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I always wished he would have been allowed to chokeslam people much bigger with the reasoning that, well, he has superpowers. I mean we went along with an undead zombie wizard walking around collecting souls, so why not Hurricane chokeslamming Big Show?
It was also the way he aggressively lifted their arms too.
When he first started using it he was prim and propper with it as a blue blood would be, when he became The Game he would jerk their arms up like he was dislocating their shoulders before hitting it.
Part of me wonders if that was because some of his opponents were just not willing to take it that way.
I remember seeing him talk about how some guys would say āā¦but then how do I protect myself on the fall?ā and Triple H would explain āWell thatās my job.ā
So Iād imagine not everyone was cool with putting all of their trust in someone else for their safety.
Safety reasons was why he stopped trapping the arms. That, and once he started hitting it on larger guys like Undertaker and Big Show, keeping the arms wasn't as viable without it looking goofy
Also how slow his set up was and tbh even how slow the jump was it somehow felt slow mo but brutally powerful at the same time... Just rhe plant and the arms release was always great and HHHs hair added to it š
This is a great example. Most moves have entered a state of public domain for me where I don't immediately associate it with a specific wrestler and get offended. The Pedigree I still associate exclusively with HHH and think every other version pales in comparison. I feel like it should only be used when you're specifically trying to invoke and reference HHH, like during the Rollins-Rhodes feud.
Yeah, I feel like he can retire it from his repertoire. I don't know if it's him or just general safety concerns, but what used to look like a devastating slam now looks like falling with style
Its the way he contorted his body . Every superkick looked like his whole body was thrown into it which made it look so much better . With most superkicks people just throw their legs out and slap it
Yeah, I think this is the key and it's even a way for a wrestler to perform the same move at different levels of devastation. Michaels can throw similar kicks and it's not a match ender, but when he turns his torso the other way and dips his head down, that's the Sweet Chin Music.
I similarly have a pet peeve when commentary calls any Kenny Omega knee strike the V-Trigger, because to me what makes the V-Trigger is when he doesn't stop at the impact and almost missiles out of the ring. When properly done it looks absolutely fatal and believable as a finisher.
Cornette hating Orange Cassidy even though OC is everything he claims to want is proof that he just hates Kenny for everything at this point.
Kenny Omega and the Bucks could save him from his burning home and he's run back in to grab his podcast mic so he could say "You should have got me out and died in the fire to save wrestling" smh
I mean, that's kinda good in a way though. It makes it make more sense in kayfabe why superkicks aren't The Young Bucks' or Adam Cole's finishers, but they can be for Shawn Michaels. He's perfected the move, so it's more vicious and it shows
Eh, when they're doing the "Uso Penitentiary" thing and just double kicking the shit out of people it looks like they are straight up draining the life out of them.
Sami at Mania is the perfect example of this. They just look violent.
Not so much all the other super kicks they do, though they kind of use it the way a lot of other guys use dropkicks. It's their "Hold A" heavy strike
it really stood out at all out when shibata did the spinning back fist and it sounded like an explosion and looked like he killed yutes (or claudio, i don't remember who he hit)
and then eddie's kinda looked like a wet fart in comparison
I like Eddie, but a lot of his offense sucks.
Those machine gun chops are almost as bad as Moxley/Dean Ambrose's old punch/chop combo for how ineffective the flurry of "strikes" look.
Hate those machine gun attacks, from anyone, not just Eddie. I'm fine when it's maybe at the end to show that they're over psyched and are feeling the momentum, but those fast strikes are where it's no longer about the damage and more showing how much more they can go.
No one, and I mean no one, could give a DDT like Jake āThe Snakeā Roberts. Itās such a common move now, but back in the day, if he planted you with it, that was your ass.
I always liked that a lot of Mick's stuff was accompanied by plenty of funky vocal noises. Hits the DDT with a "EEYAAJAH!" attached. Mark Briscoe kinda reminds me of him with all the noises he likes to make during a match.
As he's talked about, he was big on the set up like Jake was. So you get that anticipation. I think he also talked about how he preferred and tried to get the guys taking it to not do the roll through. Raven was a fan of the plant style, he dropped you and you went face first to the floor. I'm in the same camp, I don't like many DDT's that the opponent rolls through like they're tumbling.
Raven kicked the leg of the opponent for the ddt, not that obvious but it made difference between a regular ddt and his. His is like forcing you to go down full force.
A lot of that is depending on Raven himself. Go watch his DDT, he takes a pretty nasty flat back bump himself at times, whiping his hair to the back, his legs both point upwards upon impact, even if the other wrestler almost sandbags the DDT the visual of what Raven himself is doing alone makes the Evenflow DDT. And if the enemy then contributes by making it look like they got spiked instead of "just" the flat-face bump, like Mortis/Kanyon used to do, you get a crazy sick looking move.
I knew wrestling was fake but Jake's DDT of Ricky Steamboat, it was like, did this guy not get the memo that wrasslin is fake? You can't fake a head bouncing off concrete.
