5 wrestlers who have used the Stone Cold Stunner
Kevin Owens recently returned to the WWE and promptly delivered a Stone Cold Stunner to WWE Champion Daniel Bryan. While Owens has used the Stunner in the past, he seems to be emphasizing it as his finishing move rather than the Pop-up powerbomb for the past few weeks.
The Stunner has always been greeted with raucous reactions ever since Stone Cold Steve Austin made it the most famous finishing maneuver in all of wrestling. While WWE used to discourage its wrestlers from using the move as it is inexplicably associated with Stone Cold, that stance seems to have been relaxed as it has been over 15 years since the rattlesnake retired.
Wrestlers in other promotions have had no problem in using the Stunner now and then. This list takes a look at five wrestlers who have used the stunner other than Stone Cold Steve Austin and Kevin Owens.
#1 Mikey Whipreck
Mikey Whipreck was portrayed as the ultimate underdog who would never quit. An ECW original, Whipreck was part of the ECW ring crew before impressing Paul Heyman enough to earn a spot on the roster.
The rowdy ECW fans soon warmed up to the 'Never say die' spirit of Whipreck and in one of the greatest crowd-pleasing storylines in ECW, he became the ECW World Heavyweight Champion after beating the Sandman in a ladder match.
Whipreck's finishing move was the 'Whipper Snapper' - a three quarter facelock jawbreaker which impressed a certain Steve Austin who challenged Whipreck for the World Title at November to Dismember PPV in 1995. Austin was unsuccessful at the PPV, but he took note of Whipreck's finisher and when he eventually made his way to WWE, he adopted it as his own - renaming it the 'Stone Cold Stunner'.
Whipreck has quite a few records in wrestling - being the youngest World Champion of a major promotion at 22 years old and being an ECW triple crown champion. But his greatest achievement might be that he was the inspiration for the most popular move in wrestling history.