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Spinning Piledriver

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If nothing else, that guy's going to get really dizzy.

In real life, a piledriver is a move where someone grabs an upsidedown opponent and slams them into the ground headfirst. Damaging, yes, but not awesome enough.

Enter the spinning piledriver. In this move, the attacker grabs the opponent in midair, spins rapidly, and slams them headfirst into the ground. That one word makes one hell of a lot of difference. To be able to do this variation of the move, it generally follows a Launcher Move, but it's not required.

This is a specific type of Meteor Move, but is distinguished in that the attacker is part of the meteor. While spinning. Enough spinning could make very large holes in the ground. Ninjas in media often perform a head-first variant of this move called the Izuna Otoshinote  (Izuna Drop), a name originating from the protagonist of Kamui Gaiden.

An essential part of the repertoire for the Wrestler in All of Us.

Compare Hurricane Kick for another exaggerated version of a martial art move.


Examples:

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    Anime and Manga 
  • In Dragon Ball Z, Zarbon does this to Vegeta to end their first fight. A spinning exploding piledriver.
  • The original Izuna Drop was from Ninpo Kamui Gaiden, a.k.a. Kamui the Ninja. He learned the move by watching birds fight and in particular how one bird dove into another bird, bearing it to the ground. He adopted this as his own Signature Move, though he mostly used it to intercept other ninja mid-jump.
  • Naruto: The "Front Lotus" is an Izuna Drop which functions as the first Finishing Move of Might Guy and his pupil Rock Lee (and has also been imitated by Kakashi). Its setup requires mastery of the Dancing Leaf Shadow techniquenote , and the move itself can only be performed while benefiting from the Uninhibited Muscle Power granted by opening one of the Eight Gates (adding risk to the maneuver, since this rapidly exhausts the user's stamina). Lee's variant also unravels the bandages around his wrists and uses them to bind the target so that they can't escape.
  • In the One Piece anime, Buggy used this as a finishing move on a Blugori. Because of how his power works, he was on the ground, while spinning the enemy in midair using his detached hands.
  • Ash's Charizard's Seismic Toss attack from Pokémon: The Series. Because the Japanese name of the move is "Earth Throw", as Charizard gains momentum before dropping the opponent's Pokémon onto the ground, a picture of the Earth appears.
  • In Saint Seiya, one of the variations of Seiya's Pegasus Rolling Crush technique is this. He uses it most memorably against Lizard Misty, with fatal results for his rival.
  • Symphogear: Fudou Kazanari does this on his son Genjuro after punching him in the gut. It's strong enough to temporarily knock out even a Badass Normal like his son.

    Fan Works 
  • Fantasy of Utter Ridiculousness features the Divine Northern Fist: Fantastic Piledriver, which is equal parts Megas, Coop's love of professional wrestling, and Reimu's Fantasy Nature.
  • Marionettes: The brainwashed Lightning Dust attempts one on Rainbow Dash, but she breaks free right before impact.
  • The Symbol of Peace and Justice: Gohan uses this to finish off the Nomu during the USJ attack helped by the fact that he can fly.

