7 Ups And 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Sept 19)

5. When A Finisher Doesn’t Finish

roman reigns kevin owens
WWE.com

Once upon a time, no one kicked out of someone’s finishing move. If it ever happened, it was a big deal. After a while, it became fashionable to kick out of someone’s finishing move at least once a match to build drama and suck fans into a false finish. (Witness John Cena/AJ Styles as SummerSlam.)

But still, there are some moves that are protected to the point where you almost never see anyone kick out of them. Triple H’s Pedigree immediately springs to mind. Roman Reigns’ spear marks the end of his matches once it hits. And Kevin Owens’ Pop-Up Powerbomb has been a match-ender.

On Raw, Owens countered a Reigns spear and immediately hit a Pop-Up Powerbomb… for a two count. Look, this in no way diminishes the finishing move’s impact, nor should it reflect badly on Roman. But as a serious question: Had anyone kicked out of that move up to that point? If not, then why burn that first-ever kickout on a random Raw with no stakes involved? (This same issue would be raised if KO kicked out of a spear, btw.)

It might be a strange point to raise, but it’s something that stood out, and not in a great way.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.