"HIS GROOOOIN! HIS GROOOOOIN! HIS GROOOOOOOIN!"
Groin Attacks in Professional Wrestling.
- The "low blow" is one of the oldest Heel tricks in the book. Note that a pro wrestling low blow usually takes the form of a kneeling uppercut, hitting the recipient with the crook of one's elbow. Groin attacks are supposed to result in a disqualification, but it doesn't stop heels from sneaking them in without the referee noticing. Or, occasionally, getting deliberately disqualified by using one (championships usually only change hands if the champ is pinned or gives up). Ric Flair was particularly adept at these.
- Surprisingly, Flair doesn't seem to cut down on the groin shots when he's a face.
- The heel can also use this to his advantage in matches where the title can be lost by disqualification, like Christian did at WWE Money in the Bank 2011.
- Double Subversion when doing it on The Big Show here
. The Big Show looks like he's in a complete state of extreme pain, but he is still strong enough to stand up instead of falling down on the wrestling mat.
- Chyna used the low blow continually during her Heel run. It never seemed to get her disqualified. In a match with Road Dogg at the 1999 King of the Ring, Road Dogg anticipated Chyna would use a low blow on him, and wore a protective cup so it would hurt her instead of incapacitating him.
- In general, professional wrestling tolerates groin attacks by women on men. It's rarely accepted the other way around. However, female wrestlers have the same reaction to receiving groin attacks as male wrestlers; after a match where she was straddled on the top rope, Jacqueline once said "you have no idea how much that hurts a woman."
- "Stone Cold" Steve Austin in his wrestling attire would sometimes hold his downed opponent between the legs and stomp him in the family jewels just because he likes to open a can of whoop ass.
- The Dudley Boys had the "Whazzup Headbutt", a flying headbutt to an opponent's groin delivered by D-Von. They performed this move on Stacy Keibler as well.
- Goldust had the "Shattered Dreams", where he put an opponent in the turnbuckle, put their legs behind the ropes to give him better access, and then kicked them.
- The Toryumon\Dragon Gate stable Crazy Max had a move that went like this. Two of the C-Max members would each grab an opponent's ankles and hold him upside down and spread eagle. TARU (who was a trained martial artist outside the ring and used lots of martial arts kicks in his matches) would then deliver an axe kick to the groin.
- Randy Orton is a magnet for nutshots.
- Ironically, though, a few 'legal' variants exist. These are considered legal because the groin is theoretically not the area being targeted by the moves.
- The Manhattan or Inverted Atomic Drop, where a person is dropped tailbone first onto their opponent's knee.
- A belly to belly position which causes the opponent's leg to hit the victim's groin.
- Hardcore Holly's hardcore kick, where he hangs an opponent over the top rope and kicks them in the abdomen, causing his shin to hit his opponent's groin area. This is justified due to being an indirect strike to the groin, as the target of the attack is the abdomen instead.
- Jeff Hardy's double leg drop is handwaved as not actually being a strike. The more technically minded may excuse it as primarily targeting the sternum.
- A rather common variation happens when a wrestler positions himself on the top turnbuckle. If someone moves his legs or jars the rope hard enough for him to lose balance, there's probably a 9/10 chance that he's going to land on his nuts. Announcers used to call attention to it, but even when they don't, the way the wrestler tends to sell the fall makes it pretty obvious.
- Sting had a variant he often used late in a match where he would knock down an opponent right in front of him. The opponent would always land spread-legged and then Sting would, exhausted, fall headfirst into their exposed groin. The announcers would always go out of their way to point out that it was "obviously inadvertent".
- Sugar Dunkerton pulling his opponent's arm between their legs after catching it in a wrist lock. The referee will usually allow the first groin strike in this manner, anyway.
- One of Bret Hart's Five Moves of Doom was a headbutt to the opponent's stomach. The fact that other bits of his body weight landed on the groin of his opponent was a bonus.
- Many ECW valets went for a low blow against men when interfering in matches, but Luna Vachon once took this to the extreme by grabbing Stevie Richards by the testicles and tossing him across the ring.
- Raven would often start off No Disqualification matches with a blatant low blow, playing right into his Evil Genius gimmick.
