10 Wrestlers Who Completely No Sold Finishers

Hulk Hogan, Tazz and The Fiend nope your faves, their finishers and buildings full of fans.

Hhh Triple H
WWE.com

Wrestling is nothing - less than nothing, in fact - without selling.

All of it dies without selling keeping it alive. Bret Hart famously never injured one of his opponents and every right-minded performer before and since aims for a record close to it - the idea is to hurt nobody whilst making it look like you can beat the sh*t out of everybody. How you do it and how you look doing it is up to you, but it'll all be for nought if your opponent doesn't sell.

All of this applies double to finishers. Finisher kickouts have been normalised in the modern era, but the magic remains nonetheless when one is deployed just right or - in AEW specifically - protected more than just about anything else in the organisation. This, alas, can not always be the case.

From those that elected not to bother keeping the facade alive to those booked to wilfully destroy it, some of the biggest stars in wrestling history have had their most lethal weapons neutralised by the callous cold reality of a no-sell.

Even if, on odd occasions, it drew money…

10. Hulk Hogan

Hhh Triple H
WWE

The Hulk Hogan formula was not to be questioned.

Not all of it holds up to visual scrutiny on rewatch, but rewatch simply wasn't the concern of Vince McMahon, Hogan himself or anybody else that happened to be buying houses, cars and boats out the *ss when Hulkamania was running wild.

You've seen the match a million times, but pick any one and focus on the people in the audience during the 1984-1990 peak of the bit. People are losing their f*cking minds as 'The Hulkster' gets decked with the heel's big move. Rapt with a cocktail of terror that this one might really be the end and euphoria as he bounces up ready to vanquish his rival, the push and pull was potent enough to pull punters in for half a decade and turn WWE into a mainstream powerhouse in the process.

Vince McMahon lifting the lid on kayfabe in 1989 was irrelevant by the time it actually occurred - Hogan's shtick did it all the time and not a single paying customer cared.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 30 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz", Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 50,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett