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Many WWE Superstars use some exclusive finishers to win matches. These are moves which they came up with themselves. Brock Lesnar’s F5 is one of the most exclusive and destructive finishers the WWE Universe has ever seen.
The interesting thing is that there are several top former and current WWE Superstars who weren’t too happy when they saw some other Superstar use their finisher in the ring. Since the finisher of every wrestler is very important, as it is what helps them win matches, there are several interesting stories attached to the origins of a few in WWE.
From taking days to perfect a certain finisher to performing it for the first time in the ring without any practice, let’s look at 5 interesting stories about the origins of WWE finishers.
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#5 Tight leather pants helped Drew McIntyre come up with the Claymore Kick finisher in WWE
Let’s begin with the finisher that helped Drew McIntyre slay The Beast at WrestleMania 36 and win his first WWE Championship. The Claymore Kick looks like one of the most lethal wrestling finishers in the industry. It’d be scary to stand across from a 265lbs man, knowing that he’s going to kick you with full force right in the face.
McIntyre is currently using the Claymore to perfection in WWE, but that wasn’t the finisher he walked in with during his first stint with the company. McIntyre was the guest on the latest edition of Broken Skull Sessions hosted by Stone Cold Steve Austin and revealed that he came up with the move during a match while performing with 3MB:
"It was brought to me because of 3MB. The greatest thing that 3MB ever gave me was the Claymore. If you remember the beginning of 3MB, we had the super tight leather pants that the office made because I certainly did not have them commissioned."
The Scottish Psychopath further went on to tell the hilarious story of how the leather pants he was wearing accidentally led to the Claymore Kick:
"I'm running around in those 80s tight rock and roll pants and I was running to give a boot in the first match that I had in those leather pants, and as I was running, raising my leg for the boot, I realize 'oh, these things are going to split at the crotch'. I don't want my crotch to split, so I kicked up the other leg, knocked out my opponent and knocked myself out at the same time. Like, I remember getting up, doing an arm ringer after I did the maneuver, let the arm go, walked across the ring, tagged out and fell to the floor because I'd knocked myself silly. Got to the back and someone pulled me aside and said, 'If you can do that move without killing yourself you've got something cool there.' And I worked on it, worked on it, and I used it as a part of 3MB as my big maneuver that I would use, but it was created because of those tight leather pants."
Thankfully, McIntyre did not injure himself while delivering the first-ever Claymore Kick and has managed to perfect it, to perform it safely in the ring. McIntyre’s leather pants have helped him become a two-time WWE Champion in the company. What else could he ask for?
#4 Former WWE Superstar Dean Ambrose (Jon Moxley) came up with The Dirty Deeds finisher because Randy Orton was too tall for him
Former WWE Superstar Dean Ambrose is making waves in the wrestling industry by performing for WWE's rival promotion, All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Known as Jon Moxley outside WWE, Ambrose managed to perfect several things about his character and skills during his time in WWE. That includes his current finisher, which was known as Dirty Deeds while he was performing for WWE.
Before Dirty Deeds came into the picture, Ambrose used to perform The Headlock Driver to his opponents to end the match. However, Superstars who were taller than him, especially Randy Orton, made him rethink what his finisher should really be.
Speaking to Fightful recently, Ambrose opened up about his decision to change his finisher and what caused him to switch to the Dirty Deeds:
“The Headlock Driver’s awesome if you’ve got the right guy doing it to the right guy. It can be like the nastiest, coolest piledriver looking thing in the world or if the guy’s taller than you, which so many of the guys in the WWE were taller than me, it can be just really awkward and stupid looking. I think I gave it to Randy Orton one time, who is someone with a significant height advantage on me, it just was awkward. I was like, “That’s it, I’m switching this up.” It was [Joey Mercury’s idea, actually,] to switch to the double arm DDT and I’d never really done that before. I really kind of perfected the timing and the snap and now I can do it in my sleep. One of the better looking ones I think you’ll see.”
What makes his finisher more interesting is the fact that Ambrose named the move after the classic AC/DC song "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap."
Ambrose, who’s now performing as Jon Moxley, has decided to change the name of his finisher to avoid any legal issues. However, the mechanics of the finisher have remained similar.
