Back in 2009, Michelle McCool started to use a new finisher which she called the “Faith
Breaker”. You might be thinking, “Hey that looks very familiar!” and you’d be
right to think that as the “Faith Breaker” was merely a “Styles Clash”, the finishing
manoeuvre used and innovated by “The Phenomenal” AJ Styles. During the time McCool was using
the “Faith Breaker”, Styles was one of the top stars in TNA (now known as Impact
Wrestling) and contrary to what you might have expected, Styles had no problem with
her using the move. In fact, he was McCOOL with it… I’m sorry I had to. McCool continued
to use the move for a couple of years until her retirement in 2011.
When you think of Seth Rollins’ finisher you think of his deadly Curb Stomp, or simply
“Stomp” … we’re shortening the names of finishers now? … However, back when he
joined The Authority, he started to use Triple H’s Pedigree as his finishing manoeuvre.
The actual reason for this was because Vince McMahon banned the Curb Stomp in 2015 as he
thought the move could be easily imitated by little kids. So, instead Rollins used the
same move that won Triple H most of his 14 world titles and he even slayed The King himself
RKO finishing move is a modified version of DDP’s finishing move, the Diamond Cutter.
Or in the words of AJ Styles, a “knock-off Diamond Cutter”. Having said that, Orton
turned the move into the most destructive three letters in sports entertainment: RKO
and not to forget, all the memes it has created like this… and this… While it may be argued
that the RKO is just a glorified Diamond Cutter, Orton made it his own and won 13 world championships
courtesy of it. Still to this day, “The Viper” continues to strike from outta nowhere.
No-one is safe from the RKO, man or woman… or even plane…
The superkick was of course, made popular by “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels,
who used it to put away many of his opponents and win championship gold. Since then, the
move has lost its effectiveness over the years and that’s due to the fact that it’s used
in pretty much every wrestler’s arsenal, including that of “The Showoff” Dolph
Ziggler. Don’t get me wrong, the move is still great to watch but it doesn’t get
quite the same level of reaction back when Michaels used it. Ziggler has often been viewed
as a modern-day Shawn Michaels and with him now using the superkick in his repertoire,
you wonder why. In a recent episode of SmackDown Live, Ziggler confronted “The Heartbreak
Kid” and gave him a taste of his own medicine but only after Michaels completely owned him
first.
The stunner is one of the most iconic finishing moves in WWE history, made famous by “Stone
Cold” Steve Austin. “The Rattlesnake” used the stunner to raise hell on a number
of people, especially “The Chairman” Vince McMahon and his son, Shane, who is still a
recipient of the odd stunner to this day but not by “Stone Cold” Steve Austin but instead
by Kevin Owens. With a new and outspoken attitude, KO has now adopted the stunner as his finishing
move and is using it to wreak havoc on the McMahon family, namely Shane. Owens stunning
his boss got the approval of “The Rattlesnake” and as Austin tweeted, “somebody’s gotta
do it.”