Finisher of the Year

The F5. At the moment, it feels like the only maneuver in the company that feels like a finisher. A maneuver so devastating that it doesn't matter if Brock hits it 5 minutes into the match, or 15. The match is over. Just Brock trying to hit the move delivers the same emotional reaction as many performers hitting their best shot 2-3 times. I think the only other maneuver that comes close is the RKO.

 

F-5 because it's pretty much the only finishing move, besides Roman's Spear and the RKO, that has been protected to the point where you know the match is over once it's hit. Since the Spear and RKO didn't make it on the nom list, I gotta go with the F-5. Not the coolest finisher, but it's definitely the most devastating from a kayfabe perspective.

 

Not sure just where my vote is going just yet, but it's goddamn impressive for an elbow drop to get such a reaction from the crowd in 2017, and by a relative newcomer no less.

 

The F5 is a finisher that is a combination of a couple requirements to make a finisher great for me. It looks real, and it can be performed (by Brock) on any opponent.

I can't imagine AJ hitting the Styles Clash or Pete Dunne hitting the Bitter End on The Big Show.

Also; I like finishers that don't have an elaborate setup. While it's believable to see someone escape the F5, it's a move that can be setup and executed in two seconds. In that short amount of time it spells absolute doom for Brock's opponent.

 

Insane Elbow is so beautifully executed that I have to pick it. One of the best looking new finishers of the year.

 

This video is a year and a half old.
[youtube]_XpBPZfgl1I[/youtube]

There is only one move on this list that is so sudden, can be hit at any point in a match, and has finished the victim without fail.

[youtube]6uDNXHKyDrM[/youtube]

 

LOL please. Roman Reigns would kick out of like 5 of those. Probably in succession. The F5 has been the only move this past year that has been shown to keep both him, and everyone else, down since Wrestlemania after just one application.

 

I'm very much with Stormtrooper on this one. The F5 has indeed finished a few people this year, but because of its years of overuse, it just feels like a total anticlimax. When people were taking three of a move and kicking out mere months ago, people suddenly acting like they've been shot in the head after one just looks bizarre. You can't just stuff that genie back in the bottle. Strowman and Joe just looked second tier after Triple H, Cena, Undertaker, Reigns and Goldberg kicked out of what felt like half a dozen each.

The Black Mass has three things I require of a good finisher: 1) a variant with a taunt set-up, 2) a surprise variant, 3) it looks like it would kill a man.

 

The F5 has ended 4 Televised matches since WrestleMania. Including the sporadic Live Event match, that number jumps all the way up to 12. Don't go saying it's a world beater when it won 4 matches (or 12). Aleister Black has wrestled 94 matches (3/4ths of which were Live Events), and has won 87 of them. Televised matches the number is around 15. ALL of them he's won with the Black Mass.

12 vs. 87. 4 vs. 15. Tell me again how the F5 is deadlier? Sheer quantity, coupled with the complete lack of anyone ever surviving the move, is proof enough that Black Mass >> F5.

And to those voting for the Insane Elbow. I love the move, but it suffers from the same issue as the F5, in that Kairi Sane has won only 8 televised matches with it, and that's the only time she's done it. It hasn't been built up as much as the Black Mass has this year.

 

Looks fucking boss though.

 

Black Mass.

Maybe it's coz I have seen so many people kick out of the F5 over the years (or it feels as such) but the Black Mass, man nothing so simple has been made to look so impactful since Patterson turned to Shawn and said " Don'tada du data stupid suplexs, justa use that high kicksa camaaaannn!"

It's 100% so far, done properly and something the fans pop for every single time. I do have inhibitions about doing it in a bunker like NXT where the sound of slapping your thigh reverberates compared to a RAW venue which is a lot bigger, but I still think he will do fine once he is called up.

 

Ah, going with the quantity argument, I see. Guess I'll go with the quality one instead. Give me a list of people that Aleister Black has defeated this year with just one application of his finisher that rivals this one...

Bill Goldberg
Samoa Joe
Roman Reigns
Braun Strowman
AJ Styles

No? I didn't think so. Most of the names that Black has defeated this year were preliminary, and mid card level fighters. All the top names that Black has defeated don't come close to the 5 that I mentioned. The names that I mentioned consist of 4 of the top workers in the WWE today, and Bill Golberg, who up until Mania 33, had never lost clean in his entire career. AJ Styles was even the reigning WWE champion at the time of his defeat. Black may have won more often this year, but that talent that he put down was far inferior to the talent that Brock Lesnar defeated.

So in the end, there's only one option. And that's the F5.

 

B-but an elbow drop, guys.

 

I hate Black Mass. It would be different if Black never used kicks, but a good chunk of his offense is kicking. He even uses other head kicks in his matches. Why is Black Mass special? Barbosa needs to come in here and put this more eloquently than I can.

The Insane Elbow is beautiful and has fans popping for an elbow drop as a finish. Not since Randy Savage have people got on their feet over an elbow drop. Sane and Dream are bringing the elbow drop back, and I love it.

 

I never really agreed with the "It's just another kick" argument. Maybe in the case of, say, Hideo Itami, where said kick looks garbage, but that's really more a case of, well, the kick looking garbage. Why does a RKO hurt more than a neck breaker? Or a chokeslam more than a scoop slam?

I do like a good elbow drop though.

 

Because no one sees the RKO coming ever. The element of surprise.

When Black does the taunt before Black Mass, where he uses his foot to lift the opponent, I have no real issue with that because it feels like the head kick is sort of the exclamation point after a series of moves to put his opponent on the brink. It’s the non taunt version that bothers me because without the taunt there is literally no difference between it and a run of the mill kick that every other indie guy this decade has used. Taunts before finishers are one of those weird things we as wrestling fans have just been conditioned to accept as making a move more impactful.

 

I've gotta go with the One Winged Angel. There's something about hoisting your opponent onto your shoulders and flipping them down onto their neck and back as hard as you can that just screams 'DONE' to me.

Add onto that the notion that I believe no-one has kicked out of it (not including rope breaks) and it's put away some of the very best in NJPW.

I love the Black Mass and the Eclipse, and the F5 is a beast of a move that gets kicked out of far too often (which is more due to Lesnar only being around for a handful of matches on bigger stages and that tends to be the norm on those stages) but One Winged Angel gets my vote.

 

I'm going with Black Mass just because I simply love how the move looks. Given that it's a blatant spin kick to the face, couple that with the smack that Black uses to give the impression of a big impact and it just flat out works. The guy's among the best strikers in wrestling today and Black Mass just ties everything in: his legit background in martial arts, especially kickboxing, his look, the occult like aspects of his persona.