Backstage News On WWE's Plans To Make Finishing Moves Matter

Raw Executive Director Paul Heyman is pushing for change on the red brand and beyond.

Dec 17, 2019 December 17th, 2019

While recent WWE programming has been a majorly mixed bag, one of the few positives to come out of the past few Raw and, to a lesser extent, SmackDown episodes is the return of squash matches.

According to The Wrestling Observer, the main reason for the utilisation of shorter TV matches is to try and get wrestlers’ finishing moves over. Seemingly, this is a Paul Heyman idea, with the former ECW head - and current Raw Executive Director - keen to have wrestlers regularly winning matches with their main finishing manoeuvre so that said manoeuvres are taken seriously by the watching audience. Crazy concept, right?

Just last night, fans saw Erick Rowan involved in yet another squash match where he made short work of an enhancement talent thanks to his trusty Iron Claw Slam. Similarly, this week’s Raw had Asuka tapping out Deonna Purrazzo with the Asuka Lock in another short contest.

This last time WWE used shorter, squash matches in any major way was back when they were breaking out Braun Strowman as a singles act after he was split off from The Wyatt Family. After weeks and months of brief, impactful victories, the audience became familiar with Strowman’s style and his moveset – which ultimately bred a sense of familiarity which saw The Monster Amongst Men slowly work his way up the card and into the main event picture.

Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.

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