- Kane once assaulted Shane McMahon and hooked his groin up to a car battery. Several years later, John Cena did this to JBL.
- During the May 15, 2000 episode of WCW Monday Nitro, Vince Russo forced Miss Elizabeth to participate in a steel cage match against Madusa. Fortunately for Elizabeth, Lex Luger arrived and was able to take care of Madusa via the Torture Rack. Russo then attempted to strike down Luger with a low blow uppercut punch, but this proved to be ineffective as Luger soon revealed that he had a groin-protecting cup inside his pants, taking it off so that he could taunt Russo with it. Upon seeing that his desperate move had failed, Russo attempted to escape from the steel cage, but Elizabeth, who was standing in front of the steel cage's door, quickly threw a fast right kick towards Russo's family jewels and made him fall down to the wrestling mat in a state of extreme pain and agony. Adding insult to injury, Elizabeth then took Luger's cup and began to shove it down Russo's mouth in an attempt to humiliate him even further. Most Elizabeth fans consider this a Moment of Awesome for Elizabeth, as she finally got her revenge against Russo, who had pretty much been a complete jerkass to her in the past few months. Of course, before this particular ballbust, an earlier one occurred during the May 3, 2000 episode of WCW Thunder, in which Elizabeth used a right back mule kick to strike Russo in the family jewels as he attempted to use her as a Human Shield against Ric Flair during their confrontation after the "Tables Match" between Luger and The Wall.
- Torrie Wilson once did this to Perry Saturn through the use of a right back mule kick to the family jewels when they were the final two competitors left in an elimination match at WCW Mayhem 1999. Didn't work well enough to get the pin, and Saturn then gave Torrie one right back via a low blow uppercut punch and won the match. Torrie was also known for delivering some harsh low blow uppercut punches and unforgiving groin kicks from behind, as she had done to Buff Bagwell during his match against "The Franchise" Shane Douglas at WCW Bash at the Beach 2000 and then to her ex-boyfriend Billy Kidman the following night on WCW Monday Nitro during his match against Jeff Jarrett.
- During the "Wedding Gown" match between Stacy Keibler (a.k.a. Miss Hancock) and Daffney Unger at WCW Bash at the Beach 2000, both David Flair and the referee had attempted to pull and keep the girls away from each other as they were fighting against one another from within a wild state and as the referee had tried his best to pull and keep Miss Hancock away from Daffney, she had instantly broken free from him and had soon got real upset with him as she had immediately kneed him in the groin, sending him down in a state of excruciating pain.
- Near the end of 1999 in WCW, Kimberly Page (the ex-wife and former valet of Diamond Dallas Page) had gotten involved in a feud with Ric Flair's son David and that the two of them would eventually meet in a match at WCW Mayhem 1999, in which Kimberly would ballbust David by using a knee and two kicks (although this wouldn't be the first time that Kimberly had used a groin attack, as she had previously kneed David in the groin once before during the DDP/Ric Flair "Strap Match" at WCW Halloween Havoc 1999).
- During her time in WCW, Nancy "Woman" Benoit was known for getting physically involved in the matches of both Ric Flair and The Four Horsemen, in which she would either slap or kick the opponent when given the chance and opportunity to do so. At WCW Bash at the Beach 1996 during the WCW United States Championship match between Ric Flair and Konnan, Woman proved that she could be quite lethal when it came to groin kicks as well, for halfway through the match itself, Woman had quickly entered into the ring while Flair had the referee distracted and as a dazed Konnan had instantly turned around in her direction, Woman had immediately kicked him in the groin, making him fall down to the wrestling mat in a complete state of extreme pain while Woman had swiftly left the ring from the referee's own sight. Surprisingly, the fans had actually cheered when this had happened, considering the fact that Konnan was portrayed as the face while Flair was seen as the heel during their match, so either the fans wanted Flair to win that night or there were a couple of ballbust masochists from within the audience (it probably helped that Woman had wore a white slit dress that had showed off her fine legs). Aside from that, Woman had also done this to "The Laughing Man" Hugh Morrus as she had kicked him in the family jewels during the "No Disqualification Match" between Chris Benoit and Jeff Jarrett at WCW Starrcade 1996.
