Santino Marella's Cobra is as protected as Kenta Kobashi's Burning Hammer. No, really.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Protecting your finisher is important, otherwise it's not a finisher. Oh my gosh,
00:05we've entered a paradox. It has been a constant chat among fans, though, and how a wrestler's
00:09final move these days has moved away from that. And do not forget that it's solely down to The
00:14Rock and Steve Austin. They proved how well it would work at WrestleMania 17. We never looked
00:19back. Let us celebrate those stars who have gone out of their way to do this, though, because hello,
00:23I am signed from what culture? That hello was way too over the top. Please do subscribe.
00:2710. KOD
00:32Never forget how terrifying this is. If you are taking Bianca Belair's finisher,
00:36you have to be hurled into the air before your face comes crashing into the mat. I'm amazed
00:41more people don't go to their knees on this. Somebody once described it as a cross between
00:45John Cena's AA and a burning hammer, which I quite like. Thank goodness it's not like the
00:49latter. Be warned, it is terrifying. Belair has this down to a T now as well, which does tie in.
00:55It looks so impactful that if everybody was kicking out, it would suck. I get some people
00:59breaking it up, but if you've got no friends, that's it. You're done. Bianca has done this
01:03to everybody too, from Oscar to Piper Niven, so it doesn't matter who you are,
01:07and it really does stand out. Another reason to keep it special because it is.
01:129. The Punt Kick
01:14Do you remember when Randy Orton used to do this? In hindsight, maybe we should have
01:18transitioned across properly because the damn RKO ruined his back. He only came back in November
01:232023 after an 18 month layoff. Maybe that is why Orton did the big boot to the head for a while,
01:29but seriously, this was brutal. It goes exactly as it sounds, and how Randy managed to time this so
01:35he didn't brain people I don't know. Well, other than Vince McMahon, when it was his turn,
01:40he told the Viper to do it for real. Because of course he did. Got concussed.
01:44It had plenty of stories around it too, as Randy used it in 2011 to ruin the Nexus before
01:49facing CM Punk at WrestleMania 27. Or maybe the highlight was two years prior,
01:54when Randy used it in his Triple H feud. I mean, the whole McMahon family got it.
01:58Eventually he was told to stop doing this, and I'm sure you can figure out why.
02:01And yeah, for ages, if you got smashed with this, you were done.
02:058. The Eclipse
02:06Or the O-Face. We are of course going back to Ember Moon's WWE days here though, and honestly,
02:12round of applause for her. She never screws this up, the current day Athena has it down.
02:17I would assume one reason it does have an air of protection about it is because it's
02:21essentially a top rope stunner. Trust me, anything that's even remotely like Stone Cold
02:26Steve Austin's finisher is treated like gold. Yeah, don't flub with it. Watching her do it
02:30for the first time is excellent too, because she leaps off the top rope and drills people
02:35with a modified cutter. The cell comes into play as well. Just go and watch Mickie James,
02:39Liv Morgan or Alicia Fox take it. Wonderbar. Throughout her WWE career, it was only kicked
02:44out once by Oscar during an NXT takeover, and that made sense. Let everybody else forget about
02:51it. 7. The Red Arrow
02:52Now the Black Arrow. We're doing it again. He is packed these days and Neville back in WWE,
02:58and the way he does this is so special. I don't get how this man flies around like he does,
03:04it's as if he was born in the skies. I don't know what that means.
03:07When you do go through his success rate however, sheesh, even though Vince McMahon wanted to dub
03:13Neville Mighty Mouse, for whatever reason nobody was allowed to kick out. I don't think that either
03:17version of the Arrow has ever been stopped in AEW or WWE either. He has a perfect record.
03:23Although there was that time we teased it with Seth Rollins as he got his foot on the bottom
03:27rope at the last second. That was all time levels of timing. 6. The 3D
03:32Bubba Ray and D-Von Deliberate decided that nobody gets to flub with this move.
03:37I think they got this from the Beverly Brothers. I mean it. Those two dudes used to do the Shaker
03:42Height Spike, which would kill people as the opponent landed right on their head.
03:46So maybe the Dudleys looked at it and thought, well if we have them land flat they'll be fine.
03:51Correct. This was so protected that it was even part of a feud in TNA between 2010 and 2011,
03:56and when Chris Saban finally got his shoulder up at 2.999, that continued the lore of this move.
