What can and what cannot be a finishing move?

[Stopspot]

I think most of us would agree that a finisher needs to fit the wrestler/character. You would want to see Hornswoggle pull off the tombstone about just as much as you'd like to see the Undertaker do Alicia Fox's scissor kick. But what type of moves can and cannot be finishers in your opinion? Can it be any type of move done right or does it have to be a certain type of move?

I personally think most moves if set up right/done right can work as a finisher. Despite the hilarious gif up front here punches can be good finishers if done right. Wrestling is the art form of simulating fighting, and a lot of pro fights end with knock outs after punches/kicks. For example I could easily see Roman Reigns use the Superman punch as a finishing move. It looks good and Reigns is big enough and with the right kind of style to sell it as a finisher. Daniel Bryan had the small package roll up as a finisher for a long time on the independents/in Japan due to the way it was set up, which made the small package a legit finisher instead of a cheap way out. Japanese wrestler Genki Horiguchi is another example as he uses two forms of the the Backslide as his finisher.

So in short I personally think almost all moves can be used as a finisher depending on the set up/character/wrestler.

But what are your opinions?
Do you share my view in some form, or are there just some moves that you think don't work?

 

[Farooq]

I think a finisher should fit a character and make it look like a opponent is knocked out cold to sell the finisher. The impact has to give that wow feeling too. The WMD problem is that Big Show is punching throughout the entire match, so why not just go head on and use WMD at the start and end it? It brings illogical to me, the chokeslam works much better because of his height for the most part. He is a very very tall guy, and lifting someone that high and slamming them by their necks looks much more brutal then simply punching them in the face.

Kevin Nash's powerbomb also has that feeling and the look as well as the impact. He lifts them up high and just throws them on their back, as oppose to Big E's finisher where it looks as if Big E is just slamming himself on the ground as well. I'm not saying that every finisher has to have all these stuff, but they should at least be logical. Miz's skull crushing finally you're dropping someone on your face. It's not the biggest impact, but you can't do it all match, and dropping someone on their face does legit hurt. Even Kofi's trouble in paradise looks legit, and it can happen at anytime but it can be easily evaded as well, so you need to do damage or make it a surprise as oppose to the WMD.

 

[Rogue]

For the most part I'm with you,but, there are a couple moves that just shouldn't be used as finishers, like the Finger Poke of Doom,and,the Cobra.

 

[Lockard 23]

If the star is over enough and uses a move often enough to the point where the audience is conditioned to accept it as a finisher, then just about anything can become a finishing move. We've had punches, kicks, clotheslines, stomps, splashes, leg drops, DDTs, suplexes and different pin fall maneuvers all be used as a finisher at some point or another.... Despite all these being pretty common moves in almost any normal wrestling match.

Shawn Michaels was super kicking people left and right as a casual move midway through the match going back to his early days as the Heart Break Kid but it wasn't his finisher yet (some sort of weak back suplex was) so people didn't react to it the same. It genuinely got no reaction, really. As soon as he started calling it the Sweet Chin Music and started stomping his foot to the ground in anticipation of kicking someone in the chin, people went along with it and immediately accepted that if he connected with the kick, it was lights out for his opponent.

Jake Roberts once said as well how amusing it was to him that other guys couldn't use the DDT to pin people but whenever he would execute the move, people bought it as a finisher and even chanted for the DDT frequently.

 

[Leo C]

With the right set up, yeah, nearly every move can be a finisher, except for a few obvious ones already mentioned. Because the sole concept of finishers already requires some suspension of disbelief (why does one guy finish every one up with one move which can be very simple and other wrestlers don't?), so no harm in simple moves being used if they're well set up and all.