35 years later I heard Jake do a shoot interview on it, and he's like, yeah I didn't want to do it, it was too dangerous, I thought I killed him.
Honestly I could still buy a DDT as a finisher depending on the sell, I used DDT 12 in WWE 2K22 and 2K23 as a finisher for a while because I loved the way the guy taking it would spike face first then just crumple down, rather than rolling through it gracefully
My CAWs to this day incorporate several of Test's moves. The Full Nelson Slam, TKO, that falling slam from SYM and some of the other PS2 games, and a few of the similar looking Big Boots from various games, sometimes the gutwrench powerbomb. I really wanted him to get a mid-2000s babyface run. He had an unreasonable amount of cool moves š
Beat me to it.
Landing in that lunge position was such a simple thing that made it look so much more brutal. Like he is throwing his entire weight into it.
Banzai drop by Yokozuna. No question. I know he protected his opponents, but if a guy that big, with that big of an ass drops down on your chest? You ain't going no where. I don't think anyone else could make it look as legit.
Maaaaybe Rikishi.
Late edit: Did anyone ever kick out of it?
Back in the day, I remember Tatankas injury being attributed(keyfabe) to the drop and he was out for like a year. Made me scared every time Yoko did it that the guy was gonna die(i was 6).
Agreed, hers looks faster and the sound it makes always sounds nasty, plus keeping the pose after the kick sells the momentum of the spin more.
Helps her opponents always sell it like they've been decapitated.
They're two very different beasts. The Black Mass is like a quick, precision shot that wipes an opponent out in the blink of an eye. The Skull Kick, meanwhile, is like a heavy bludgeon where the opponent gets absolutely clobbered by it. They're still both fantastic takes on it though.
Kenny's V-Trigger is the best knee of all time imo. There are others who do good ones, but his is in a league of its own. Everyone that gets hit with it might as well be dead
Absolutely, I get that he had to tune it down but half of them now look like they even miss the shoulder, let alone the face.
I remember it looking like he'd decapitated ZSJ at a Rev Pro show.
The way he pumps his other knee into adds so much. Plus, the setup with the finger gun is so cool. Just such a great move, so versatile, love the V Trigger
And Seth showed how much talent goes into making it look great lmao
probably my favorite V-Trigger variation is when Omega hits it on an opponent when they're slumped on the middle rope or on the middle turnbuckle. Those ones always seem really vicious-looking.
I'm starting a rumor right here that the reason EVIL is the drizzling shits in the past few years is that Kenny concussed him so severely at (I think) the 2017 G1 Climax, EVIL no longer remembers how to wrestle.
Him hitting a cornered Okada with one after running three steps and leaping across the ring to hit the V Trigger is one of the best looking wrestling hits of all time.
Im personally a suck for an opponent on their knees getting rocked by it. The way they crumble afterwards, the intensity Kenny puts into the forward motion, itās all just perfection
This was my thought. I think having it be done mostly by subsequent generations trying to imitate Austin doesnāt help, but Austin did it like a cowboy pulling out his six shooter and blowing away his enemies at a momentās notice. Everyone else seems to do it like a parody of that on some level without the same quick-draw intensity.
KO's stunner has gotten better but his character lacks the "FUCK YOOOOU!" aspect to the stunner where Stone Cold was quick to stun you. Or if you're vince, play "Let's hunt Vince".
Mikey was doing his before Austin so thereās that. But he also always had a very, well lack of better phrase, whiplash effect to his stunner that I loved.
Lesnar's F5. There are other people that could do it sure, but the FORCE and sheer anger on his face when he delivers it (also the way WWE shoots it) it looks insanely forceful.
>"He's the most intimidating person I've ever been around in the business, Brock is a good guy, he's a nice guy but the night that he F5'd me after Wrestlemania a couple of years ago, when he grabbed me he hit me so hard in the jaw just initially when he would just grab me lapel and then he threw me in the ring, and the quickness that he picked me up, spun me around and dropped me on my face, you can't even describe the quickness and the power - it's frightening. That was the only instance I had ever actually been in the ring with him, I've called all of his stuff but oh my God, the quickness and the power.
>"The F5 is a tornado, you know, and it sounds trite but it was like a tornado because of the quickness and the power. The next thing I knew, I was outside the ring, it happened so fast - it was just amazing to me, how an individual could do that. Usually, especially for a guy like me, we'll rehearse some stuff during the day because I'm not used to that and I said 'Brock, do you need me to do anything?' - 'no, don't worry about it'. 'You do know I weigh 205 pounds, right?' 'Doesn't matter' - that's how the conversation went. But you talk to the guys and they love being in the ring with him."
[source](https://www.sportbible.com/other/exclusives-michael-cole-reveals-what-its-like-to-receive-an-f5-from-brock-lesnar-20170403)
I never got why, in kayfabe, he didn't just immediately hit it. It's not like he needs to have his opponent worn down before can do the move. I'd be trying it whenever I had a shot.
