Chairshot Top 5: Worst Wrestling Finishers of All Time

From the Overdrive to the infamous Saxtonation, these are the five worst finishing moves in professional wrestling history.

A finishing move should make victory feel inevitable. These five finishers made fans question why the opponent could not simply stand back up.

The finishing move is one of professional wrestling’s most important storytelling tools. Steve Austin had the Stone Cold Stunner, Shawn Michaels had Sweet Chin Music and Randy Orton turned the RKO into a move that could end a match without warning.

A great finisher does not need to be complicated or legitimately dangerous. It needs to look convincing, fit the wrestler performing it and create anticipation whenever the setup begins. Once the audience believes a move can end a match, even something relatively simple can become iconic.

The worst finishers produce the opposite reaction. Some require too much cooperation, others generate almost no visible impact and a few leave the person delivering the move looking more injured than the wrestler receiving it.

Popularity alone does not determine placement on this list. Several ridiculous finishers became successful because the wrestlers using them understood their characters and audiences. These five moves struggled because their execution, presentation or basic design made them difficult to accept as match-ending offense.

#5: Wade Barrett’s Wasteland

Wade Barrett looked like someone who should have possessed a devastating finishing move. He was tall, physically imposing and presented as the dangerous leader of The Nexus during one of WWE’s biggest invasion angles. The Wasteland did not match that presentation.

Barrett would lift an opponent across his shoulders in a fireman’s carry before throwing him forward onto the mat. WWE treated the move as powerful enough to defeat stars including John Cena, Daniel Bryan, Kofi Kingston and Randy Orton. Barrett even used it to capture the Intercontinental Championship from Kingston in 2011.

The problem was the landing. Instead of driving the opponent downward with his own body weight, Barrett remained standing while gently releasing the wrestler in front of him. The recipient often landed flat on his back from a height that did not appear significantly more dangerous than a routine bump.

Wasteland looked even weaker when compared with other fireman’s-carry finishers. John Cena turned the position into the Attitude Adjustment, while Brock Lesnar used it to begin the rotation of the F-5. Barrett essentially picked someone up and dropped him.

He eventually adopted the Bull Hammer elbow, which fit his bare-knuckle brawler persona far better. Barrett could strike suddenly, opponents could sell the impact convincingly and the move looked capable of ending a match. Wasteland was officially relegated from finisher to reminder that the obvious move is sometimes the right one.

#4: Naomi’s Rear View

Naomi was one of WWE’s most athletic performers, which made the Rear View a particularly frustrating finishing move.

With an opponent charging toward her, Naomi would jump, turn in midair and drive her backside into the wrestler’s face. The move fit the colorful energy of her presentation, but it rarely looked powerful enough to finish an opponent.

Hip attacks can work in wrestling. Performers such as Asuka and Toni Storm have delivered versions with enough speed and commitment to make the collision look painful. The Rear View often appeared too light, with Naomi jumping upward while the opponent ran into position and provided most of the movement.

The setup also limited when the move could be used. Naomi generally needed her opponent to approach from the proper direction at the proper speed, then remain in place long enough for her to jump and rotate. When the timing was even slightly wrong, the result looked more like an awkward collision than a planned attack.

Naomi possessed several moves that better demonstrated her abilities, including the split-legged moonsault and submission holds developed later in her career. Those options looked more credible and showcased the athleticism that separated her from much of the division.

The Rear View was memorable, but being recognizable is not the same as being convincing. It survived largely because it fit Naomi’s presentation, not because it ever looked like the most damaging move in her arsenal.

#3: The Bayley-to-Belly

A belly-to-belly suplex can be an effective wrestling move. When executed with enough speed and force, it can send an opponent across the ring and create an impressive visual. The Bayley-to-Belly rarely produced that kind of impact.

Bayley wrapped her arms around an opponent and fell backward, bringing the other wrestler down with her. The move suited the hugging imagery of her original character, but the character connection came at the expense of credibility.

Wrestlers had used belly-to-belly suplexes as standard offense for decades. Some performers delivered much more forceful versions without attempting a pin because the move was not presented as anything extraordinary. Bayley’s variation often looked softer than those transitional suplexes, yet opponents were expected to remain down for three seconds.

The move still became attached to important moments in Bayley’s career. She used it during her acclaimed match with Sasha Banks at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn and continued relying on it after reaching WWE’s main roster. Emotional investment in Bayley and her matches frequently compensated for the finisher’s lack of visual impact.

Bayley eventually added other finishing options, including the Rose Plant. That move gave her a finish better suited to the more aggressive character she developed after abandoning the inflatable tube figures and relentless optimism.

