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From the Bowery: WWE Countdown: Fantastic Finishing Moves

March 13, 2014 | Posted by Robert Leighty Jr.
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From the Bowery: WWE Countdown: Fantastic Finishing Moves  

From the Bowery: WWE Countdown: Fantastic Finishing Moves

-Back it again with the 3rd episode of WWE Countdown and this time we look at Finishing Moves. This should prove interesting and cause some high quality debate.

-The talking heads discuss the importance of a finisher and how everyone has their way to call for their finisher. Hayes says to be a true finisher it has to get a response from the audience where they are yelling Oh My God! AJ Lee is one of the talking heads this week and I kind of appreciate that for obvious reasons. They show quite a few finishers during this montage and I tend to think we may not be seeing most of them in this countdown.

10: DDT

-Already I am kind of annoyed as I think this is way too low, but that’s because this is my favorite move of all time. I have told the story before about cracking my sternum in high school when I gave my girlfriend a DDT while watching Spring Stampede 1998. A year earlier while doing a play in speech class I dropped my friend with a sweet DDT during class while we were acting out a street fight. Good times! Striker mentions that when he was a kid the DDT was the be all, end all move. They cover how Jake invented the move by accident, but soon realized it was awesome. I could watch Jake murdering poor jobbers with the move all day and not get tired of seeing it. The move is just that fantastic, and yeah I know Randy does the draping version, but someone needs to bring it back as a killer finisher. Thankfully they do touch on the fact that Raven used the hold and that does my heart good.

9: 3D

-Nice to see the Dudley Boys getting a shout-out on this list with their finisher. Naturally Heyman and Dreamer put over the move. Would be great if they would show the one that “broke” Beulah’s neck and wrote her out of ECW, but I don’t think we will be seeing any man on woman violence. They just keep pulling out ECW alum as now Credible puts over how the crowd would pop for the move. Dreamer mentions that being on the receiving end of the move sucked. Heyman talks about how there is a lot that can go wrong with the move, but it was always executed flawlessly. They discuss the move being paired with a table and how it took things to another level. Good point there!

8: Pedigree

-You had to kind of figure this would be on here somewhere and I hope they show the botched pedigree that looked like it killed some poor jobber. AJ calls the Pedigree one of her favorite moves of all time and Drew McIntyre calls it one of the coolest moves. We get footage of HHH in WCW, and Terry Taylor tells how he told him of the move, but HHH added in the putting the arms in a chicken wing. Taylor relates that he told HHH that he wouldn’t take a move like that. Nice! The move is pretty fantastic to look at and it does look rather painful. Mick covers the pedigree in the thumbtacks and yeah, that had to suck.

7: Sharpshooter

-Our first submission move on the list and it’s kind of interesting he comes in at 1 spot higher than HHH considering the shots they have taken at each other over the years. They better cover the fact that Sting used the move long before Bret and with a different name. Taylor mentions that the move is so good because once it is applied correctly, it just looks nasty. Bret himself pops up and mentions that his sharpshooter is not the same as the Scorpion Deathlock, and that answers my concern about them mentioning Sting. Bret also mentions that Sting was using the move first, but mentions he likes to think the moves are different because of the way they are applied. Justin Roberts says with a smile that they are the same move, and Bret admits he took Sting’s move. He still insists though that they are different because of the way the legs are crossed and the way Bret applies the hold. Bret laughs as he mentions that The Rock needs some practice when it comes to using the move. No crap there as The Rock’s has always been known for being sloppy as all hell. Nattie uses the hold now as a way to honor Bret and she knows that she can’t do it as well as him.

6: F-5

-I love Brock as much as the next guy, but this seems a little too high for the move. Perhaps they talking heads can change my mind. Everyone puts over the awesomeness of Brock and they all call him the most impressive physical athlete they’ve seen. We get some fun video from the early days of Brock’s career when he just destroyed everyone. Thankfully they include the F5 of Cena from the night after Mania, but sadly don’t give us where he kicked Cena’s hat out of the ring. I guess it is kind of fun seeing Brock just recklessly toss people around the ring with the F5. I still think it is a little high on the list, but it’s still a sweet move. They discuss the F5 on Big Show as being the most impressive one, and that’s a pretty easy call there. Heyman puts over that he has hit the move of Rock, Show, Hogan, Taker, and even Vince McMahon. I forgot all about that one and yes it is still awesome.

-The countdown to this point is recapped. Scroll back up if you need a refresher.

5: RKO

-Much like the Sharpshooter/Scorpion from earlier, they better touch on DDP using it as the Diamond Cutter. I am ok with this being top 5 and really would have put it higher than at least one move that is ranked above it on this list. They put over how impactful and sudden the move is. The art of surprise is the best thing about the move and Orton, like DDP, has taken to being able to hit the move out of nearly any situation. They show quite possibly the greatest one ever when he hit it on Bourne as he was trying the Shooting Star Press. DDP shows up and mentions that Orton put his own spin on the move, but they don’t cover the fact that Page used the move first. Boo! They go over the Mania match with Punk and the RKO that finished that one as Punk got caught spring boarding into the ring. That was a hell of a match that tends to get overlooked. They go back to DDP as they keep teasing me and again they ignore the fact that he used the move first.

