Wrestling: Ranking the top 10 finishing moves in history
7. Sweet Chin Music
I know, I know.
It’s damn atrocious that this man and that finisher are so low on the list and honestly, I totally get it if you’d want to put this higher or even in the No. 1 spot.
Shawn Michaels is an absolute legend of the business, so much so that he’ll probably be on top of every single list on pro-wrestling. Greatest in-ring workers of all time, greatest sellers in history, best bump-takers, greatest storytellers, most charismatic, most hated people in Canada, etc.
The man is such a legend that if he doesn’t appear in the upper echelons of any given list containing the best of wrestling, its not an insult to him, but an insult to the list itself. It loses all credibility.
However, despite all that, I can’t put Sweet Chin Music higher on this particular list, and that’s because of Sweet Chin Music’s evil twin, the Superkick.
Don’t get me wrong, I bloody love superkicks. it’s one of those moves that I don’t mind seeing hit multiple times in a match. Also, it’s not even like wrestlers are ruining Shawn’s legacy by hitting bad kicks because believe me, there are wrestlers dishing out excellent superkicks.
The Young Bucks have the Double Superkick which a legend in and of itself. Adam Cole has shown brilliant timing on his kicks, check out his superkick to Johnny Gargano while Gargano is in the middle of a dive at NXT Takeover 25 or his kick to Ricochet while he’s upside down at NXT Takeover Brooklyn 4 to have your mind = blown. The Usos too hit high impact superkicks.
It’s just the fact that the superkick is now used too much. To say the move is overused would be an understatement. Seemingly every other wrestler is now hitting the superkick, wrestlers are hitting superkicks more than they hit the ropes.
It greatly devalues the impact of the move as a finisher when you see it hit 20 times in one match.
However, all that can’t take away the importance of the Sweet Chin Music out of true wrestling fans’ hearts.
In many ways, it was the first finisher that could be hit on anyone, anywhere, and at any time. It was outta nowhere before being outta nowhere was cool.
I can’t list all of the icon superkicks from Shawn Michaels because I have more entries to go through, but the Sweet Chin Music deserves a spot on this list for just 3 incidents alone. The two kicks that Shelton Benjamin and Rey Mysterio flew into, the impact of which has never been replicated to that degree, and, of course, the Sweet Chin Music that started it all, in Marty Jannetty’s face inside Brutus Beefcake’s Barber Shop.