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A great WWE finisher is high impact, high energy, and immediately iconic. Next to a wrestler’s entrance, a wrestler’s finisher is crucial to their identity. The best ones mirror a wrester's character. A babyface might have a dramatic, flashy slam that lets him pull a pose. A heel might have an especially vicious submission maneuver that bends his opponent to his will.
But just as it takes time for wrestlers to develop their character, it can also take time to find a perfect finisher. It’s fascinating to pore through the archives and see how many of our favorite Superstars have changed over the years. Here are 10 WWE superstars who switched from "eh" finishers to great ones, thereby launching their careers into legendary territory.
Triple H
Old finisher: Pedigree Pandemonium
New finisher: Pedigree
When Triple H debuted in WWE, he was a completely different character. He was Hunter Hearst Helmsley, a blue blooded snot from Greenwich, Conn. who would curtsy in the ring after winning his matches. For a number of his early matches, he used a finisher that he called the Pedigree Pandemonium.
He stopped using it, however, because it was identical to Diamond Dallas Page’s Diamond Cutter. DDP called Helmsley personally, requesting that he stop performing the move—Page didn’t want the younger wrestler overshadowing his push. Triple H agreed, and it all turned out for the best. Both men went on to become main eventers, and Triple H’s new double underhook facebuster, re-christened the Pedigree, was a far better fit for him.
Shawn Michaels
Old finisher: Teardrop Suplex
New finisher: Sweet Chin Music
Shawn Michaels’s entire persona is based around flash and style, from the way he dresses to the way he wrestles. And that’s why his signature Sweet Chin Music is the perfect finisher for him. Everything about it screams showmanship, especially the stomps in the corner that he uses to “tune up the band.”
Many younger fans think that Shawn always used Sweet Chin Music as his finisher. That famous clip from 1991, where he kicks Marty Jannetty’s head off its shoulders in the barbershop, seems to support that. But at the beginning of Shawn’s solo career, the kick was actually the lead up to a different finisher: a teardrop suplex. Because when you think “Mr. WrestleMania,” you think teardrop suplex.
Thankfully, Shawn shortened his finish to just the kick, and the rest is history.
The Rock
Old finisher: Running Shoulderbreaker
New finisher: Rock Bottom
Today, The Rock is one of the most beloved figures in professional wrestling. But when he first debuted as smiling babyface Rocky Maivia, the fans rejected him. WWE devotees love their antiheroes.
Rocky Maivia’s finisher was a running shoulderbreaker. It was physically impressive, but it lacked any sort of personality. Eventually, WWE decided to go along with the fans—they turned Rock heel, and to complement this new, preening, theatrical braggart, they changed his finishers to the Rock Bottom and the People’s Elbow. Finally, the most electrifying man in sports entertainment had a moveset to match his charisma.
The Undertaker
Old finisher: Heat Seeking Missile
New finisher: Tombstone Piledriver
The Undertaker is an industry icon, and he made his name by doing things in the ring that no man his size has any business doing. Take, for example, Old School, his signature walk along the ring rope, which he followed with a chop. Originally, the ropewalk was the beginning of his finisher, only instead of doing an arm twist chop, he did an elbow drop onto his opponent. It was called the Heat Seeking Missile, and it dated back to Undertaker’s pre-WWE days as Mean Mark Callous.
Eventually, Undertaker adopted the Tombstone Piledriver and many other finishers as well: the Choke Slam, the Last Ride, and the Hell’s Gate, to name a few. But the Heat Seeking Missile was his first and forgotten WWE finisher, back before he was the legendary Phenom we know today.
The Miz
Old finisher: Reality Check
New finisher: Skull Crushing Finale
The Miz is undergoing a career Renaissance at the moment. He’s come incredibly far in a short amount of time; it’s difficult to believe that he was once a reality show star on The Real World.
