TNA star Leon Slater uses the Swanton 450 as his finishing move.
During a recent interview with WhatCulture, Slater revealed that his inspiration for the move comes from being a fan of The Hardys.
Slater said, “I think the thought process behind it was a combination of me training since I was pretty much a baby and being a huge Hardy Boy fan when I was growing up. Like, Matt and Jeff were my guys growing up, man. I can’t express it enough, and I think a combination of that, and like I said, training from a super young age, I was just always in a ring trying stuff and the Swanton 450 isn’t something I’ve had locked down for years and years. It’s taken me years and years to really master it and have it where I can’t really fail it and have it consistent. But it really just started from practicing 450s since I was 10 or 11 or whatever age I was. As I got older and I grew into my body a bit more and I became a bit more athletic, I’m playing like PPW up and it gave me that environment to try new stuff. I realized that I had a really nice like regular 450.”
He continued, “So every week I’d try and stick like side with my head, and then next week after that, I’d go like head and arms, and then the week after that, it was head, arm and legs. Then I try and just practice, practice, practice, practice, practice those movements every week until it’s kind of turned into what it is now, which is something that I think makes me unique because nobody else can do it or nobody else I know of can do it. If you can do it, please, please don’t. Please let me have this one thing. I know there’s some crazy athletic people out there. Just let me have this one thing. But yeah, I like to think that it’s very much a Leon Slater trademark move by now.”
Indie wrestler Goldenboy Santos recently participated in WWE tryouts in the UK, describing the experience as positive and validating.
During a recent appearance on the “This Is A Revolution” podcast, Santos reflected on the WWE UK tryouts. He said,
“It was a very feel-good moment because all the guys that were there, I was probably the least known one. At least the one with the smaller name value in the independent wrestling but at the same time, I knew everyone that was there. So it was a kind of being at home or at least feeling more comfortable because you’ve been on shows with all those guys for a long time and you have that relationship with everyone and everyone was so supportive. It was great. Honestly, it was far from my biggest dreams to imagine that could happen to me, but it happened. It was great.”
