A Dirty Trick Dressed Like a Slap

In the world of Vulgate Pugilism, where pragmatism beats pageantry and results matter more than rituals, few techniques embody the ethos better than The Stossel.

This isn’t your daddy’s slap.

The Stossel is a concussive, air-trapping blow delivered with a slightly cupped palm, targeting critical zones like the ear, jaw hinge, or temple. It’s designed not to impress a crowd, but to scramble the senses of whoever’s in your way.

The flat open-hand slap might be used to humiliate. The Stossel, on the other hand, is for disruption.
It’s not about the noise, though there will be noise, it’s about what happens next.

When delivered properly, the impact compresses air between the hand and the target surface, generating a pressure wave that can rupture an eardrum, wreck equilibrium, and rattle the brain just enough to buy you a moment. That’s all you need. A beat. A blink. An opportunity.

In a scuffle where the line has collapsed and your limbs are tangled up with someone else’s, this is your reset button.

The Anatomy of the Blow

• Hand shape: Slightly cupped, not rigid. Think of how your hand might look scooping water.
• Delivery: Sharp, sudden, not heavy. Think flick, not push. Similar to throwing a baseball.
• Targeting: Focus on soft tissue over bone . The space behind the ear, the hinge where jaw meets skull, or the high cheek just beneath the temple. I do personally prefer the jawline.

It requires zero wind-up, minimal strength, and no theatrics. Just a clear path and good placement.

The name is, of course, a nod to that infamous 1984 incident when professional wrestler Dr. D. David Schultz answered reporter John Stossel’s skepticism of wrestling’s authenticity with a pair of open-handed reality checks. That televised slap-down ruptured more than eardrums. It shattered illusions.

But in Vulgate Pugilism, The Stossel has evolved.

This isn’t about spectacle. It’s not for cameras or crowd reactions. It’s about what works in chaos.
And in the fog of violence, the Stossel works.

Minimal Risk, Maximum Jolt

• Legally? Looks like a slap.
• Tactically? Hits like a flashbang.
• Strategically? Opens the door you need.

A seasoned fighter might expect fists, might brace for elbows, but the cupped palm to the side of the head is unorthodox, underestimated, and ungodly effective.

It’s the perfect marriage of deceit and dysfunction. A whisper of a strike that shouts inside the skull.