There are different types of finishing moves in wrestling. Some wrestlers prefer to use an aerial move to end their matches, while others prefer to use a submission hold. Stars like Ric Flair and Bret Hart are just a few popular wrestlers who used submission moves as their finishers.
But just like everyone else, these stars have also made mistakes when executing their finishers. Most of the time, wrestlers botch a submission move that they don’t use often. But unlike some other moves, these types of botches don’t result in someone’s injury. Although wrestlers do get embarrassed in front of thousands of fans.
10 Bret Hart
Bret Hart used The Sharpshooter as his finisher. This is probably the most popular submission move in all of wrestling, and Hart deserves all the credit for it. While Hart is regarded as one of the best technical wrestlers of all time, who rarely made mistakes in the ring, even he has botched a few Sharpshooters in his career. In the '90s, Hart faced a jobber named Kato. He quickly won the match with his submission move, but it wasn’t perfect.
9 Charlotte Flair
While Charlotte Flair is considered one of the best female wrestlers in WWE, she wasn’t always that great. Flair was involved in several botches and many of them were quite embarrassing for her.
In 2015, The Queen faced Naomi in a singles match on SmackDown. During this match, Flair attempted the Figure Four Lock on Naomi, but she botched it.
8 The Miz
Many years ago, Ric Flair mentored The Miz in WWE. During this storyline, Flair also allowed The Miz to use the Figure Four Leglock in WWE. Once, he faced Dolph Ziggler on Monday Night Raw in 2013 where he completely botched this submission move. He still uses the Figure Four Leglock to this day, and has gotten better at it too.
7 Goldberg
There’s no doubt that Goldberg vs. The Undertaker at Super ShowDown was a complete disaster. Both wrestlers admitted that this wasn’t their best performance. They nearly ended each other’s career that night with all sorts of dangerous botches.
During this match, Goldberg locked The Undertaker into a kneebar. But just like his other moves that night, this one wasn’t executed properly, and it ended up being just another poor moment for this match.
6 Rob Van Dam
At SummerSlam 2002, Rob Van Dam defeated Chris Benoit for the Intercontinental Championship. This was a great match, where both wrestlers countered each other’s move. Benoit locked RVD into the Crippler Crossface multiple times in this match, but he always escaped. During this match, RVD also used Benoit’s Crippler Crossface on him. Though, it looked really awful.
5 Shawn Michaels
Shawn Michaels defeated Bret Hart using The Sharpshooter at Survivor Series 1997. Actually, it was Bret’s idea for Shawn to use his own finisher on him. But he wasn’t aware that he would get screwed that night. Michael’s Sharpshooter was terrible because he put the wrong leg in front. A lot of fans noticed that Hart corrected Michaels mid-move, and then he got it right.
4 Ricky Steamboat
Ricky Steamboat wrestled his first match in 15 years in 2009. At Backlash, he faced Chris Jericho in a singles match. Fans didn’t really expect too much from this match, but it was good. Although, there was a spot in this match where Ricky reversed the Walls of Jericho and locked him into the Figure Four Leglock. But it didn’t turn out to be that good.It seemed like Steamboat got confused for a few seconds there while performing this submission.
3 Natalya
Natalya teamed up with The Great Khali to take on AJ Lee and Big E on an episode of Raw in 2013. Natalya won the match for her team by putting Lee into The Sharpshooter. But it wasn’t perfect. As soon as as Natalya released the hold for a second, AJ tapped. She was probably trying to drag AJ away from the ropes, but unfortunately, Lee tapped at that exact moment.
2 The Rock
The Rock is one of those wrestlers who has had issues applying the Sharpshooter. The Great One wasn't really great with this submission, and Bret Hart once even called him out for it. Sometimes, it feels like The Rock has created his own modified versions of The Sharpshooter. A lot of the times he would apply a completely different move and the commentators would still call it the Sharpshooter. For instance, during John Cena vs The Rock at WrestleMania 28, he completely botched the Sharpshooter and was struggling to hold it.
1 Becky Lynch
Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair faced each other at Survivor Series 2021 in a Champion vs. Champion match. During the match, Lynch locked Flair into the Figure Four Leglock but completely botched it. Corey Graves tried to cover up for it by referring to Lynch’s move as a heel hook. But everyone knew that The Man had made a mistake that night.