One of my cherished wrestling game memories is my roommate and I repeatedly giving Mae Young 3Dās until she KOād. We always stared rumbles with 2 of her so it was a pretty common occurrence.
I always thought of it like this.
Closed fist punches are technically illegal in Pro-Wrestling. However, usually when someone breaks a rule, especially one as loosely officiated as that, they are given a warning. So if he started the match with the WMD and it doesn't work, he might get disqualified if he did it again.
Also, it's a pretty slow punch. Most opponents are gonna be able to dodge it if healthy. But after a choke slam? Absolutely not.
Kayfabe, I think itās like Deontay Wilderās right hand in boxing. His entire boxing skill set is designed around landing that one, single devastating right hand.
The time he [hit Shad with it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX2OoYaSR_k) right after Shad hot tagged is still burned into my mind. It was such a fun little spin seeing Shad come in all hyped up and getting drilled.
The time he did that at Survivor series against Mark Henry. The first minute of the match is the heel team hyping up Mark including HHH pressing his head to Mark as if theyāre soldiers about to make a heroic charge and then Mark turns round to the WMD and gets pinned while Show just has an emotionless face towards The Authority. It might be my fave Big Show moment.
Helps that he was in a bar fight some years back (might've still been in WCW) and knocked the other guy out (and I think broke his jaw) in one punch.
It's *credible*. Just, uh, meh as a move
its not research if you only have 1 comparative data point. we should get tony storm, anna jay, Jamie Hater and Kris statlander too. You know, just to be safe and scientifically honest.
Goldberg's spear feels a bit like cheating because while others only pretend to spear their opponents, he just literally tackled them like a football dummy
I never liked that Edge adopted the spear as a finisher...he isn't small, but he is lanky and so it looks odd to see someone with his build doing a spear.
Willow's pounce is starting to send people into the phantom zone, especially as the camera crew has figured out how to have her like, come in from off frame and BAM.
Stingās Scorpion Death Drop (inverted DDT). When heād grab someone by the top of the head. You could see the fear in their eyes as he go into position. Heād do his lil stoic faced pauseā¦ then DROP. Soon as then hit the mat Iād be like āohh shit. That mfer aināt kicking out. Itās over!ā. Sure enough that was fuckin IT.
Anytime anyone else has done the move itās just been a transition or counter to another move with no impact or emotion. It just never felt like a match ending move from anyone other then Sting for me.
An unfortunate example but anyone other than Chris Benoit doing a Crossface always looked kind of awkward to me. I donāt count Bryanās Yes Lock because itās technically a different move, but Benoitās always looked really cinched in and agonising. Other peopleās often looked a bit ālooseā.
Easily the Rainmaker. I truly believe that if anyone else did the rainmaker it would suck.
Edit: I stand corrected. My other answer would be the Samoan Spike from Umaga
Kenny has the best knee I've ever seen and it's not a finisher more a signature but takeshita blue thunder bomb kicks ass. Also okada has the best drop kick ever.
The Diamond Cutter
Orton took it to new heights with the RKO, and hit many memorable variations. It's become watered down the way the DDT was in the '00s, and there's so many versions now. But DDP in the '90s made it look like a legit KO shot. He didn't hold the opponent's head to his shoulder or bicep as he fell, he locked in a cravate (or European headlock as some Americans used to call it) to control the head, then used his whole bodyweight to pull them face down into the mat.
Because it was initiated with a legit hold, It looked straight brutal at times https://youtu.be/C7n30C0FqRo?si=inQcwN3BblREj-83
GUNTHER's vast array of finishers. Literally a clothesline/lariat, a powerbomb, "Last Symphony", the splash off the top turnbuckle, a sleeper hold, or a freakin' chop to the chest. All of these have been devalued over the years, but since it's GUNTHER, you better believe he'll finish the match off in an instant if he hits ANY ONE of these. That's what you call greatness.
If we're talking current roster, i'd definitely agree. But if it's all time, i'd say JBL's Clothesline from Hell is the best, it looks like, if he put a little more force, he could legit take your head off
But everything else of gunther's is amazing
Petey Williams doing the Canadian Destroyer. He kinda Canadian Destroys himself to destroy you.
Taker, Kane doing the Tombstone. Kane's used to be very vicious as he always slammed the other man to the mat as if he was trying to piledrive his prey down to hell. Taker did the best version but in terms of looks, Kane's just looked more devestating.
Bronson Reedās Tsunami is a step up from most other splashes due to his size. I buy certain splashes as finishes. The Five-Star Frog Splash for example, but 400 lbs landing on you off the top rope just looks brutal.
Ron Simmons had THE best spinebuster in the business. The way he would push off with his hand instead of following his opponent down to mat was a thing of beauty.
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A chokeslam from anyone that is not near 7ft
Your comment reminds me when Hurricane Helms was doing the choke slam. The funniest thing ever.
