10: Shawn Michaels

The Sweet Chin Music is one of the most famous finishing moves in wrestling history, yet it may come as a surprise to newer fans that Shawn Michaels didn’t always use the move as his finisher.

Initially, as a singles star, HBK would use a Teardrop Suplex as his primary finishing move. The change came when the legendary, Pat Patterson informed HBK that he should begin to use a superkick AKA, Sweet Chin Music as his new finishing move.

HBK would reveal this information during an interview with Sam Roberts:

“When I first went single’s, I was trying to use what I later heard was called a teardrop suplex. I just used the double-underhook and crotched a guy and suplex him. So, I was using that one and Pat Patterson came to me one day. He said, 'I like it, but that kick, the kick is actually more impactful than the suplex. What do you think about using that one?' And I was still new as a singles. I said, 'sure! Heck, I'm just trying anything.' And so we did that, and then, it just sort of kept going…”

9: Chris Jericho

In 2001, when Chris Jericho was pushed into the main event scene, WWE decided to give Jericho a new finishing move.

Jericho’s finisher would be known as The Breakdown, and it was in essence an early version of the Skull Crushing Finale. Despite Jericho being one of the most talented pure wrestlers on the roster in the early 2000s, he could never truly master the move, and he often looked awkward delivering it.

Ultimately, this was the reason why Jericho abandoned the move completely and reverted to the Walls of Jericho and The Lionsault. Jericho in his book would discuss that the awkward part came when he was physically setting up the move, and the wrestling legend was spot on with this assessment.

8: Sheamus

When Sheamus first arrived in WWE, he would use a version of the Razor’s Edge known as the High Cross. This was a fantastic finishing move, yet the execution was often lacking, as it took a lifetime to set up, and the crowd had fully disconnected by the time he had delivered the move.

Over-time, the former WWE Champion would ditch the move in favour of the Brogue Kick, and there were several rumours circulating during Sheamus’ main event run as to why this occurred.

One rumour at the time stated that Vince McMahon felt like the move was too dangerous, especially when Sheamus was working with top names such as John Cena and Randy Orton. The other theory stated that WWE believed Sheamus needed a more impactful move as his main finisher, and that’s where the Brogue Kick came in.

Although the move hasn’t been Sheamus’ finisher for over a decade now, he still likes to bring it back for big matches, most notably his acclaimed classic against Gunther at the 2022 Clash at the Castle event.

7: Seth Rollins

Out of nowhere in 2015, Seth Rollins suddenly stopped using the Curb Stomp as his finishing move. The move was one of the most popular moves in the company, and fans eagerly awaited an explanation as to why the move had been retired.

The Curb Stomp was banned because McMahon believed that the move looked dangerous. McMahon believed that wrestlers hitting their head on the mat with some degree of force was going to lead to an influx of concussions. Whilst it was appreciated that McMahon was looking out for the talent, he had no rationale behind banning the popular move, as The Stomp had yet to injure a single wrestler on the roster.

Rollins discussed this during an appearance on Wikipedia: Fact of Fiction, and this is what the talented star had to say:

“…He thought it was too violent. I was going to do The Today Show, then the following morning after I had won the title with that move. And obviously, they are replaying me winning the title, and whether he saw it or anybody else saw it, or there was a conversation that involved him. He decided that we’ll do something different. I’ve been using it for a few years up to that point and won the title with it, but we went a different direction the following night…”

Following the ban being implemented, Rollins would use various new finishers including a falling DDT, a knee to the head, and even a Pedigree. None of these finishers managed to reach the level of hype and popularity that The Stomp had attained, and thankfully, after some time, McMahon decided to reverse the ban, and The Stomp has been a staple in Rollins’ arsenal ever since.

6: Matt Hardy

For the first portion of his WWE career, Matt Hardy enjoyed delivering a leg-drop from the middle or top rope as his finisher. Hardy would even use the trademark finisher from the top of a steel cage at the Unforgiven PPV in 2005.

Hardy gradually stopped doing the move, and he now only delivers the move on special occasions. The real reason as to why Hardy left the move behind was due to him needing to change his in-ring style.

Hardy went into depth on this topic during an interview with Chris Van Vliet, and Hardy revealed that it all began to change following the Unforgiven 2005 match with Edge:

“I think a lot of it changed after the Unforgiven 2005 match vs. Edge when I did a leg drop off the top [of the cage]. I’ll never forget I walked back through the curtain, Ted DiBiase and IRS Mike Rotunda, they looked at me said, ‘Oh my God, how are you feeling after that?’ And I said, ‘I have adrenaline going right now, ask me tomorrow.’”

Hardy continued by saying:

“But I couldn’t walk straight for like four weeks, I had a little kink in my step. And that’s the point where I said, instead of doing that leg drop every single time I’m gonna and drop an elbow to the back of the neck and land on my feet. That was the biggest turning point for me as far as learning how to work smarter, especially with the way it pertains to bumps…”

5: Tyler Reks

Whilst Tyler Reks didn’t have a main event run in WWE, he was mostly known for using the Burning Hammer as his finishing move. The Burning Hammer is one of the most visually appealing finishers to have ever been created, and it’s a huge shame that Reks wasn’t able to use it for the entire duration of his WWE tenure.

