Jack Moody Discusses The Origins Of Using The Octopus Stretch

Jack Moody reflects on using The Octopus Stretch in his move set.

Jack Moody reflects on the origins of his Octopus Stretch.

The Octopus Stretch is a hold that has a lot of history in wrestling history, with Jonathan Gresham and AJ Lee both adopting the submission as finishing maneuvers in recent wrestling history. Another talent who has been quietly racking up wins with the hold is the International Man Of Mystery, Jack Moody. 

While speaking to Fightful’s Corey Brennan in a recent interview, Moody detailed his history with the move and how his is more effective than others.

“The origin is, Jonathan Gresham has come to fight factory a number of times over the past two years. I’ve been lucky to train with him, not in the most recent run, but the one prior to that. So that was probably the first introduction in person I had to it. I’d say I used to train very regularly with LJ and Jay Stynes in Dublin. We would just be messing around with different sequences and different chain sequences and transitions and you could get into it from any position. I guess with my style and like the international man of mystery, the idea is you can kind of, I can end a match in so many different ways. And there’s so many different pin combinations that i can pull out and so many reversals that I can pull out. So the octopus now has kind of become, and i was actually just talking to jordan breaks about this yesterday, that it it used to be called the three in one. And I was like you know, curry sauce, chips and rice. And he’s like, what? What are you talking about? 3-in-1 isn’t a thing here. Or a 4-in-1. But apparently the origin of the octopus is a 3-in-1 because you’ve got three limbs. You’re manipulating three limbs. So now I kind of add in different aspects. So if they’re not going to tap out, I can put in a choke hold. If they’re not choking that way, I can wrap them into an even more elaborate submission, or into a crucifix. So it just kind of fits my gimmick, my wrestling style, and you can put it on on anyone. So even people say, oh, you couldn’t do that move on a big person. The octopus is probably easier to do on a big person, given that they’re a stronger base. I can sit on top of them and dig in my elbows. It just seemed to fit my style. I can incorporate into so many different sequences. So it’s just become the go-to move. I actually called it the Irish Goodbye in America and now LJ has taken that name for much more much more impressive move.”

Elsewhere in Moody’s interview with Fightful, he discussed entering the wrestling industry at age 32. You can read more about that here.