10 Best Finishers In Wrestling Today
2. Kazuchika Okada: Rainmaker
When struck with a finality catalysed by Okada's unreal in-ring conditioning, the Rainmaker is a superb finisher.
His rangy physique adds so much visual, anticipatory impact to the lunge, but Okada is also slender. The force with which he strikes it is invariably a lip-purser of a surprise that comes with it an aftershock; his opponents sell it directly underneath the neck, with millimetre precision, to coney the danger of the impact. His opponents enhance it before the impact, too; when Okada grabs their arm ahead of turning them around to meet their maker, they sell the preceding, systemic assault with glassy, half-closed eyes. They are done, and the Rainmaker is the ultimate exclamation point - a true finisher.
It also doubles as a platform for his opponents to express their characters; at G1 Supercard earlier this year, Jay White put over his counter master/enfant terrible gimmick by simply sitting down right as Okada revved up. Katsuyori Shibata put over his transgressive badass persona by slapping Okada as a counter, and then simply absorbing another attempt, at Sakura Genesis 2017.
The (deliberately) laboured set-up, designed to power the weapon, also allows for stunning, reversal-driven drama in the closing stretches of his main event masterpieces.