Smark Out Moment

Welcome to the fourth edition of FINISHER VS FINISHER for Smark Out Moment.

Finisher vs Finisher pits two or more wrestlers together that are known for performing the same signature maneuver. It's up to us to examine the positives and negatives associated with each person's legacy with the move and determine which one of them pulls it off better.

In honor of the #1 contender to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania, Roman Reigns, I figured it would be as good a time as any to discuss a move that many people have utilized over the years as signature maneuvers or finishers...


The targets here are primarily Roman Reigns, Batista, Edge, Goldberg, Christian, and Rhyno, but we also aren't neglecting Kaitlyn.  Naturally, other people have used the move sporadically, but these are the men (and woman) that have made them cornerstones of their signature maneuver palette.

The main ways I would think one could judge a proper spear are what comes before it (whether the wrestler builds up to it or it comes out of nowhere), the speed they achieve before hitting it, the way the opponents tend to sell it as looking particularly impactful, and whether or not it is something that truly puts people down for a count.

Right off the bat, I would say we could eliminate Christian from the mix. He only started using the move to piggyback off Edge's retirement and while I certainly wouldn't want to receive one from him, I think his looks the least impressive of the bunch.

The same basically goes for Kaitlyn. The Divas tend to work less stiff than the men and it comes off that way. You can tell that there are times where Kaitlyn moves to the side to not really land on top of them in any significant way or that her opponent refuses to really fall backward, so it becomes more of a hug. Again, this isn't to say she's horrible at it or anything of the sort, and she deserves credit for making it look believable for the women's division, but in comparison to the other people on this list, Kaitlyn fails to measure up.

Batista is the next person that I'd pass on. His size makes it look much more believable than someone like Edge (we'll get to him later), but he jumps a little higher than what I'd personally like to see, perhaps just due to his height. Whatever the reason for this, it makes him look like he is tackling their upper body more than spearing their entire torso around their waist.

Although he's one of the smaller men on this list, Edge's spear looks more impressive to me than many others because of how not only his opponent sells it, but how he sells it. Most people prep their move by just standing near a turnbuckle and Edge is no exception to this, but he adds more theatrics to it. When Edge is getting ready to hit a spear, he looks like he's hungry for it, instead of just catching his breath and waiting to run like Batista and others do. His size is the biggest problem for him, because I just can't buy him having the same impact as the taller, more muscular men.

I'll probably catch heat for this, but Rhyno's Gore is not going to win, either. He's the bulkiest of the men but doesn't let that slow him down too much, which is good, but sometimes it can be a bit sloppy. There are plenty of times where it looks like he spears around them more than into them and that takes away from it quite a bit to me. If someone is going to spear someone through a table, I'd trust Rhyno to make it look the coolest, but as far as an everyday normal match, I have two other people I'd rather see.

As far as Roman Reigns goes, I love his spear. He has theatrics to set it up which the fans can get behind, but he can also do it out of the blue, so that's covered. When he dives, he goes full force and really positions his body into a horizontal path, so when he lands, it looks like he has gone through his opponent instead of just doing a step up from a Lou Thesz press like Batista. Also, of course, he has the size behind him and the speed to combine, making this impressively logical looking for how it would hurt so bad.

Goldberg, however, is the unprecedented king of the spear. He has all of the qualities that Roman Reigns does, but upgrades them just a bit more. The speed is there and his size is a step up. He has the same trajectory, but his opponents tend to snap forward and then snap back again, making it look like an even more piercing blow. Goldberg just kills people with his spear (figuratively, of course) to the point where you can tell that the guy isn't getting up from that. Best of all, Goldberg popularized the move and will always be tied to it.