10 Forgotten Finishers Wrestlers Suddenly ABANDONED

These WWE finishing moves didn't stick around too long. Blink and you'll miss them!

By Jamie Kennedy /

Finishers are called finishers for a reason, but the rules have changed.

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Modern wrestling has moved away from big moves being guaranteed end points for matches. Instead, it's common to see workers pop a shoulder up on two as everyone looks around the place shocked. That happens in WWE too, but the ROH-meets-New Japan style seen elsewhere in promotions like AEW has made "surprise kick outs" part of the expected formula; especially on pay-per-view.

Top stars don't often mix up their signature moves much though. Watch any Roman Reigns bout and you'll expect to see the spear. The same goes for Randy Orton. Seeing one of his matches pass by without at least one RKO tease? Impossible. Some are better at protecting their finisher than others. Also, there are loads of old finishers you've probably forgotten.

That's likely because wrestling's finest abandoned them early on or realised they'd be better off doing something else. Names like John Cena, Seth Rollins, Shawn Michaels and even The Undertaker all experimented with different moves before settling on firm favourites.

How many of these do you remember?

10. Chris Jericho’s Breakdown

Chris Jericho has used a ton of different finishers throughout his career. He's had the Walls Of Jericho submission, that weird triple powerbomb thing he used to do, the moonsault off the ropes, the Codebreaker and even the Judas Effect elbow. Good luck remembering his use of the Breakdown though.

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Say what?

The move was identical to Jeff Jarrett's Stroke and The Miz's Skull Crushing Finale. Jericho deployed it a fair bit in 2001-2002, then started using the thing more as a high spot/near fall moment in his matches after that. See above for him hitting the Breakdown on a young John Cena at Vengeance '02.

Jericho even used it to beat The Rock for the WCW Title in '01, but the Codebreaker became his go to in later years. 'Y2J' would turn that into his main finisher, but keep the Walls submission for select matches too. Suddenly, the Breakdown was background noise and barely won any bouts.

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