Some are flashy, some are technical, some are dumb as fuck...
...but finishing moves have always been an important part of the art form of professional wrestling. Every performer needs that move to help guarantee a win against their opponent. Crowds go insane after some of them are utilized, and a lot of these techniques are known by non-watchers due to word of mouth/popularity.
Here are three of my favorites:
3. The Stone Cold Stunner
Stone Cold Steve Austin was a key part of the Attitude Era, and is one of the most important performers in wrestling history as a whole. The Texas Rattlesnake cursed, drank beer, and the crowd loved him whether he played a face or a heel. Austin wasn't one of the most technical sort of wrestler, but he excelled in stomping a mud-hole on someone and making sure his strikes hurt his opponent so what better finisher than the stunner to be in his arsenal? It's a simple maneuver: a three quarter face-locked jawbreaker, but the impact always looked so stone cold. I always popped hard for this move, and I may or may not have gotten detention for doing it on a classmate many moons ago.
2. Pearl River Plunge/Tiger Driver
Yes. I know. Ahmed Johnson. Hear me out on this: my first wrestling related video game was WWF War Zone. It wasn't too good of a game, but my friends and I played the hell out of it back in the day. Back then (and even now), there are not a lot of Black wrestlers. Some members of The Nation of Domination were featured in the game, and while I always liked them, there was also Ahmed Johnson. I did not know too much about him, but little kid me loved his look. He looked scary as hell, and while I could not understand the promos that he had in this game (and I still do not), I enjoyed using someone that looked similar to me and his finishing move was really cool. I love all sorts of suplexes and power bombs and while I know Ahmed was not the originator of this variation (Thank you and RIP to Mitsuharu Misawa), I will always love the look of Ahmed doing it. It's explosive, which is a good word to describe Ahmed Johnson as a whole.
1. Shining Wizard
I'll be honest: I have not followed the career of The Great Muta/Keiji Mutoh to the best of my ability. In fact, Japanese wrestling is something that I have only recently gotten into other than seeing highlights from certain performers along the years. Another video game wrestling related story: in WWE: Shut Your Mouth, you could unlock preset movelists and one of them stood out to me. The taunts were feral-like, and the movelist had a lot of Shining Wizards: my first exposure to the name. It wasn't until later that I learned that the moves were that of The Great Muta, one of Japan's greatest. I've never heard of the technique before that game but eventually playing the variations all out had me in love with it. It was versatile: it could be done anywhere and each spot looked amazing. Certain American wrestlers used the move along the years such as Gregory Helms, who I was also a big fan of growing up. Who doesn't love a swift kick to the head?
So, throughout all of the eras of professional wrestling: What are your favorite finishing moves?
As a bonus, here is Donald Trump on the receiving end of a stunner!
...but finishing moves have always been an important part of the art form of professional wrestling. Every performer needs that move to help guarantee a win against their opponent. Crowds go insane after some of them are utilized, and a lot of these techniques are known by non-watchers due to word of mouth/popularity.
Here are three of my favorites:
3. The Stone Cold Stunner
Stone Cold Steve Austin was a key part of the Attitude Era, and is one of the most important performers in wrestling history as a whole. The Texas Rattlesnake cursed, drank beer, and the crowd loved him whether he played a face or a heel. Austin wasn't one of the most technical sort of wrestler, but he excelled in stomping a mud-hole on someone and making sure his strikes hurt his opponent so what better finisher than the stunner to be in his arsenal? It's a simple maneuver: a three quarter face-locked jawbreaker, but the impact always looked so stone cold. I always popped hard for this move, and I may or may not have gotten detention for doing it on a classmate many moons ago.
2. Pearl River Plunge/Tiger Driver
Yes. I know. Ahmed Johnson. Hear me out on this: my first wrestling related video game was WWF War Zone. It wasn't too good of a game, but my friends and I played the hell out of it back in the day. Back then (and even now), there are not a lot of Black wrestlers. Some members of The Nation of Domination were featured in the game, and while I always liked them, there was also Ahmed Johnson. I did not know too much about him, but little kid me loved his look. He looked scary as hell, and while I could not understand the promos that he had in this game (and I still do not), I enjoyed using someone that looked similar to me and his finishing move was really cool. I love all sorts of suplexes and power bombs and while I know Ahmed was not the originator of this variation (Thank you and RIP to Mitsuharu Misawa), I will always love the look of Ahmed doing it. It's explosive, which is a good word to describe Ahmed Johnson as a whole.
1. Shining Wizard
I'll be honest: I have not followed the career of The Great Muta/Keiji Mutoh to the best of my ability. In fact, Japanese wrestling is something that I have only recently gotten into other than seeing highlights from certain performers along the years. Another video game wrestling related story: in WWE: Shut Your Mouth, you could unlock preset movelists and one of them stood out to me. The taunts were feral-like, and the movelist had a lot of Shining Wizards: my first exposure to the name. It wasn't until later that I learned that the moves were that of The Great Muta, one of Japan's greatest. I've never heard of the technique before that game but eventually playing the variations all out had me in love with it. It was versatile: it could be done anywhere and each spot looked amazing. Certain American wrestlers used the move along the years such as Gregory Helms, who I was also a big fan of growing up. Who doesn't love a swift kick to the head?
So, throughout all of the eras of professional wrestling: What are your favorite finishing moves?
As a bonus, here is Donald Trump on the receiving end of a stunner!
