Protecting Your Finish
By Scott Keith on 13 May 2018
Hey Scott.
Way back in the day, wrestlers were protective over their finish. Nowadays, guys kicking out of multiple finishers is the norm.
Does the current generation just not care about stuff like that? Do they think it's a great way to tell a story? Or were the old timers just taking this stuff too seriously?
Bonus: I remember this trend starting in the Attitude Era. Who could you point the finger to for starting the trend?
Thank you!
The finger pointing for the specifics of kicking out of finishers as a big near-fall would have to go to Japan, since that was a thing in the 90s well before the WWF ever thought of having Rock kick out of a stunner or whatever. In the WWF in particular, Kurt Angle is the guy I can remember working it into his matches on top the most, specifically the feud with Austin in 2001 where they kicked out of a million stunners and Angle Slams and whatnot.