Less is more.
That philosophy has been something the creative staff within the WWE has either lost sight of over the last decade or actively decided to ignore. Regardless of the ‘why’ the result has created a new anti-climatic era where the finish rarely builds gradually to a logical conclusion, but instead features jarring stops and starts thrown together in a random sequence.
This transformation in my view began with arguably the greatest match in recent memory between the Undertaker and Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 25. The starting point for the overuse of false finishes is up for debate, but that’s when I first started noticing the trend. Regardless of when it started, it’s now gotten out of control.
When used correctly false finishes can captivate an audience and send their emotions on a roller coaster ride as they hold their breath every time the ref starts a count only to see one of the combatants kick out at the last possible fraction of a second.
When the WWE gets this dynamic right the drama can be intense and amazing. Unless you’re one of the fans who enjoys reading spoilers and finding out the winner ahead of time, there had to be separate moments during that Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels match when you honestly thought one guy was about to win before the other ultimately kicked out.
That’s the feeling and reaction a false finish should evoke when used well, but unfortunately over-saturation has made each occurrence less special and left me feeling apathetic to it most of the time.
No move has seen its relevance depreciate more over this period of time than the DDT which is something I will get to later during this article.
In order for a false finish to have the desired impact on an audience that audience has to actually believe that the match could end when the wrestler hits his finisher. If opponents frequently kick out of a big move designed to be a false finish, then fans will eventually start picking up on that trend and the desired impact will be lost.
Bottom line: You can’t use something that never happens to fool or fake out an audience.
Quick side note on something that relates to that last statement; when’s the last time someone actually pulled off a back body drop? If no one ever uses the move, why in the world is every one still going to the “bend down way too early” counter where they get kicked in the chest or face? The worst offender of this might be Kane who just puts his hands on his knees and stares down at the mat for three or four seconds waiting for the other guy to bounce off the rope and kick him.
It just looks stupid, but anyway back to the issue at hand.
The WWE still sticks with the one finisher pin-fall victory format for the filler TV matches on Raw or Smackdown or even on a Pay-Per-View, but you can bet the mortgage that any main event level match on TV that’s given more than 10 minutes will feature at least one false finish with someone kicking out of a finishing move.
Some finishing moves like the RKO, Shell Shock—which I’ve never liked since it’s just a renamed Samoan Drop—F5, and Sister Abigail have been protected and aren’t used very often as part of a false finish, but the same can’t be said for John Cena’s “AA” which might as well be a hip-toss with how often it actually earns a pin-fall victory on the first try.
If it takes multiple finishers to beat an opponent in every big match like has been the case with Cena’s “AA”—especially during his run of title defenses during the Open Challenge on Raw—then that move becomes more of a signature set-up move than a finisher and loses it’s impact as a false finish.
Before this era began people kicked out of signature set-up moves like Undertaker’s choke slam, Diesel’s sidewalk slam or Razor Ramon’s fall-a-way slam, but rarely did they kick out of a Tombstone, Jack-Knife power bomb or Razor’s Edge. When you ingrain the idea into the minds of fans that certain moves always end the match and then surprise them with a kickout to spice up a huge match a couple times a year, that’s when false finishes work.
When they happen every week they’re no longer a false finish because no one actually believes that the match will end at that point. The boy can only cry wolf so many times before people stop listening.
Think of false finishes like fireworks in a way; seeing them occasionally on holidays is fun and entertaining, but they’d become boring and mundane if you saw them everyday.
For an example of overusing false finishes just look at the recent trilogy between Cena and Kevin Owens. After re-watching each match again recently I counted up 13 times that either the Pop-up Powerbomb or “AA” were used by either wrestler. Of those 13 times when a finishing move was used over their three matches, only twice did it result in a pinfall win.
Two for thirteen.
Are those finishing moves or a Russian leg sweep?
I’ll say it again because it’s worth mentioning, a false finish only works if the audience actually believes that the match might end. When the finishing moves only work twice out of every 13 times they’re used, you’re not going to get the desired reactions of surprise and shock from the fans.
Even though it’s probably not coming off this way, I’m really not against the use of false finishes. What I’m against is using them every week as a lazy way to spice up a match that was otherwise poorly thought out.
Ever since Cena won the United States Championship at Wrestlemania people have been kicking out of that move literally every week during his numerous open challenge matches on Raw and even the title defenses against Owens and Rusev. In addition to all the times Owens’ kicked out of the “AA”, Rusev also kicked out of that “finishing move” at Fastlane; you couldn’t win by pinfall during their matches at Extreme Rules and Payback.
What would your reaction be to an opponent kicking out of Brock Lesnar’s F5? You’d probably be shocked since that rarely happens.
Same question as to your reaction when an opponent kicks out of Cena’s “AA”? Probably not moved or surprised at all because it happens frequently.
That’s my point; false finishes work well when you’re surprised, but fall flat when you expect them to happen.
Enjoying a glass of wine with a meal occasionally is fine, but do it every day for lunch and dinner and you’ve got a problem; too much of a good thing can ruin anything.
The WWE uses false finishes in an attempt to make matches special, but by overusing them they actually end up with the opposite result. Instead of having a few matches really stand out they make every match including the important ones feel ordinary and not unique.