4: Sweet Chin Music

-Yeah, this one is top 5 for me, and Cody calls it the best finisher of all time. We get a montage of the move and they all look sick including the one on Angle at Mania. Shawn pops up to discuss how he used the teardrop suplex and thought it was ok at the time. He used the kick to set-up that move and realized that it was a better finisher that he could do on guys of any size. He credits Patterson with telling him that the kick is better. That’s why Patterson is a genius! They discuss Shawn warming up the band and Santino wonders why the opponent ever gets to their feet when they hear the stomping. JBL says the same thing and then admits he fell for it as well. WOOO: They discuss the Barber Shop and how he kicked the piss out of Jannetty to end the team. Of course we get the kick that “ended” Flair’s career at Mania and Bryan loves the kick given to Bret at Mania XII that won Shawn his first WWF Title. Yes! They also show my favorite one ever where he caught Shelton Benjamin on RAW. Great match there!

-They cover finishers from the top rope and we get Savage’s Elbow, Snuka’s Splash, and RVD’s Five Star Frog Splash. Nattie’s pick is Snuka’s splash and Booker T takes Savage’s Elbow. I would put Savage’s Elbow on this list as it is something I love doing when I mess around on my trampoline. Eddie’s frog splash is covered along with Gabriel’s 450 and Bourne’s Shooting Star. Santino likes the Swanton Bomb from Hardy and how he had no regard for his body when he performed the move. AJ calls the top rope finishers the most exciting in the WWE to end things.

3: Spear/Gore

-This also seems kind of high compared to what else is on this list and what didn’t make the list. In this case they discuss the move as performed by Edge, Goldberg, and Rhino. Again you can tell by how excited he gets talking about him that Orton was a massive Goldberg mark. Edge using the move was cool and all, but showing it next to Goldberg and Rhino kind of blows Edge’s version out of the water. For Goldberg it wasn’t even his primary finisher, but doesn’t matter as he just creamed people with the move. Rhino looked like a freight train as he ran through people with The Gore and again it just crushes what Edge was doing to people. It is kind of amazing how over Edge got with the move considering it looked like it would break him in half instead of his opponent at times. AJ prefers Rhino’s Gore and I am sure there is a sexual joke that can be made there, but I will leave that to others. Barrett loves Goldberg’s spear and I tend to agree as again he just smashes people with the move. Cole puts over how Edge was a master of psychology and he would work the fans into a frenzy and wait for as long as possible before finally hitting the spear. They show the mother of all spears from Mania X-Seven when Edge caught Hardy while he hung from the rig that held the belts above the ring. They also discuss the flaming table spear at Mania 22. Awesome! Cool move for sure, but way too high at #3.

2: Tombstone

-No problem with this one being number 2 and they do discuss the fact that it is a move done by Taker and Kane. We get footage of Taker delivering the move to some jobber and it legit looks like it broke the kids neck with the way he landed and fell forward. Nasty! JBL laughs about being 0-1000 vs. Taker and how he took the tombstone so many times he has lost 4 inches in height. Foley shows up and mentions he always said a prayer each time he took the move as a lot can go wrong. He mentions he was probably hit with the move more than anyone else, and each time it terrified him. They do show Taker delivering the move to Cena and again they better deliver on that match at Mania before Taker is done for good. Cena mentions the move is basically outlawed and only Kane and Taker can use the move and even then only on rare occasions. Kane says his version is a little different because he has more brute strength. Foley thought the move couldn’t be used on bigger guys, but then he saw Taker do the move to Vader and it blew that theory out of the water. That would be rather scary to take, and I’m sure reason Taker can bust it out still is because I don’t know if they would trust anyone else beside him at this point.

1: Stone Cold Stunner

-This is the clear cut number 1 choice so to me they have gotten the top spot right in all 3 of these countdowns so far. What can you say about the Stunner? It’s the move that literally saved the WWE and rebuilt Vince McMahon’s wrestling empire. You can tell Ziggler was a huge Austin fan and he always wanted Austin to interrupt matches just so he could watch people get stunned. That right there is why the move is so awesome: it’s fun to see Austin just stun the piss out of the entire roster. I am sure much like Hogan’s legdrop, Austin dropping on his tail-bone 2-3 times a night didn’t do his health any favors. A montage of Stunner’s is just a crap load of fun to watch and of course they show the one on Shawn at Mania that launched the Austin Era. Miz mentions the best part is watching the person take the Stunner. Miz says Vince is the best at taking the Stunner and I would argue with that one. Jericho covers the fact that Vince sucked at taking the move and you weren’t even sure it was a Stunner the first time he hit Vince with it. Santino mentions he took the Stunner after making fun of Austin’s movie, and I must say Santino did a hell of a job taking the move and selling it. Barrett mentions that the best thing was when Austin would go on a rampage and Stun like 5-7 guys within a matter of seconds. Bryan calls it the best move in wrestling history and Cena backs that up as well. Sadly they don’t cover Rock and Shane taking the move as nobody could beat the way they sold it. We end with the coolest visual ever of Rock getting Stunned at Backlash while operating a camera. Good stuff all around there!

-No preview for next week’s countdown, so I guess I will be going into that one blind

The 411: This series just continues to be a fun waste of time even if I don't agree with all the choices. The important thing so far is that in my opinion they have gotten the top spot correct each week. That trend continues this week as really, nothing was going to top The Stunner.
 
Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]  legend

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