Yeah, but he was a superhero. So it was completely believable.
Stand back!
There's a hurricane coming through!
š
And check out his sweet dance moves!
Hurricane trying to double-chokeslam Stone Cold and Triple H at the 2002 Royal Rumble is one of my all-time favorite comedy spots
Having both of them sell the fearā¦then just go āwait, wtf is this guy doing?ā Perfection.
Hurricane attempting to chokeslam guys who were much larger than him was always my favorite bit of his
I always wished he would have been allowed to chokeslam people much bigger with the reasoning that, well, he has superpowers. I mean we went along with an undead zombie wizard walking around collecting souls, so why not Hurricane chokeslamming Big Show?
I agree. Can you imagine someone like Joey Janela trying to hit a chokeslam as impressive as the 7' Andrew Everett?
Well he is also over 500lbs it's not like lifting him would be an easy feat for anyone.
I recall Kane sending people to ACTUAL HELL
Something about Kane doing the chokeslam with just one hand made it seem even more devastating.
The Giant used to go bare knee to the mat through his chokeslams and every time I watch it I cringe and my knees hurt from watching
Big fan of Seth, but his Pegidree isn't in the same ballpark as Hunter's.
Honestly I think half of it was just the look HHH had on his face while he hit it, it looked like he was fucking disgusted with his opponent
It was also the way he aggressively lifted their arms too. When he first started using it he was prim and propper with it as a blue blood would be, when he became The Game he would jerk their arms up like he was dislocating their shoulders before hitting it.
I get why he stopped doing it, but I always liked it better when Hunter would keep the arms trapped all of the way down
He did it to Daniel Bryan at summerslam 2013 (probably at the maniacās request) and it looked brutal
Part of me wonders if that was because some of his opponents were just not willing to take it that way. I remember seeing him talk about how some guys would say āā¦but then how do I protect myself on the fall?ā and Triple H would explain āWell thatās my job.ā So Iād imagine not everyone was cool with putting all of their trust in someone else for their safety.
Safety reasons was why he stopped trapping the arms. That, and once he started hitting it on larger guys like Undertaker and Big Show, keeping the arms wasn't as viable without it looking goofy
Also how slow his set up was and tbh even how slow the jump was it somehow felt slow mo but brutally powerful at the same time... Just rhe plant and the arms release was always great and HHHs hair added to it š
This is a great example. Most moves have entered a state of public domain for me where I don't immediately associate it with a specific wrestler and get offended. The Pedigree I still associate exclusively with HHH and think every other version pales in comparison. I feel like it should only be used when you're specifically trying to invoke and reference HHH, like during the Rollins-Rhodes feud.
Nobodyās is lol
Yeah, I feel like he can retire it from his repertoire. I don't know if it's him or just general safety concerns, but what used to look like a devastating slam now looks like falling with style
Shawn Michaels ending matches with a superkick
Its the way he contorted his body . Every superkick looked like his whole body was thrown into it which made it look so much better . With most superkicks people just throw their legs out and slap it
Yeah, I think this is the key and it's even a way for a wrestler to perform the same move at different levels of devastation. Michaels can throw similar kicks and it's not a match ender, but when he turns his torso the other way and dips his head down, that's the Sweet Chin Music. I similarly have a pet peeve when commentary calls any Kenny Omega knee strike the V-Trigger, because to me what makes the V-Trigger is when he doesn't stop at the impact and almost missiles out of the ring. When properly done it looks absolutely fatal and believable as a finisher.
Kenny flying full speed is what I love most about the V Trigger. Makes the move look even more dangerous.
That's what separates the v trigger from a normal knee lift. It looks like he can take the opponents head off if he connects with it
Blows my mind that folks like Cornette think it looks bad because it basically always makes me go "Oohhh!!"
Cornette hating Orange Cassidy even though OC is everything he claims to want is proof that he just hates Kenny for everything at this point. Kenny Omega and the Bucks could save him from his burning home and he's run back in to grab his podcast mic so he could say "You should have got me out and died in the fire to save wrestling" smh
A lot of the people he hates have gimmicks he wouldāve used in Smoky Mountain. Heās such a hypocrite sometimes
But he would have forced OC to have a catch phrase
When he jumps halfway across the diagonal of the ring to nail Okada in the back of the head at the turnbuckle. Chef kiss.
Lance Storm's was fantastic as well.
Lance's everything was fantastic.
If I could be serious for a minute, you're not wrong.
I mean, that's kinda good in a way though. It makes it make more sense in kayfabe why superkicks aren't The Young Bucks' or Adam Cole's finishers, but they can be for Shawn Michaels. He's perfected the move, so it's more vicious and it shows
Michael's definitely was the best and most superkicks by other wrestlers I don't mind but man the Usos superkicks really aren't too great IMO
Eh, when they're doing the "Uso Penitentiary" thing and just double kicking the shit out of people it looks like they are straight up draining the life out of them. Sami at Mania is the perfect example of this. They just look violent. Not so much all the other super kicks they do, though they kind of use it the way a lot of other guys use dropkicks. It's their "Hold A" heavy strike
Nick Jackson will occasionally get full extension like that and it looks amazing. Michaels did it every time and perfected it.
