Finish him

[Carbomb]

15 minutes ago, JLM said:

The signature inescapable pinning hold has been used as a device for rookies in recent years, with moves like Wheeler Yuta’s seatbelt and AZM’s Azumi Sushi. Stardom has a number of signature flash pins where they work on almost everyone, but their ultimate rival will be the first to either kick out, come up with some fancy counter to it or develop their own variant on it. Sometimes all of the above. They then tell the story of the arms race between the rivals to come up with counters and counters to the counters etc. 

Danny Garcia’s jackknife pin isn’t a named finisher, but it has earned him brooch notable victories that people definitely buy it as a match ender. Fond memories of Genki Horiguchi’s backslide from heaven too of course. 
 

Genki also had a run where he kept losing to the classic schoolboy roll up. Otherwise incredibly resilient, kicked out of much worse routinely, but the schoolboy sent him into a blind panic and he could not escape. It was played for comedy and to tell the story of him being a choke artist, but I love the idea of wrestlers having kryptonite moves that turn those moves into “finishers” against them specifically. 
 

 

That's one that came to mind right after I posted. Didn't K-Ness have one as well, or did I dream that? The Dragon Clutch or the Darkness Clutch?

[JLM]

Yeah he had a number of signature flash pins, he also liked to do the specific counters to rivals thing. Most notable ones were his counter to Dragon Kid’s “Christo” head scissors into an arm bar. Countered it into a sort of stretch muffler style over the shoulder Boston crab, fittingly called the Judah/Judas. 
 

Against Yoshino too, he had his counter variant on the sol naciente (rising sun) called sol noches es (the sun is dark/gloomy). I assume he was going for “setting sun” there and didn’t quite nail the Spanish. 

Edited February 26, 2025 by JLM

[The King Of Swing]

36 minutes ago, JLM said:

AZM’s Azumi Sushi. Stardom has a number of signature flash pins where they work on almost everyone 

Saki Kashima's Kishikaisei, might be the greatest example of a signature flash pin, in wrestling. Ever. 

Sure people kick out of it a lot, but it's also just as likely that she'll get the win with it. 

Could be 10 minutes into a match or 20 seconds. Doesn't matter if it's against a rookie or even a main eventer. 

Nobody is safe. 

[Carbomb]

51 minutes ago, JLM said:

Yeah he had a number of signature flash pins, he also liked to do the specific counters to rivals thing. Most notable ones were his counter to Dragon Kid’s “Christo” head scissors into an arm bar. Countered it into a sort of stretch muffler style over the shoulder Boston crab, fittingly called the Judah/Judas. 
 

Ah, yes, I remember that! 

I think Dragon Kid had a flash pin called "The Bible" as well.

51 minutes ago, JLM said:

Against Yoshino too, he had his counter variant on the sol naciente (rising sun) called sol noches es (the sun is dark/gloomy). I assume he was going for “setting sun” there and didn’t quite nail the Spanish. 

I think he also used the Judas as a counter to the Sol Naciente at one point - I remember the first time I saw it was against YOSSINO.

EDIT: I've just remembered - I recently saw on YouTube a compilation video of "The 10 Worst Finishers In Wrestling", and one of them was some lass from NXT who uses a sort of schoolboy rollup, but has a Lightning Spiral-type slam element to it. The video was probably right in that it wouldn't be a great FINISH finish, but it would be a good flash pin, especially if it followed some kind of big strike. Can't remember what it was called.

Edited February 26, 2025 by Carbomb

[davertfnewman]

I don't think every match should finish with a person's finishing move, but I don't think finishing moves should be kicked out of often.

I'm also of the opinion that you shouldn't have loads of false finishes. Bret Hart got it right - make you think it's the end, but it's not, then you get the end.

[air_raid]

1 hour ago, Carbomb said:

EDIT: I've just remembered - I recently saw on YouTube a compilation video of "The 10 Worst Finishers In Wrestling", and one of them was some lass from NXT who uses a sort of schoolboy rollup, but has a Lightning Spiral-type slam element to it. 

Sounds like Gigi Dolin's Gigi Driver, which I've seen look pretty smooth and might be acceptable except for an unfavourable comparison to Martina's Jägerbomb, which has the same abdominal stretch setup but is far more spectacular and impactful.

[Carbomb]

Finally found that move I was talking about. It's Gigi Dolin's Gigi Driver.

 

I don't agree that it looks completely rubbish. There's a certain "gradation" of finishers in terms of how effective they are, even in the hands of wrestlers that use them. For example, if we're rating finishers out of ten for "finishing ability", I'd say the Burning Hammer, Tiger Driver '91, or the Tombstone would be 10. The Pedigree, Stunner, GTS, or Rock Bottom would be a 9. Edge's Spear or most submission finishes would be an 8 (simply because of how much they allow for fighting out of them). The X-Factor would probably be a 7.

That Gigi Driver I'd rate a 6 or 7 - it'd be perfect as a "snide finisher" for a heel to get the win, and people know it wouldn't win any matches if the heel hadn't used a foreign object or grabbed the tights.

 

EDIT: @air_raid got it while I was typing this.

Edited February 26, 2025 by Carbomb
Efan Ekoku

[tiger_rick]

Well, that's confusing. Think Gigi has had a wardrobe malfunction.

[air_raid]

3 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

For example, if we're rating finishers out of ten for "finishing ability", I'd say the Burning Hammer, Tiger Driver '91, or the Tombstone would be 10.

That gets problematic when you factor in how many people have kicked out of the Tombstone, so it can't be a 10. Kane and others even survived multiple in the same match and HBK took one on the fucking floor and it wasnt anywhere near the finish (wally).

People have kicked out of the Tiger Driver '91 too, Kobashi in '99 at least, off the top of my head. The Burning Hammer is probably the only 10, since End Of Days fell.

[Carbomb]

3 minutes ago, air_raid said:

That gets problematic when you factor in how many people have kicked out of the Tombstone, so it can't be a 10. Kane and others even survived multiple in the same match and HBK took one on the fucking floor and it wasnt anywhere near the finish (wally).

People have kicked out of the Tiger Driver '91 too, Kobashi in '99 at least, off the top of my head. The Burning Hammer is probably the only 10, since End Of Days fell.

OK, let's say the Burning Hammer goes up to 11.

[air_raid]

Just now, Carbomb said:

OK, let's say the Burning Hammer goes up to 11.

 

 

[Carbomb]

Theoretically, I suppose you could say Kobashi has two 11s, because no-one's ever kicked out of the Diamondhead Powerbomb.

[Callum1993]

WWE seem to have gone back and forth with this over the years. There was that spell where everyone was kicking out of finishers other than Lesnar’s F5 for about 2 years. He beat Ambrose, Strowman, Samoa Joe, Goldberg and Styles with a single F5 then it took 6 to beat Reigns at Wrestlemania 34. I think it’s a great storytelling device if done right but it loses all meaning if finishers are being kicked out of every week. 
 

It also makes a difference if the talent is over. No one kicked out of Baron Corbin’s End of Days from his debut in NXT in 2014 until Wrestlemania in 2022 against McIntyre. The build to that match was about no one ever kicking out of it and let’s be honest no one cared. 

[The King Of Swing]

Umaga's thumb to the throat showed that with enough patience, you can get almost any move over as a finish. 

Didn't Bruno famously mock Hogan's leg drop? 

Think there was also a shoot interview where Honky Tonk (maybe?) was asked how it felt to take Hogan's leg drop on house shows, and his answer was something along the lines of It was great, I made 10k every time I took it. 

[davertfnewman]

Lou Thesz was more of a critic of the Hogan legdrop.