5 Most Protected Women's Finishers Ever (& 5 Most Useless)
Finishing moves in wrestling are crucial, as these are the moves that fans are supposed to be conditioned to believe will end a match and guarantee whoever uses them the victory. Whether it be an impact move, a highflying move, or a submission, it is crucial for a finisher to do exactly that.
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These moves are often very well protected, and throughout history, there have been some female finishing moves that talents just haven't been able to deal with. However, at the same time, there are other finishing moves that have proven to be utterly useless, either because they look terrible or they never result in a victory.
10 Protected: Figure Eight (Charlotte Flair)
Charlotte Flair has been booked in an incredibly dominant way from the first minute of her WWE career. Because of that, she has been fairly well protected, very rarely picking up defeats and that has resulted in her finisher being treated seriously.
The Figure Eight is a twist on her father's legendary Figure Four Leglock, which is a move that fans are already conditioned to know will result in a victory. Protecting this finisher has worked well for Flair though, as fans always react when she sets this submission up.
9 Useless: Bella Buster (Brie Bella)
Brie Bella often gets a lot of criticism for her in-ring work, but there's no denying she improved massively throughout her career. However, until she started using Daniel Bryan's Yes Lock, her finisher was very poor.
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The Bella Buster just didn't look great, with this being a classic X-Factor/faceplant that was just a very basic move that didn't work well as a finisher. This wasn't helped by the fact that Nikki Bella's Rack Attack is one of the best finishers of all time.
8 Protected: Awesome Bomb (Awesome Kong)
Awesome Kong is one of the most dominant and impressive female athletes that wrestling has ever seen. In TNA, she was one of the top Knockouts that the company has ever had, helping to build up women's wrestling long before WWE's women's revolution.
Kong used the Awesome Bomb as her finisher, which was a sit-out powerbomb that looked absolutely devastating. Because she often had the power advantage on her opponent, she would slam them down with authority and fans knew the match was done.
7 Useless: Rear View (Naomi)
Let's face it, this just isn't a good finishing move. Naomi is an incredibly talented wrestler and because of that, she should have a much better finisher, especially considering how athletic she is.
The Rear View would work as a fun signature move, and hopefully, that is what happens moving forward. It just doesn't look impactful enough to work as a top finish move.
6 Protected: Litasault (Lita)
During her era, it was very rare for female wrestlers to head to the top rope and hit big highflying moves, which is why Lita's finisher was so impressive. The Litasault was unlike anything else that was being done in the women's division and because of that, it was heavily protected.
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WWE made the move feel special, mainly because Lita often won her matches when she hit it. This was heavily protected, but that was a good thing, which is why the move has become so iconic with wrestling fans.
5 Useless: Scissors Kick (Alicia Fox)
This big problem with this finishing move is that Booker T used it to so much success that Alicia Fox's never felt special. She would use the move frequently, but it often didn't result in victories, with other wrestlers kicking out of this a lot, plus it just didn't look that good.
The move itself is also fairly useless because it demands the opponent to stand in the middle of the ring, bent over for a while, which makes no sense. Considering Fox has an amazing Northern Lights Suplex, she would have been better off using that as her main move.
4 Protected: Armbar (Ronda Rousey)
When it comes to protected finishers, Ronda Rousey's Armbar is certainly up there with the most protected in WWE history. However, it makes sense for that to be the case, because Rousey was so dominant during her time in WWE.
The fact that she used the Armbar legitimately in UFC fights to pick up victories meant that audiences were conditioned to know this was a move that could end a match. WWE booked it that way too, so whenever it was slapped on, people knew a tap out was coming.
3 Useless: Diva Drop (Aksana)
It's certainly not easy to come up with new and unique wrestling moves, as nearly everything has been done. But Aksana's Diva Drop was just a spine buster, which is something that many wrestlers use in their traditional move set anyway.
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Because it's such a common move, there was nothing about this that felt special or important, so it didn't get much of a response. Adding to that the fact it very rarely resulted in a victory for Aksana, this was one useless finisher.
2 Protected: Glam Slam (Beth Phoenix)
This is one of the most impressive finishing moves of all time, and it was rightfully protected. Beth Phoenix had amazing strength to hit this move and it always looked incredible upon impact.
It was very rare that anybody kicked out of this move, which only helped to put it over even further. Phoenix was dominant during her stint in WWE, and a big part of that is down to how protected this move was.
1 Useless: Peligrosa (Rosa Mendes)
When it comes to the most useless finisher in women's wrestling history, the Peligrosa easily takes the top spot. This is mainly because Rosa Mendes was very rarely booked to win, therefore the move was barely ever used anyway, which didn't help matters.
However, this move is just a sidewalk slam. It's something that a lot of wrestlers use on a regular basis and it really isn't devastating enough to be classed as a finishing move.
