The finishing move is not the only part of a wrestler’s offense that should warrant a strong fan reception. Other moves will piece together the story before culminating with a strong finish to end the bout. Many of the most popular moves were used in secondary roles, despite getting lots of love from fans during the set up.
Every wrestler hopes to have an offensive move set that will put together strong matches, with multiple moves that get the attention of the viewer. The best wrestlers were able to have that variety and skill set, and used it in the biggest matches of their careers. Find out which wrestling moves received huge pops from the fans despite not being a finisher.
10 Hulk Hogan Hulking Up
The move set of Hulk Hogan featured some of the most basic offensive maneuvers that worked to perfection, due to his character work. Hogan’s ultimate face character allowed him to get over with the fans through his personality despite limitations in the ring.
One of the high points of Hogan’s matches was the consistent story of him “Hulking up” when on defense. The opposing wrestler would be stunned at Hogan refusing to stay down and mounting a comeback of punches before taking over for the win.
9 Steve Austin's Stomping A Mud Hole
The story of Steve Austin was similar to Hulk Hogan as a wrestler who could no do wrong when the face of the company. Austin had the all-time great finisher of the Stone Cold Stunner, but he also had a few other moves loved by the fans.
Jim Ross coined the term “stomping a mud hole” when Austin would corner his opponent in the ring and deliver a flurry of vicious kicks. Austin received massive pops as it signified the turning point of the match before he hit his bigger signature moves, with the Stunner often ending it.
8 Sami Zayn's Blue Thunder Bomb
The all-around offense of Sami Zayn makes him one of the most gifted performers in wrestling. Zayn specifically showed that off when he was in NXT as the underdog of the underground. Matches against Neville, Tyler Breeze and Shinsuke Nakamura showed the range of Zayn.
The Blue Thunder Bomb is one of the best moves from Zayn to always elicit a warm reception and general excitement from the fans. Sami could have easily made this his finishing move if the Helluva Kick wasn’t the more desired finishing move.
7 Ric Flair's Top Rope Fake Out
Ric Flair is not the wrestler one would typically associate with top rope moves, but he went to the top rope almost every match. The hilarious running bit ended up receiving bigger pops than his figure-four leglock at times throughout the years.
Flair would get stopped by his opponent before they flung him off the top rope in humorous fashion. The rare big matches did see Flair delivering a double axe handle as the move he always wanted. Flair hitting them when he could, received even bigger pops than when he was stopped.
6 Shawn Michaels' Elbow Drop
The signature moves of Shawn Michaels all led to success when he was delivering a series classic matches. Michaels added the tuning up of the band before hitting the Sweet Chin Music as an all-time great finishing move, but the set-up was almost as good.
The move before the finisher saw Michaels going to the top rope to hit the elbow drop. Michaels arguably did it better as a secondary move than Randy Savage did as his finisher. Fans were ready for the closing stretch when Michaels hit the elbow drop to set up the superkick.
5 John Cena's Springboard Stunner
The latter years of John Cena’s run as the face of WWE featured him upping his game as an in-ring performer. Cena had classics against the likes of CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Kevin Owens and AJ Styles as the quality of the roster improved, to give him bigger moments.
The Springboard Stunner became a secondary move of Cena during matches where he would bounce off the rope to hit the stunner. Steve Austin threw shade at Cena having an ugly execution of the stunner, but it always generated a huge pop.
4 Mustafa Ali's Spanish Fly
Mustafa Ali has become a top in-ring performer for WWE even with the recent struggles of Retribution flopping as a faction. The matches of Ali always deliver, with an array of aerial moves from the top rope executed to perfection.
One of the most beloved moves that is almost never used as a finisher is the Spanish Fly. Ali often springboards to find his footing before hitting the astounding move. Fans will always react strongly to the Spanish Fly and Ali is arguably the best at hitting it.
3 Arn Anderson's Spinebuster
The legendary run of Arn Anderson is remembered for his role in the Four Horsemen as the enforcer of the group. Anderson also did his best to make two important moves more pivotal to his matches, and they always excited the audience.
The DDT was his incredible finisher, but the spinebuster was used as a secondary maneuver. Anderson did the move as good as anyone and is still loved for it today. AEW bringing in Arn for their All Out 2019 event featured a massive pop when hitting Shawn Spears with the spinebuster.
2 Kurt Angle's Moonsault
Kurt Angle was known for being a nearly flawless competitor from bell to bell. His multiple finishers, the Angle Slam and Ankle Lock, allowed Angle to win matches via pin fall or submission depending on the opponent or story being told.
There was the big addition of a moonsault when Angle wanted to switch things up and show fans his range. Angle typically did the moonsault during longer matches when he needed to pull it out of his bag of tricks and it always received loud cheers. The moments of moonsaulting off the cage provided multiple career-defining highlights.
1 Eddie Guerrero's Three Amigos
The brilliance of Eddie Guerrero allowed him to turn a basic move into a signature. Fans loved it when Eddie started doing the suplex in a series of threes, with the name of the Three Amigos adding to the appeal of the move.
Fans were conditioned to view the suplex as a standard move, but Guerrero found a way to make it special. Even since his passing, wrestlers use the Three Amigos in honor of him, and receive huge ovations. This is one of many great things Eddie gave to the business that remains attached to his legacy all these years later.