- Most wrestling fans remember the feud between Chris Jericho and Stephanie McMahon during the early 00s and that Jericho would often make fun of and humiliate Stephanie whenever he got the chance and opportunity to do so. Stephanie would soon get some payback against Jericho during the June 26, 2000 episode of WWF Monday Night Raw, in which Jericho would end up being attacked by both Road Dogg and X-Pac right after X-Pac himself had defeated Jericho via outside interference from both Stephanie and Road Dogg. As Jericho was held in an inescapable position by Road Dogg and X-Pac, Stephanie, who had climbed into the ring during the assault, would proceed to slap Jericho a few times before giving him a devastating kick to his family jewels, causing Jericho to fall to the wrestling mat as he was left aching in a complete state of extreme pain while Stephanie had celebrated with Road Dogg and X-Pac. The victory would be short-lived however as Jericho would soon retaliate near the end of the night by costing Triple H, Stephanie's husband, a #1 Contender Match, which had led to their epic Last Man Standing Match at WWF Fully Loaded 2000. Aside from that, Stephanie had also done this to both Brock Lesnar and her own father Vince McMahon as she had kicked both of them in the family jewels during her match against Lesnar from within the September 11, 2003 episode of WWE SmackDown.
- Perhaps the most infamous example in wrestling history occurred in late 2005 on an episode of WWE Monday Night Raw, when the entire McMahon family was in a rotten mood (all four members had been stunned by "Stone Cold" Steve Austin the week before) and they were determined to take out their anger on everyone except Austin. Stephanie slapped ring announcer Lilian Garcia just for looking at her, Vince temporarily hired every single person in North America to work for the WWE just so he could fire them all, and it was vowed that someone was going to get terminated that very night, leaving Eric Bischoff a nervous wreck as he was sure he was going to be the scapegoat. The climax of the evening was Vince, Shane, and Stephanie bringing Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross into the ring to force them to apologize for what had happened, even though neither of them had had anything to do with it. Lawler gladly apologized, but all J.R. would agree to say was "I'm sorry your wife got stunned." Shane and Stephanie immediately began throwing tantrums, but then Linda McMahon - usually the Only Sane Man of the family - came out for the first time that evening and told her children that instead of throwing a fit when something didn't go their way, they should actually do something about it - and demonstrated this by firing J.R. on the spot (it was just a 10-Minute Retirement, anyway) and then kicking him in the crotch. (In 2010, when Linda was running for the U.S. Senate from Connecticut, The Daily Show played a clip of this very scene, and one of Jon Stewart's correspondents jokingly demanded to know why no one had cited this incident in an attempt to smear the McMahon campaign until then.)
- In the real ECW, Cyrus the Virus once headbutted Francine in the crotch after pretending he was going to protect her from the Impact Players. Joey Styles was horrified and pretty much invoked Even ECW Has Standards.
- When Mike Mondo became a complete jerkass by hitting a woman, Mickie James came to confront him and save the woman. After he gave some insults to the female wrestler, he finally paid for it when Mickie James kicked him HARD in the nuts. And to humiliate him further, the woman whom he hit before returned to pin him while his groin was in excruciating pain. Then Mickie James counted for that woman until three, thus allowing the woman to "defeat" Mondo humiliatingly. Watch it here.
- In this video, Johnny Punch received a very HARD kick in the groin by Melody. Similar to Mike Mondo above, Melody immediately pinned and defeated him to humiliate him further.
- Some wrestlers accomplish this with a bowling ball. Al Snow would often do this in hardcore matches. John Cena used this technique on Alberto Del Rio.
- Trish Stratus did this to The Big Show here. Doesn't seem too effective, which made this become more hilarious.
- The night after SummerSlam 2006 Vince McMahon had Mick Foley join the Kiss My Ass club to keep Melina from being fired. Melina then thanked him.
- As shown in this video, however, actually there are already many male wrestlers who managed to defy this trope, either by blocking or stopping their opponents' attack in the middle, or wearing a protective cup under their pants. Genius!
- In a 2003 Battle Royal The Hurricane was fighting The Rock. The Hurricane hit The Rock with some punches before grabbing him for a chokeslam. The Rock simply kicked his opponent in the groin and tossed him over the ropes.
