What ever happened to the finishing move in wrestling?
 

Cool article, and I agree with it. Lately I've found myself tuning out of matches with too many kick-outs. It's like a movie with too many explosions.

The Shawn Michaels/Undertaker matches made this a trend.

It's a shame no one else is Shawn Michaels or The Undertaker, and can't really sell it like they are in a battle of light vs. darkness, good vs. evil, life vs. death, etc.

Rock vs Cena 2 went over the top with it.

I appreciate the effort Cena put into his US Title matches, but the one where his nose broke went too far. A top rope superplex into a Falcon Arrow? For a two count? Really?

Well it's not his finisher. Wrestlers have kicked out of moves way mores that looked way more devastating than their opponent's finisher for years now.

This.


Austin and The Rock at Wrestlemania 19 for instance was full of kicking out of finishers.


To be honest, I don't mind it at all. It makes matches more exciting and the marks seem to love it.

I'm ok with it at mania, not every night on raw though. I remember instead of kicking out of the finisher people would reverse or block them.

Indie wrestling. That's what happened.

The example with Cena in the article was interesting since his Challenge matches alone have been some of the biggest offenders in recent time. Part of it due to him being way overpowered for years and the other part due to the WWE not willing to make him be weak nor build up anyone else to equal status.

End result becomes his opponents having quick strength boosts just for that feud while Cena's big moves drop in power to make those matches believable.


I'd add in ppvs in general where there usually is more motivation to win since something is on the line like bragging rights or a title. Still shouldn't go overboard with the finisher spamming though.

It only works on house shows, on ppv's it needs to be kicked out of a few times, the amount of kick outs depends on the ppv and card position of the wrasslers, the higher they are on the card the more kickouts needed. If it's a cena\owens match it should consist of nothing but finishers. :wtf::shifty:

Simple logic goes, my move isn't working.....NEW MOVE!







But that will never happen.

Todd Martin had a pwtorchlive audio show about finishers. I think the problem is there are less set up moves to set the stage and drive home a finish is coming. Moves are also too fast to pit on. There was an EKO out of nowhere once on Del Rio that nobody even knew it was hit and the match was over.

It was insane and should have ended the match though.

I'm in the camp that is actually fine with it for a massive match on PPV. But not every RAW, and not for every match at that PPV.

Yeah really, what happened to finisher reversals?

Building the anticipation of the move actually hitting? Get out of town with that.

Cena/Owens II. They were showing KO's kickout of the AA in one screen and he hit the Pop Up Powerbomb on the live screen. Didn't even get to see the move clearly.

The milkman The paperboy even TV

There's worse things than finishers being kicked out of; at least there's a chance that ends the match.

It's moves like Cena's Springboard Stunner that have NEVER got him a win; why even bother to go for the pin when you've only got a 2 count the last 30 times you've used it!?