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Morning Glory RCC:
Finishers
What’s the most important
thing in a wrestler’s repertoire? Is it their ‘look’? Their workrate?
Gimmick? Well, of course, all of these things are important, but I’m gonna talk about
one of the lesser discussed ingredients to a wrestler. I’m talking about the
finisher. Finishing moves have been around for a long time, but I’m guessing they
originated in the early 1980’s. When I started watching wrestling back in ’90,
some of the finishing moves were seriously different compared to today. Jake Roberts used
his DDT, and was the only man to use it. Hogan had his legdrop, and Warrior had the Big
Splash. Nowadays of course, these moves are pretty useless. Everyone and their dog uses a
DDT, even guys like Buff Bagwell. I haven’t seen someone get pinned by a normal DDT
like Jake’s (Raven’s flowing DDT doesn’t count) for God knows how long.
Finishers, like wrestling, evolved and became more complex, and more devastating to watch.
Think you would ever have seen something like the F5, or the Shooting Star Press back in
1990? Hell no. Randy Savage was considered a ‘high-flyer’ because he could hit
an elbow off the top rope! So yeah, things have changed a great deal.
As the WWE got more television exposure, going into the mid-1990’s, gimmicks and
characters became more elaborate than ever. Along with this, so did the finishing moves
used. Razor Ramon’s ‘Razor’s Edge’, Diesel’s ‘Jacknife
Powerbomb’, Bret Hart’s ‘Sharpshooter’ and Hunter Hearst
Helmsley’s ‘Pedigree’ were all cutting-edge back in 1994-5, as they were
moves that had never really been used in the US before. Back then, finishers tended to
mean the end of the match a lot more than they do now. Can you imagine anyone kicking out
of Diesel’s Jacknife? And of course, they were a lot less intricate. Look back at
some of the finishers innovated in the mid-90’s that are still around now (Pedigree,
Stone Cold Stunner) and you’ll see that they tend to be more instant and quick to
pull off. Some of the finishers today, such as the Unprettier and the Angle Slam look
highly complicated, and unlike the older ones, are difficult to pull off.
As time moved on more, and the finisher evolved into the intricate types that we see
today, around 1998-onwards, another difference came with the development and advent of
submission holds. At one time, the only real memorable submissions around were Bret’s
‘Sharpshooter’ and Mankind’s ‘Mandible Claw’. Submissions came
into vogue with the signing of Ken Shamrock from the UFC in 1997, and his gimmick of
making people ‘tap out’ became a strong point of WWE programming. Before
Shamrock, submissions were usually slow and long winded, such as a sleeper. Now, they were
highly painful moves that could injure someone badly. As technical wrestling came more and
more into the fore, in early 2000 with the signing of Chris Benoit, most wrestlers tended
to develop submission moves. Now Chris Jericho has his ‘Walls of Jericho’,
Benoit the ‘Crippler Crossface’, Kurt Angle the ‘Ankle Lock’ and even
mid carders such as Jamie Knoble and Val Venis have their own submission move. However,
there is one point that must be made about submissions these days. It is VERY rare that a
face will tap out in a big match to a heel’s submission move. Both The Rock and
Triple H have tapped to the Crippler Crossface, but neither have done it in a big match
situation. I am very surprised that this hasn’t caused a problem for Angle, Jericho
and Benoit especially, but all three have got their moves so over with the fans that they
are not affected.
And of course, this moves us onto another point. Getting your finisher over is always an
important thing to do, as it allows the fans more interaction. The fans see you hit the
finisher, and automatically pop or boo, because they know that the match is about to end.
The perfect example of this is DDP’s ‘Diamond Cutter’. DDP was not over
himself, but he managed to get the Diamond Cutter over, and this enabled him to get over
by proxy. However, this doesn’t always work of course. Albert is nowhere near over,
and yet his finishers look spectacular and painful. Maybe it’s just the back
hair…who knows?
Japanese wrestling, and the booking of Johnny Ace has played a large part in the evolution
of finishers in the past few years. In Japan, instead of having the finisher end the
match, they tend to book the match to climax using a number of finishers and having the
wrestlers kick out of them. Although this is highly exciting to watch, it can also damage
the credibility of someone’s finisher, especially if it’s newly developed. For
example, it didn’t hurt Steve Austin to have Kurt Angle kick out of the Stunner three
times at Summerslam 2001, but at King of The Ring 2002, Chris Jericho’s
‘Breakdown’ was finally killed off, as Rob Van Dam, who is basically a
mid-carder, kicked out of it. Things were looking even worse at one point, as people like
Hardcore Holly kicked out of moves like the Angle Slam, but this seems to have died down
now. Kicking out of finishers in a big match on a PPV is OK, but doing it on Smackdown and
RAW, in mid-card matches should be prevented.