- An infamously unintentional incident at ChickFight VI when Infernal Kaoru tossed Daizee Haze over a guard rail, and she landed face first in a fan's crotch.
- At the 2011 All Pro Wrestling Benefit Show Pensacola Florida, "The Bruiserweight" Maze intentionally got himself disqualified by throwing Kid Matthews up into the air and then kicking him in the groin on the way down. This was actually smart strategy since they were to participate in a battle royal later in the night and Matthews needed an ice pack to recover but he did manage to regain his ability to walk by the time he was called to be the third entrant and used a bronco buster on DJ Pringle to show how well he was doing.
- Brad Maddox made a name for himself by hitting Ryback with one of these.
- To counter, or complement Joey Ryan's "boobs plex", depending on how they're doing at the time, Candice LeRae employs a "balls plex", a suplex lifted from the groin. Candice also once poured thumbtacks down a man's pants.
- The Fella Twins employ a double testicular claw, wait for the referee to near the end of his five count and then hit a double "balls plex".
- Invoked by Bárbaro Cavernario in an attempt to get Extreme Tiger disqualified. One of Tiger's moves off the top turnbuckle is a double leg drop to both of the opponent's thighs, Bárbaro tried to convince the referee it was to the groin (despite Tiger's legs being spread too wide)
- After losing at WrestleMania XXX to Brock Lesnar, The Undertaker of all people resorted to using low blows in any future events where the two fought. After a number of encounters Lesnar used his own low blow on Undertaker at Hell in a Cell 2015.
- TNA interviewer Jeremy Borash once interviewed Angelina Love and Velvet Sky, then afterwards handed them keys to his hotel room and tried to invite them for a threesome after the show. Displeased, they kneed him in the groin and walked off. Kurt Angle walked up and commented the next time Jeremy tried to get laid, he should wear a cup.
- In the main event of Supercard of Honor X, night one, Matt Jackson stood over a reeling Alex Shelley and told him to suck it, to which Shelley responded with a testicular claw. Nick jumped in to save his brother with a double ax handle but instead ran into testicular claw from Shelley's other hand, leading to chants of "Joey Ryan".
- At WrestleMania 34, AJ Styles defeated Shinsuke Nakamura. Irate, Shinsuke made a Face–Heel Turn and punched Styles in the nuts. In the weeks afterwards, their feud mostly consists of Shinsuke sneaking up on Styles and punching him in the nuts (sometimes multiple times). Their rematch at Backlash 2018 was a No Disqualification Match, so the two repeatedly hit each other with low blows, which caused the match to become a draw when they were both too incapacitated by pain to continue. At Money in the Bank 2018, Styles fittingly ended their feud and defeated Nakamura by punting him in the nuts. Nakamura then got into a feud in Jeff Hardy and started punching him in the nuts, indicating he's not going to stop anytime soon.
- On the other end, this particular title run for AJ finally ended in 2018 when Daniel Bryan took advantage of a ref bump to kick Styles in the balls before hitting his running knee finisher to win the title.
- Most noted that this was actually Laser-Guided Karma for AJ, as he had won his first WWE Championship by low-blowing Dean Ambrose. When he lost it to Bryan in essentially the same way, and though he was a Face at the time, even his biggest fans had to admit he had it coming.
- Another rare female-on-female example occurred at WrestleMania 21 when Christy Hemme delivered a pussy kick to Trish Stratus.
- Kane once took this a step further on an episode of Smackdown where he attached a car battery to Shane McMahon's testes and began torturing him by hooking up three of the jumper cables and sparking the battery with the fourth one, after soaking his groin with water to make it more effective. After doing it twice, he was stopped by Rob Van Dam.
- At WrestleMania 38, in the match between Sami Zayn and Johnny Knoxville, the latter gets hit in the crotch by a bowling ball thrown by the former.
- Brock Lesnar got himself disqualified in a match against Bobby Lashley at Elimination Chamber 2023, when he hit Lashley in the family jewels trying to break the Hurt Lock.
- John Cena was on the receiving end of a low blow from Austin Theory at WrestleMania 39. Since the referee was momentarily knocked out while this happened, Theory was able to get away with it and defeat Cena.
