10 Finishing Moves That Never Made It To WWE
If WWE comes calling, leave your piledrivers and brainbusters at the door.
The finishing move; a wrestler's weapon of choice.
While legendary finishing moves like Hulk Hogan's leg drop and Steve Austin's Stone Cold Stunner are nostalgically remembered by fans for having provided some of the most legendary moments in WWE history, both manoeuvres were infinitely more damaging to the wrestler administering the move than they were to their recipient.
With your opponent's safety the name of the game, certain popular finishers such as Randy Orton's Punt have been outlawed out rightly over concussion awareness; others, such as Seth' Rollin's Curb Stomp and AJ Styles' Styles Clash, were shelved and later returned to their owners, after satisfying the boss that they were able to be safely performed.
While AJ Styles was ultimately able to retain the use of the Styles Clash, a move he made famous during his pre-WWE career, other moves synonymous with certain wrestlers throughout their careers have been deemed too dangerous to be used upon their arrival in WWE.
Here are ten wrestlers whose popular finishing moves were forcibly changed...
10. Rob Van Dam - Van Daminator
While the Five Star Frog Splash was a constant in Rob Van Dam’s ECW career, perhaps his most popular move was the concussion inducing Van Daminator. Less the Greco-Roman throw, the Van Daminator was a move catered to ECW’s ruleless anarchy. Requiring the assistance of his manager Bill Alfonso or an unwitting opponent, Van Dam would launch a leaping karate kick into a chair held by Alfonso (or his opponent) sending the chair crashing into his foe's face.
Such flagrant use of a foreign object was a hallmark of ECW and was naturally impractical in WWE, where disqualifications actually existed. While RVD was on occasion able to pull out a Van Daminator in hardcore matches, he eventually had to settle permanently for the frog splash.
RVD's subsequent addition into the Van-series of moves, the Van Terminator, did however make it to WWE. Replacing the chair with an aluminum trash can, Rob recreated the move which is still used to this day by Shane McMahon as the Coast to Coast.