10 Most Copied Finishing Moves In Wrestling History

These days, it’s difficult for a wrestler to come up with something unique. Considering how popular pro wrestling became between the 1980s and today, there are very few moves that haven’t been adopted by another wrestler after they were first created. As a result, you’re bound to come across considerable repetition when watching pro wrestling. 

While it was previously possible to see wrestlers use moves truly unique to them, it’s now expected for every top wrestler to be able to perform a wide variety of moves, including those that were at one point considered to be so special that they were only considered finishing maneuvers.

The result is that you end up with a group of highly-skilled and versatile wrestlers who use a plethora of different and ‘big’ moves in their matches, as well as wrestlers lowers on that same roster who might use one of those ‘big moves’ as a finisher. But those latter wrestlers end up having a hard time getting over because their finishing moves, which are supposed to be presented as extra-powerful, are being kicked out of in other matches on the card.

This article will highlight ten wrestling moves that are either the most likely to be adopted as finishing maneuvers, or are used as finishers for some wrestlers and regular moves for other wrestlers on the same roster. These ten moves might’ve been unique and ultra-exciting at one point, but by 2015 they have become so commonplace that they’re not as effective as finishers anymore.

You'd think that a move with as impressive a name as ‘Death Valley Driver’ would conjure up images of a really powerful wrestling maneuver. In truth, the Death Valley Driver/Bomb was indeed a dangerous and impressive maneuver…once, long before it became one of the most copied moves in wrestling history.

The DVB, which is in essence a more risky and impressive version of the Attitude Adjustment, has become something of a ‘mid-carder’s move’, in the sense that the only people who use this move are those who have a noticeable glass ceiling above them. 

In WWE and WCW, it has been used by the likes of Rene Dupree (Loire Valley Driver), The Godfather (Pimp Drop), Jinder Mahal (Karachi Valley Driver), Beth Phoenix (Down In Flames), and Perry Saturn. Others who have used this move include Louis Spicolli, Tommy Dreamer, Brain Lee (The Underfaker) and Tye Dillinger.

The point is, this move has become so widespread in its use that it cannot possibly be taken seriously as a finisher anymore. It’s even worse when the move, which at one point got huge reactions from the crowd, has become, in many respects, a ‘novice’ finisher that’s used by some promotions, especially WWE, to see if a wrestler can perform basic moves. 

You know a move’s over-exposed when it’s assigned that position in a promotion.