5 Times WWE Has Bent The Rules In Order To Fit In With Their Storylines 

Professional Wrestling as a whole has a number of rules. Without these rules there would be no way to distinguish winners and losers inside the ring. Obvious rules within the ring include rope breaks, disqualifications and the ending of the match coming via pinfall or submission but there are much bigger rules in play in the company as well.

WWE has been making up their own rules for a long time, but they have been able to slot a number of superstars onto their roster and give them either moves or parts of their gimmicks that are seemingly illegal in a wrestling ring.

When it comes to professional wrestling rules, there are many that WWE doesn't abide by or they are ok to overlook for certain superstars and here are just a few that many fans haven't spotted over the years.

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#5 A Superstar Cannot Eliminate Themselves From A Royal Rumble Match

Michael Cole eliminated himself to get away from Kharma

Over the years a number of WWE superstars have opted to eliminate themselves from Royal Rumble matches. The most famous instance was probably Michael Cole when he decided to step out of the ring rather than facing off with Kharma back in 2012.

Whilst WWE has painted a picture that sees this as a normal elimination method, the official wrestling rules state that a competitor can't actually eliminate themselves from the Rumble match, they have to be eliminated by another competitor who is in the ring at the time.

There have been a number of Rumble rule changes over the years, the most confusing was when Finlay was disqualified from the match back in 2008 despite it being made obvious over the years that there is no disqualification in The Royal Rumble match.

There was also once a rule where losers were not able to eliminate stars that were still in the match as well since Shawn Michaels was accidentally eliminated back in 1996 when he was supposed to win, so WWE had to create a rule just to cover for him.

#4 TLC Matches are only supposed to include Tables, Ladders and Chairs

Kendo Sticks are not legal in a TLC match

TLC matches were introduced as a variation of a ladder match but Chairs and Tables are allowed as part of the match. Much like a Chairs match, if the superstar uses a weapon that is not considered to be legal then it should lead to a disqualification, but this obviously doesn't happen anymore.

WWE has instead decided to try to make TLC matches much more interesting because of their lack of Hardcore matches and now there are a whole host of weapons being used in these matches including Kendo Sticks, which shouldn't be allowed.

Interestingly there seems to be a theory that there is a no-disqualification rule on TLC matches, but much like Chair Matches, there are some ways to be disqualified, WWE just decides to overlook this fact whenever necessary.

#3 Closed Fists are illegal in a wrestling ring

Lacey Evans has become known for her Women's Right

Anyone who has been to a wrestling training session will know that one of the biggest rules in the wrestling ring is that closed fists are illegal. The referee can be seen throughout matches telling superstars to open their fists when in the corner or when delivering strikes or they are at risk of being disqualified.

Despite this being a well-known rule throughout the business, the company still allows stars much like The Big Show to have a finisher called "The Knockout Punch". Even years after Big Show made this move his own, Lacey Evans has been promoted to the main roster on Monday Night Raw and is known for her "Women's Right", which is once again a closed fist. Ronda Rousey has also delivered a number of closed fists in the ring in the past since it's part of her moveset.

#2 Mick Foley And Santino Marella were allowed their own weapons

WWE has seen some strange finishers over the years

In a standard wrestling match, foreign objects are obviously illegal and if the referee is watching and someone pulls out a weapon then they will be disqualified, but there were a number of occasions where Mick Foley would pull out Mr. Socko or Santino Marella would use the Cobra and the referee was there to see it.

It appears that the referee was told to treat this as any other hold and count to five before forcing the star to break the hold, but since the sock wasn't part of the attire when Mick Foley and Santino stepped into the ring, this is a foreign object and the use of it should be an automatic disqualification, but WWE was happy to bend the rules for these to two stars to get their gimmicks over.

#1 The Shield Triple Powerbomb In A Standard Tag Team Match Is Illegal

WWE allowed The Shield to bend the rules many times

The Shield celebrated their final chapter this past weekend since Dean Ambrose has now officially left WWE, but because The Shield were so popular throughout their time in WWE many fans overlooked the fact that the face team broke tag team rules a number of times.

The finish of many of The Shield's matches was The Triple Powerbomb, which needed all three stars in the ring at once. Even though all were tagged in at the time, there is only a five-count that is allowed until they are forced to leave the ring or they will be disqualified and no referee ever decides to start counting.

Instead, The Shield has been able to get away with one of the company's most used tag team rules for the past six years just so that they can deliver the Triple Powerbomb as their finisher.