10 Best AEW Finishers
9. Darby Allin's Coffin Drop
The best finishers, simply, look like they f*cking hurt. They look like they f*cking hurt enough to drop somebody dead, but ideally, they should be devised and executed in character and look physically congruous to the performer.
Darby Allin was the victim of childhood tragedy when his intoxicated uncle fell asleep at the wheel and died in the resulting car crash. Darby survived in the passenger seat, but feels as if a part of him did not. This is why he paints half of his face to like a corpse. This mentality informs his overarching, relentless ring style - the adrenaline of his rapid chain-wrestling and charged aerial attacks makes him feel alive, whole - and his finisher.
The Coffin Drop completes both his act and the match, or at least it will when he opens the winner's purse later in his AEW career. He sprints to the top turnbuckle and positions himself backwards. He doesn't face his opponent.
It is a leap of faith designed to convey his fearlessness in the face of a death that cannot claim him, and beyond the pathos and poetry of it all, he winds his opponents with the sharp bones of his frame and the velocity that powers it.