10 Times Wrestlers Stole An Opponent’s Finisher (& Did It BETTER)

10. Roman Reigns - Cross Rhodes (WWE WrestleMania 40 Sunday)

Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns II was a well-structured spectacle of a WrestleMania main event that benefitted from its poignant three-act structure, the third, interference-laden of which produced either the best or worst ten minutes of a wrestling match you will ever see, depending on the eye of the beholder.

It also featured the death of the Cross Rhodes.

A rolling Cutter, the move doesn't lend itself to the same level of opportunism that the Cutter was designed to have. The executor will grab their opponent in an inverted facelock position, and then, nothing. They'll stand there, pandering. The crowd, no matter how electric, will ponder why the victim doesn't simply snapmare their way to freedom. Furthermore, it took three of the things for Cody to end Roman Reigns' 1,316 days of tyranny over WWE; every subsequent match for Cody sees a similar amount of Rhodes being Crossed.

Still, the move provided a pivotal spot in the match, one of the first to grab a fatigued audience out of their chairs. Cody, attempting a Cody Cutter, was caught mid-flight by Roman Reigns, who grabbed 'The American Nightmare' in that fateful inverted facelock and rotated Cody's face into the canvas with the same remorseless, stomach-churning intensity as Cody himself would do in AEW.

The only negative aspect was the lack of a head spike.