5 worst names for finishers in wrestling history
The year was 1996 and a young Texan named Steve Austin knew that he needed to change his pro wrestling persona to survive in the WWF. Austin had been packaged on TV as 'The Ringmaster' with Ted DiBiase as his manager. But after a year of lackluster returns, DiBiase left the company to jump ship to WCW and Austin decided to drop the 'Ringmaster' gimmick.
He couldn't go with his real life name of 'Steve Williams' as there was an even more famous 'Steve Williams' already present in pro wrestling circles. He wanted to portray himself as a vicious heel - cold as ice. He sought help from the WWF creative team to come up with a new on-screen name. The suggestions he got were baffling.
'Chilly McFreeze', 'Otto Von Ruthless', 'Ice Dagger' and 'Fang McFrost' were some of the options, presumably to go with the 'cold as ice' description. Poor Austin had no choice but to reject it all. He simply went back to being just 'Steve Austin', but decided to add a nickname to it at the inadvertent suggestion of his wife and 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin was born to change the course of wrestling history.
How different would professional wrestling would be today if Fang McFrost was the one chosen to main event Wrestlemania for all those years? Having such ridiculous names is nothing new in wrestling and time and again, we have seen Superstars being forced to walk around with something so silly that it makes it difficult to take them seriously.
Hardcore Holly's suplex finisher in the late 1990's was unbelievably called the 'Hollycaust' on TV. The less said about Balls Mahoney's 'Ball Breaker' finisher, the better. Perry Saturn's neckbreaker-perfectplex finisher was somehow named 'The Moss Covered Three Handled Family Gradunza' by the WWE creative.
This list takes a look at 5 ridiculous names given to pro-wrestling finishing moves over the years.
#5. Brian Kendrick - Sliced Bread #2
This entry might be on the fence for a few wrestling fans who would argue that Brian Kendrick named his finisher as 'Sliced Bread #2' to hilariously play in to the old saying - 'The greatest thing since sliced bread'. While his headlock turned rope assisted reverse RKO is definitely a great way to end a match, the name doesn't really sound that imposing.
The audience dismissed it as some sort of an inside joke and compared to heavy duty names like the Chokeslam and the Power Bomb, the slice of bread wasn't really going to be something that the commentators could even play in to.
It didn't work when Kendrick was the Cruiserweight champion a few years ago and more attention was paid to Kendrick's submission finisher - 'The Captain's Hook'. It definitely didn't aid Kendrick's trainee Eva Marie's WWE career either when she started using it. Changing the name of his finisher would not have really pushed Kendrick to the main event scene, but 'Sliced Bread #2' doesn't exactly scream World Champion either.