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At WrestleMania, every single WWE superstar looks to go bigger, better, and bolder in every character choice than they ever have. We've talked about ten times performers went above and beyond to make an amazing entrance into WWE's biggest show, but today we focus on what happens between the bells.
No part of a match brings the fans to their feet like a Superstar's finisher; though WWE's signature style for many years has required performers to hit that finisher numerous times over the course of a match to actually finish their foe, the moves themselves are a crucial piece of getting a particular character over.
Here are the ten best uses of a superstar's particular finishing move in Wrestlemania history. Some of these ended matches in spectacular fashion while some gave fans a heart-stopping near-fall, but they all earn a place in Wrestlemania history as the best Wrestlemania use of a finishing maneuver.
#10 The Rock at Wrestlemania XX
The People's Elbow, one of The Rock's two finishing moves, is one which always leaves room for improvisation. He's mocked any number of opponents, cities, and characters through the various showy steps of the move; here, Rock punctuates the elbow itself with an exaggerated rendition of the Fargo Strut before arriving at his target, The Nature Boy Ric Flair.
Other Great Uses
Rock would use the People's Elbow to mock another famous foe, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, most notably at WrestleMania XIX the previous year, where he would ape Austin's pointed elbow motions and middle fingers before dropping the arm.
#9 Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XII
Shawn Michaels gets two superkicks in on Bret Hart in the overtime portion of the WWF Championship Iron Man Match at WrestleMania XII. The first came out of pure desperation and left HBK unable to capitalize. Michaels set up for a second, using his full stomping windup from the corner before drilling The Hitman right in the chin (starting at 2:42 in the above video). Bonus points to the ringside cameraman who perfectly captures Hart's face as the kick connects, the real magic in this version of the move is Shawn Michaels collapsing into the pin to capture his first WWF Championship.
Other Great Uses
Beyond this match, the best match that ever ended with a Sweet Chin Music came at WrestleMania 24, where Michaels famously ended the WWE career of "The Nature Boy" with an emotional superkick; proclaiming, "I'm sorry; I love you" as Flair tearfully begged for the end, the WrestleMania XII kick just barely gets the edge over the career-ender.
#8 Jeff Hardy at WrestleMania 33
The setup was a little contrived, with getting both Cesaro and Sheamus onto horizontal ladders, but that doesn't matter; this was the first time in a ladder match at WrestleMania that Jeff Hardy had both hit the move successfully and won the match. Considering that fans didn't even know for sure they'd be seeing the Hardy Boyz that night, this was a rare treat; considering that this was the best Swanton Jeff had ever executed at the Showcase of the Immortals, and considering that it enabled his brother, Matt, to grab the RAW Tag Team Titles, made it even more special.
Other Great Uses
Jeff attempted two other ladder-assisted Swanton Bombs, at WrestleManias 2000 and X-Seven (WWE's early-aughts WrestleMania numbering is confusing when writing them in sequence); the former he would miss, but he would nail the latter (although he would hit the move on noncombatants Rhyno and Spike Dudley).
#7 Steve Austin at WrestleMania XV
Choosing a Best Stone Cold Stunner is like choosing a Best Episode of The Simpsons, but especially when Stunners at WrestleMania are concerned (WrestleMania Stunners are like Simpsons episodes from Seasons 3-8).
Nobody sells the Stone Cold Stunner like The Rock, and he's had numerous opportunities to do so at WWE's Super Bowl; the first Stunner in the above video begins at 1:55, and Rock's backwards-somersault he uses in the main event of WrestleMania XV set the standard for a Stunner sell, and became an iconic image during the Attitude Era.
Other Great Uses
Like we said, literally any Rock sell of the move could make this list, but some others are just as noteworthy. The blocked-superkick-into-a-Stunner sequence at the end of WrestleMania XIV started the Austin era in full, and Scott Hall turned in a magical sell of the move in an ultimately meaningless match at WrestleMania X8.
I'm sure POTUS would argue that his sell of the move was the best, just the best and that picking any other is fake news, though.
#6 Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania XXX
Daniel Bryan has two finishers, and each one perfectly encapsulates him as a performer; both, coincidentally, were used to finish his two matches at WrestleMania XXX in the best way possible.
The Running Knee (also known as the Knee Plus, an ode to his being termed a "B-Plus Player"), which won Bryan his short-lived WWE Championship from John Cena in 2013 and which Bryan also used to defeat Triple H in the WrestleMania XXX opener, is an out-of-nowhere offensive explosion, which doesn't seem like it would get the job done but is surprisingly effective and very over with the crowd (like Bryan).
The YES! Lock, meanwhile, is a very traditional submission hold with influences from ju-jitsu and amateur wrestling; like Bryan, it's a highly technical move and a very traditional piece of professional wrestling.
Bryan countered a Pedigree to explode out of the corner with a Knee Plus to beat the WWE executive to start the show, and finished the show forcing Batista to tap out to the YES! Lock, both picture perfect variations of those moves in the most dramatic situation possible.
Other Great Uses
Bryan broke out the Knee Plus to great applause at WrestleMania 31, and fans have been salivating to see both the knee and the YES! Lock on Bryan's indie scene pals at WrestleMania 34.
#5 John Cena at WrestleMania 25
It's easy to forget sometimes that John Cena is a very large and very powerful man; he often finds himself the underdog (in terms of size at least), and compared to foes like The Big Show, Umaga, Brock Lesnar, or The Undertaker, Cena often seems like the little guy in the fight.
A professional bodybuilder before he stepped through the ropes, Cena has muscle in places most of us don't have places and showed off that power at WrestleMania 25 by delivering his signature Attitude Adjustment to both Edge and The Big Show.
