Brock Lesnar is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. From his debut in 2002 onward, nobody he has faced and taken him on and walked away without being defeated by The Beast. He record speaks for itself, as does his 11 World Championship victories and his iconic victory over The Undertaker at Wrestlemania XXX.
However, none of those wins would have been possible without his iconic finishing move. The F5 has taken down everyone he’s ever faced, from Goldberg to The Undertaker, to John Cena and Jeff Hardy, nobody can resist the awesome power of the F5.
Since he first introduced it in 2002, it has been one of the most impressive moves ever. The way he manages to throw even the biggest opponents, like The Big Show and Mark Henry, above his head as they spiral to the ground with a mighty thud is always a sight to behold. He has been imitated by other stars like John Cena, Brian Cage and Wardlow, but nobody can pull off a move like the F5 quite like “The Beast Incarnate” Brock Lesnar.
Why Is Brock Lesnar’s Finisher Called The F5?
Brock Lesnar’s finish The F5 is named after a level of measure for Tornados. Of all the measures of a tornado, F5 is the highest and most destructive of them all, indicating that maximum damage and death will occur from it. This is why it was chosen for Lesnar – not only because of the spiralling, tornado-like movement of the opponent as they are launched off his shoulders, but from the sheer destruction he could cause from simply hitting his finishing manoeuvre.
Brock Lesnar revealed the origins of the move in an interview with WWE Confidential. He revealed that he thought of the move while watching Japanese wrestling, devising a “kind of spinning DDT”, which turned out to look “pretty devestating”.
“I came up with it by just kind of messing about one day in the ring, And I was watching a bunch of Japan wrestling videos and Jonny Laurinaitis, one of the road agents, saw me practicing moves similar to it and decided that we should incorporate both of them and use it as a semi kind of DDT, kind of spinning DDT, where the guys on my shoulders and turns out it looked pretty devastating and it was effective, and I liked it.”
He also revealed that his favourite memory of the move is when he can hit it on wrestlers larger than him. Very rarely do wrestlers come as big and as menacing as Brock Lesnar, but he still loves when he can send giants like Big Show or Rikishi flying through the air with an F5 finishing move.
“My favourite memory of using the F5 was the first time I did it to Big Show. That was a feat in itself because he was a heavy load. Also probably against Rikishi and Mark Henry you know, because both those guys are well over 350 lbs.”
It has also been said that John Laurinaitis thought of the name F5 for the move, but there is currently no available evidence to suggest that.