9. Faithbreaker/Styles Clash
Wrestling fans were outraged when Michelle McCool (or Mrs. Undertaker, if you will) debuted her new finishing move on Smackdown in 2009. She had previously used a lifting double underhook facebuster called The Wings Of Love but scrapped that in favour of what proved to be a controversial replacement. McCool's new move, the Faithreaker, was a version of TNA wrestler AJ Styles' Styles Clash. Speculation ran rife as to why McCool, who did not have a reputation as a fantastic worker, would steal the finisher of a superlative worker like Styles. Was it a shot at TNA? Or Styles personally? Believe it or not, many fans believed so and took to Twitter to send messages of abuse towards McCool. AJ, for his part, had absolutely no problem with it as he explained in a September 2009 interview:
Im flattered that she would think to use that move. It doesnt bother me at all. I guess it might be different if a guy was doing it and calling it something else.The fact of the matter is this. People know it. Thats the Styles Clash. Thats my move. I came up with it on my own. Its okay. I understand, you gotta come up with something and theres not a lot of moves in the world. Its hard to be different. But its cool with me. Now it would be different if it was a guy in my own company.
Styles' might have looked smoother and more impactful (pardon the pun) but it has also been dangerous on occasions. In 2014 alone three wrestlers (Britain's Lionheart, the former Yoshi Tatus and Ring of Honor's Roderick Strong) all suffered serious neck injuries as a result of taking the move the wrong way. McCool, to her credit, never injured anyone with the move before left WWE and retired in 2011.