8 Wrestling Finishers Made Out Of Spite
Those finishing moves designed to irk.
The wrestling business - or sports entertainment, if you're Vince McMahon or Chris Jericho - is one based on emotions. This is an industry where if there's no emotion, there's no point.
Whilst the industry's on-screen characters survive by getting audiences to widely adore them or fervently hate them, one other emotion that has reared its head in pro wrestling is that of spite.
Across the decades, there have been numerous examples of spite playing a factor in the very real actions of a wrestler or promoter, but the specifics for this article right here revolve around spite being a driving force behind a talent's finisher of signature move. You may not have realised it until now, but spite is a hell of a motivator when looking for a reason to go with a certain finishing manoeuvre. This can be as a way to give the proverbial middle finger to a colleague, to an old boss, to current management, or even just a loud 'n' proud F-U to the wider world of wrestling fandom.
Taking all of that into account, then, here are eight such examples of finishing moves that were instigated thanks to at least a mild sprinkling of spite.
8. Jeff Jarrett Has The Stroke
During his second tenure with the then-WWF in the late '90s, Jeff Jarrett was famous for having a huge fan in Vince Russo.
By the time Jarrett jumped back to WCW in 1999, Russo was already in Ted Turner's rasslin' promotion and running creative. As such, Vinny Ru immediately wanted to make Jeff into one of the company's top guys.
Throwing shade at those who'd lambasted Russo for pushing too hard for Jarrett to get a main event run in WWF, Double J's finishing move for his WCW return was a front facebuster named the Stroke. That was a play on how Jarrett supposedly had stroke with WCW higher-ups thanks to being close pals with Russo.
The Stroke would continue to be utilised by J-E-Double-F upon he and his father forming NWA-TNA, with this again leaning into how much political say and control Jarrett had behind the scenes. What better way for a heel to flaunt their backstage pull than by using a move dubbed the Stroke? Whether in WCW or TNA, this was slapping the audience in the face with the power - whether kayfabe or not - that the Chosen One could wield.
Jarrett did actually start occasionally using a front facebuster as a finish during the final days of his final proper run with WWF, but more commonplace at that point was seeing ol' Slapnuts get the win via a guitar shot, a Figure Four or even the odd running DDT.