I’m curious to know what makes a match more exciting for everyone out here. Do you prefer wrestlers kicking out of finishers, or finding ways to reverse, or at least get out of a finisher making it a close call?
It entirely depends on the match and the story they are telling. There are very dramatic ways of ending matches with finishers, without finishers, after a reversal, with a roll-up, whatever.
That being said…I guess I am so used to seeing people kicking out of finishers it isn’t as big a deal. Whereas an excellent reversal of a finisher can be a career highlight. Like Randy turning Rollins Curb Stomp into an RKO at WM31.
What I also mark out at still is wrestlers using their opponents finisher. Seeing John Cena rock bottom the rock or Rollins giving Triple H the pedigree are still special moments that are sparingly used.
The recent Brock/Roman series has shown an over reliance on kicking out of finishers. I’m not the biggest fan of it unless it really makes sense in the story. Like the Rock and Austin were able to kick out of each others finishers because they have received them so many times before. I think there’s still a place for it at times but I get more invested when they wrestlers are reversing out of it. Look at the Omega/Okada series, they protected the One Winged Angle so much during that trilogy of matches and it meant more because of it.
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For me, kicking out of finishers has been used as a crutch in big matches in WWE to develop excitement in matches for a while now. My preference is to protect a wrestler’s finisher, but say that a wrestler has scouted and studied a wrestler and that’s why they are able to reverse it or get out of it. Save a kick out for very rare occasions after a finisher has truly been protected and at a time where the match has been built to a natural conclusion, and then the kick out for the big moment, but use that sparingly.
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Agree, but it definitely does work (build excitement).
One issue I see is too many covers. I think the fellas still do it too much, but the ladies go for a cover after every move. Yes, I realize they’re ‘calling the match’ in a close quarters position like a pin attempt, but I’d tell my entire roster that no one goes for a pin in the first half of a match except for a Paul Smackage, I mean small package scenario.
Finisher kick-outs work, or I guess, “worked” but now it feels like crowds sit on their hands for the first half of a match until they’ve seen at least one finisher kick-out for either guy.