#3 Angelo Dawkins took the Twisted Bliss dozens of times just so Alexa Bliss could perfect the finisher in WWE
Alexa Bliss has one of the coolest characters in WWE today, and her finisher, The Twisted Bliss, has a great ring to it. However, did you know that Bliss’s finisher was known as the Sparkle Splash earlier on?
“It used to be called the ‘Sparkle Splash’ which was not very intimidating or threatening, whatsoever.”
Doesn’t sound too threatening, does it?
Bliss is currently a top star in WWE, but it took the Superstar several tries to perfect her finisher in the Performance Centre. While Lance Storm helped her perfect the move, it was Angelo Dawkins who had to take the finisher 30 times for Bliss to do it perfectly:
“The move itself is a top-rope, half twisting, kind of front flip. And it used to be my gymnastics dismount off of the balance beam and that’s kind of where it came from.”
“I remember Lance Storm was helping out in the performance center and he wanted to be the first one to ever take it. But then our coach made me hit the finish at least 30 times on Angelo Dawkins and made him move everywhere in the ring to make sure I can hit it at any point and not hurt anyone. So poor Dawkins took that thing about 20 to 30 times in one day.”
The WWE Universe owes Dawkins for putting himself on the line to help the former RAW Women’s Champion bring the finisher to our television screens, and help The Goddess win multiple championships in WWE.
#2 WWE wanted The Undertaker to perform the Tombstone Piledriver finisher without any practice
The Tombstone Piledriver was the perfect finishing move for the man known as The Undertaker in the ring. The finisher helped Undertaker take WWE by storm as it worked well with his overall gimmick and persona.
While the finisher became synonymous with The Undertaker, it may come as a surprise to many that WWE made him perform the finisher on WWE Hall of Famer Koko B. Ware without any practice. That’s right, The Undertaker performed the Tombstone for the first time on Koko without any previous attempts.
Appearing on Why it Ended with Robbie E. Koko, Koko revealed that the finisher was botched by Taker and almost cracked his neck:
"I love Mark to death, and I'm still proud of The Undertaker today," said Koko. "He really, really has [taken] his gimmick a long, long way. But Mark was, you know. I was the first one to take the tombstone, but he was a little excited because that was his first time doing it, and I almost kind of cracked my neck a little bit doing it. And I heard all kind of little cracks and stuff like that.
"But I knew Mark was trying to get over... I got dropped on my head, to be honest with you. Yes. But thank God for working out, it kind of helps you. Now, if I had a weak head or something like that, I probably would have broke my neck big time. I was the first one that he used it on. [We didn't practice], he just said hey. They wanted him [to do it]. It was kind of like a piledriver, but he just had my head between his legs too far that you could see my head, and if he would have had my head between the fat part of his thighs, then it wouldn't have hurt."
While Taker was unable to perform the move to perfection at first, he managed to make it the deadliest move in his arsenal, which he continued to perform for years without any difficulties.
#1 Randy Orton broke his foot the first time he decided to perform the RKO in WWE
15-time WWE World Champion Randy Orton has won countless matches and championships during his career thanks to just one move: The RKO. Known as the three most lethal letters in all of WWE, Orton revealed during an interview with WWE Magazine in 2006 that Vince McMahon gave him less than a day to name the finisher:
“Three or four years ago, when I first came up with it, Vince told me he wanted a name for it by the end of the day. RKO are my initials. What can I say– I was pressed for time!”
That’s not the only interesting thing to note about the origin of the finisher, as Orton further revealed that he broke his foot the first night he planned on performing the move:
“I had a good vertical leap, so I figured I’d incorporate that into my move. The first night I planned on using it, I broke my foot. So during my time off from the ring, I watched Diamond Dallas Page and Johnny Ace tapes to learn how to fine tune it. When I first used it during a match, I had never practiced it before.”
The Viper came up with the finisher because he wanted a move that he could perform on any Superstar without worrying about their size:
“I wanted to pick something I could do to everybody, no matter how big they were. I can do the RKO to Big Show or Rey Mysterio–Size doesn’t matter.”
It’s interesting how Orton never practiced the finisher before performing it for the first time. The RKO remains one of the most exclusive and lethal moves in all of WWE, and it could end up helping The Viper become the most decorated Superstar of all time.
Meet Randy Orton's lovely wife HERE
