Going back to the super safe Linda McMahon tombstone, I haven't seen it, but I assume her head was just nowhere near the ground. I have heard that described as the "real" tombstone, with the idea being you squeeze the person's head between you legs and when you drop it sends a shockwave up their spine or something.
Speaking of doing signature moves in an overly safe way, that reminds me of HHH giving Shawn Michaels the pedigree on Raw and jumping like 15 feet in the air and pretty much completely letting go of him before they fell. I kinda think they might have been working the smarks there, tring to get everyone worried about Shawn's back before his return match, but it was still pretty funny.