10 Most Heavily Protected Wrestling Finishers Ever
Sorry pal, but you aren't kicking out of the Punt, One-Winged Angel, or 3D anytime soon.
Finishers aren't always finishers anymore.
That the level of protection given to finishing moves in this era of professional wrestling often leaves a lot to be desired isn't an empty complaint reserved for stuck-in-the-mud Cult members left behind by the sport's natural, inevitable evolution.
It's valid.
Kicking out of a near-guaranteed killshot or being the first to break a vice-like submission hold was once a tried and tested way of generating drama. The problem is that this has been taken to the extreme. Shocking things aren't shocking when they become the norm, and kickout spam has left wrestlers like Tetsuya Naito needing two or three Destino repetitions for a finish, rendered certain house styles exhausting and predictable, and made it impossible to invest in dozens of techniques as match-enders.
But the problem isn't universal, as proven by this list's more contemporary entries.
At the risk of sounding like a Back In My Day bore, if more finishers were granted the same level of protection as those within, moves wouldn't feel so disposable. Kickouts would have heft and weight again. The drama would be natural.
So it goes, though. At least the AEW World Champion is keeping the faith...
10. One-Winged Angel (Kenny Omega)
Whoever eventually kicks out of Kenny Omega's One-Winged Angel is not so much going to blow the roof off of whatever building it happens in, but reduce the entire place to a smoking crater of rubble and dust where once an arena stood.
Such is the care and attention that Omega has put into making the move unbeatable. If he hits you with it, you're dead. It's over. Done.
Nobody has kicked out of the OWE since 18 August 2012, when Kota Ibushi defeated the current AEW World Champion in their seminal DDT KO-D Openweight Title match. This means the best part of a decade has now gone into building towards that one big, cathartic kickout. Through high-profile rivalries with Kazuchika Okada, Tetsuya Naito, Jon Moxley, and more, the sanctity of the One-Winged Angel has been preserved, and while some have come close (Okada's foot just so happened to land beneath the bottom rope for a perfect Dominion 2017 break), nobody has thrust their shoulder from the mat in time.
Saving this rub of all rubs for whoever dethrones Omega as AEW Champion looks likely. Step forward, Hangman Page.