Footage went viral recently when a BJJ competitor decided to slam his opponent off the mats and directly through a nearby table in a tournament. The incident in question happened at a Jiu-Jitsu World League event and it’s unclear what exactly prompted the offending athlete to show such complete and blatant disregard for the rules. There are very few rulesets which allow competitors to slam one another in any fashion, and there’s no tournament on the planet that would tolerate anyone being slammed into or onto objects.
Regardless of what the rules say, slams can and do happen under any ruleset of course. The vast majority of the time they’re not intentional, and are simply the result of either a poor understanding of the rules in play or a competitor losing their balance. ADCC is one of the few tournaments on the planet that do allow slams, but even they have strict instructions around when and where an athlete can slam their opponent. Top competitors who are used to that ruleset have slammed opponents in other tournaments and then been surprised at the disqualification, but the onus is always on them to know the rules they’re competing under.
It’s not uncommon to see a newer grappler pick another up and then lose control of the position before they can do anything else, falling to the ground. An incident like this would constitute a slam and would get a competitor disqualified, but it’s largely harmless and isn’t done with any malice. The footage of this slam in a BJJ tournament was obviously intentional though, as the competitor lifted his opponent up and walked off the mats to face the table before dropping his opponent directly through it. It was one of the most egregious displays of rule-breaking ever seen in the sport and it would be completely unsurprising if the organizers served him with a lifetime ban.
The footage of the BJJ competitor deciding to slam his opponent through a table was uploaded to the official Instagram account of McDojoLife:
