There’s no getting up from these wrestling finishing moves…
Every wrestler needs a great finishing move. It signals the end of the match and helps a wrestler carve out their own identity. Without finishers, many of the greatest moments in wrestling and victories would never have happened.
Sadly, the basic premise of the finisher as the match-ending move has begun to shift in recent years. Repetition breeds contempt, and many fans got tired of seeing the same finishers being used to end matches. So over time, wrestlers starting kicking out of finishers, to a point where they could hardly be considered finishers at all.
This is where we find ourselves today. You can’t watch a big wrestling match without expecting at least one finisher to be kicked out of. John Cena is a prime example of this mentality in action. He does his signature ‘superstar comeback’ and hoists his opponent up for his finisher, the Attitude Adjustment. They drop down, get a little for of momentum, then get hoisted up and slammed down with the move, only to kick out at two. The same is true for the reverse; Cena (and other top guys in WWE and elsewhere) eat multiple finishers in a match, rendering those finishers useless.
That said, some finishers are simply awesome sights to behold, whether they’re kicked out of or not. Some moves look so elegant, devastating or downright shocking that they’ve become immortalized as the best finishers in wrestling history. That’s where this list comes in. Here we will look at the twenty greatest wrestling finishers of all time. These are the most impressive, difficult, dangerous and timeless moves ever created.
No matter how much the wrestling industry evolves and changes, people will still be remembering these moves years to come.
20. End of Days
If there’s one thing that Baron Corbin has going for him, it’s that he has an interesting finisher. The End of Days is unique, to say the least. It’s basically a Reverse STO (which many wrestlers have used over the years) with an added lift to it. Corbin grabs his opponents and leans forward, as if he’s going to do a front slam. He then leans backward, driving his opponents face-first into the mat behind him.
The End of Days is exactly what a finisher should be. It’s unique and easily identifiable with a single wrestler. It looks devastating, giving its user an aura of power about them. And most importantly, it signals the end of the match, with few chances of the opponent kicking out.
Even if Corbin’s character and storylines have been relatively bland as of late, at least he’s got an impressive finisher. Much like other wrestlers before him, he actually might get over on his finisher alone.
19. Kenta/CM Punk: GTS
In 2006, KENTA looked at the wrestling landscape and thought, ‘if I’m going to make an impact, I need to come up with something new’. What he did was he took his gimmick of being a stiffer-than-necessary striker, and add that to his finisher.
Thus was born the GTS, an insanely stiff knee lift to an opponent being dropped from a fireman’s carry position. KENTA, being a kicking specialist, got this move over big time because people knew he was hitting as hard as he could when delivering the move.
Meanwhile, CM Punk saw the move and adopted it as his own in WWE. Since few people watching WWE knew of KENTA at the time, they thought Punk came up with something novel. Regardless of who came up with it first, the GTS remains a highly popular finishing move.
That said, this is one move that does require considerable precision to avoid serious injury. Mistiming the knee lift can lead to a concussion, broken orbital bone, or worse. That makes it both a more dangerous move and a more exciting one, as some people get a thrill out of wondering if a match will resort to the most dangerous moves being busted out.
18. Pedigree
Triple H’s Pedigree is one of the most well-known finisher in history. He’s been using the move since 1995, and more often than not, the Pedigree was all he needed to win. Although not as popular, dangerous or technically complicated as other finishers, the Pedigree gets a special spot on this list due to how it, as a finisher, has been booked.
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If there’s one move that has been protected considerably in WWE, it’s the Pedigree. Very, VERY few people have ever kicked out of the finisher, and rarely has Triple H needed to execute it more than once in a match.
In fact, there was one prominent example of this move’s protection going overboard. At WrestleMania XIX, Triple H hit the Pedigree on Booker T but didn’t pin him right away. There was a delay where HHH crawled slowly towards Booker to pin him. Now, normally this delay spot sets up a 2 ¾ pin and a sudden kick-out. But this time, HHH pinned Booker T after over 15 seconds of Booker being out from the Pedigree.
Since then, more and more people have been kicking out of it in true WWE fashion. Seth Rollins, in particular, has dealt with more people kicking out of his version of the finisher, leading many to wonder if he should really bother using the move going forward.
17. Lariat
Sometimes the simplest moves are the best, and finishers don’t get simpler than the lariat. Used by the likes of Stan Hansen, Kenta Kobashi and JBL, the Lariat is a symbol of stiffness. There’s something inherently manly about swinging your arm and wrapping it around your opponent’s head and dropping them to the mat.
It looks painful, its execution is often followed by screaming fans and commentators, and sometimes you can also hear the sound of arm hitting torso/collarbone. The Lariat has proven to be the ideal finisher for wrestlers wanting to sell themselves as tough, no-nonsense brawlers.
Stan Hansen is arguably the most famous lariat user, as this was the move (in storyline) that broke Bruno Sammartino’s neck. Had Hansen not botched that bodyslam, he wouldn’t have needed to do much to convince people it was the lariat that injured Sammartino.
The way he hit was so stiff that it wouldn’t shock anyone that some necks were broken with it. His lariat, along with the ones executed by Kobashi and JBL, was like a lethal weapon.
16. Dragon Kid – Dragonrana
Cruiserweight wrestling can be considered the ideal combination of strength and speed. Many cruiserweights use both power moves and high-flying moves as their finishers, making them wildly unpredictable and exciting.
One case is Dragon Kid, who created one of the perfect finishers fitting his style: The Dragonrana. The finisher sees him stand on the top rope facing a standing opponent. He then does a 450° splash forward, hooks his legs around his opponent’s head, and then executes a Hurricanrana.
This is one of the most impressive luchador finishers ever created, and won the Wrestling Observer’s Best Finisher award in 2006.
Also, in case you were wondering, yes, a ‘phoenix’ version exists:
Athleticism at its finest.
15. Canadian Destroyer
First used by Petey Williams, the Canadian Destroyer is probably the most ‘indy’ finisher out there. Williams basically takes the already-dangerous standard back-to-belly Piledriver and adds a flip to it.
It’s incredibly illogical and more of a ‘flashy’ move than one grounded in pure wrestling psychology. After all, the guy taking the move is the one that has to do all the work. That person has to flip themselves backward and land on their own head, trusting the other person will protect them in the process.
So while the move might be overly flashy, it’s the prime example of the kind of training wrestlers has to endure. Not only do you have to get the timing and execution down perfectly, but you also have to train your body to ignore thousands of years of instincts and expose your head and neck to potentially life-altering damage. That tells you just how good at their job pro wrestlers are.
14. Sharpshooter
If you were to execute this finisher on an ordinary person, odds are it wouldn’t hurt that much. The Sharpshooter/Scorpion Deathlock is one of those moves that became popular by presentation alone. It lacks the legitimacy of the Crossface Chickenwing or other legit holds, but is a beloved submission move nonetheless.
Although it was popularized by Bret Hart in WWE and Sting in WCW, it has since taken on a life of its own. Anytime a wrestler, Canadian or otherwise, used this move, it elicited a huge reaction and won the match more often than not.
Whether it was The Rock bringing it out against his more technical opponents, or Cesaro using it to show off his own technical expertise, the Sharpshooter remains a highly successful and well-regarded finisher.
13. Cross Armbreaker
From the moment he started New Japan Pro Wrestling, Antonio Inoki wanted finishers to be real. He wanted his Strong Style to be a blend of wrestling with pure martial arts, so he booked many contests to end via submission.
One of the moves he (and many others) used to win was the Cross Armbreaker, arguably the simplest yet most effective submission hold ever. Its premise is easy: you pull an arm away from the body and try to hyperextend the shoulder and elbow. The move was incredibly successful in Japan and in many promotions around the world, and became a staple of MMA.
To many people, this is what an ideal finisher should be: not only simple and devastating in its appearance, but also to some degree realistic. Many finishers are so flashy and impractical that either it’s too obvious that the wrestlers are cooperating with each other, or the move doesn’t look like it hurts at all.
With the cross Armbreaker, an ideal milieu can be found.
12. Vertebreaker/Kudome Valentine
Have you ever looked at a wrestling move and thought, ‘are these guys really trying to kill each other?’ If so, odds are you were thinking about this ridiculously impractical and unbelievably dangerous Piledriver variation.
The Vertebreaker is a back-to-back Piledriver, where the unfortunate victim is held up only by their arms. The person delivering the move has no idea exactly how high off the ground the victim’s head is. So when they go to sit down, it’s basically a crap shoot if the victim won’t be dropped directly on their neck.
Like most ‘head-drop’ moves, the Vertebreaker was created in 1990s Japan, when the industry was in the midst of a ‘can-you-top-this’ craze. Japanese wrestlers male and female were all trying to see who could come up with the most shocking finisher, and for a long time, Megumi Kudo held that title with is devastating finisher.
The Vertebreaker was banned in WWE in 2003 and has seen rare use on the independent scene since. Given how the wrestling scene, in general, seems to be moving towards a ‘safer’ philosophy, finishers like this one might soon be a thing of the past.
11. Shining Wizard
In 2001, Keiji Mutoh underwent a major transformation. After years of using the Moonsault and the Figure-4 Leglock as his finishers, he wanted to try something new. So one day, when his opponent wouldn’t get up in time for him to end the match, Mutoh ran up to him, stepped on his knee and drove his own shin into that wrestler’s head. Thus was born the Shining Wizard.