The finish to a match should be built up to overtime—unless it’s a squash match—with the pinfall gained off of the most devastating move of the match. That type of setup for a finish is logical and makes sense, however logic is lost when false finishes are misused.
In the Cena vs. Owens match from Battleground for example, Cena hit Owens with three “AA” moves including the last one from off the top rope. A pinfall victory off a third “AA” which came from off the top rope would have been a very logical finish, but instead they chose to end the match on a submission.
Didn’t make any sense to me and I would also argue it damaged Owens’ momentum by having him tap out.
The biggest move should end the match, but the disconnect from that logic we see now has hurt the significance of signature moves including the DDT as mentioned earlier in the article.
Despite everyone—except kids—knowing that the product is a work, matches need to be presented as real as possible to suck in an audience and get them to suspend disbelief long enough to really enjoy what they’re watching. That’s why properly building up to a logical finish is so important; if a fan starts getting distracted by things in the match that don’t make sense then you’ve lost them.
Every week I see a wrestler on Raw or Smackdown get just a one or two count off a deadly looking DDT, but then later earn a pinfall victory off a finisher or some other move that looks like it would hurt way less.
The best example of this today is with Dolph Ziggler. His top of the shoulder, rocking, snap DDT looks like it’d have you seeing stars for a week while his actual finisher doesn’t carry nearly the same impact. Both moves look cool, but you can’t convince me that the “Zig-Zag” would hurt worse than his DDT if applied for real.
To a lesser extent you could make the same argument for moves of Cena and Dean Ambrose. Both guys frequently use a great tornado DDT off the top rope that looks way more destructive than their actual finishing move. Using an extreme analogy to make my point here, but a slap should never result in a pinfall victory after a sledgehammer to the face failed.
The same point could be made about wrestlers who use “superplexes” off the top rope as just a setup move; their finisher may look cool, but there’s little chance that it would hurt more than a superplex.
Whatever hurts the worst should finish the match. Not complicated, just simple logic.
When an opponent recovers rather quickly from the most devastating move of the match, but later can’t even move enough to kickout from a lesser move the whole match and the story being told doesn’t make sense. At times it just seems like they throw together high-spots in a random order until they’ve hit their allotted TV time instead of stacking moves together of increasing force until one opponent can no longer continue.
Perhaps that’s not the fault of the WWE, but just a product of the short-attention span culture we live in currently. Though I’d like to believe well put together matches could still captivate even the shortest attention span.
I’m not saying the DDT should become a widely used finish, just advocating for some common sense. If a version of the DDT is the most devastating move in a wrestler’s arsenal then it should at least occasionally be used as a finish.
Perhaps why I like the DDT is because I appreciate finishing moves that look like they could be pulled off in a real fight. The DDT—which was used as a finisher by Hall of Famer Jake “The Snake” Roberts—is one of those moves while others like Bray Wyatt’s “Sister Abigail” and Owens’ Pop-up Powerbomb are obviously not remotely possible.
The DDT looks cool, seems like it would really hurt, and is plausible to pull off in a real fight; perfect attributes for a great finishing move.
If sold by the performers and protected by creative any cool looking move can make a good finisher while neglect in either area can turn a great finisher into something fans won’t even remember once the match is over. If the opponent acts like a move doesn’t hurt or it never gains a pinfall, then why should we care about the move? At that point it’s lost all significance.
Just compare Ryback’s “Shell Shock” to Cena’s “AA”. Neither one looks that cool or seems like it hurts that much, but one is protected and sold while the other one is not. Those two moves are just re-named versions of the Samoan Drop and Fireman’s Carry which had been just average setup moves, but there is a noticeable difference in how they’re treated which translates into each move being perceived differently.
Wrestling at its best is in a way a violent soap opera. Over the top characters, drama filled story lines, and great athletes pulling off crazy physical stunts. All those elements work together, so if one piece gets removed or messed up the whole thing can fall apart.
When broken down the elements of a good match are quite simple, but too often over-thinking the simple details muddies up the process.
Creative probably views the insertion of more false finishes and high spots as a lock to pump up the drama. However overused/predictable false finishes or illogical finishing moves often take an audience out of the moment.
It may sound counter-intuitive, but more is not always better. Naturally beautiful women don’t need 10 pounds of makeup to be pretty just like a match between two great performers that’s planned out well doesn’t need four or five false finishes to be entertaining; adding more is often just overkill.
If the overuse of false finishes doesn’t start to slow down then where will it stop?
It starts with one, but then one isn’t enough to surprise anyone. So then one turns into two and two turns into three or four like we saw in each match of the Cena vs. Owens trilogy.
By the third match of the Cena vs. Owens trilogy the false finishes had noticeably less of an emotional impact on the crowd. So when three or four false finishes aren’t enough to surprise fans anymore, where does it go from there? Five? Eight? Ten?
They use false finishes often to make matches feel special, but each time they overuse them it cheapens the uniqueness of each occurrence.
If used correctly false finishes can be captivating and the DDT can be electric. Overusing one while not protecting the other will result in both becoming background noise that nobody notices.
What do you think? Comment below with your thoughts, opinions, feedback and anything else that was raised.