Another innovation that has come about in the past year or so is the stealing of the
opponent’s finisher. The first time I can remember this happening well was
Wrestlemania X7, as Steve Austin and The Rock stole each other’s moves in a desperate
attempt to take the WWE Title. This was fine, being the biggest match (so far) of the
decade, and a unique event. However, it seems to have gone too far now. While it was cool
to see Chris Jericho hit the Rock Bottom, it certainly became frustrating for me when
Scott Hall used the Stunner on Steve Austin more than he used the Razor’s Edge.
Stealing someone’s finisher may seem cool once, but doing it persistently takes away
from that character and his finisher’s individuality, which is quite obviously bad.
The worst case of this happening was at Vengeance 2002, when during the main event, a
Triple Threat match between Kurt Angle, Undertaker, and The Rock, all 3 men stole each
others finishers, Rocky even hitting a chokeslam on Taker! This just should not happen,
especially not with a move like the chokeslam, which is a Taker trademark dating back to
the early 90’s. And the worst thing is that a lot of the time, after each wrestler
steals the other’s finisher, the match ends with an anti-climactic roll-up. This
removes a lot of the drama and does not end the story of the match properly. Let’s
hope the stealing finishers trend stops soon.
Another Japanese concept seemingly introduced to the US regarding finishers is that of the
‘Murder Moves’. In Japan, the ‘Murder Moves’ date from the height of
the Kobashi/Misawa/Kawada days, and they include the Emerald Frosion, Ganso Bomb, and
Tiger Driver ’91. Known as ‘Murder Moves’ because absolutely nobody kicks
out from them, they look devastating and painful, and are usually used to finish a big
match. The US’s equivilant to these moves in my opinion, are the Tombstone, the
Pedigree, and the Last Ride. When the Pedigree was first introduced, it wasn’t such a
big deal as HHH was only a mid-carder. However, now that Triple H has cemented his spot in
the main events, the Pedigree has become a full on ‘Murder Move’. I don’t
believe I have seen anyone, regardless of their status in the WWE, get up from the
Pedigree since HHH’s initial big push in 1999.
The Tombstone has always had the stature of a ‘Murder Move’. When The Undertaker
debuted in late 1990, he was billed as an unstoppable monster. He has remained this way
since then, and the Tombstone piledriver he formerly used as a finisher helped to build
this legacy up. Nobody that I can think of, besides Kane, has ever kicked out of the
Tombstone, and since it was banned from being used except on special occasions in 2000, it
has claimed even more of a legendary status. Taker only busts out the Tombstone on very
special occasions now, usually during major feuds. He used it on Triple H in their epic
Wrestlemania X7 encounter, and then didn’t use it for almost a year, bringing it back
when feuding with The Rock. Taker upped the stakes of that feud by Tombstoning Rocky onto
the roof of a limo, and then used it once again a month later at Wrestlemania 18, as a
last resort to finish the legendary Ric Flair. This sparing use of the Tombstone has built
it up into more of a ‘Murder Move’ than ever before.
The third ‘Murder Move’ I named is of course the Last Ride, the vertical
powerbomb used by Undertaker to replace the Tombstone. The move has proved just as deadly
as the Tombstone, and I believe nobody has EVER kicked out of it. It looks painful as
hell, and although it’s not as dangerous to the victim as something like the Ganso
Bomb, it looks like it contains a similar impact, and the fact that nobody has ever got up
from it only adds to the move. Kurt Angle is the only wrestler to ever manage to escape
the move, in what was a great piece of booking, playing up on Angle’s ‘reverses
anything’ character.
Of course, although the ‘Murder Moves’ add a lot to the mystique and the power
of HHH and Undertaker’s characters, not all wrestlers can have something as dangerous
in their repertoire. Steve Austin used the Stunner with incredible success for 5 years,
and it’s credibility was never damaged, even when Angle kicked out of it three times.
The bottom line is that if a wrestler wants to be recognized as a full on main eventer,
they need a powerful finisher, or maybe even two, that can be used to put other main
eventers away. Jericho had the problem of weak finishers for a while, but appears to have
solved the problem by using the Walls of Jericho, and more recently the
‘Flashback’, to success. The one man I can see having this problem very soon is
Booker T. Right now, he is on the curb of a great main event run, but will struggle
without a decent finisher. In WCW, he had the Book-End, but obviously he can’t use
that in the WWE thanks to The Rock. And the Ax-Kick, to be honest, just doesn’t cut
it. Booker can use the Harlem Hangover, but if he does, he needs to bust it out more than
on the odd PPV match. Booker needs a good finisher to have a good main event run, and he
needs it fast.
Well, looking at the bigger picture, it becomes obvious that along with a good character,
look, mic skills and workrate, the finisher a wrestler uses is highly important. Whether
the finisher is something as intricate as the Unprettier, as brutal as the Last Ride, or
as simple as Test’s Big Boot, it is undoubtedly a major ingredient in the workings of
a successful wrestler. If you want to correct me with any of the facts in this column, or
generally discuss it, feel free to reply here, or catch me on AIM as thesuperstar24.
‘Superstar’ Scott Newman- loving big guys in leather pants since 1995.
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