I know a lot of people point to HBK/Taker at WM for influencing this later main event style of false finishes combined with shocked faces, but would you say Cena became the biggest major propagator of it afterwards?
The US title run in particular seemed to be where he doubled down on the formula of creating drama through endless finisher nearfall spots. The AA especially is just dead as a finisher.
I would love to see more main events where the story of the match revolves around each person desperately avoiding a finisher that has been protected carefully throughout each wrestlers' run.
I believe there's a promotion on Wednesday and Friday nights that might be to your liking then.