10 Fascinating Facts About Famous Wrestling Finishers
1. The Gruesome Origin Story Of The Van Terminator
Fightful's Making A Finisher series is excellent.
Several wrestling stars past and present shed insight into their finishers of choice; how they devised them, how they fit into their character, how they were named.
Rob Van Dam's story is as interesting as the move, the Van Terminator, is blow-away awesome. After placing a chair across his prone opponent slouched by the turnbuckles, Van Dam used to scale the opposite top turnbuckle and soar across the full breadth of the ring before smashing it in some poor f*cker's face. It was a magic, impossible-looking move, and he promoted the sh*t out of it on TV. It wasn't a mere high spot; it was one of the best high spots ever, and he maximised every bit of hype.
After much bragging that he'd conceived of the ultimate finish, Van Dam eventually debuted it at Heat Wave 2000 in a match against Scotty Anton, who suffered a broken nose on a test run three weeks before the televised debut.
He wasn't bothered about pissing blood out of his "mashed face"; he was only dismayed that the pay-per-view went more smoothly.
Wrestling.