10 Best Finishers In Wrestling Today
9. Jon Moxley: Death Rider/Paradigm Shift
Dean Ambrose's Dirty Deeds was a painful-looking if mundane finish elevated by the star aura of the performer delivering it. Tight in application and thudding in impact, it was nonetheless unremarkable by modern standards.
At the NJPW Best Of The Super Juniors Final, Jon Moxley literally elevated it by debuting a sick new spiked variation, but not before failing to put Juice Robinson away with the old, WWE version. This was an incredible finish drenched in character and renewed motivation, one that put everything over: his opponent, for kicking out, and his new company at large, for its immediate rejection of the competition. And, of course, Moxley himself, as a more violent update on his former self.
This was Moxley's debut. That was a crucial detail to this reinvention.
A WWE finish didn't cut it there, in the parameters of this in-ring story. Moxley had to add a layer of unhinged insanity to get the job done, and he did so by lifting Robinson high into the air and dropping him head-first to the mat at an ungodly angle.
It is Robert Roode's Glorious DDT, yes, but enhanced by astute character development.