Finishers can be a defining part of a wrestler’s presentation. After all, it’s hard to think of an icon like The Undertaker without thinking of The Tombstone, let alone Randy Savage without the flying elbow drop or Bret Hart without The Sharpshooter. Indeed, in discussing his WrestleMania 29 bout with a debuting Fandango, Chris Jericho explained that the most important part of the build was to establish the new heel's top rope leg drop as a finisher, so fans would know that it was a threat and buy it as a way of ending the match when ‘Mania actually came around.
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There are, however, those wrestlers who didn’t have established finishers, and that includes performers who worked matches on the biggest stage possible at WrestleMania.
10 Vince McMahon
Though Vince McMahon was never a full-time, traditional wrestler, his WrestleMania resume includes an impressive slate of opponents, from his son Shane, to Hulk Hogan, to Shawn Michaels, to Bret Hart, to Pat McAfee.
RELATED: Every McMahon Family Match At WrestleMania, Ranked Worst To BestDespite being very over as a character and even a WWE Champion, McMahon never actually had an established finisher. The closest thing he had was imitating his opponents’ famous finishers, like when he attempted his own version of leg drop against Hogan or Sweet Chin Music against HBK.
9 Andre The Giant
Andre the Giant was one of the most dominant figures in wrestling for decades, winning matches across a wide spectrum of territories. Despite achieving so many victories, he rarely had a consistent finisher attached to him, and that’s particularly the case in the WrestleMania era of WWE.
Andre won at WrestleManias 1 and 2 via a body slam and by throwing his opponents over the top rope, respectively, but never had a recognizable signature move that he used during this stretch of his career. Despite being a part of some of some major rivalries that reached their climaxes at The Showcase of the Immortals, this is one oddball hole in his resume.
8 Mr. T
It’s one thing to work a WrestleMania match without a finisher, but it’s another to do so at the main event level. At the very first WrestleMania, that’s exactly what Mr. T did. T was a celebrity visitor, and so it was easy for his lack of a finisher to go unnoticed, not to mention that he worked in a tag team match.
One might argue that a knockout punch was T’s finisher by the time he worked a boxing match to blow off his rivalry with Roddy Piper at WrestleMania 2, but for the original WrestleMania, that point would have been even more of a stretch (though it was more or less a forgone conclusion Hulk Hogan would win the match for their duo anyway).
7 Dink
It can be difficult for hardcore fans to wrap their heads around the drama of a match in which a performer doesn’t have an established finishing maneuver to win with. However, conventional logic about dramatic match structure flies out the window in a match featuring two clowns, one of whom is a little person.
Indeed, there wasn’t much to take seriously when Doink and his sidekick Dink teamed up against Bam Bam Bigelow and Luna Vachon at WrestleMania 10. To the credit of everyone involved, the match actually exceeded expectations in not just being a series of jokes, and in the deserving heels even pulling out the victory.
6 Sapphire
Sapphire was one of the less auspicious female talents to garner a WrestleMania match. Indeed, when she got in the ring at WrestleMania 6, it was a less a celebration of her skill than as an extension of how over her unconventional pairing with Dusty Rhodes had become opposite The Macho King Randy Savage and Queen Sherri.
To the surprise of some, Sapphire actually picked up the win for her team, scoring a roll up on Sherri to close the bout.
5 Lawrence Taylor
While Mr. T main eventing the original WrestleMania without a finisher was noteworthy, it’s all the more remarkable that Lawrence Taylor won the main event of WrestleMania 11 as a singles competitor without a finishing move.
WWE told the story of the football star preparing for his big match with reigning WWE Champion Diesel, which made some fans look out for Taylor to use a powerbomb. In the end, though, he won with a leaping forearm shot off the ropes. It was a credible enough way to finish Bam Bam Bigelow given Taylor’s strength and athleticism, but still a bit odd in the history books to have a WrestleMania main event winner with no finisher fans were aware of going into the match.
4 Michael Cole
Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler engaged in an insufferably long rivalry that stretched well past WrestleMania 27. Just the same, their WrestleMania bout was in many ways the climax of their issue, as there was a degree of anticipation about seeing The King finally work a WrestleMania match and give Cole his comeuppance.
Cole was a broadcaster with no established in-ring credibility going into this match, and that included no finisher. Over the course of the bout, he arguably established the ankle lock—taught to him by his backup, Jack Swagger—as a finishing hold, but it’s hard to completely buy into that theory given Cole never actually submitted anyone with it.
3 Maria Menounos
Maria Menounos is a class act celebrity to have been involved with WWE for her clear passion for wrestling and willingness to get in the ring on multiple occasions—not to mention that she’s put forth respectable performances across the board.
WrestleMania 28 saw the TV personality team up with Kelly Kelly against Beth Phoenix and Eve Torres. Menounos performed well, but without a finisher to her name, was left to pick up the pin via a roll-up.
2 Bobby Heenan
Bobby Heenan repeatedly offered the wisdom that heel managers should manage like wrestlers (get physically involved and take bumps) and wrestle like managers (act unskilled and cowardly). He followed his own advice for two separate WrestleMania matches, teaming up with The Islanders to actually beat Koko B. Ware and The British Bulldogs at WrestleMania 4, then losing in short order to The Red Rooster at WrestleMania 5.
In each case, Heenan wrestling was a bit of a farce played for laughs, and a bit of a chance for fans to cheer at the heel character taking some hits. Regardless, he never established a finishing move going into either match.
1 William “The Refrigerator” Perry
William “The Refrigerator” Perry didn’t necessarily need a finisher, given he and a cast of other NFL football players participated in WrestleMania 2 as battle royal contestants, focused not on scoring pins or submissions, but rather throwing opponents out of the ring. However, Perry took on a featured enough role—particularly opposite Big John Studd—that he became one of the most memorable acts from that year’s WrestleMania on the whole.
RELATED: 10 Best Football Players To Ever Wrestle In WWE, RankedFans could probably accept The Refrigerator’s three-point stance into a charge as a finisher of sorts, but it was never really cemented as such in WWE lore.