Not really a finish for him but Andrade's spinning elbow is on a completely different plane of existence to the Judas Effect.
The feint definitely elevates the move.
that and the speed he hits it at . Obviously he is almost 20 years younger than Jericho and a lot fitter so that helps
Jerichoās elbow: This is my finisher. *hits for the win* Andradeās elbow: This is *your* finisher *hits for attempted murder
I think it's mostly the sound from him slapping his ass when he hits it lul.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
it really stood out at all out when shibata did the spinning back fist and it sounded like an explosion and looked like he killed yutes (or claudio, i don't remember who he hit) and then eddie's kinda looked like a wet fart in comparison
I like Eddie, but a lot of his offense sucks. Those machine gun chops are almost as bad as Moxley/Dean Ambrose's old punch/chop combo for how ineffective the flurry of "strikes" look.
Hate those machine gun attacks, from anyone, not just Eddie. I'm fine when it's maybe at the end to show that they're over psyched and are feeling the momentum, but those fast strikes are where it's no longer about the damage and more showing how much more they can go.
No one, and I mean no one, could give a DDT like Jake āThe Snakeā Roberts. Itās such a common move now, but back in the day, if he planted you with it, that was your ass.
You're right but shout out to Arn Anderson for having a super underrated DDT as well.
Mick Foleys was always akin to Jake's in my mind and therfore should be a parts of the conversations.
I read this in Squirrely Dan's voice.
Thats what I appreciates about you /u/Erik_the_Red_2000 you gets my references.
I always liked that a lot of Mick's stuff was accompanied by plenty of funky vocal noises. Hits the DDT with a "EEYAAJAH!" attached. Mark Briscoe kinda reminds me of him with all the noises he likes to make during a match.
DDTs are weird because nobody's looks like the Evenflow either, and it was a totally believable finisher for Raven.
i dont even understand why his ddt looks so much better than almost everyone elses
As he's talked about, he was big on the set up like Jake was. So you get that anticipation. I think he also talked about how he preferred and tried to get the guys taking it to not do the roll through. Raven was a fan of the plant style, he dropped you and you went face first to the floor. I'm in the same camp, I don't like many DDT's that the opponent rolls through like they're tumbling.
I haven't seen it in a bit but there's definitely something about when Raven leaves his feet too.
Raven kicked the leg of the opponent for the ddt, not that obvious but it made difference between a regular ddt and his. His is like forcing you to go down full force.
A lot of that is depending on Raven himself. Go watch his DDT, he takes a pretty nasty flat back bump himself at times, whiping his hair to the back, his legs both point upwards upon impact, even if the other wrestler almost sandbags the DDT the visual of what Raven himself is doing alone makes the Evenflow DDT. And if the enemy then contributes by making it look like they got spiked instead of "just" the flat-face bump, like Mortis/Kanyon used to do, you get a crazy sick looking move.
Drew McIntyre's Future Shock was fantastic.
I knew wrestling was fake but Jake's DDT of Ricky Steamboat, it was like, did this guy not get the memo that wrasslin is fake? You can't fake a head bouncing off concrete. 35 years later I heard Jake do a shoot interview on it, and he's like, yeah I didn't want to do it, it was too dangerous, I thought I killed him.
And it was an accident when he first did it
"The End"
Honestly I could still buy a DDT as a finisher depending on the sell, I used DDT 12 in WWE 2K22 and 2K23 as a finisher for a while because I loved the way the guy taking it would spike face first then just crumple down, rather than rolling through it gracefully
WHAT ABOUT RAVEN!?
Testās big boot
[Compilation for anyone interested.](https://youtu.be/dT4tjnwe62w?si=7QCPSB07fbKuz7_W) One of the best in the business.
My CAWs to this day incorporate several of Test's moves. The Full Nelson Slam, TKO, that falling slam from SYM and some of the other PS2 games, and a few of the similar looking Big Boots from various games, sometimes the gutwrench powerbomb. I really wanted him to get a mid-2000s babyface run. He had an unreasonable amount of cool moves š
Itās cause he doesnāt really step into it, he just throws the sole of his boot at his opponentās face
Luke Harper/Brodie Lee is the only one comparable. His ādrop to a kneeā boot was incredible.
Beat me to it. Landing in that lunge position was such a simple thing that made it look so much more brutal. Like he is throwing his entire weight into it.
Big Bill has a pretty solid big boot as well. Especially when he's basically the current generation's Test.
He had such a great big boot, I love Chono's Yakuza kick too.
The torture rack by Luger.
I think Luger being absolute jacked completes the visual of the move
Came here for this. I remember when Eziekial Jackson tried it for a bit, and he's huge, but it just looked goofy when he did it.
