Last updated: June 15, 2026
Quick Definition
The Boston crab is a professional wrestling hold in which a competitor sits on a face-down opponent’s lower back and pulls both legs backward, bending the spine and stretching the back and hamstrings.
What is the Boston crab?
The hold belongs to a family called spinal locks, which bend or twist the spine to cause pain instead of attacking a single joint. It begins with the opponent flat on their back. The attacker grabs both of the opponent’s legs, tucks them under the arms, then turns the opponent face-down and steps over the body. From there, the attacker sits down facing away, folding the legs and lower back upward toward the opponent’s head.
Most people meet the term through pro wrestling, where it appears regularly in WWE and AEW, though versions of it also turn up in catch wrestling and submission grappling. Its job in a match is to look agonising and force a dramatic escape or a tap. The pressure lands mainly on the lower spine, with the hamstrings and glutes taking a long stretch as the legs fold back.
How the Boston crab works
Once the hold is locked in, the attacker’s body weight does the work. Sitting back drives the opponent’s heels toward their own head, which arches the lower spine well past its comfortable range. Anyone who has felt a deep backbend knows the lumbar region gives up little ground, so the discomfort climbs fast.
The hamstrings stretch at the same time, and in the single-leg version, the knee can take strain too. In pro wrestling, all of this is choreographed, so the wrestler applying the hold controls how much genuine pressure goes in. What the crowd sees is an opponent trapped in an awkward, exposed position with no clear way out, which is why the move still reads as a finisher even when the force is dialled down. Spotting it takes no expertise: if one competitor sits facing away while the other is folded backward by the legs, that is a Boston crab.
Is the Boston crab a real submission?
This is the question most searches carry, because the hold sits so close to scripted entertainment. The honest answer has two halves. Inside pro wrestling, the move is mostly theatre, applied at a fraction of its potential so the performer underneath stays safe. Cranked on for real, with full weight and a resisting opponent, it hurts and can load the lower back enough to make a person quit.
Grapplers treat it more as a doorway than a destination. According to Wikipedia’s entry on the hold, the half Boston crab is sometimes used in submission grappling to set up a straight ankle lock rather than as a finish on its own.
It has also surfaced in live competition. On 30 September 2017, English fighter Jonno Mears became the first person to win a professional MMA bout with a Boston crab, tapping Aaron Jones in the opening round at Full Contact Contender 19 in Bolton, as reported by Yahoo Sports and confirmed by MMA Fighting. The result made headlines precisely because it almost never happens. Against someone fighting to get free, the hold is tough to lock down cleanly, which keeps it a curiosity in the cage rather than a go-to weapon.
How the Boston crab differs from similar holds
The Boston crab, the Sharpshooter, and the Walls of Jericho get mixed up constantly, since all three share the same basic idea of bending a grounded opponent backward by the legs. The real differences come down to leg position and angle.
| Hold | How it differs | Best known for |
|---|---|---|
| Boston crab | Both legs hooked under the arms, attacker seated and facing away, spine bent backward | The classic baseline version |
| Sharpshooter | A grapevined Boston crab with the legs crossed and locked, twisting the stretch | Bret Hart and Sting |
| Walls of Jericho | An elevated Boston crab applied from a higher, farther-back angle for extra pressure | Chris Jericho |
| Half (single-leg) crab | Only one leg is hooked, concentrating the strain on one side | A fast transitional hold |
The Walls of Jericho began life as the Liontamer, a nastier version in which Chris Jericho drove a knee into the opponent’s back, per Pro Wrestling Fandom. He toned it down after arriving in WWE, and the higher, knee-free variation is what fans recognise now.
Common variations of the Boston crab
Wrestlers have spun off plenty of versions over the decades. A handful of the most recognisable ones:
| Variation | What changes |
|---|---|
| Single-leg / half crab | One leg hooked instead of both |
| Elevated (Walls of Jericho) | Applied from a raised, farther-back stance |
| Liontamer | A knee pressed into the back for added pain |
| Inverted Boston crab | The attacker faces the same direction as the opponent |
| Rope-hung / Tarantula | The opponent is draped over the ropes, popularised by Yoshihiro Tajiri |
| Canadian Maple Leaf | A single-leg crab Lance Storm rolls into from a backward somersault |
| Rocking horse | The opponent is lifted by the arms mid-hold and rocked back and forth |
Frequently Asked Questions
Who invented the Boston crab?
Its creation is usually credited to Jim Londos, a star of early 20th-century wrestling, per Wikipedia. The hold went by the name backbreaker before that label moved to a different move.
Why is it called a “crab”?
The folded, splayed final position looks like a crab. Its Spanish name is cangrejo, meaning crab, and the Japanese name gyaku ebi-gatame translates as reverse shrimp hold, according to Wikipedia.
Has anyone won an MMA fight with a Boston crab?
Yes. Jonno Mears tapped Aaron Jones with one at Full Contact Contender 19 in 2017, the first recorded MMA win by the hold, as reported by Yahoo Sports.
Does the Boston crab still finish matches in WWE?
Rarely in its plain form. Modern wrestling mostly uses it as a transitional hold, though raised versions like the Walls of Jericho still close out matches.
What part of the body does the Boston crab target?
Mostly the lower spine. The hamstrings and glutes stretch as the legs fold back, and the single-leg version can stress the knee.
Sources
- Wikipedia. “Boston crab.” Accessed June 2026.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_crab - Pro Wrestling Fandom. “Boston crab.” Accessed June 2026.
https://prowrestling.fandom.com/wiki/Boston_crab - Yahoo Sports. “MMA fighter earns rare submission by using wrestling’s Boston Crab.” 2017.
https://sports.yahoo.com/mma-fighter-uses-pro-wrestling-style-boston-crab-earn-rare-submission-235214685.html - MMA Fighting. “MMA fighter pulls off incredible pro-wrestling style Boston Crab submission.” 2017.
https://www.mmafighting.com/2017/9/30/16391578/mma-fighter-pulls-off-incredible-pro-wrestling-style-boston-crab-submission - BJJ Eastern Europe. “Learn How To Set Up and Execute the Boston Crab Submission.” 2019.
https://www.bjjee.com/articles/learn-set-execute-boston-crab-submission/
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