The Bayley-to-Belly made sense as part of a gimmick, but a pun and a character connection could only carry it so far. As a move designed to defeat championship-level opponents, it never looked strong enough.

#2: The Overdrive

The Overdrive is proof that a complicated move is not automatically an impressive one. To perform it, the attacking wrestler placed one leg across the back of a bent opponent’s neck, controlled an arm and spun forward to drive the opponent face-first into the mat. At least, that was the intended visual.

In practice, the move created several problems. The setup took too long, the opponent had to remain bent in an unnatural position and the person delivering the Overdrive appeared to absorb much of the landing. The motion was difficult to follow and the final impact rarely justified the amount of preparation.

The most remarkable part of the Overdrive is how many wrestlers were asked to use it. Randy Orton briefly performed the move before receiving the RKO, while MVP called his version the Playmaker. Carlito and Orlando Jordan also used variations despite the move never becoming especially popular.

Orton later explained that the Overdrive had been assigned to him early in his career before Diamond Dallas Page helped him adopt the cutter that became the RKO. The difference between the two moves could not be greater. The Overdrive required obvious cooperation and careful positioning, while the RKO could happen suddenly from almost any situation.

MVP faced the same problem. His charisma and presentation suggested that something spectacular was coming, but the Playmaker usually ended with both wrestlers awkwardly falling to the mat.

The Overdrive was not simply a weak finisher. It repeatedly failed talented wrestlers until WWE finally stopped trying to make it work.

Honorable Mention: Santino Marella’s Cobra

The Cobra was a ridiculous finishing move, but that was also the point.

Santino Marella would pull a snake sleeve over his arm, make his hand resemble a cobra and strike an opponent with his fingertips. The presentation turned a basic thrust into an elaborate ritual, complete with Santino’s arm moving as though it had developed a mind of its own.

Judged purely as an offensive maneuver, the Cobra belongs near the top of any list of wrestling’s least believable finishers. It looked harmless and sometimes required opponents to stand motionless while Santino completed the entire routine.

As a comedy device, however, the Cobra succeeded. Crowds reacted to the setup, children recognized it immediately and Santino’s commitment made the move more entertaining than it had any right to be. It even created one of the most dramatic near-upsets in Royal Rumble history when Santino nearly eliminated Alberto Del Rio in 2011.

The Cobra earns an honorable mention because it was objectively terrible as a move while being remarkably effective for its performer. Several finishers ranked above it lacked that excuse.

#1: Byron Saxton’s Saxtonation

Before Byron Saxton became a WWE commentator, he competed in Florida Championship Wrestling and the fourth season of NXT. His in-ring career produced a finishing move that remains difficult to explain even after watching it repeatedly.

The Saxtonation began with Saxton applying a half nelson while standing beside his opponent. He then hooked or controlled the wrestler’s lower body before twisting both men toward the mat in an awkward combination of a legsweep, side slam and accidental fall.

The move had no clear point of impact. Saxton appeared to land on his own back while the opponent rolled partially across him, leaving viewers to determine which wrestler was supposed to have been hurt. Even the move databases struggle to make it sound intimidating, generally classifying it as a half-nelson legsweep.

Most poor finishers contain at least one useful idea. Wasteland demonstrated Barrett’s strength, the Rear View fit Naomi’s personality and the Overdrive attempted to create a visually complex face-first landing. The Saxtonation did not highlight power, speed, athleticism or aggression.

It also required far too much cooperation for such a weak result. The opponent needed to accept several hooks and rotate with Saxton, only for the sequence to conclude with something resembling two wrestlers losing their balance simultaneously.

Saxton ultimately found his calling behind the commentary desk, where his personality and chemistry with the broadcast team created a much longer WWE career. That transition also ensured the Saxtonation would not receive the repeated television exposure necessary to become more than an obscure curiosity.

The move remains legendary among wrestling fans who search for bad finishers, which is a form of immortality Saxton probably never intended. No finishing move has ever required so much explanation while producing so little visible damage.

Professional wrestling audiences are willing to accept almost anything when the presentation is strong enough. An elbow drop can become electrifying, a simple kick can feel devastating and a cutter can emerge from nowhere to end a championship match.

The responsibility belongs to both the move and the wrestler performing it. A finisher needs a recognizable setup, a convincing moment of impact and enough versatility to work against opponents of different sizes and styles.

The finishers on this list failed in different ways. Some were too weak, others were unnecessarily complicated and one looked as though neither wrestler knew what was supposed to happen.

Every wrestler needs a move that signals the match is over. These finishers usually signaled that a better one needed to be found.

Research includes information from: WWE.com, Fightful.com, FOX Sports, and TheSmackDownHotel.com.