Good ol’ Dusty Finish
By Scott Keith on 7 March 2025
Hey Scott, APOD here,
I came across this quote from Giant Baba and I thought maybe it would lead to an interesting discussion. On finishes Baba says,
“The
last person to commit a foul in our promotion was Tiger Jeet Singh. After we
declared, ‘No fouls in our promotion,’ he had a match with Abdullah the Butcher
and lost by disqualification. We decided not to invite him back anymore. If we
didn’t go that far, it wouldn’t set a clear example. The reason is that
disqualification losses allow a wrestler to save face when they’re feeling a
bit off or think they can’t win. They don’t have to grow. They don’t get pinned
with a ‘One, two, three,’ and they can still stand tall by flipping the script.
Double ring-outs are the same. I know this well because I’ve done it myself
(laughs).
last person to commit a foul in our promotion was Tiger Jeet Singh. After we
declared, ‘No fouls in our promotion,’ he had a match with Abdullah the Butcher
and lost by disqualification. We decided not to invite him back anymore. If we
didn’t go that far, it wouldn’t set a clear example. The reason is that
disqualification losses allow a wrestler to save face when they’re feeling a
bit off or think they can’t win. They don’t have to grow. They don’t get pinned
with a ‘One, two, three,’ and they can still stand tall by flipping the script.
Double ring-outs are the same. I know this well because I’ve done it myself
(laughs).
Fans pay good money to see who wins, so it’s not acceptable to leave them
dissatisfied with unclear finishes. That’s why we decided to eliminate them. We
also decided that, like in other sports, referees in pro wrestling must be
sacred and hold full authority. Throwing referees around or similar actions
were strictly prohibited. I believed that was the fastest way for pro wrestling
to be recognized as a legitimate sport. That’s how we reformed things.”
Yeah, All Japan was plagued with endless double countout and double DQ finishes for years and fans got sick of it, so they had to change. Same thing with AEW, where everything was done as a clean finish all the time early on as a reaction to the Vince-booked distraction finishes and endless TV DQs in WWE. Certainly less of an issue now, thankfully.