    Pinball 

    Professional Wrestling 

    Video Games 
  • In Lost Chapter I (At Last, Someone Angrier Than Me) of Asura's Wrath, Asura has the opportunity to execute a textbook spinning piledriver against Ryu.
  • Battle Zeque-Den from Asmik has one of your martial artists, Hamusu able to grab an enemy and then jump into the air to give them a pile driver that does heavy damage. With her high damage and greater number of useful special attacks including this one and a Ground Wave, she's possibly the best character in the game.
  • Morrigan of Darkstalkers, Vector Drain surprisingly. Odd considering she's a fairly skinny succubus, but there are signs of her strength around. She can even deliver this move to building-sized characters in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.
    • That jetpack she's wearing probably helps.
    • Same with Demitri, whose command throw is an Izuna Drop.
  • Nero in Devil May Cry 4 has an attack with his Devil Bringer that's a homage to Zangief's Final Atomic Buster (both series are made by Capcom).
    • Nero's attack - performable only on the Alto Angelo demons - actually looks more like Vega/Balrog's Rolling Izuna Drop.
  • In Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors 2, Android 18 has a Team Ultimate where she has 17 and 16 as an assist called "Hell Spiral." 18 and 17 grab both sides of the opponent and do a double spinning piledriver, and then 16 blasts the crap out of the opponent in the resultant crater.
  • Dust in Dust: An Elysian Tail has a spinning air throw move called "The Undoing", which is executed via a button input that is identical to the command for Ryu Hayabusa's Izuna Drop in Ninja Gaiden.
  • In Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder, this can be performed as a team attack. Simply put, all four players have to attack a stunned enemy at the same time. It's the single most damaging attack in the game and works on everything. The non-spinning version can be done with just two players.
  • Gourmet Warriors have a special move where you execute foes by grabbing them, leaping in the air, and piledriving them into the ground. And for good measure, you can stand on them, balancing yourself on their legs dangling comically in the air...
  • In Gundam Vs Gundam NEXT Plus, the ZZ Gundam has the standard Spinning Piledriver as one of its most damaging moves. The ninja-themed Gundam Spiegel gets the classic Izuna Drop, while Gundam Epyon has an Izuna Drop performed while in its flight mode, which is Awesome, but Impractical thanks to the long recovery time afterwards.
  • Kraidgief in I Wanna Be the Guy uses Hokuto Shinken Spinning Piledriver as a Finishing Move.
  • In Kensei: Sacred Fist, professional wrestler David sorta has one. He can smack someone over the head to turn them around and give them four flipping German suplexes in a row. He finally uses all that momentum to leap up into a flying piledriver (though there's no spinning in the air). This brutal attack will wipe out almost all of an opponent's health and in the demo theatre, poor Ann is the victim of this special combo.
  • Nagase in KOF: Maximum Impact 2 copies Hanzo from Samurai Shodown's version.
  • In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Gears of Destiny, Arf's Limit Break has her performing this move from the stratosphere.
  • Ryu Hayabusa's Izuna Drop in Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive is one of the most famous examples in modern action games.
  • Pizza Tower's protagonist Peppino Spaghetti gets one of these as one of his many throw attacks. The already comical appearance escalates even further during the Final Boss, where it's used as the finishing blow of his No-Holds-Barred Beatdown against Pizza Head. It hits so hard that he becomes stuck headfirst into the tower.
  • Leo from Red Earth has a spinning piledriver known as Gaia Driver.
    • As well as the Underworld Drop and the Flower Garland Drop in 2, which can be considered as variants.
  • In Samurai Shodown, Hanzo and Galford use the Izuna Drop. Galford's version can be done either while dashing, or by his dog.
  • In the Data East Fighting Game Mutant Fighter (Death Brade in Japan), the Werewolf can do this with his Limit Break, Tornado Crash.
  • In Ōkami, deflecting some attacks with a reflector equipped as a sub-weapon triggers this. It can be done against wheels and tengu, at the very least.
  • Kotaro's third super art in Sengoku Basara 3 is one of these. It's called, you guessed it, "Izuna Drop."
    • Toyotomi Hideyoshi can do a traditional spinning piledriver on a grabbed enemy multiple times before releasing them and if the move is used as the last one in a combo, it gets powered up, with the spinning being rapid enough to create a vortex that draws in nearby enemies so that they'll be hit by the ensuing explosion.
  • Valentine from Skullgirls performs an Izuna Drop using a body bag to immobilize her opponent first for her Mortuary Drop special, which is also used to start her Level 3 Blockbuster, Dead on Arrival.
  • Can be done in the Spider-Man 2 video game. It is taken up to 11 in this case as it's entirely possible to grab a mook from street level, swing them up to the top of the nearest skyscraper and do it from there. This includes spinning piledriving a mook from the top of the Empire State Building all the way to ground level. The game even keeps track of the max number of rotations performed on the stats screen.
  • Zangief in Street Fighter II, who has it as a special throw command. It would later be followed by Mike Haggar from Final Fight. While Mike Haggar used the spinning clothesline first, Zangief developed the spinning piledriver, which Haggar then copied in Final Fight 2. Both versions are the same - Zangief and Haggar grab their opponents, then jump into the air while spinning (which is physically impossible), and slam them down into the ground.
    • The manual says Haggar and Zangief are frenemies, constantly trying to one-up their trademark grapples.
    • Apparently, Zangief came up with this move after piledriving a bear in the middle of a hurricane.
    • The Spanish ninja Vega, also from SFII, can execute the Izuna Drop after using his special jump move and landing above his opponents' head. In V, he gets a spinning Izuna Drop as an EX version of the normal one.
    • Seth in Street Fighter IV also has one (copied from Zangief), in a purer form. He sets it up by uppercutting the enemy into the air and then teleporting to them for the spinning piledriver.
    • Guy in Final Fight/Street Fighter. In the Street Fighter Alpha series, Guy started out with one of these (Kaiten Izuna Otoshi) as a forward air grab (it became an aerial command grab in Super Street Fighter IV). SSFIV would also add to his repertoire the Bushin Goraisenpujin, an Ultra Combo that mirrors the aforementioned Front/Primary Lotus in Naruto. Street Fighter 6 would later introduce Guy's protege Kimberly, who can execute a similar aerial grab.
    • In Street Fighter 6, Zangief gets another spinning piledriver command throw as an air-to-air command throw called Borscht Dynamite. This time, he grabs the opponent, punches them upward, then in an even more physics-defying maneuver than the standard spinning piledriver he somehow manages to jump up to catch them and deliver a spinning power bomb.
    • In Marvel vs. Capcom, Zangief develops the ability to perform a double spinning piledriver with his tag partner as his team hypercombo move.
  • The Shrike Rune user Kasumi in Suikoden uses this.
    • As does Sagiri from Suikoden V, also bearing the Shrike Rune. It seems to be that rune's special ability.
  • Yoshimitsu has the "Izuna Drop" version as a throw from behind in the Tekken (and Soul series) games. Armor King's Steiner Screwdriver is a mild (and RL-performable) variant where it starts with a suplex, then rotates the victim while vertical and drops. King gets one as a Finishing Move of a chain throw in Tekken 5.
    • Kuni’s Chakra Drop is this and it’s the most awesome looking one in the series.
  • Wario uses this move in Wario World.
  • Hide, the protagonist of Nioh 2, is capable of one after getting the proper skill text to drop from a late game bonus boss.
  • In Super Smash Bros., Kirby and Meta Knight can both perform an extremely fast drop that supplementary material explicitly titles the Izuna Drop in Japanese (いずな落とし, Izuna Otoshi).
  • Tenchu: Fatal Shadows, has small teenager Rin capable of piledriving enemies from the air with her Death Drop special. In her combo, one of her attacks can be changed to a launcher and send the enemy skywards for the coming death drop. This move even works on those nasty bears.

 
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Video Example(s):

Alternative Title(s): Izuna Drop

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Ryu Hayabusa's Izuna Drop

A demonstration of Ryu's trademark technique in Ninja Gaiden Sigma

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