Mick Foley As Dude Love Had The Worst Finisher In WWE History
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Finishing moves have been a part of wrestling for almost as long as pro wrestling has existed. A move a performer connects with that lets fans know they're about to win the match if it connects. When Stone Cold hit the Stunner, Undertaker hit the Tombstone Piledriver, or Hulk Hogan dropped that leg, fans in attendance knew that 99 percent of the time, that match was three seconds away from coming to an end.
Mick Foley's Multiple Finishers
Whether it's due to a gimmick change or to just to shake things up, some wrestlers have benefitted from having more than one finisher over the course of their careers. In Mick Foley's case, he used different finishers because he was three different wrestlers at the same time. Mankind would don Mr. Socko and apply the Mandible Claw, and while Cactus Jack he would drill opponents into the mat using the Double Arm DDT. There was crossover between Foley's characters and their finishers, which also included Dude Love using both of those moves from time to time.
What you'll likely struggle to find is Mankind or Cactus Jack employing one of Dude Love's signature moves. The Sweet Shin Music, and no, that's not a typo. Dude's finisher was an homage to Shawn Michaels' iconic superkick, but whereas HBK's move was known for being one of the most deadly in WWE, and always looked spectacular, Dude's shin variant was quite the opposite. In fact, it might be deserving of carrying the label of worst finishing move in WWE history.
The Sweet Shin Music
The combination of Foley's short run as Dude Love and no one wanting to particularly remember the move means there's actually very little footage of it readily available online. Other than its appearances in various WWE 2K games, big pat on the back to the developer responsible for making that happen. That might mean you've never had the honor of seeing Dude's Sweet Shin Music. For those who fall into that category, it begins in the same way as the finisher from which it gets its name. Dude would grab the rope, stand in the corner, and stamp his foot to tune up the band. The thing is, what came next was less of a crescendo and more of an ear-splitting blast on a recorder.
Dude would jog up to his groggy opponent and give them a swift kick in the shin, and that was it. Unlikely to finish any match so labeling it a finisher might actually not be all that accurate. A modern-day comparison would be Orange Cassidy lazily kicking his opponent's legs. Lucky for Dude, as mentioned above, he had other elements of his own split personality to pull from. If a kick to the shin wasn't enough to win him a match, and let's be honest it was never going to be, he could then apply the Mandible Claw or hit the now slightly more annoyed wrestler with a DDT.
Other Contenders For The Worst Finisher Crown
I know exactly what you're doing while reading this, especially if you've never had the honor of seeing the Sweet Shin Music in action. You're mentally assembling your own lists of terrible finishers throughout wrestling history that you believe supersede Dude's move as the worst ever, and let's be honest, there are a lot of contenders. Most of the ones that immediately spring to mind for me are moves that had a lot of fanfare but not much impact. Scotty 2 Hotty's Worm, The Rock's People's Elbow, and yes, I'm going to go there, Hogan's leg drop. A whole lot of faff before the opponent, who has been prone for quite a while by this point, is hit with a pretty average move.
The thing with all three of those examples is the impact isn't the point. Well, it is, but it's enhanced by that aforementioned faff. Hogan putting his hand to his ear gets the crowd rocking, Scotty made them excitedly spell the word worm, and all Rock needed to do was stand over his opponent before running the ropes. By the time all three of those moves hit, the crowd was raucous, and they felt like a much bigger deal than they would have done without the preamble.
Dude's Sweet Shin Music potentially could have fallen into that category, but I don't think it was ever supposed to. Dude was effectively a side character for Foley. Mankind was the focus. The big project. The desired reaction when Dude kicked someone in the shin was laughter, not a huge pop that signaled the match coming to an end. The one thing the move did have going for it was its relatability. We've all been kicked in the shin, and we all know it bloody hurts.
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