WWE Top 25 Finishers: My List

Submitted By Patrick Kelley on 07/26/08

WWE.com has listed the Top 25 Finishers of all time. Here were the selections they made. 1) Stone Cold Stunner 2) Tombstone 3) Sharpshooter 4) Figure Four Leglock (Ric Flair) 5) Pedigree 6) Perfect-Plex 7) Sweet Chin Music 8) Rock Bottom 9) Tazzmission 10) Mandible Claw 11) Swanton Bomb 12) Frog Splash (Eddie Guerrero) 13) Razor's Edge 14) Van Terminator 15) Rude Awakening 16) Million Dollar Dream 17) Shooting Star Press (Kidman) 18) Stratusfaction 19) Total Elimination (the only completely non-WWE one to make the list) 20) FU 21) Randy Savage Flying Elbow Drop 22) Crossface Chicken Wing 23) Twist of Fate 24) Camel Clutch (Iron Sheik) 25) RKO Now the list is mostly what I would expect with alot of old classics making the list & alot of new ones to put over the current stars. Overall, this list is good. However, I have a few questions. How the hell are Jake Robert's DDT & DDP's Diamond Cutter not on the list? I guess The Diamond Cutter is the same as the RKO, but in all honesty, those two moves got over so huge it was insane and they deserve special individual notice. And the DDT was THE FINISHER of the 1980s. It might not seem like much now, but back in the day, nobody was getting up from it. NOBODY. And how in the hell did The Doomsday Device not make the list, but Total Elimination did. No offense to The Eliminators, but The Doomsday Device was THE tag team finisher. Anyways here is my list, sticking entirely with WWE. 25) The People's Elbow - Just for the sheer excitment of it. The move is entirely absurd and ridiculous, but he got it over and it got a huge reaction everytime, so how can you say it's bad? 24) Clothesline from Hell - When Bradshaw did the move back in the early 00s when he was with the APA, he made it look like he was killing the other guy. He's eased up on it a bit (probably because people were getting hurt) but it was damn sick a few years ago. 23) Figure Four Leglock - I don't see this move as belonging exclusively to Ric Flair as many wrestlers used it and got the move over. Tito Santana, Jeff Jarrett, & Greg Valentine just to name a few, but its one of the most classical wrestling submission holds ever without a doubt. 22) Sky High - A modified powerbomb used by D'Lo Brown. He would use either this or The Lo Down (his Frog Splash) to get the win. I've seen different variations of the Powerbomb, but this one was one of the most unique. 21) The Green Bay Plunge - I honestly have no idea what the name of the move is officially, but I've heard people use this name, so I will too. This is the Reverse Samoan Drop Thing off the top rope that Kennedy used to do. It's a very dangerous move, and it takes a while to set up, which is probably why he's changed it, but on special occasions, it'd be cool to see him dust this move off because it is very cool. 20) Dudley Death Drop (3D) - A classic Tag Team Finisher. It's hard to come up with really cool ones. Hell other teams at the same time period didn't seem to have any, but The Dudley Boyz managed to stand out with this simple yet visually stunning double team Diamond Cutter. 19) Stone Cold Stunner - I really like moves that are quick and can come out of nowhere. The Stunner definately falls in that category. It's probably the most over move in WWE history, and I'm not surprised that it made WWE's list at Number 1. 18) Hulk Hogan Combo (Hulk Up, 3 Punches, Big Boot, Legdrop) - Like The People's Elbow, this whole sequence of moves is kind of silly, but the way Hogan does it, you kind of forget that. And its amazing to see how people react to moves that are so basic and simple. That was one of Hogan's best qualities. Making the simple stuff mean more. 17) The Vaderbomb - Alot of superheavyweights had finishers that would exploit their massive size & weight. Bundy had The Avalanche, Gorilla Monsoon had the Blig Splash, Earthquake had his Running Sit Down, and so on and so on. But Vader had a move that show off his willingness to go up the ropes and come crashing down. Everything Vader did just looked like he was killing the guy, and this was a great move to end the suffering. 16) The Power Plex - This is a forgotten tag team finisher, and it was one of my favorites as a kid. Paul Roma & Hercules formed Power & Glory, a team that played on the fact that one guy was a finess athlete and the other was a powerhouse. Their finisher pointed this out perfectly as Hercules would give the opponent a Superplex & Roma would cap it off with a Snuka-esque diving splash for the win. Simple, but very cool. 15) The Pedigree - I wonder why Triple H never changed the name of it? I mean once he dropped the blue blood thing, you'd think it would have changed names, but whatever. It's a modified facebuster done in a way that is totally unique to Triple H, and as such it truly stands out. 14) The Frog Splash - This has been a staple for high flyers for the last few years now. Eddie Guerrero is most famous for using it, but RVD & D'Lo Brown also used the move very effectively (RVD's was the best) It's a really pretty move and a believable finish since the guy doing it just comes crashing down on the opponent. It's also far less dangerous and less likely to botch than moves like the Shooting Star Press or the 450 Splash. 