Since then, Mutoh has made this not only his primary finisher, but his most frequently-used move period. For over a decade, Mutoh’s been getting huge reactions from fans for simply executing this one move from pretty much anywhere.
Since he created the move in 2001, Mutoh has been emulated by wrestlers around the world. From CM Punk to Gregory Helms to many Great Muta copycats, countless wrestlers have shown tribute to the legendary Mutoh by using his patented Shining Wizard as their finishers.
10. Phoenix Splash
The 450° splash is a fantastic move in itself. Seeing a wrestler perform a 450° forward flip onto an opponent is an incredible feat. But there’s one way to make this an even more awesome finisher: by starting the splash from the opposite position. That’s what you get with the Phoenix Splash, invented by legendary Japanese wrestler Hayabusa.
The Phoenix Splash is a rarely-seen move because of how hard it is to pull off. The wrestler performing the move has to rotate their body 180° right after jumping off the ropes, but before performing the 450° splash component of the full maneuver. In other words, it’s like two moves in one, all executed in less than three seconds.
So far, we’ve only seen two men in WWE perform this crazy maneuver. Seth Rollins performed it at the 2015 Royal Rumble in his title match against John Cena and Brock Lesnar. The other man is Kota Ibushi, who also performed a standing Phoenix Splash once during the Cruiserweight Classic. If that isn’t gravity-defying athleticism, I don’t know what is.
9. Tombstone Piledriver
You know a finisher is famous when, no matter who uses it, it’s called by the name given by its most famous user.
The Tombstone Piledriver looked awesome from the moment the Undertaker first used it. Everything meshed together perfectly: the way he’d drop/jump to his knees, the way his opponents fell down stiffly afterward, the ‘rest in peace’ pin. All of these things combined created a devastating finisher that made the Undertaker more supernatural with every passing match.
Because it’s one of the last ‘piledrivers’ in wrestling, the Tombstone always comes across as a special move. Even though it’s much safer that other versions, there’s still a lot of potential for danger. Dropping someone on their heads, although an excellent choice for a finisher, is one of the most high-risk moves in all of wrestling.
When the Undertaker wrestles his last match, you can count on him receiving a thunderous reaction when he drops his opponent with the Tombstone.
8. Styles Clash
Behold one of the simplest and most dangerous finishers in all of wrestling.
At first glance, the Styles Clash might look weak. After all, the victim isn’t falling from that high a position. In reality, the real danger comes from our natural instincts to curl up covering our torso as opposed to exposing it to danger. It’s because of that instinct that the Styles Clash quickly became a dangerous move.
When A.J. Styles debuted in NJPW, he injured multiple wrestlers with the Styles Clash because they took the move incorrectly. Over time, the move was built up as this ultra-dangerous force that might not just end a match, but also one’s career.
This storytelling and build-up made all of Styles’ matches must-see, as people were curious if he’d even pull the move off correctly. Given that reputation, it’s no wonder that crowds jump to their feet every time Styles prepared to use this finisher.
7. RKO
When he first started using the RKO as his finisher, Randy Orton didn’t have much going for him. Sure, the move looked cool. But it was already in the company of similar moves like the Twist of Fate and the Diamond and Bubba Cutters. It wasn’t until the internet did its thing and took something relatively bland and turn it into something hilarious that the RKO really got over as a finisher.
A few years ago, Vines and GIFs spread like wildfire through across the web. In them, a superimposed Randy Orton would RKO someone who was falling, giving off the impression that he was the one that caused them to fall. These hilarious and ludicrous videos were, more often than not, accompanied by Michael Cole screaming ‘RKO OUTTA NOWHERE’, leading to the meme’s birth.
It was through this organic movement that the RKO really became an incredibly popular move. The catchphrase ‘RKO outta nowhere’ likewise spread like wildfire, and soon people would cheer Randy on just to see him hit the RKO. Having a move that could be executed literally out of nowhere onto an unsuspecting victim makes this one of the greatest finishers of all time.
6. Stone Cold Stunner
This is the most famous wrestling finisher ever. When wrestling was at its peak in popularity, everyone knew what the Stunner was. It was simple in its execution, surprisingly effective in the world of WWE, and instantly recognizable.
When ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin went for that kick to the gut, crowds everywhere went nuts. Because they knew what was coming next. Austin would grab his opponent’s head and (supposedly) smash their jaw into his shoulder, ‘stunning’ them.
The move’s unpredictability went perfectly with his gimmick, truly driving home the ‘Texas Rattlesnake’ as a character. The move was so popular that Austin could walk to the ring, perform that one move, and leave, and the audience would still roar in approval.
Even if the move eventually became less efficient, as it was kicked out of many times, it still holds a degree of magic in it. You can guarantee that, if Austin were to ever enter a WWE ring again and give someone the Stunner, he’d get a standing ovation for it.