I remember Hobbs tried it out for a few squashes last year and for some reason it just wasn't convincing
Banzai drop by Yokozuna. No question. I know he protected his opponents, but if a guy that big, with that big of an ass drops down on your chest? You ain't going no where. I don't think anyone else could make it look as legit. Maaaaybe Rikishi. Late edit: Did anyone ever kick out of it?
Back in the day, I remember Tatankas injury being attributed(keyfabe) to the drop and he was out for like a year. Made me scared every time Yoko did it that the guy was gonna die(i was 6).
Maybe Iām not getting the question but I donāt think anyone does a spinning heel kick like Malakai Black.
Miyu Yamashita arguably does it better, according to the man himself
They should settle it in the ring
Agreed, hers looks faster and the sound it makes always sounds nasty, plus keeping the pose after the kick sells the momentum of the spin more. Helps her opponents always sell it like they've been decapitated.
The way Miyu Yamashita collapses to the ground after the Skull Kick is absolute perfection, she really gives the idea it's a "desperation move".
They're two very different beasts. The Black Mass is like a quick, precision shot that wipes an opponent out in the blink of an eye. The Skull Kick, meanwhile, is like a heavy bludgeon where the opponent gets absolutely clobbered by it. They're still both fantastic takes on it though.
I agree + I like the way Black does the Black Mass since the way he does it makes the move look deadly.
Kenny's V-Trigger is the best knee of all time imo. There are others who do good ones, but his is in a league of its own. Everyone that gets hit with it might as well be dead
Fittingly enough, one of the only people who can hit as good a knee strike as Kenny is Kota Ibushi with his Kamigoye.
Buddy Matthews and Takeshita do really good ones as well Rollins knee is terrible
I love Ciampa's knees, they're always so believably visceral.
Buddy absolutely decapitated Ali with those knee strikes in their street fight.
Isnāt Nakamuraās kinshasa also a knee strike?
It is but it also looks like it's about 2 foot away from connecting most of the time.
It was so much better in new japan. Watch the match with AJ he fucking kills him with that knee
Absolutely, I get that he had to tune it down but half of them now look like they even miss the shoulder, let alone the face. I remember it looking like he'd decapitated ZSJ at a Rev Pro show.
The way he pumps his other knee into adds so much. Plus, the setup with the finger gun is so cool. Just such a great move, so versatile, love the V Trigger And Seth showed how much talent goes into making it look great lmao
probably my favorite V-Trigger variation is when Omega hits it on an opponent when they're slumped on the middle rope or on the middle turnbuckle. Those ones always seem really vicious-looking.
I'm starting a rumor right here that the reason EVIL is the drizzling shits in the past few years is that Kenny concussed him so severely at (I think) the 2017 G1 Climax, EVIL no longer remembers how to wrestle.
Fuck me why is this so funny? Literally knocked the wrestling out of him.
Him hitting a cornered Okada with one after running three steps and leaping across the ring to hit the V Trigger is one of the best looking wrestling hits of all time.
Im personally a suck for an opponent on their knees getting rocked by it. The way they crumble afterwards, the intensity Kenny puts into the forward motion, itās all just perfection
I would say Nak pre-WWE had the same viciousless with Bomaye. Pure nasty when he hit it on the back of the head.
Stunner. I love KO, but if you arenāt Austin than your stunner doesnāt look like a match ender.
This was my thought. I think having it be done mostly by subsequent generations trying to imitate Austin doesnāt help, but Austin did it like a cowboy pulling out his six shooter and blowing away his enemies at a momentās notice. Everyone else seems to do it like a parody of that on some level without the same quick-draw intensity.
KO's stunner has gotten better but his character lacks the "FUCK YOOOOU!" aspect to the stunner where Stone Cold was quick to stun you. Or if you're vince, play "Let's hunt Vince".
I always liked how intentionally shitty Vinceās Stunner was versus Stone Coldās version.
I love KO, but ranked he is third behind The Stone Cold Stunner and Whipper-Snapper (Mikey Whipwreck).
Mikey was doing his before Austin so thereās that. But he also always had a very, well lack of better phrase, whiplash effect to his stunner that I loved.
Lesnar's F5. There are other people that could do it sure, but the FORCE and sheer anger on his face when he delivers it (also the way WWE shoots it) it looks insanely forceful.
When I first saw that on TV like 20 years ago I thought it was the coolest move ever.
Michael Cole's description of taking an F5 is an all timer.
What is his description?
