>>15988989I hate strike finishers. Only a few ones are good like Stan Hansen's Lariato.
The webm in OPs post is actually a good display on how far away from reality/kayfabe wrestling has come:
Realistically, Ricochet's piledriver would've ended the match instantly. If you'd wrestle someone and managed to drop them straight on their head it's over 1-2-3.
On the other hand, if someone did a Hidden Blade, a running/leaping elbow, I'd probably at most get temporarily groggy from it. Why? Sure if it would've hit bulls eye it would clock you out. But a running and/or leaping strike is horribly inaccurate especially an elbow instead of a punch.
Yet, here we see on the webm that Ospreay's elbow is devastating and strikes fear. Rico had to reverse it otherwise he knew he'd lose. But him doing the piledriver was just a transitional move that didn't even knock Ospreay out. It's completely mirrored and reversed from what the biggest threat would be if it was "real life".
Even strikes like Dusty Rhodes' Bionic Elbow or even The Rock's People's Elbow followed some kind of logic. The Bionic Elbow came after two straight punches that would dizzy the opponent and set Dusty up for an accurate bulls eye elbow strike that would knock them out. The Rock's elbow was a follow up to the Rock Bottom or Spine Buster. In kayfabe these moves would knock the wind out of the opponent and any other wrestler would've pinned them right away. But Rock being the Rock - and making completely sense and in line with his gimmick - would finish with a show off move like the People's Elbow.
