Maybe I’m a wrestling grognard, but I feel like some signature moves in wrestling today just don’t have the impact they used to on a match, and also just don’t have the entertainment value they once did. So let’s talk about weak-ass moves first, then what looks to me like a sea change in what “finishers” (now a non-sequitur) mean.
Case in point: AJ Lee’s Black Widow. It just doesn’t look painful to me. Sharpshooter? Ow. Man? Crippler Crossface? Fuckin’ ow. Walls of Jericho? FUUUUCK.
Not so much the Black Widow, tho.
Then there’s Bray Wyatt’s Sister Abigail. I mean, he sells the shit out of it, but it just doesn’t have the punch of, say, a Tombstone or a Pedigree. That being said, I don’t watch Bray Wyatt for his wrestling, I watch him because he’s fucking creepy and inhuman.
Then there’s Roman Reigns’s (terribly named, but delightfully cinematic) Superman Punch. THAT is a badass signature move. Simple, powerful, showstopping…or at least it should be. Come to think of it, how many of those fuckers did he throw last night?
Like, is this a thing now? I haven’t really been following wrestling all that much. Has the Signature Move gone from a game-changer with match-ending potential to just a cheap pop mid-match that has almost no effect? You tell me.
Yeesh. If this a hangup than don’t watch any indie wrestling, my man.
Here is my thought.
WWE does nothing at all to protect their finishers.
They have a bad habit of having stars kick out of finishers rather than avoiding them. It’s not a big deal to see someone kick out of the AA (which is just a fireman scary honestly) or the F5. We see it every big match. Example Sting kicked out of a Pedigree last night, HHH kicked out of the reverse DDT, Randy Orton kicked out of the Curb Stomp, The RKO also got kicked out of, and so on. How many STF’s were in the Rusev V. Cena match? Three?
By comparison in NJPW when Okada faced Tanahashi in their post WK9 rematch, Tanahashi avoided the rainmaker clothesline like it was kryptonite. When Okada finally caught him in the views mind it was like “DONE!” because no one kicks out of that move, and Okada was trying to set it up the whole match. (Not to mention the great selling of Tanahashi‘s arm work by Okada , but that’s another thing.)
That’s how a group protects their finishers, more escapes before the move and less kicking out after the move happens.
Personally, I love the HELL out of the Black Widow. Looks painful as hell to me, and I love the way AJ applies it.
LOL, wrestling grognards. Pretty sure that’s half the audience
Isaac Sher and Nathan Paoletta a totally valid! Different strokes and all that.
Mark Van Vlack sounds like I should be watching NJPW. Finishers should, for the most part, be a devastating blow. I feel like using them constantly like this cheapens the whole nature of the signature move. And conversely, it also cheapens the heroic feat of kicking out of a signature move, which is also always happening.
Joseph Le May here is the match I referenced ..I think ..LOL they have met up a ton …
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x22s0av_hiroshi-tanahashi-vs-kazuchika-okada-04-07-13-njpw-invasion-attack-5-stars-match_sport
Kicking out of a finisher has become the new showing that you are tough, sad thing is that it makes finishers look like weaksauce if it is over used as a gimmick. Personally I think, the solution is two fold.
1) As Mark said, reversals not kickouts.
2) If you want a high impact tide turner for mid match, focus on signatures rather than finishers. Ex. Big Boot, DDT, top turn buckle suplexes, or high flying moves.
I’m cool with it if you have a few signature moves though. Like, say, the People’s Elbow vs. the Rock Bottom.
Joseph Le May I did that with my game fiction, one wrestler had “Kiss my ring” a nasty headlock punch, while the other had a “super kick” each was a big, nasty, get the audience on their feet move, but neither was the finisher.
Kiss My Ring is genius.
So let’s talk about the Superkick. It’s a devastating maneuver by anyone right, but when Shawn Michaels does it, it’s that Sweet Chin Music. When Shawn Michaels does it, you are FUCKED. The audience loses their shit, because this is (or conceivably could be) the end.