WCW was a company built on the backs of its stars, and like any wrestling promotion, those stars were synonymous with their signature moves. While WWE featured Stone Cold Steve Austin and his Stunner, Triple H with the Pedigree, and The Undertaker hitting his Tombstone piledriver, WCW showcased its own crop of stars with big finishers.

Related: Hulk Hogan's Leg Drop & 9 Other Effective Finishers That Were Actually Lame

Not every finishing maneuver is created equally, though. Indeed, while some moves always sealed the deal on a match there were plenty there to serve false finishes and build drama. That’s true even for some of the biggest stars in the promotion, making some of the most famous moves and holds in all of wrestling also pretty ineffective in winning matches.

10 Protected: DDP’s Diamond Cutter

Diamond Dallas Page WCW

Make no mistake about it: Diamond Dallas Page worked hard to get over. Though he got started as a wrestler later than most, he constantly improved in the ring, developed his gimmicks, and refine his game on the mic. But if there’s one element of Page’s repertoire that got him over most, it would have to be the Diamond Cutter.

The Diamond Cutter was an explosive move DDP could hit from all variety of positions. It was his weapon to keep the nWo at bay when members of the faction came after him. It was the move he used to pin Randy Savage and legitimately step up to main event status. It was on the shortlist of the greatest finishers in WCW history.

9 Useless: Ric Flair’s Figure Four Leglock

Ric Flair Figure Four Sting

Ric Flair is quite arguably the greatest professional wrestler to have ever lived. Indeed, there aren't many things Flair hasn't done in wrestling, and his Figure Four Leglock is nothing short of iconic. Despite these factors, how many times did Flair actually win a big match with his signature hold?

Related: Ric Flair: His 10 Best World Title Reigns

That’s not to say that Figure Four wasn’t instrumental in setting up Flair to win sometimes, nor that it never won matches. Indeed there were times when the hold was quite successful for him. Throughout the WCW years, however, Flair’s finisher was more often a source of drama that didn’t actually seal the deal.

8 Protected: Sting's Scorpion Deathlock

Sting Starrcade

In the early days of the WCW brand, Sting was the default top face and got over with the Scorpion Deathlock as his primary finisher.

The use of the hold was a bit antithetical to The Stinger otherwise focusing on using his explosive athleticism and strength to hit moves like the Stinger Splash and his signature press slam. Nonetheless, the Scorpion Deathlock transcended every version of Sting. It usually spelled victory for him in his initial run on top of WCW, as well as his later run in his crow persona, including yielding a submission from Hollywood Hogan at Starrcade 1997.

7 Useless: Rick Martel’s Boston Crab

Rick Martel WCW

Rick Martel was a great wrestler who had won an AWA Championship and thrived in his heel Model persona in WWE. By the time he got to WCW, though, Martel was in the twilight of his wrestling career and struggled with ongoing injury issues. He was mostly there to work good matches and put over younger talents like Booker T.

While Martel’s signature Boston Crab did pick up a few victories, it more often played out that it was a climactic hold to be escaped en route to faces defeating him.

6 Protected: Goldberg's Jackhammer

Goldberg Jackhammer Giant

In Goldberg’s meteoric rise to the top of WCW, the combination of the Spear and the Jackhammer was about as definitive of a one-two-finishing punch as there comes. It’s not hyperbole to say that, particularly across the best matches of his undefeated streak, the Jackhammer put away about half the WCW roster, including top tier stars.

One of the limitations of a move like the Jackhammer is that it often can’t be used on big men on account of the sheer strength the man doing the move would need. It’s a credit to Goldberg that he was such a powerhouse he even executed the move successfully on The Giant.

5 Useless: Disco Inferno’s Chartbuster

Disco Inferno WCW

Disco Inferno gimmick may have put a ceiling over his career prospects, but he nonetheless overachieved for his commitment to his character work. Calling his finishing move the Chartbuster made sense for his Disco persona. The move itself, however, only called attention to what he was not.

The Chartbuster was essentially the same move as the Stone Cold Stunner, which immediately made it feel absurd for a character of his decidedly mid-card stature to use it. Though Disco Inferno did pick up some wins with the move, its success was a far cry from what the same move was accomplishing in WWE at the time.

4 Protected: Kevin Nash’s Powerbomb

Kevin Nash WCW

As a near seven-foot powerhouse, the Powerbomb made absolute sense as a finisher for Kevin Nash. Moreover, his version of the move had gotten over in WWE under the Diesel persona, establishing it as very much the kind of maneuver that could win world titles.

RELATED: Every Version Of Kevin Nash, Ranked From Worst To Best

Big Sexy used his Powerbomb to dominant effect, winning most of his feuds in WCW. Not least of all, he hit the finisher on Goldberg to end his undefeated streak at Starrcade 1998 (albeit with an assist from Scott Hall and his cattle prod).

3 Useless: Brian Adams’s Tilt-A-Whirl Backbreaker

Brian Adams WCW

As Crush, Brian Adams used his tilt-a-whirl backbreaker to great effect as a transitional move in WWE. Moving to WCW, it made a degree of sense for the big man to switch over to using the move as a finisher, given its degree of difficulty and strength required to execute it.

The backbreaker simply wasn’t over as a finishing maneuver in the late 1990s, though. The fact that Adams used it as a finisher largely reaffirmed that his days as anything resembling an upper card threat were behind him. It was difficult to imagine him winning a truly big match with this finisher.

2 Protected: Roddy Piper’s Sleeper

Roddy Piper Sleeper Hulk Hogan WCW

Roddy Piper was a legend by the time he got to WCW. Though he was past his physical prime in the mid-1990s, and this period didn't add many entries to the list of the greatest matches in Hot Rod's career, he nonetheless got one of his highest-profile single runs then. That includes feuding with Hollywood Hogan and other top names.

Piper’s sleeper hold was over as a finisher from his work in WWE but arguably got over even further when he used it to render Hogan unconscious in the main event of Starrcade 1996. Piper still wouldn’t add a world championship reign to his resume, but his sleeper was over as a finisher that could easily put away champions and main event guys.

1 Useless: Randy Savage’s Elbow Drop

Randy Savage Elbow Drop WCW

Randy Savage’s top rope elbow drop is the stuff of legend for Savage using it to win world titles and showcase his incredible athleticism via just how high he could soar above the ring. Indeed, he used the move to pick up his share of victories throughout his WCW run.

However, it was difficult to take this legendary move all that seriously after a stunt where The Macho Man used it to comedic effect in a tag team match early in his tenure. Savage was teamed with Hulk Hogan at Clash of the Champions XXX and midway through the match, dropped the elbow on his partner. Hogan and Savage had a long history as great partners and great rivals. For an instant, it looked as though The Macho Man had turned heel, but it turned out that the elbow didn’t hurt The Hulkster, but rather magically revived him. Once it was established that Savage’s once devastating finisher had healing powers, it took one of wrestling’s greatest finishers and morphed it into the stuff of comedy.

Next: 5 Most Protected Finishers In WWE (& 5 Of The Most Useless)