20 Most Believable Finishers In AEW Today
The Judas Effect, the Coffin Drop and other top finishing moves on offer in AEW.
A finishing move can make or break a professional wrestler.
Hulk Hogan's Atomic Leg Drop would never get over as a finisher today because it's a pissing Leg Drop. How basic can you get? In his day, though, nobody was kicking out once the Hulkster dropped the big leg, brother. Yokozuna's Banzai Drop made sense; how do you expect to get a near 600-pound Samoan off your chest? More modern, Petey Williams' Canadian Destroyer influenced an entire generation of indie wrestlers, and when he first began using the move, it was the coolest and sickest thing wrestling fans had seen.
Even today, that opening statement remains the same. Would Chris Jericho have had the same impact he's had in AEW if he didn't switch out his WWE career-defining Codebreaker for the snappier Judas Effect? Would Randy Orton have reached legendary status if he kept the O-Zone over the RKO?
There's a fine difference between those two examples. The RKO is a fairly safe manoeuvre because WWE is a PG promotion. You're not getting Piledrivers anymore. In All Elite Wrestling, however, the Judas Effect - which could realistically break someone's nose - works because of the edgier product, for lack of a better term.
Le Champion's spinning elbow is just one of many top finishing manoeuvres in the Tony Khan-helmed promotion...