The RKO is an incredible finishing move. It looks painful, it allows Orton to engage in crowd pleasing theatrics, and it's performable in nearly any situation; his reversal of Rollins' Curb Stomp into an RKO at Wrestlemania XXXI was unreal. But the reversal depicted here is by far the more impressive. Evan Bourne uses the Shooting Star Press as his finisher, and that's dangerous enough (more on that later). But on top of that, Orton caught Bourne's head mid-rotation, and reversed it into an RKO. It takes a lot of cojones, particularly on Bourne's part, to do something this acrobatic and death-defying for the sake of entertainment
Kevin is an AP English Language teacher and freelance writer from Queens, NY. His focus is on American pop culture and American issues. He wrote a weekly column for Complex called "Throwback Thursdays," which spotlighted video games and trends from previous console generations. Kevin has also been published in VIBE, Salon, PopMatters, Joystiq, and Racialicious. Follow him on Twitter to learn more.
