In honour of the Benoit/Orton series that revolves around the headlock, as well as me seeing -for the first time- a match end in a headlock the other day, how many ways one can reverse/get out of a headlock?

 

1. Rope break.

Push their opponent off, into the ropes.

back drop suplex

4. Elbow to the gut

Twist the fingers backwards or dig your fingernails right into your opponents fingers.

Push their head away until they let go.

Blue Thunder Bomb.

Grab a concurrent hold and then it becomes a battle of wills to see who will release their hold first.

ref bump

If the ref's not lookin' and their legs are parted, crotch'em.

Power out it with a hammerlock counter.

Atomic drop

There is always the headlock pin where the guy in the headlock turns his opponent on their back while stuck in the headlock. Think Ric Flair-Ricky Steamboat or any one of several Harley Race matches. The guy getting pinned either has to re-establish himself in a sitting headlock position or let go to break the pin.

I'll say running out of the ring,

 

and

 

running towards the ropes and letting the momentum take the other guy through the ropes to the outside.

This is off-topic but last night at the Dayton ROH show, my friends and I all marked out for side headlocks. We'd scream "ask him," "he'll tear it off," and "check the arm!" whenever they got slapped on. Later on, we decided that the headlocks became illegal chokes and had to let the ref know that too. It was a good time.

 

A good headlock counter for someone that finishes with a leg move is the knee breaker. Flair's done it.

Break the fingers and go for a top wristlock.

 

Lift the opponent up and crotch him on the ropes or turnbuckle.

 

Lift the opponent up and land an atomic drop,

Get the opponent up for a Backdrop, and throw him off forwards in a power move so he lands on his back.

Slip your head through and hammerlock your opponents arm from behind.

 

Backdrop Driver

 

Angleslam

 

Torture rack

If it's a side headlock, just punch the guy square in the mouth and chip his teeth.

 

It happened to me once, in Grade 5.

Me and my buddies growing up (Grade 3ish) used to call the headlock "The Mega Maneuver" cause it was easy to slap on and hurt like hell if you got your arm around someone elses neck and squeezed.

Buddies and I used to have headlock as well as frontfacelock contests where someone would clamp on a hold and the other would try to escape. So much fun.

Kidney Punch

Slip out of it like a hammerlock, but go into a wristlock instead.

Unless I missed it, nobody's mentioned the dreaded hair pull.

High crotch suplex/Teardrop suplex (same thing to my knowledge, correct me if I'm wrong).

 

Foot stomp.

 

Placing your foot in the back of their near knee and escaping out the back.