The sleeper hold is one of the best known women wrestling holds. It has a fetish element to it too as many of the viewers feel it’s extremely appealing to see one female wrestler render her opponent completely defenseless through this move. In female pro wrestling, victory can be achieved in 3 different ways: through a pin, a submission or a KO. Because closed fisted blows and kicks are not allowed (these moves can knock a person out), just about the only way to knock an opponent out in women’s pro wrestling is through the sleeper.

The attacker is positioned behind the victim. She slips an arm around her neck and places her other hand on the back of the victim’s head, then secures an overhand grip on her own lower arm. She then proceeds to tighten the hold, thus cutting off the blood supply (by squeezing the carotid artery) to the victim’s brain, causing her to pass out. Obviously the move is a very dangerous one and should never be executed by amateurs in an uncontrolled environment. Even if you do put a sleeper on your opponent in a pro wrestling match, make sure you do not actually block her carotid artery (that’s right, fake the hold rather than to endanger your opponent’s life).

The referee then checks on the victim, by lifting one of her arms up and letting go of it. If the victim is unable to keep her arm up on her own, three consecutive times, the referee calls for the bell and awards the victory to the attacker.

Possible escape: because of the extreme efficiency of the hold, a victim trapped in a sleeper barely has time to react, let alone to do something efficient towards escaping. Escape is quite impossible.

Rating: the sleeper is positively one of the most efficient holds in women’s wrestling (in women’s MMA too). A well applied sleeper by a powerful female wrestler will send any man or any woman to sleep in 2-3 seconds.

Courtesy of sleeperkidsworld.com