The Crotch Claw is a move which is illegal in freestyle women’s wrestling, and probably illegal in the pro ring as well, but some girls use it nonetheless. Rather than to inflict actual damage, the crotch claw is meant to provoke extreme humiliation, which will cause the targeted wrestlerette to abandon pretty much everything she is doing, break her hold and try to twitch free of the claw.

The attacker simply reaches between her opponent’s legs and grabs hold of her crotch digging her fingers into it. While the move may cause some pain too, its effects are mostly psychological. Not expecting to be groped in her private areas, the targeted wrestlerette will instinctively react to the hold.

The crotch claw is most often used by a besieged wrestlerette to make her opponent break a hold or to prevent her from executing a throw. In that respect, it’s more of a desperation move than anything else. Some wrestlerettes will reach into their opponent’s bathing suit to execute the crotch claw, thus bypassing the protection of the fabric and making it more efficient.

Possible escape: under normal circumstances, the crotch claw is easy to escape. Designed to disrupt, the move is not meat to be a difficult one to escape to begin with.

Efficiency: at what it’s supposed to achieve, the crotch claw is an extremely efficient move. Don’t expect it to be a match finisher though.