So, before we do get started, I want to draw your eyes back to the title where we wrote

modern wrestling history, so just in case your favourite finish is on this list, maybe it happened in the past, or in the olden times, and again, this is me and what culture and a bunch of other people that have thrown their two cents in, so I'm sure there are going to be some omissions, damn it, that's what the comets are for. Really, we are talking about the time that WW and AW&AW have been throwing fists at each other, and let's not forget, you can actually have quite a boring or passable match, and if all of a sudden the finish is great, well, you can go on social media right after people will be going crazy about it. When it comes to wrestling, some people would say, if you get your entrance right, and you get the ending right, Well, everyone's going to love you. A nice way to put it is that a good match finish gets everybody over,

which should always be the idea of sports entertainment or pro wrestling, say whatever you want,

but I am Simon Miller, this is the 15 greatest match finishes in modern wrestling history.

Number 15, Hangman Page versus Lance Archer from AEW Dynamite February 9th, 2002. Now much like the intro, let's just do some housekeeping here, because everybody did agree, you know what, we should have some proper deep cuts in this, because if we just go for the most obvious answers, but once again, it's a bit boring. Still, though, moving on, the talk is always that Hangman Adam Page is significantly better as a championship chaser than he isn't a champion. I think that's absolute nonsense. I saw everything he did post all in 2025 and he's just such a lovable baby face that will also stab you right in the heart should he deem it worthy. I mean, it's a little bit nuts. Of course, during his first World Championship run, he was also dealing with the likes of CM Punk versus MJ MJF as a feud, so kind of the main event scene was a little bit blurred. But the Cowboy still always manages to pass whatever test you do throw at him. If you want to say he's the main character of AW, I totally agree with you. I mean, by the time he finally had this championship belt around his waist, he beat Brian Danielson twice in two excellent matches. and do not forget during the first one, it went an hour long and Hangman basically survived. When we got to round two, I think they decided they should have done something different. So you got such a gory, ultra-completing bloodbath. I mean, nobody's going to walk in here and say, well, that was a very safe wrestling match because it was the complete opposite. At the same time, it was kind of great. Right after this two, Paige was most definitely challenged in the sense. He had to go a little bit 1980s because let's see what you can do from a storytelling's perspective against a giant like Lance Archer. It was very good, by the way. It also meant that everybody knew that Page was winning because Lance wasn't in a position to become the World Heavyweight Champion. But man, these two walked out there and they just crafted it perfectly. Because during a brutal Texas death match, Arch's temporary manager Dan Lambert, if you remembered him, removed the top rope, which is a perfectly normal thing to do. But of course, it brought up another question, how the flub is Paige now going to hit the Bucshot Lariat? All of a sudden, it did create the jeopardy that was needed in such a world championship fight, and of course Page had the answer. He essentially dropped some barbroy on the floor and the referee being the good Samaritan he was went to pick it up, when Adam thought, well now I'm going to launch off you, Paul Turner and hit my finishing move that way, and of course Archer fell through two ringside tables to boot. You had to do that.

Hangman, Adam Page 1, but it was just so smart, especially because this did just happen on television.

More of this, I say. The whole point of wrestling is to be creative, and even if it doesn't work,

you'll probably have a show in 24 hours where you can try again. Number 14, Gunther v.

Shamers from WW Clutch of the Castle, 2002. So aside from the fact that Gunther v. Shamus was absolutely brilliant, there was more under the hood. It told WWE fans, maybe we are about to get a brand new product under Triple H, because we haven't seen anything like this in WW in years. This was a one-two punch as well, because around the same period, we were finally bringing the Intercontinental title back to Prestige 2. So when you had two behemots like Seamus and Gunther laying it in and going after this belt, well, I can tell you firsthand because it was there live, it was flubbing brilliant. Really all they did was go back to the fundamentals, though, and tell you that you should care about these things. And yeah, if you'd ever seen this match, it is so damn stiff and so damn dramatic that by the end of it, Seamus left as twice the bigger baby face, even though he lost the thing. As for Gunther, while he'd arrived, he was the protected, invincible warlord. You also didn't get any run-ins or distraction, interference, or confusions, which WW does over rely on. And do not forget, this wasn't the main event, but if they had gone on last, well, nobody would have been able to follow them. It also kind of set this scene as well to tell you that if the IC title is going to be up for grabs, we're going to keep things clean, man, so you can set your expectations for serious. Something like that. Everything about this is absolutely incredible though and it's not

changed to this day and the finish was a sublime demonstration of how disqualification need not

be used to protect a baby face. Shamus didn't know he was done until he attempted the brookick

and his back just gave out of him because he tried too hard. Inslee Gunther jumped on him

and he got the victory but again, as we've already talked about, both guys got more over here because Seamus just tried too damn hard. Really a few months after this, we should have given it to the Irishman, but we didn't. But let's not worry about that now because it was a good few years ago. But if you've never seen this, you need to change it today. and not only will you enjoy everything from bell to bell, but when you get to that one, two, three,

man, you're going to be crying.

Number 13, Gunther v. C. Munk at W. W.

Summer Slam, 2025. Now, straight away, you are yelling at me going, I can't believe you put

Gunther versus C. Munk in this list. While I'm not talking about the match, and also two,

I personally quite like the match. Secret entry number three, again, a committee came up with these results.

It really does go back to what we were talking about, though, because it's not always about what you do do in the ring, it's about what you do at the finish, and I actually think that CM Punk and Gunther came up with something great here. One of the biggest criticisms for this is that it is the SummerSlam main event,

and CM Punk just sold and sold and sold.

But this actually ties back into what Gunther is meant to be.

He's a killing machine and he's going to chop you until you're dead. There was more of a long-term idea here though, which we did find out in the last seconds. Because even though it felt like Punk was struggling a little bit too much and maybe it did drag on and on, it meant when finally Punk did the unthinkable and he beat Gunther to not only get that victory but become the WW champion, well, I think it actually elevated the match and measureable. Gunther also gets busted open towards the end of this as well, and all of a sudden he does start to crumble like he's a bunch of apples, and the whole time he has been playing such an arrogant, dominant champion, and then as soon as he does see the red stuff, when he doesn't know what to do, and he gets into a little bit of a struggle.

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