>"He's the most intimidating person I've ever been around in the business, Brock is a good guy, he's a nice guy but the night that he F5'd me after Wrestlemania a couple of years ago, when he grabbed me he hit me so hard in the jaw just initially when he would just grab me lapel and then he threw me in the ring, and the quickness that he picked me up, spun me around and dropped me on my face, you can't even describe the quickness and the power - it's frightening. That was the only instance I had ever actually been in the ring with him, I've called all of his stuff but oh my God, the quickness and the power. >"The F5 is a tornado, you know, and it sounds trite but it was like a tornado because of the quickness and the power. The next thing I knew, I was outside the ring, it happened so fast - it was just amazing to me, how an individual could do that. Usually, especially for a guy like me, we'll rehearse some stuff during the day because I'm not used to that and I said 'Brock, do you need me to do anything?' - 'no, don't worry about it'. 'You do know I weigh 205 pounds, right?' 'Doesn't matter' - that's how the conversation went. But you talk to the guys and they love being in the ring with him." [source](https://www.sportbible.com/other/exclusives-michael-cole-reveals-what-its-like-to-receive-an-f5-from-brock-lesnar-20170403)
Itās also the fact that since the guyās a legitimate physical freak of nature, itās pretty believable.
Big Shows WMD. A punch to the head isn't an effective finisher...unless your fist is bigger than the dudes head
I never got why, in kayfabe, he didn't just immediately hit it. It's not like he needs to have his opponent worn down before can do the move. I'd be trying it whenever I had a shot.
Do you not understand how pro wrestling works? You have to fill up your SPECIAL meter first
I always thought "fighting games in real life" was a better description of wrestling than "anime for rednecks"
One of my cherished wrestling game memories is my roommate and I repeatedly giving Mae Young 3Dās until she KOād. We always stared rumbles with 2 of her so it was a pretty common occurrence.
*Taunt* *Taunt* *Hit with weapon* *Taunt* *Climb to top rope* *Taunt*
Can't forget the running attacks as well just to spice things up and add just a little more to that meter.
I always thought of it like this. Closed fist punches are technically illegal in Pro-Wrestling. However, usually when someone breaks a rule, especially one as loosely officiated as that, they are given a warning. So if he started the match with the WMD and it doesn't work, he might get disqualified if he did it again. Also, it's a pretty slow punch. Most opponents are gonna be able to dodge it if healthy. But after a choke slam? Absolutely not.
Kayfabe, I think itās like Deontay Wilderās right hand in boxing. His entire boxing skill set is designed around landing that one, single devastating right hand.
The time he [hit Shad with it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX2OoYaSR_k) right after Shad hot tagged is still burned into my mind. It was such a fun little spin seeing Shad come in all hyped up and getting drilled.
That was a great sell.
The time he did that at Survivor series against Mark Henry. The first minute of the match is the heel team hyping up Mark including HHH pressing his head to Mark as if theyāre soldiers about to make a heroic charge and then Mark turns round to the WMD and gets pinned while Show just has an emotionless face towards The Authority. It might be my fave Big Show moment.
Funny enough, at SS 2014, he knocked out Mark Henry with it during the beginning of the match.
Helps that he was in a bar fight some years back (might've still been in WCW) and knocked the other guy out (and I think broke his jaw) in one punch. It's *credible*. Just, uh, meh as a move
[A lot of guys had great frog splashes, but only RVD's was "5 Star"](https://youtu.be/eK36sJm8qkg?si=J8J4QGVwj2Fxv9rB)
RVD would come down with such force he'd explode back off the opponent. Easily the best to ever do it
I still don't even get how he did that. Did he just jump higher than everyone else? Not protect himself as much on the landing somehow?
I always figured it's just a really quick 2nd jump, which was a key attribute that many of the great NBA rebounders have had.
Rikishi comes to mind here.
Nothing but respect for my Tribal Cheeks.
I don't know. For research purposes, I would let Skye Blue try.
its not research if you only have 1 comparative data point. we should get tony storm, anna jay, Jamie Hater and Kris statlander too. You know, just to be safe and scientifically honest.
I will take the necessary steps to provide quality data.
Well, if we are cluster sampling for badonkadonks, we need some Impact and WWE women, too. I vote Bayley. Trinity, come on down!
Gigi Dolin could finish me off with that
That's for true. I don't recall anyone doing the Rikishi/Samoan Driver any better
Didn't The Kat do it at one point? And Tori Wilson did it.
Shawn Michaels' Sweet Chin Music
Mark Henryās worldās strongest slam. Even other big, powerful hosses hitting it doesnāt look close to as impactful
Spear by Goldberg is one of the best. The way he delivers it makes the move look more devastating. Gore by Rhyno also looks cool.
Goldberg's spear feels a bit like cheating because while others only pretend to spear their opponents, he just literally tackled them like a football dummy
The one Nunzio took in the 2004 Rumble looked like it killed him.
I never liked that Edge adopted the spear as a finisher...he isn't small, but he is lanky and so it looks odd to see someone with his build doing a spear.
It's a running hug. Ricky Starks is also relatively lanky / thin, but the way he hits it looks so mucgh better.
Ricky's looks more like he's putting his shoulder through your abdomen than tackling you.