The reason as to why Reks was forced to stop using the move was a mix of backstage politics, and the influence of one man, that being John Cena.

According to Reks, he delivered a botched version of the move on Primo at a live event, and this didn’t sit well with WWE’s top star. When Reks came through the curtain, Cena informed the young star that he needed to change his finisher. According to Reks, he was unable to tell if Cena was joking, so he continued using the move, and this made Cena noticeably angrier.

This was the turning point for Reks, as he realised that Cena was being completely serious.

It has been speculated for the longest time that Cena’s issue was that the Burning Hammer, on occasion, could resemble the AA, and Cena naturally didn’t want anyone on the roster having a similar finisher. 

4: Dean Ambrose

During Dean Ambrose’s time in WWE, he used two different versions of The Dirty Deeds. The first version was a Headlock Driver move, which could look great if delivered on the right guy, yet the issue for Ambrose was that it was extremely difficult to execute when performing it on larger talents.

According to Ambrose during an interview with Fightful, this influenced his decision to switch to the Double Arm DDT. The Double Arm DDT move would afford him great success in the company, and it was even the move he used to win the WWE Title:

"A headlock driver is awesome if you got the right guy...if you're doing it to the right guy. It can be the nastiest, coolest piledriver looking thing in the world or if the guys are taller than you, which so many of the guys in WWE were taller than me. It can just be really awkward and stupid looking. I think I gave it to Randy Orton one time, who has sort of a significant height advantage on me and it just was awkward and I was...that's it. I'm switching this up. It was actually Joey Mercury's idea to switch to the Double Arm DDT."

3: Damian Priest

Upon Cody Rhodes returning to WWE in 2022, it was questioned if Damian Priest would be forced to change his finisher.

At time, Priest was using his own version of the Cross Rhodes, and it may have been awkward to have two upper-card stars using the same move as a finisher.

Priest would ditch the move almost immediately after Rhodes returned, and whilst it was commonly believed that this was down to Rhodes returning, Priest revealed in an interview that it was actually his own idea to pick a new finisher.

Speaking to Denton Day, Priest revealed:

“No, I asked to bring back the Razor’s Edge as part of my move set. For many years the Razor’s Edge was a move that — it’s not like a banned move but it was a move that Vince [McMahon] wasn’t really a fan of because some wrestlers had been injured in the past…”

Priest added that he was eventually able to come up with his modified Chokeslam finisher, known as South of Heaven:

“Fast forward and it’s the same situation and Vince was like ‘ah, I don’t know, let’s see’ and he even said it, he said ‘if you can do it like Razor, then yeah’ and then I did it and he was okay with it, he felt comfortable and he thought it looked good. It’s a powerful move, it’s part of the repertoire. But I know everybody read a lot into it, the idea was solely that I wanted to do a move and I did the move, you know? I do a chokeslam, which I used to finish off opponents with, but now it’s just a part of my repertoire. I have The Reckoning that I’ve used more and lately…”

2: Triple H

Before Triple H introduced fans to The Pedigree, he would use a cutter style move as his primary finisher.

Triple H began to use this at the same time in which Diamond Dallas Page was getting over with the fans in WCW, and due to the relationship between The Game and DDP, DDP reached out to his friend, and asked if he wouldn’t mind using a different move.

Triple H had no issues in picking another move, and he was quick to abandon the cutter, and debut the devastating Pedigree on WWE TV.

This was without a doubt the correct decision, as The Pedigree became incredibly iconic, and truly helped elevate The Game’s in-ring persona and presentation in the 90s and beyond.

1: Randy Orton

Randy Orton has had the RKO in his arsenal for over two-decades now, and there’s one other finishing move attached to Orton that has a long and somewhat confusing history.

Orton began to use The Punt Kick on WWE TV in 2007, and this was used to get Orton’s villainous character over and take him to the next level. WWE management have had a weird relationship with the move, as it has seemingly been banned and unbanned numerous times over the past 15-years or so.

The first ban was introduced in 2012, and Orton was quick to question the logic of WWE banning the move. Speaking on The Universal Wrestling Podcast, the WWE great stated:

“The feeling was if he does it as a shoot, he’s kicking someone full-blast in the head and we can’t do that. If he works it, it looks awful and we can’t do that. So now Randy doesn’t get to do his punt kick at all. And for months after this, any time you brought any creative to The Apex Predator, he would look at it and go, ‘So we can do this but I can’t do my punt kick?’ I remember that time specifically (during his feud with Kane) he’s laying on the floor reading the script and I’m just squatted down. He goes, ‘So he can talk about killing my dad but I can’t use my punt kick?’ I looked at him, I go, ‘Randy, I have no answers for you, okay? This is what we’re doing tonight.’”

The Punt Kick would reappear time and time again over the years, most notably during the COVID-19 pandemic. This saw Orton bring back his celebrated, Legend Killer persona for a brief period.

Its current status is unknown, as Orton often seems to set up the move, yet rarely lands it. It’s possible that due to WWE’s strong and rightful stance on concussions, that the move is banned, yet this would ultimately be something that Orton himself would have to address. 

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