04:02If there were a Hall of Fame for manoeuvres, which would be weird, this should just go in,
04:06as Bubba and D-Von took it so darn seriously. I love it.
04:105. The Black Mass
04:12Has anybody ever hit a roundhouse kick in wrestling as well as Malakai Black?
04:16I don't think so. While it was the Black Mass in WWE, it became the earned in AEW,
04:21and that sums it up. If he gets you with this, you better write a postcard to your loved ones,
04:26you're done. He used to sell it so well in NXT too and turned himself into a champion thanks to it,
04:31and surely there must have been a memo sent around about this. When he hits it,
04:35the likes of Michael Cole and Corey Graves would go nuts. Black got so into this as well,
04:39if he wasn't going to win, he just wouldn't hit it, and I don't think you can get away with that
04:43unless it looks as devastating as it does. It's also one of those moves that you can show to a
04:46non-fan, and they will double take. It's just a massive hit.
04:504. The End of Days
04:52So this one makes me sad. That's right. Baron Corbin was so desperate to never have anyone
04:56kick out at the end of days, he would make deals with people, sort of. He told a great story of
05:01working with John Cena and just saying, hey, I'm down for whatever you want to do, all I ask is
05:06that we don't kick out at my finish. Cena understood. Onwards we walked. Nobody does it
05:10better than Corbin either because it looks like what a finisher should do, and so far, it's only
05:15Drew McIntyre who has survived back at WrestleMania 38. Even though it didn't really tie into the
05:20overall story though, I just think it was a mistake. This should have been the new iteration
05:24of The Undertaker's streak. I'm not kidding. I am intrigued to see what we do with Baron going
05:29forward, in particular with this move. He found his momentum again at the end of 2023. If we can
05:34jump on that and continue to remind people that The End of Days is death, it's all there and ready
05:39to go. 3. The Razor's Edge
05:41Let us tell the best Scott Hall story to start this entry. He would go up to new hires,
05:46ask about their finish, and then respond with, great, can't wait to kick out of it. He is a hero.
05:51Maybe this was due to the fact he had The Razor's Edge, a move that nobody ever found a way to beat.
05:56A modified bomb of power, I suppose, is the best way to describe it. But this Hall,
06:00the strength to hold someone by their arms behind his back, not everybody could do it.
06:05So many dudes fell on their neck too, which made it look even more horrific.
06:08And Scott would limit this on purpose. It wasn't an every match move. It was special,
06:13like Christmas. He would take it out too if he was losing, because he didn't want this to feature
06:17in the fight at all. And sure, look, some people wiggled out of it. But did anybody kick out? No,
06:22they didn't. It ruled. 2. The Banzai Drop
06:26I mean, sometimes you don't need to overthink things. Yokozuna was a beast,
06:30so his finish was just sitting on someone. And here's another one that looked like death.
06:35At one point he weighed 600 pounds too, so that can't have been fun. And as legend has it,
06:39there were two types of these. If Zunes was fond of you, he would hold the ropes.
06:43If he didn't, you were being crushed. Maybe even literally.
06:47WWE sold this like it was impossible to kick out of as well, because Yoko was so big.
06:51This went for Hulk Hogan too. He couldn't do it.
06:54If you do want to see it in full swing, go and watch the 3rd of January Raw from 1994.
06:58For whatever reason, Yokozuna did not think much of his opponent Dan Dubiol.
07:02He just flattened him with the Banzai Drop.
07:051. The Cobra
07:06So you all laugh, and maybe you should, but the proof is in the pudding.
07:10If Santino Marella hit you with his puppet, you were gonna lose.
07:13It's one of those only-in-wrestling scenarios, because nowhere else can you put a snake on your
07:17hand before karate chopping someone. In fact, saying it out loud makes it sound illegal.
07:22You're going to jail.
07:23It was the theatrics around it as to why people loved it, and look,
07:26the only time I can recall it didn't really help is that he spiked Alberto Del Rio with it at the
07:302011 Raw Rumble before Del Rio recovered and threw Marella out. But even then,
07:35the Mexican Aristocrat was out for a good minute.
07:37The real evidence of this is that when Santino was ready to smash Daniel Bryan with it during
07:42the final sprint of the 2012 Elimination Chamber, fans actually thought he was going to win the
07:47World Heavyweight Championship. Amazing.
07:50Know of any other current WWE finishers that are massively protected? You gotta let us know in the
07:54comments below. Before you like the video, share the video and subscribe.