15 Greatest Match Finishes In Modern Wrestling History

Depressingly, and this is equally rampant in both WWE and AEW, the televised match finish is a contrived farce more often than not. 

It's the sort of thing that makes you wonder why tribalism exists to the unhinged extent that it does. Raw, SmackDown, NXT, Dynamite, Collision: every show features at least one unclean finish that depicts the referee as a total buffoon. The initials barely matter at all. Throughout the 2010s, a lot of fans wished out loud for the return of stables. Some might be ruing that now, because the extra activity on the outside is used, constantly, as a crutch. 

One stablemate attempts to blatantly cheat.

This draws the attention and ire of the official. 

That official is thus too distracted to notice the second stablemate interfering successfully. 

Mainstream wrestling fans have endured this finish for well over half a decade at this point. It's boring. It's lazy. It hardly builts excitement ahead of the PLE or PPV. It contributes heavily to the increasing feeling of malaise. 

What's irritating is that there are so many different approaches. Recently, Jon Moxley has used the dirty finish to escape the heat of battle - his empire is falling, and he can no longer deny that to himself - and this makes beautiful sense in the context of his character arc. This only works because he spent years and years winning handily. Mox is using creative discipline to his advantage, and he's getting guys over in the process. The sad part is that very few wrestlers, bookers and agents are as clever as he is. 

A good match finish gets everybody over.

A great match finish accomplishes something even grander.

NB - Peak NJPW obviously boasts several incredible finishes, but the sad fact of the matter is that they don't like the use of still images. 

The talk is that Hangman Page is a significantly better chaser than champion, and while that is not untrue, is the problem here that man is so good at getting the fans behind him that his title runs are only dull in contrast? 

His first run was overshadowed by the generationally brilliant CM Punk Vs. MJF feud; if that didn't happen in parallel, perhaps Hanger's maiden AEW World title reign would be remembered more fondly. 

Hangman Page had already passed his first test, and it was a daunting one. Page defeated Bryan Danielson in two seminal wars; in the first, Page survived the Dragon for an hour in a match that, across its epic duration and exceptional quality, cast Page in the mould of a bloodied traditional territorial champ with the smarts, guts and stamina to prevail. The second was a gory, ultra-compelling bloodbath. You could argue that this series was safe, in that it was almost impossible not to be great. The real challenge facing any World Champion is in how they elevate a cold, filler challenger to their level - and Page passed it with a phenomenally intelligent spot of in-ring storytelling against Lance Archer.

Everybody knew that Page was winning. Page was smart enough to change the question. It wasn't a question of if he'd win, but rather a question of "how?"

During a bloody, brutal Texas Death match, Archer's temporary manager Dan Lambert removed the top rope. How was Page going to hit the Buckshot Lariat? This incredible idea cast real doubt over one of the most predictable TV matches in recent times. 

Page answered this question by dropping a strand of barbed wire, forcing the ref to pick it up, and using Paul Turner as a platform on which to launch into the Buckshot and blast Archer through two ringside tables.

Cold challenger, red-hot match: cowboy sh*t and champion sh*t.