The Irish whip represents one of the most fundamental women’s pro wrestling moves. If you’ve ever seen a professional wrestling match in your life, the Irish whip was probably one of the first moves you’ve seen.

The attacker grabs hold of one of the victim’s arm and pulls on it building up momentum and sending her running into the ring ropes. The victim then bounces back from the ropes and rushes back towards the attacker who can then perform a throw or move on her (like a clothesline, a dropkick or a powerslam). The fact that you are the attacker (the initiator of the Irish whip) doesn’t mean that your opponent won’t turn the tables on you and clothesline, powerslam or do some other variety of evil on you on her way back.

Possible escape: the Irish whip can be reversed relatively easily. When your opponent throws you towards the ropes, just hold on to her arm, dig in with your feet and put your body-weight to work stopping and throwing her into the ropes instead.

Rating: for what it’s supposed to achieve, I suppose the Irish whip is fairly effective. It is neither a submission hold nor a high impact toss though, it’s merely a move meant to set one up for another maneuver, so analyzing its efficiency doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.