Every so often there are finishing moves that make you go “That man is dead!” They’re just too devastating and honestly, the GM or commissioner should ban the move and suspend the wrestler! No pay window for them. Unless you were Jack Tunney and Hulk Hogan dropped the Atomic Leg Drop on the back of Kamala’s head on concrete…then you’d probably just suspend Kamala for getting himself in such a situation. Let’s get into the 10 deadliest finishing moves!
Go ahead and get ready to hold your neck, folks.
Steiner Screw Driver
This was a move that Scott Steiner used before way before he just went to the Steiner Recliner full time. The thing here is that Scott made every move he finished with look dangerous. The Steiner Line? Vicious. The Frankensteiner? Dangerous. The Steiner Screwdriver? Hell, he might as well as the crowd “Hey, you wanna see a dead body?” before doing it. Listen to the pop from it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAm60qAYhX0
The Original Curb Stomp
I have to say, we see the original Curb Stomp every so often. Coming to us from Super Dragon of Pro Wrestling Guerilla fame—and ownership—the Curb Stomp wasn’t necessarily a finisher but damn was it devastating. All Super Dragon did was trap the opponent’s legs while they were face down, grab their arms in the same way someone would for the surfboard, place a foot on the back of their head, and stomp their head into the mat.
Paul Burchill used this move as a finisher during his WWE ECW run.
Back Drop Driver
“Dr. Death” Steve Williams was a hell of a wrestler with a mean suplex. No suplex was meaner and more deadly than his Back Drop Driver. When this move was hit, it looked as though the opponent’s head and neck disappeared on camera. All you saw were shoulders. Plus, there was sick “THUD!” in the ring once he landed it. Go ahead and hold your neck, we’ve got a video of this bad boy.
The Lariat (Stan Hansen)
Very few threw a Lariat like Stan Hansen. It was a much harder clothesline and it was only so stiff because Hansen had poor eyesight and was making sure it landed and appeared real. His whole rough, stiff style is mainly down to poor eyesight but man was this Lariat vicious!
The Paralyzer
At first, I had CZW founder Zandig’s Mother F’N Bomb instead of the Paralyzer. The Mother F’N Bomb was deadly because the Ultraviolent Icon was putting someone through something if he was using it. Instead, his rarely used Paralyzer move comes off as more deadly because which way does an opponent know they’re going to land when a guy spins them out of a gorilla press and catches them with a cutter on the way down?
And if he’s doing it onto something? Forget about it.
Tiger Driver ‘91 (Mitsuharu Misawa)
The Tiger Driver ‘91 is another improvised move from All Japan. Misawa is a common thread for getting MDK moves over as he was the first to catch Kawada’s Ganso Bomb—or Kawada Driver—and the first to catch another entry on this list. His Tiger Driver ‘91 starts off like a regular Tiger Driver/Tiger Bomb only Misawa drops to his knees, drilling his opponent on their head or neck.
Kudome Valentine
This move might be very familiar. Originally created by FMW women’s wrestler Megumi Kudo, the Kudome Valentine saw the opponent suspended behind the attack upside down with their arms hooked. Then the attacker plants them like corn head first. In the U.S the two best-known names for this move are the Gringo Killa/Cop Killa from Homicide and the person who popularized it Shane “Hurricane” Helms and his Vertebreaker.
Powerbomb (Vader)
We see the powerbomb at least once an episode on every wrestling show on TV now. It’s a regular ass powerbomb—unless 90s Vader was doing it. Then he was trying to break people in half with how he drove them into the mat! Actually, he was trying to break them into four equal pieces if he did the moonsault or Vader Bomb afterward.
Burning Hammer (Kenta Kobashi)
In our segment on overused moves, Kenta Kobashi’s Burning Hammer was a focus. The move starts as an Argentine Backbreaker—or a regular old Torture Rack—before the opponent is drilled head-first into the mat in a kind of inverted Death Valley Driver. Head-first. Not flopped over into a slam or something. As mentioned before, Kobashi used the move seven times in his career and no one ever kicked out of it. If you look up “Murder Death Kill Finisher” in the dictionary, this move is the first entry.
The Ganso Bomb
Some of the most dangerous moves in All Japan Pro-Wrestling history came as a result of improvisation and needing a move so powerful and dangerous meant to be a killer for the opponent. The Ganso Bomb was one such move that actually came out of a botched powerbomb attempt—a move that Ganso Bomb creator, Toshiaki Kawada did numerous times.
An All Japan crowd knows a Murder, Death, Kill move when they see it. Plus, the move was protected by Kawada to the point he only used it three times. It was basically similar to Lou Thesz’s powerbomb only cleaner? Check it out.
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