Thought of the Day: The Death Of Finishers
I was watching the older Wrestlemanias a few weeks ago and Gorilla brought up something interesting.You would hear Gorilla talking about some wrestler and say that if they hit whatever their signature move was, the match would be over. This got me to thinking: are they any moves that are a guaranteed victory anymore? Back in the day, when someone kicked out of a big time finisher, it was a world changing event. Today if it doesn’t happen three times in a match the match is considered subpar. At that point, a move isn’t a finisher anymore. It’s a move you happen to do in a match.
I think it’s all about context look at the world title match at no way out 2009. It came down to edge and rey, the smart money was on edge, however towards the end of that match they had the crowd popping and believing it could end on transition moves. A cross body made you believe it was over. I don’t think it’s a question of finishers only being accepted, more match structure that is lacking.
The problem is that if someone loses to something other than someone’s finisher, people cry out that they’re being buried. How big of a fuss did people make because Punk lost to the People’s Elbow? It’s gotten to the point where people ONLY accept a high profile match to end with a finisher, and everyone knows it. Therefore the only way to surprise the audience with a kickout is after a finisher, because they kick out of everything else.
Then you tell fans that whine about it to get over it because it’s not that big of a deal. I know telling fans they’re wrong is blasphemy but contrary to popular belief, they’re not infants.
I completely agree, I’m just saying fans have grown accustomed to it.
How many people have kicked out of an RKO?
Definitely Cena and HHH. I think Christian did.
Rock & Austin abused the stunner/ rock bottom kick outs more than anyone, which followed to takers mania matches for that ‘impossible’ kickout, not really bothered by it, kinda nice when not abused
I blame the Undertaker/Shawn Michaels matches at Mania. They have ruined near falls for me. You know a match isn’t ending(especially a big time match at Mania) until at least 3 finishers are hit. Like you said, the match is considered not great unless they kick out of each others finishers the last 10 minutes.
Oh dude it’s been WAY earlier than that. The Angle Slam and Lionsault have been standard moves for years. This started back in the Attitude Era.