13) Banzai Drop - Yokozuna was a mammoth of a man. With an ass as big as his, how cruel is it to have his finisher being him coming off the ropes and landing on you in a sitting position? Ouchies! He really looked like he was hurting people with it 12) The Jackhammer - Goldberg tore through WCW, using the Spear as a setup for this devestating finisher. Once he hit it, you knew it was over. As far as his WWE run goes, I'll never forget how he just ran through everybody in that Elimination Chamber match and drove people to the mat with The Jackhammer. It's a really cool move, and once again, it's just about completely unique to Goldberg. I remember watching a few guys trying to rip it off (Billy Gunn) and it just never was as cool as when Goldberg did it. 11) The Perfect Plex - Now I have heard people get on Robert Roode's case saying that his version of this move "The Payoff" is a weak finisher. Well I refuse to say that the move that Curt Hennig made famous is weak. And it certainly isn't. It's actually quite brilliant. It's not a devestating kill move like A Powerbomb or a Superkick. It's a pinning combination, or an inescapable trap. Gorilla Monsoon made the call on commentary all the time "If Perfect has the fingers locked, nobody can get out" and on the rare occasion that somebody did kick out, Gorilla would say that Perfect probably didn't have his fingers locked, cause if he had, it would have been over. I'll use an analogy here. Let's say I went fishing, and just for the sake of being lazy, I just ran my net through the water and somehow caught a fish. I didn't hurt the finish. It doesn't have a mark on it, but I won the fight cause he sure as hell not going anywhere. 10) Powerbomb - There have been many big men to use a version of the Powerbomb throughout the years. It's become a standard move among big men. As far as I know, Sid was the first one to use it, and if done right, the move really looks devestating and cool. Other versions have looked impressive as well like Kevin Nash's Jacknife or Undertaker's Last Ride. 9) The Doomsday Device - This is THE tag team finisher. It's been modified a few times. The Steiners' had a similar move, and LAX has been using a Diamond Cutter called the 5150 version, but The Road Warriors' original is classical and is my personal tag team finisher of all time. 8) Crippler Crossface - Yep I put Chris Benoit's finisher on here. Uh oh! As much as I hate to praise anything Benoit did nowadays, I have to say that I loved the Crossface was a pretty cool submission hold. It looked sick when Benoit really pulled back on it, and it just looked like there was no way out of it. 7) F-5 - I was never a big fna of Brock Lesnar, but his F-5 was a really cool finisher that displayed his power but also showed off something new that most WWE fans hadn't seen before. Like various other finishers I've talked about already like The Pedigree or The Jackhammer, this move is exclusively Brock's no matter who else uses it. 6) Sweet Chin Music - Many wrestlers have used the Superkick, and one could even argue that there are a few who do the actual kick better than Michaels. However, Shawn's version has the Hulk Hogan aspect to it where half the fun is just watching him set it up, and he can get you pretty good with that kick. It's a move thats a perfect combo of entertainment and ability, which is what Shawn was/is all about. 5) Tombstone Piledriver - A few others have used this version of the Piledriver, but I think its safe to say that The Undertaker is the first one that comes to mind when its mentioned. No other wrestler has a name for his finisher that fits the character quite as well, and of course he's dropping the guy on his head, so it looks great. And capping it off with that creepy cross arm pin is just extremely cool. 4) The Sharpshooter - My personal favorite submission hold ever, but I'm a Bret fan, so I'm biased I guess. But the best submission holds are the ones that look inescapable. I've already mentioned the Crossface, and there are a few others like the Camel Clutch & the STF (when done right...damn you Cena!) But Bret looked like he was just bending the guy in half when he did it, and the hold complimented Bret's style perfectly. 3) The Diamond Cutter - DDP's Diamond Cutter was the best because he did such a great job of hitting the move out of nowhere. When he hit it on Goldberg by reversing The Jackhammer, I thought that was one of the greatest things I'd ever seen. However, I'm not going to sell Randy Orton short. He is the only one I've seen that has tried to find new ways to hit the cutter, as opposed to everyone else who just kind of does it. When he countered Taker's Chokeslam into the RKO, my jaw just dropped. The unpredictability of the move is what makes it very cool. 2) Savage Flying Elbow Drop - Very few wrestlers used top rope manuevers as finishing moves back in the 80s. But Randy Savage's Elbow drop was my personal favorite. When Savage was in his prime, he coudl get up those ropes quick and hit the Elbow Drop perfectly, and it was always a great visual to see him put his arms up and pose before coming down with the elbow in his opponent's chest. Savage's elbow drop & Snuka's flying splash opened the doors for guys to really get creative on the top rope, which probably led to the creation of moves like the Shooting Star Press. 1) DDT - Jake "The Snake" Roberts stumbled onto pure gold the day he invented this beauty. Nowadays, you see the DDT used in just about every match, so it probably doesn't seem like much to modern fans, but to people that watched Jake, you know how special the move was. First of all, it was the most over finisher of the 80s. Name me another finisher that the fans chanted for duirng a match? I can't think of any. Secondly, he had the Diamond Cutter aspect I already mentioned where he could hit it in the blink of an eye without any warning. Also, Jake did a great job of making the move seem devestating and it was (just ask Ricky Steamboat) When Jake hit the DDT, the match was over. No ifs ands or buts, and technically the best finishers should be the ones that actually FINISh the match. That's what my list would be. If I went outside of the WWE, I could come up with a few more I really liked, but in WWE's history and long list of alumni, those were my favorites. :: DISCUSS THIS POST ON THE FORUMS! :: SEE MICKIE JAMES & THE DIVAS NUDE! :: BUY WRESTLING DVD'S THROUGH OUR STORE! :: GO BACK TO THE HOME PAGE WRESTLING EPICENTER STORE IS OPEN! THE HOTTEST WRESTLING DVD'S ARE NOW AVAILABLE! We've got hundreds of pro wrestling DVD's at your fingertips! All your favorite stars such as Hulk Hogan, Kurt Angle, Sting, Ric Flair, Bruiser Brody, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Harley Race, Andre the Giant, Dynamite Kid, Davey Boy Smith, Bret "The Hitman" Hart, Booker T, & countless others! We've also got the Divas! 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