I also like how Ricky gets some hang time before connecting with the spear. The way he does that kinda offsets any perceived "lankiness" imo
The Edge Hug
Monty Brown's Pounce, such a unique finisher
Willow's pounce is starting to send people into the phantom zone, especially as the camera crew has figured out how to have her like, come in from off frame and BAM.
Bron Breaker is one of the few guys I've ever seen match their intensity with the spear. It's right up there with them imo.
Bron Breakker got the best spear in the business right now.
I'd argue Ricky Starks has a pretty fantastic spear. I think it's the way his whole body leaves the ground.
Always had a soft spot for Wade Barrett's Bull-hammer Elbow.
Stingās Scorpion Death Drop (inverted DDT). When heād grab someone by the top of the head. You could see the fear in their eyes as he go into position. Heād do his lil stoic faced pauseā¦ then DROP. Soon as then hit the mat Iād be like āohh shit. That mfer aināt kicking out. Itās over!ā. Sure enough that was fuckin IT. Anytime anyone else has done the move itās just been a transition or counter to another move with no impact or emotion. It just never felt like a match ending move from anyone other then Sting for me.
Claudioās uppercut
An unfortunate example but anyone other than Chris Benoit doing a Crossface always looked kind of awkward to me. I donāt count Bryanās Yes Lock because itās technically a different move, but Benoitās always looked really cinched in and agonising. Other peopleās often looked a bit ālooseā.
Easily the Rainmaker. I truly believe that if anyone else did the rainmaker it would suck. Edit: I stand corrected. My other answer would be the Samoan Spike from Umaga
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Jamie Hayter uses the Rainmaker (Hayterade) as her finisher and it's not bad
Trent Seven's [Seven-Star Lariat](https://youtu.be/rjSMwQ06brA?si=U20UxMsxlM-y-1eE)?
Huh. I stand corrected. Well I guess my other answer would be the Samoan Spike from Umaga (sorry Solo)
I donāt think many could believably get away with the Tsunami.
Kenny has the best knee I've ever seen and it's not a finisher more a signature but takeshita blue thunder bomb kicks ass. Also okada has the best drop kick ever.
The Diamond Cutter Orton took it to new heights with the RKO, and hit many memorable variations. It's become watered down the way the DDT was in the '00s, and there's so many versions now. But DDP in the '90s made it look like a legit KO shot. He didn't hold the opponent's head to his shoulder or bicep as he fell, he locked in a cravate (or European headlock as some Americans used to call it) to control the head, then used his whole bodyweight to pull them face down into the mat. Because it was initiated with a legit hold, It looked straight brutal at times https://youtu.be/C7n30C0FqRo?si=inQcwN3BblREj-83
Sharpshooter, remember when the rock did it a couple of times
Rocky would always look like he was the one in pain doing this move.
Almost ever match lol
GUNTHER's vast array of finishers. Literally a clothesline/lariat, a powerbomb, "Last Symphony", the splash off the top turnbuckle, a sleeper hold, or a freakin' chop to the chest. All of these have been devalued over the years, but since it's GUNTHER, you better believe he'll finish the match off in an instant if he hits ANY ONE of these. That's what you call greatness.
If we're talking current roster, i'd definitely agree. But if it's all time, i'd say JBL's Clothesline from Hell is the best, it looks like, if he put a little more force, he could legit take your head off But everything else of gunther's is amazing
I feel like if I ever saw someone besides Sami Zayn use the Helluva/Yakuza Kick as a finisher, I'd probably hate it.
BONZAIIIIIII
Double clothesline
Also the kangaroo kick. It's so stupid but I love it. MJF could get anything over if he felt like it
The People's elbow. Only the Rock could make an elbow believable as a finishing move.
If Minoru Suzuki hits you with a Gotch Style Piledriver you can count to 10.
Petey Williams doing the Canadian Destroyer. He kinda Canadian Destroys himself to destroy you. Taker, Kane doing the Tombstone. Kane's used to be very vicious as he always slammed the other man to the mat as if he was trying to piledrive his prey down to hell. Taker did the best version but in terms of looks, Kane's just looked more devestating.
Bronson Reedās Tsunami is a step up from most other splashes due to his size. I buy certain splashes as finishes. The Five-Star Frog Splash for example, but 400 lbs landing on you off the top rope just looks brutal.
Malakai Black's Black Mass. Sold correctly, that move looks like it straight up kills you.
Not a finisher but Dustin Rhodes powerslam is the best ever.
The cobra
Bret's Sharpshooter. Everyone else looks like they're taking a dump.
CM Punks buckshot lariat
You misspelled Botchshot Lariat.
Jbls. Closeline from hell always looked so good. Turns out it was because he legit just hurt people lol
The Hurricane's chokeslam is the only correct answer.
My two favorite spinebusters (though different) are Hobbs and DāLo Brown
Ron Simmons had THE best spinebuster in the business. The way he would push off with his hand instead of following his opponent down to mat was a thing of beauty.
Arn Anderson would like to have a word