AEW's Christian Cage Explains For The Unprettier/Killswitch Finisher

Christian Cage's trademark Killswitch — formerly known as "The Unprettier" — has been his predominant finishing move for decades. The origin of the inverted doublehook facebuster was explained by the AEW star on "Insight with Chris Van Vliet." "At the time I'm a student of the game, and ... when I was coming up — I'd watch a lot of tapes from different wrestling promotions and I was watching a Japanese, I believe it was an All Japan [Pro Wrestling] tape, and Tommy Rogers was on there and he did the Tomakaze and he didn't use it as a finish, he just used it as a spot in the match," Christian recalled.

Cage was intrigued by how Tommy was able to grab his opponent from behind and turn them into position, needing to use the frame-forward function on his VCR at the time to slowly see the move executed. "When I slowed down the turn, and when it stopped in "this" position where the guy's arms are over your shoulder, it just happened to stop in this position... and I thought to myself: If the bottom just fell out right there it becomes like a piledriver and looks super devastating... and it's something that I can do to anybody no matter what size they are."

Despite the Killswitch becoming a beloved part of Christian's matches, it was not his original finisher, revealing that he intended to use the TKO but "Marvelous" Marc Mero, who trained with Christian and was returning from injury, asked Christian over dinner to use the TKO, buying his meal as a kind gesture. "Everything happens for a reason, and this finish suits me much more."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Insight with Chris Van Vliet" with a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.