10 WWE Things That Are Impossible To Believe In
9. Finishers
There is a way of protecting finishers without reverting back to an unrecoverable, subjectively duller age. In the All Japan Pro Wrestling scene of the 1990s, main event acts Mitsuharu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi devised dangerous super-finishers when the best of their arsenals - and their veneer of sportsmanship - failed them. In New Japan, finishers are sold before they're even struck; something as devastating as Kenny Omega's One-Winged Angel is put over as a veritable bomb by his opponent's desperate, dramatic struggle to avoid it.
Instead, WWE opts, invariably, for the cheap short-term finisher kick-out pop at the expense of the long-term integrity of the move.
Invariably is no exaggeration; on every 12+ minute televised match, the finisher kick-out trope threatens to undermine any real sense of drama. It's easy enough for the live crowd to get swept up into the action, which accounts for the heat, but those watching at home, without the benefit of the in-your-face thrill, cannot take Miz's Skull Crushing Finale seriously. That is because it isn't a Finale; it's a means of eliciting a reaction only.
This renders the action predictable, and the performers weak, eroding any sentiment that any of this is in anyway consequential.