Lou Thesz Lou Thesz Aloysius Martin Thesz (April 24, 1916 – April 28, 2002) was an American professional wrestler. A fifteen-time world champion, he held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship three times for a combined total of 10 years, three months and nine days (3,749 days) – longer than anyone else in history. Thesz is widely regarded as one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. Among his many accomplishments in the sport, he is credited with inventing a number of professional wrestling moves and holds such as the belly-to-back waistlock suplex (later known as the German suplex due to its association
Suplex many variations of the pumphandle suplex, including the maintaining of the grip in order to land the opponent on the mat face-first, or inverting the opponent's body position and securing the opponent's free arm using a half-nelson grip instead of the normal quarter-nelson. The attacker places the opponent in a sleeper hold and then hooks one of the opponents arms with his free arm. The attacker then lifts the opponent up and falls backwards, driving the opponent on their head. A slight variation sees the attacker apply a half nelson choke instead of the sleeper hold before performing the suplex.