10 Secret Genius Details Behind Wrestling Finishers
4. Kenta Kobashi's Burning Hammer
Nobody ever kicked out of Kenta Kobashi's Burning Hammer.
It was, objectively, the most protected finisher of all time. The very use of it was a genius detail in and of itself; he reserved it only for his most daunting challengers, and those challengers were thus put over in defeat with more conviction and heft than one f*cking million carny disqualification finishes.
Kobashi transcended the super-finisher trope so well that it's a mystery, given the in-depth love and embrace of pro wrestling's history among AEW management, that this hasn't yet been exhumed as a storytelling device on TNT.
The Burning Hammer developed an incredible mythology - about the only lore in pro wrestling worth giving a single f*ck about. Beyond its exquisite narrative craft, the dread-inducing trajectory looked horrendous. Put yourself on Kobashi's shoulders. You have zero control over the fall. You are left in his masterful hands to land on your head and hope for the best during that unnatural descent.
It was such a risky move that Kobashi employed a safer wrist-clutch variation - ingeniously. It was far safer - the impact was instead absorbed on the upper back - but the precedent of danger had been established so well that it never lost its power.