5. Shooting Star Press
When people discuss the dazzling aerial maneuvers created by cruiserweights, this is the first move that comes to mind. The Shooting Star Press is the greatest aerial finisher in wrestling, bar none.
It takes incredible skill to pull it off perfectly, and always looks fantastic when performed. Performing the mid-air backflip takes considerable precision and timing, as a mistake can be very costly. Brock Lesnar botched his SSP at WrestleMania XIX by not jumping too far, and Billy Kidman mistimed his rotation, causing his knee to hit Chavo Guerrero in the head.
Nevertheless, seeing a wrestler execute this finisher is dazzling, and is guaranteed to elicit a huge reaction whenever used. In fact, some wrestlers become famous just by executing this one move. Take Evan Bourne, for example. Apart from his perfect execution of the SSP, he didn’t have much going for him in WWE.
But it was that one move that he did do well, the Shooting Star Press, that really turned heads towards him.
4. F-5
Brock Lesnar could’ve used any other finisher and he would’ve been just another big guy in wrestling. But he was smart, and instead ended his matches with a maneuver no-one else had used before: The F-5.
Essentially, this is a sort of Facebuster done from a fireman’s carry position. But the F-5 was never about perfect technique or precision. It was always about Lesnar picking up his opponents onto his shoulders and dropping them face-first into the canvas as hard as he possibly could.
It even had an added twist: Lesnar could take the spinning component of the move and drive someone’s legs into a post, which he did with gusto when demolishing Zack Gowen. This finisher became a huge part of Lesnar’s aura. He’d pick up anyone, bigger or smaller, and demolish them without showing even the slightest indication of fatigue or weakness.
If he used any other move, there’s no way he would’ve become as popular among wrestling fans as he is now.
3. Last Ride
The Powerbomb is the go-to strongman’s finisher in wrestling. You see few lighter wrestlers used this move because this finisher’s all about sheer power. Lifting your opponent onto your shoulders and then slamming them back-first into the canvas is as devastating as it gets. Of course, there are ways to make this finisher even more powerful, as seen with the Last Ride.
Used primarily during his American Badass run, the Undertaker managed to take the Powerbomb that pretty much everyone used and make it his. The Last Ride is an elevated Powerbomb, meaning that he lifts his opponents even higher up before driving them downwards. The sound of hearing ‘Taker’s opponents hitting the mat with such force was deafening.
The move looked and sounded way worse than how it must’ve felt in reality. That’s the key in this finisher: it looked so good to the audience that they were sold on its brutality.
2. Tiger Driver ’91
Japanese wrestling during the 1990s was one of the most dramatic and exciting periods in wrestling history. A major reason for this was the degree of realism and multi-layered storytelling that went into many matches.
This was achieved by building matches up many times over, with every signature move built up like a potential match-ender. But at one point that storytelling evolved into a ‘let’s-see-who-can-execute-the-most-dangerous-move-possible’ direction, leading to the creation of the Tiger Driver ’91.
This move was popularized by Mitsuharu Misawa in 1991 (hence the name) and served as his super-finisher for years. It’s basically a Tiger Driver on steroids. The victim gets picked up, but instead of rolling onto their backs, they’re dropped directly onto their necks and shoulders. It’s a vicious finisher if there ever was one.
The finisher is sickening to watch, as Misawa’s opponent’s body is folded over them as they land on their necks. But it was through finishers like these that Misawa and his opponents became immortalized as some of the toughest wrestlers ever.
The only reason this move doesn’t rank at #1 is because it was kicked out of once. In response to that kick-out, Misawa would create another super-finisher called the Emerald Flowsion. The man who kicked out of the Tiger Driver ’91, Kobashi, would respond to this move by coming up with his own super-finisher…
1. The (Original) Burning Hammer
This is the best wrestling finisher of all time. It combines the elements of strength, technical precision, and extreme danger, all into one, nasty move. The Burning Hammer was popularized by Japanese wrestling legend Kenta Kobashi, who used it as his ‘super-finisher’.
This wasn’t just his ordinary go-to match-ending maneuver; he saved this move for his biggest and most important matches. In fact, he only used the move seven times between 1997 and 2006.
It isn’t hard to see why. This is ultra-dangerous move (which was brought to WWE recently in the Cruiserweight Classic) is extremely difficult to pull off safely. The poor soul taking the move has little means of absorbing the damage safely, taking most of the damage directly on the neck or upper shoulders.
When Kobashi first used the move, there was genuine shock from the commentators because the move looked like it could genuinely cripple someone.
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But the reason why this move is No. 1 is because it’s 100% successful. No one has ever kicked out of the Burning Hammer (when Kobashi used it). Each time he used it he won the match with it, making it the purest definition of a finisher in pro wrestling.