10 Reasons Wrestling Will Never Ever Top The 90s
5. The Finish Was The Finish
Ironically, two of the decade's biggest stars, Steve Austin and The Rock, first eroded the effectiveness of the finishing move. There was a smattering of kick-outs before those two popularised the trope in their WrestleMania battles for company supremacy, but the impact of moves actually meant something before Sami Zayn managed to convince only himself that the Blue Thunder Bomb might win him a match.
Even in All Japan Pro Wrestling, where finisher kick-outs became commonplace to imbue the epic, brutal matches with searing drama, 90s legends like Mitsuharu Misawa et al. respected the tradition by creating a new tier of super-finishers. Bret Hart often protected his Sharpshooter finish by barely using it, winning many of his matches with a last-gasp pin. Moves were protected, and thus meant more.
The trope has reached a point of saturation, exacerbated by Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker at either side of the 2010s - so much so that a rule of three now exists. With the infamous exception of The Undertaker at WrestleMania XXX, the third time is always the charm, and it's ironic. The trend started life as a way of extracting drama and uncertainty, and it's on its a*se because the formula of three remains so rigid.
Less was more across the board.
Stipulations were used infrequently and because the storyline demanded them. Like the Intercontinental Title, it's all backwards now. Special attractions are no longer special because they're too commonplace. Feuds are contrived into stipulations when it should be the other way 'round.