10 Times Wrestlers Stole An Opponent’s Finisher (& Did It BETTER)
4. The Undertaker - Spear (WWE SummerSlam 2008)
Your writer's all-time favourite wrestler is Adam 'Edge/Cope' Copeland.
Your writer can also admit that Adam 'Edge/Cope' Copeland had zero right using the Spear.
His performance of the crowd-popper resembled more of an illegal football tackle than it did the gut-wrenching takedown it should be. Rather than lunge his full body weight into an opponent's torso, Edge would jog toward them, wrap his arms around their waist, and lightly take them off their feet, protecting their fall with his arms becoming like a crocheted blanket.
If he hadn't Speared Jeff Hardy that one time, nobody would think twice about calling his Spear the worst in history. That is what makes The Undertaker's theft of the move, at SummerSlam 2008, stand out.
Fighting Edge inside Hell in a Cell in what was their fifth(!) pay-per-view match of the year - this was only August - The Undertaker used the Spear as part of a four-part, crowd-pleasing arc. He stewed behind Edge, stalking him almost, and struck the very second Edge turned his body. 'Taker sliced into Edge like a knife, whipping his body around his opponent's without grabbing on for dear life. His body hit the mat before Edge's did. This was no light tackle into a flowerbed; it was a callous execution, the sort of which nobody had - or has since - associated with the now-Cope.