History Main / FinishingMove

* In ''Franchise/StarWars'': ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', Anakin defeats MasterSwordsman Count Dooku with a pretty cool-looking one after a fast-paced, intense duel: he grabs Dooku's sword hand with his left, slides his lightsaber under Dooku's own with his right, and chops both his hands off. [[OffWithHisHead Then beheads him.]]

** Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr's 619, probably the most well known version of the Tiger Feint Kick.

** "Love Machine" Art Barr and Wrestling/EddieGuerrero's Frog Splash, which is used by his nephew Wrestling/{{Chavo|GuerreroJr}} in tribute (Chavo previously used the Tornado DDT).

* In ''Series/{{Ultraman}}'' for the UsefulNotes/SuperFamicom, the enemies can only be defeated with a Specium Beam while they have no HP. To complicate things, their health regenerates, Ultraman's power takes a long time to charge and you'll probably have to spend it sometimes while struggling against the tougher opponents.

** [[TheBerserker Marauders]], [[ArcherArchetype Archers]] and [[TheSneakyGuy Rogues]] from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' have a finishing move that can only be used once an enemy has 20% or less of their health remaining. Unlike a lot of examples on this page, these moves aren't actually that much more damaging then a lot of the moves these classes can use all the time and are on a fairly hefty cool down. The trick with them is that you can [[LagCancel use them while the animation of your other moves is still playing]], effectively allowing for some serious bust damage.

* ''VideoGame/SengokuBasara X'' has the "Basara KO," which works a lot like ''Fist of the North Star'''s Fatal [=KOs=], and comes complete with SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic.

* ''VideoGame/{{BuffyTheVampireSlayer2002'' has these. The heroine herself has to stake or burn vampires, behead zombies as such. In order for enemies to actually kill Buffy, they have to feed on her (zombies), bite her (spiders), slash her throat (demons) or crush her (giant vamps).

* ''VideoGame/{{Buffy|the Vampire Slayer}}'' on XBOX has these. The heroine herself has to stake or burn vampires, behead zombies as such. In order for enemies to actually kill Buffy they have to feed on her (zombies), bite her (spiders), slash her throat (demons) or crush her (giant vamps).

** Then there's the [[DropTheHammer Goldion Hammer]], the weapon they devised to replace Hell and Heaven, turns out to be just as deadly. Instead of trying again, they decide to build a robot whose job is basically to act as a giant oven mitt so that [=GaoGaiGar=] can use it safely.

** Wrestling/MitsuharuMisawa's Emerald Flowsion.

** Wrestling/JimCornette's tennis racket back when he was actually managing wrestlers. If you think about it though, it's actually hilarious because hitting them with the webbing of the racket would mean it would just bounce off the wrestler's head. Wrestling/TheMidnightExpress did load it with a brick at least once, though. Actually, Jim has stated on many occasions that the racket was loaded with a horseshoe (that was thrown at him by a fan, and because it missed, he stated he figured it was lucky) and a dog chain. Furthermore, when things got serious, he would blast someone with the side metal rim, not the webbing in the center. As newspapers and lawsuits would show, Cornette bloodied and knocked cold more than one attacking fan thusly.

** Wrestling/HulkHogan's Big Leg Drop. As it was in Hogan's heyday, this was easily a contender for the spot of [[PopularityPower the most powerful finisher in the history of American pro wrestling]]; he put down the likes of Wrestling/AndreTheGiant, Antonio Inoki, [[Wrestling/RandySavage Randy "Macho Man" Savage]], and other legendary stars with it, and it wasn't until nearly ten years after Hulkamania swept the WWF that someone managed to survive it. It lost a lot of its power when [[FaceHeelTurn he became the evil "Hollywood" Hogan]], to the point where Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} survived an unprecedented three in a row (still surprising, despite [[ImplacableMan Goldberg's gimmick]]). It regained some of its kick during Hogan's last WWE run as a good guy, but it was kicked out of far more frequently by the then-current main event talent. Even though it's extremely devastating in kayfabe, there are some who aren't impressed: namely modern fans used to flashier finishing moves, and smarks with an axe to grind with Hogan for his backstage antics in WCW.

* Common in ProfessionalWrestling. Some wrestlers even have multiple finishing moves, either done alternately, or [[FiveMovesOfDoom in sequence]]. Since (especially in WWE) it's become increasingly common for wrestlers to kick out of the pin after getting hit by a finisher[[note]]Originally meant to show just how much of a {{Determinator}} the wrestler in question is, it eventually became so commonplace as to degrade the credibility of the finishers.[[/note]], any finisher that actually reliably works and is almost never subjected to TheWorfBarrage is known as a "protected" finisher. Wrestlers who have a protected finisher usually have a lesser secondary finisher that ends enough matches to avoid the question of why they use it at all, but can still fail sometimes when the wrestler has to lose, thus preserving the mystique and fear factor of their main finisher.