10 WWE Finishers Leftover From Old Gimmicks

6. Jeff Jarrett - The Stroke

Bray Wyatt Fiend Sister Abigail
WWE.com

Jeff Jarrett arrived in WCW with the support of the man who had quickly come to be the only one that mattered in 1999.

A Vince Russo Guy, 'Double J' was only too happy to get away from a WWE that had already lowered the ceiling on his main roster potential. Steve Austin didn't want to work with him, Jim Ross wasn't so keen either, and his loudest supporter had just gone to Atlanta.

Debuting with (what else?) a guitar shot to the head, Jarrett's next move was a finishing one. His fall-forward facebuster became The Stroke, replacing the figure four leg-lock (or indeed, the acoustic equaliser) as his primary path to victory. The not-that-subtle nod to the backstage influence he now apparently had was very WCW and very Russo, but the World Title runs he clocked up in the company's final year spoke to its sucess.

It naturally carried over to TNA, but was still a feature long after he lost his seat at the company's top table. The same applies today - even with a spot in Gorilla within spitting distance of Vince McMahon, WWE cameos will find him farting around with Elias, rather than scaling the industry's heights.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 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 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, 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