In the world of boardroom meetings, the topic of huge, sweaty men slamming into each other and grappling powerfully often comes up, but not since THQ has one company’s success so heavily depended on this practice. Nevertheless it has dogged the ascent of Capcom, swinging them aloft over its head and it will be there one day when they fall, to deliver the head-exploding final blow.

The first suplex was originally invented by paleolithic humans as a way to counter the threat of saber-tooth tigers, coinciding with the first Quick-Time Events. A caveman could deftly press the A button to deliver as many as six different wrestling moves to the tiger, shocking the beasts so much with their total sweetness that these early humans were able to survive and eventually go on to form Capcom. It was during these ancient times that the first Megaman games were carved out of rock, a tradition that is still continued today.

The first Capcom game to feature their trademark style of pounding punks also introduced one of its most iconic characters – Mike Haggar, the mayor of Metro City. The game was Final Fight, released in arcades in 1989 and still enjoying an iconic status today. This is, of course, due to the electrifying presence of Old Mike body-slamming suplexing power, allowing him to easily outshine the game’s other characters in melee and ensuring his place in the game’s sequels. Additionally, he would later appear in the rather invigorating title Muscle Bomber – The Body Explosion (it needs to be said out loud for the full effect), which was later released in America as Saturday Night Slam Masters.

This violent tradition was continued in 1991, with the release of Street Fighter II in arcades, a game that featured not one, but three suplexers, the towering Soviet fighter Zangief, the narcissistic ninja Vega and the American super stud Guile. It was this game that established Capcom as the Suplex Forerunners of the video game industry and lead to the successes of games like Power Stone, Dead Rising and Rival Schools. Suplexes also featured largely in the indy game Killer7, showing that suplexes were as artistically relevant as we’d all suspected.

The way seemed set for the suplex to enter the limelight as the most trusted and respected brand of video game wrestling move, but it was not until 2005 that the public was shown what the suplex was all about. Resident Evil 4 set a benchmark for ferocious levels of non-stop suplexing action that has yet to be matched. Not only was this brutal attack your character’s primary weapon for slaying zombies, it made their heads explode too. Dozens of zombies would all be dispatched in the same way, a much-relished joy that put this game head and shoulders above its competitors.

So, almost 600 words and one obligatory gay-joke later, what have we learned? Devil May Cry 4 and Street Fighter 4 show that this martial exercise is still alive and kicking, with the suplexes just getting bigger and better. And someday, in the not-too-distant future, you’ll probably find yourself sitting down wide-eyed before a sparkling new copy of Dead Rising 2 and unleashing meaty headsplosions, so when you do, take a moment to remember that great man Mayor Haggar and his contributions to society. His full-body slams will live on in our hearts for as long as we remember them.