There’s something undeniably thrilling about the best WWE finishers. Just the anticipation for an especially great finishing move is a lot of fun, the palpable feeling that ripples through the crowd when a match is about to reach its dramatic conclusion.
And those occasions where a wrestler unexpectedly kicks out of a top finisher — provided they don’t happen too often — produce some of the loudest crowd reactions in the business.
Thanks to its position as the No. 1 pro wrestling company in the world for decades (even during times it didn’t want to admit it), WWE has seen more than its fair share of amazing finishing moves. But we wanted to dive in and find the ones that were truly the best, the crème de la crème of match-ending maneuvers.
To do that, we consulted a number of lists of this type that are already out there, including the WWE’s own rankings of the 50 best finishing moves of all time. Like our list of the top WWE PPVs ever, that makes this list pseudo-crowdsourced and not just our own opinions — though we slid some up or down where we felt it was warranted.
So what makes a truly great finishing move? The answer varies from fan to fan, but we considered the following:
- Recognizability/cultural impact – Is a finisher so famous that even casual or non-wrestling fans know what it is or who does it?
- Believability – If pro wrestling wasn’t scripted, does the move look like it would really end a fight?
- Uniqueness – Does the move stand out on its own, or does a certain performer elevate it by adding more atmosphere to it?
- Sellability – Does it offer the person on the receiving end the opportunity to play it up even more?
- Legacy – Has it passed the test of time, even if others don’t use it as a finisher?
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s dive in and check out what we found to be a bit of a consensus on the 20 best WWE finishers of all time, starting at 20 and working down to No. 1.