So I have been thinking about writing a blog on how my ongoing WWE fantasy booking (cheap plug) has helped me gain even more of an appreciation for just how difficult it is to book a promotion from an entirely technical point of view (not worrying about politics or inconvenient injuries); just how hard it is to book something and keep things interesting and use a bunch of guys. One of the things that fans like to complain about is screwy finishes, especially on PPV. I have also been listen to a lot of Bryan and Vinny lately, almost all of it TNA reviews from about the time that the bulk of my TNA DVD collection stops (Slammiversary 2007) until January 2011 and they always talk about how much they hate screwy finishes, especially on PPV. So I went back through my fantasy booking to see how often I had done screwy finishes on PPVs, and found myself with about six different categories of screwy finishes because there were some things that I thought it was unfair to categorize as a screwy finish because they were necessary parts of the story, or for various other reasons. So I started to wonder "what, exactly, is a screwy finish/f*ck finish?"
If we assume that they are bad things (which we are assuming), the literal definition of "a match that doesn't have a clean finish" can't possibly work because heels cheating is a super-important part of any booker's arsenal needed to extend feuds past just one or two matches. A very broad definition that I eventually settled on is "a non-clean finish that makes a fan regret ordering the PPV," and while I think this is a great definition, it is a very broad because there are many different schools of thought within wrestling fandom about what is and isn't a good finish.
So what do you all think constitutes a screwy finish? Is it fair to call something like the main event of BFG 2010, which set up/revealed Immortal, which was going to be TNA's big angle for the next year a screwy finish? Or something like Steen & Corino vs. Generico & Cabana from The Big Bang! which, although it was a DQ finish, marked the transition to the next chapter of that story? Or what about interference that sets up/continues another feud? Does it matter how big the match is or if there is a title on the line?

What do you all think?

my understanding had always been that a screwy finish was that where the fan gets screwed out of his guy winning the match by means where the opponent didn't win clean, so be it DQ, walkout, interference, etc etc.

in terms of what you're talking about, i think it's anytime we get screwed out of a big payoff, overbooking a finish, or the obvious run in to protect a wrestler (see Cena not losing without interference or something of that kind) is IMO a screwy finish.