Ranking What Was Really The Best Wrestling Finisher Every Year 1990-2020
10. 2011 - High Fly Flow
The best finisher isn't necessarily the one that looks the coolest, or the one that looks like it hurts the most.
It's all in the execution and the sell; if the wrestler performing the move is enough of a genius, that wrestler can get a move over even if the move was a more fashionable concern the decade prior. The frog splash, as mentioned, was state-of-the-art in 1994. Years and years later, it wasn't as spectacular, but it didn't need to be; Tanahashi didn't use it to pop the crowd, but rather to convince them that he needed their energy to will him over the line.
His arc was beautiful, the impact made believable through his tremendous physique - but it's the rapid scramble to the ropes to get there, powered by the roaring crowd, that made Tana's High Fly Flow.