move, a jump from the top rope that involved him tucking himself into a ball then back out again with his arms and legs spread as he hit his opponent, resembled the frog splash but did not have the name yet.

La Fiera was a luchador and his most notable days were in NWA. It was there that he won both the World Welterweight and World Middleweight Championships in the early 1980s. While he wasn’t a household name for American wrestling fans, it was he that the frog splash first finds its roots with.

RELATED: 10 Best Frog Splashes In Wrestling History, Ranked

Art Barr Made The Frog Splash More Prominent In America

A wrestler named Art Barr is credited as the one to make the frog splash what it is today. You may not have heard of him, as his career was tragically cut short when he died in 1994 at just the age of 28, but you for sure know his former tag team partner, Eddie Guerrero. Barr wrestled for many promotions during his short career, including a quick stint in WCW, but it was his days in the Mexican promotion AAA that brought him his most success.

There, he was called “The American Love Machine” and formed a tag team with Guerrero known as La Pareja del Terror, which translates to “The Pair of Terror.” Barr liked to use a top rope diving move called “the Jackknife Splash,” but when fellow wrestler 2 Cold Scorpio told Barr that he looked like a frog jumping off of the top rope, the frog splash was born.

When Barr passed away, Eddie Guerrero began using the frog splash as a tribute to his fallen partner. He carried the move with him to WCW, and of course, WWE. It was used in many big moments, such as when RVD and Eddie Guerrero both won world championship gold.

RELATED: 5 Reasons Eddie Guerrero’s Frog Splash Was The Best (& 5 Why RVD’s Five-Star was Better)

Eddie Guerrero and RVD are the two most credited for making the frog splash such a famous move as wrestling’s popularity exploded in the late 1990s and into the early 2000s. Even after Guerrero passed away in 2005 and RVD’s wrestling days began to wane, the move stayed popular with other wrestlers and fans.

Rey Mysterio has used it many times as a tribute to Guerrero. Today it’s used by big names like AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins, and Christian Cage. To this day, whenever someone performs a frog splash, whether it be in WWE or AEW, the crowd will chant “Eddie! Eddie!”

The move may not be a regular finisher for most wrestlers, rather it is brought out on special occasions to get a pop or honor the fallen, but it’s still one of the most loved by fans. The next time you’re in the crowd though and you see someone do a frog splash, after you’re done chanting “Eddie! Eddie!”, remember to chant for La Fiera and Art Barr too.

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