Years ago, The Miz was the tag team partner of John Morrison. They were both contestants on the WWE reality competition Tough Enough, but out of the two of them, no one would have pegged Miz as being a future World Champion. But after Morrison and Miz broke up on account of the brand split, Miz made a massive grab for the brass ring. And part of that grab was trading in his dull Reality Check finisher for the Skull Crushing Finale. It looked a lot more painful and a lot more heelish. Any move that starts from behind the opponent is sort of shady.
Edge
Old finisher: Edgecution
New finisher: Spear
Edge was never able to settle on a single finisher. First, it was the Downward Spiral. Then, it was the Edgecution, a modified DDT. And every now and then, he performed his Edgecator submission hold.
It took years for the Rated-R Superstar to find the right move, and he succeeded when he stopped with the name-centric gimmicks and committed to a simple, yet effective Spear. Edge isn’t a big, musclebound football player like Roman Reigns, but he still possessed one of the best Spears in the business. It was all about the intensity—the bared teeth and the crazy eyes—before Edge went charging across the ring.
Chris Jericho
Old finisher: Lionsault
New finisher: Codebreaker
Over a decade removed from his Attitude Era heyday, Chris Jericho is still going strong and still capable of performing at a main event level.
For the longest time, Jericho’s finisher was the Lionsault, a springboard moonsault off the middle rope. But when he made his WWE return in 2007, he had replaced it with a new finisher, the Codebreaker. The move drove Y2J’s knees directly into his opponent’s face—it looked a lot more convincing than the Lionsault, which was always more visually impressive than impactful. And besides, the Lionsault involved too much danger—after all, the move paralyzed Japanese wrestling legend Hayabusa. The Codebreaker allows for an older Jericho to land flat on his back, thus keeping him safe.
Randy Orton
Old finisher: O-Zone
New finisher: RKO
Orton debuted in WWE to great hype. At the time, there was no NXT. There was only OVW, an independent wrestling promotion which also served as a developmental territory for WWE. And there were four breakout stars who came up through OVW the early 00’s: John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Batista, and Randy Orton. Out of all of them, Orton was the most technically capable. He also had the bloodlines (third generation wrestler) and the good looks to go along with it.
But his original finisher, the O-Zone, did him no favors when he first arrived on the main roster. It looked awkward—it’s one of those finishers that has to be set up in advance, and no one looks particularly intimidating or graceful when balancing on one leg. Fortunately, Orton soon changed his finisher to the RKO, which could be hit “outta nowhere” and gave his matches a higher degree of excitement and unpredictability.
John Cena
Old finisher: Proto-Bomb
New finisher: FU / Attitude Adjustment
Cena is an absolute genetic freak, and when he started wrestling in the indies and OVW, he performed under an appropriate name: The Prototype. His finisher was the Proto-bomb, and when Cena made his formal WWE debut in 2002, he continued using it.
But then, Cena entered a feud with Brock Lesnar. And as a way of mocking the Beast’s finisher, the F-5, Cena also took on a fireman’s carry move, and began calling it the FU. He later renamed this finisher to the Attitude Adjustment when WWE entered its PG Era. He also kept the Proto-bomb as a signature move—it’s the body slam right before the Five Knuckle Shuffle.
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin
Old finisher: Million Dollar Dream Hold
New finisher: Stone Cold Stunner
When Austin first debuted in WWE, he billed himself as The Ringmaster—technically perfect, devoid of emotion or impulse, and wholly dominant over his opponents. He was managed by “Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase, and as a tribute to his manager, his first WWE finisher was the Million Dollar Dream. Not bad, per se, but certainly not original.
But then, Dibiase left for WCW. And the Ringmaster, who by that point had already begun referring to himself as himself as “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, underwent an image change, starting with his finisher.
At first, the Stone Cold Stunner had no set-up or foreshadowing. But after a conversation with Fabulous Freebird Michael Hayes, Austin decided to slow the move down. He added in a trademark kick to the gut, and gave us the popular finisher that we know and love today.