Simply delivering the move to the seven-foot behemoth is an accomplishment in and of itself; adding another 240 pounds or so to the equation is nothing short of amazing.
Other Great Uses
Cena's WrestleMania debut was a mostly forgettable affair which featured the rapper hitting what was then called the FU on the Big Show; it's always an impressive display of strength and a great way to finish otherwise slow matches.
#4 Edge at WrestleMania 22
Edge has dozens of titles to his name, and a WrestleMania resume many would kill for; at that event, he has defended the various World Titles on several occasions, won the Tag Team Championships twice (both in Matches of the Year), become Mr. Money in the Bank, and secured a Japanese shampoo commercial.
However, for many fans, Edge's WrestleMania career comes down to three words: flaming table spear. It's undeniable that Edge's iconic finisher to Mick Foley to close out their hardcore brawl is one of the most enduring images from any Mania, and one of the inspirations behind the company's emphasis on "WrestleMania Moments."
Bruce Prichard noted, in discussing Adam Copeland's Hall of Fame career, that the Edgemeister opted not to apply a protective gel, worrying that it would make him look weak to the boys in the back and too greasy to the fans at home; the burns he suffered from this move would make any Philadelphia diehard proclaim, "He's hardcore! He's hardcore! He's hardcore!"
Other Great Uses
This spear just barely edges out (pun intended) another classic spear: the one Copeland delivers off a ladder to Jeff Hardy dangling above the ring held up only by a tag team title belt; while the move was not yet Edge's finisher, that moment is one which will live on forever in highlight reels every year from January through April.
#3 The Undertaker at WrestleMania XXVI
The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels delivered classic matches at back-to-back WrestleManias, each one finishing with a spectacular Tombstone Piledriver.
Where WrestleMania XXVI takes the cake, though, is in its setup, which crams volumes worth of story and character into a single move. The match was billed as a Career Vs. Streak Match; Michaels was so determined to end Undertaker's career-spanning undefeated streak on wrestling's biggest stage that HBK vowed to hang up his boots if he failed to become the first tally in Undertaker's WrestleMania loss column.
Echoing the time, two years prior, where Michaels had ended the career of Ric Flair, in which Flair had begged Michaels to finish him off, The Heartbreak Kid spent the final moments of his wrestling career trying to goad a reluctant Undertaker into one final show of brutality; Shawn wanted to be put down for good, and refused to call it a career if he could still physically get up.
Undertaker refused to comply and seemed disgusted by Michaels' refusal to give up, so HBK forced his hand: the Heartbreak Kid slapped The Deadman hard across the face, sending Taker into a fury and spurring the most emphatic jumping Tombstone, and most forceful funeral-style pin, of Taker's WrestleMania career.
Other Great Uses
There could be an entire article of Undertaker's Ten Best WrestleMania Tombstones; on the list would undoubtedly be the one he delivers to Ric Flair at WrestleMania X8 (which causes Naitch's blood to pool on Big Evil's leather pants), the jaw-dropping display of strength Taker showed in Tombstoning Mark Henry at WrestleMania 22, or the reversal of Michaels' attempt to re-enter the ring by "skinning the cat" at WrestleMania 25.
#2 Randy Orton at WrestleMania 31
Seth Rollins's WrestleMania debut as a singles competitor produced a fantastic, if too short, match against former Authority ally Randy Orton. Orton battled not just Seth Rollins, but also Rollins's security team in J&J Security (Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury), and forced the two retired cruiserweights to eat the "outta nowhere" finisher, among other signature moves.
The match's defining moment, though, comes when Rollins sets up Orton for his Curb Stomp (now known as The Blackout), and the moment which helped make the RKO a meme with a life of its own was born: Orton stands up to launch Rollins skyward, and pulls him out of the air with an RKO which leaves the Levi's Stadium crowd (and millions watching at home) absolutely stunned.
It was the definition of WrestleMania spectacle: a match ending with an athletic display that few if any, performers could do; WWE front office staff reportedly doubted the pair's ability to pull off the move, and rehearsals beforehand gave producers fits.
It worked when it mattered.
Other Great Uses
At WrestleMania 27, Orton pulled CM Punk out of midair with an RKO to counter a springboard flying clothesline attempt; it spent four years as the Platonic ideal of the RKO Outta Nowhere until Orton and Rollins managed to top it.
#1 Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13
Literally, everything about this Sharpshooter is perfect.
In a vicious submission match, Bret Hart and Steve Austin beat each other to a pulp all over the Rosemont Horizon, with little regard to the "submission" aspect of the match at times. Austin would be bloodied during that brawl, with Hart arguing that he would take the blame and that his backstage sway would cover The Rattlesnake from front office punishment; the World Wrestling Federation had a strict no blood policy at the time (this being a year away from the full dawn of the Attitude Era and the family-friendly New Generation era dying its slow death), but Hart and Austin both agreed beforehand that the WWF's planned finish for the match demanded blood to be believable.
That planned finish was Steve Austin passing out in Bret's signature hold rather than submitting, cementing a babyface turn the audience had been begging the company to give them for months; Austin was often a master class in facial expressions and selling, but the drama of the blood streaming down his screaming face (and the streams of red stuff dripping through Stone Cold's beard and teeth) gave a show-defining image that no WrestleMania has ever been able to top.
The debate over whether this match or the Michaels-Undertaker match is the greatest Mania match ever will last probably as long as there is still a WWE, but there is no doubt that this is the single greatest use of a finisher in the history of WrestleMania, one which created an entire movement around the company's most compelling character.
Other Great Uses
Besides this match, another extended Sharpshooter sequence looked like it would close out WrestleMania XII, as the Hitman held Shawn Michaels in the devastating backstretch for what seemed like an eternity to close out the regulation portion of their famous Iron Man Match.
