5 WWE Superstars who used banned moves

It is common knowledge amongst WWE fans that the company has banned Superstars from saying certain words on television, but did you know that several moves are forbidden from being used?

For example, WWE Superstars were told not to use the word “belt” until Becky Lynch nicknamed herself “Becky 2 Belts” after winning the RAW Women’s Championship and SmackDown Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 35. Other phrases, including “title shot” and “pro wrestling”, are also discouraged.

When it comes to move sets, the piledriver and the punt kick are two of the most famous examples of moves that have been banned by WWE, while chair shots to the head have not been allowed since 2010.

Despite the rules that are in place, there are still times when WWE Superstars risk the wrath of Vince McMahon and company officials by using moves that they are not supposed to.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at five Superstars who used banned moves during matches on television.

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#5 CM Punk - Piledriver (WWE RAW)

The piledriver used to be a regular WWE move in the 1990s, with the likes of Jerry Lawler and Owen Hart using it as part of their move set.

At SummerSlam 1997, Hart botched a piledriver on one of WWE’s biggest rising Superstars at the time, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, which caused the future Hall of Famer to suffer from temporary paralysis and long-term neck issues.

From 2000 onwards, the tombstone piledriver was allowed to be used by The Undertaker and Kane, but other Superstars were banned from executing piledrivers unless they had permission.

In February 2013, CM Punk surprisingly used the move in a WWE Championship No.1 contender’s match against John Cena on RAW (01:20 mark of the video above).

It remains unclear whether the former WWE Champion received permission from the company’s higher-ups to hit a piledriver, but the man himself confirmed on WWE Backstage in January 2020 that he presented the idea to Cena before the match.

“John was like, ‘Well, what do you want to do?’ and I just said, ‘I wanna give you a piledriver, John,’ and that was it. That was all we had.”

Punk also revealed that he felt “deathly ill” on the day of the match, which makes the quality of their 27-minute encounter even more impressive.

#4 Randy Orton - Punt Kick (WWE Extreme Rules 2013)

Randy Orton’s RKO is widely regarded as one of the most devastating finishers in WWE history, but it is worth remembering that his punt kick was just as lethal.

The WWE veteran used to size up his grounded opponents from the opposite side of the ring before unleashing a ferocious kick to the side of their head.

Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon were two of the most high-profile victims of the kick, while Orton even used the move on John Cena’s father.

As you can see below, Orton began responding to fans on Twitter in 2012 to confirm that the move had been banned due to “concussional awareness”.

.@MrsRko4Ever the punt has been banned. 'Concussional' awareness

— Randy Orton (@RandyOrton) May 23, 2012

.@cniceakinfamous punts been banned my friend

— Randy Orton (@RandyOrton) August 8, 2012

Three months after CM Punk’s piledriver on John Cena, Orton unexpectedly brought his own banned move back to WWE programming when he faced The Big Show at Extreme Rules 2013.

After The Big Show kicked out of an RKO, Orton went one step further by hitting his opponent with another RKO onto a steel chair before following up with a punt kick to pick up the victory.

While it has never been confirmed, it seems likely that “The Viper” had permission to use the move on The Big Show as a one-off.

#3 Triple H - Chair shot to the head (WWE WrestleMania 27)

In 2010, WWE confirmed in an email to the Hartford Courant that the company’s Talent Wellness Program had been amended, specifically regarding the Impact Concussion Management Program.

The rule change “eliminated the use of folding chairs or props to strike an opponent in the head” – something that had been common in WWE for decades, especially during the Attitude Era.

One year after the rule was introduced, Triple H struck The Undertaker over the head with a steel chair during their 29-minute No Holds Barred match at WrestleMania 27.

Although the match stipulation essentially meant anything was allowed, the steel chair shot to the head resulted in both Superstars receiving real-life fines for the incident.

WWE’s corporate website even published an article confirming that The Undertaker and Triple H had been punished for their use of the steel chair, but the page has since been deleted.

Other than the WrestleMania 27 incident, there has been no indication over the last decade that WWE plans to bring back steel chair shots to the head.

#2 Rey Mysterio - Canadian Destroyer (WWE SmackDown)

The Canadian Destroyer is a variation of a piledriver that was made famous by Impact Wrestling’s Petey Williams. Due to WWE’s piledriver ban, the move was not allowed by the company’s Superstars until Rey Mysterio used it on Andrade during a tag team match on a January 2019 episode of SmackDown.

Speaking to Wrestling Inc. later in 2019, Mysterio admitted that he did not even know that the move was banned, which is why he executed it on Andrade without receiving permission.

"I don't ever recall asking if I could do it or not. I've always laid out what I wanted to do and there's no 'but' or 'and' unless something is limited because it's unsafe. With that move, it's funny because when I did it, everybody was shocked that I was able to do it. I'm like, what's wrong with it?"

From that moment on, Mysterio used the move sporadically in his matches on WWE television. He added in the interview that he will continue to use it until somebody tells him that he is no longer allowed.

#1 AJ Styles - Styles Clash (WWE RAW/SmackDown)

AJ Styles is one of the few WWE Superstars who can defeat his opponents in a number of different ways, but his go-to finishing move is usually the Styles Clash.

Prior to his WWE debut in January 2016, there was a lot of talk about “The Phenomenal One” not being allowed to use the Styles Clash due to some of his opponents suffering an injury while taking the move.

Chris Jericho, Styles’ first major rival in WWE, revealed on The Other Guys Podcast with Baby Huey and Bimbo Jimbo in 2017 that he was the person who got the Styles Clash unbanned.

Instead of asking for Vince McMahon’s permission to use the Styles Clash in their match, Jericho kicked out of the move and later convinced the WWE Chairman that Styles should use it as his finisher.

“Eventually I went to Vince and I said, 'Did you see that move AJ did?' Never using the words 'Styles Clash' because I knew Vince might not even know what the move is, but that name is taboo. I said he should use it as a finish. [Vince said], 'Yes, absolutely, use it as a finish.' So I was able to kind of indirectly get the move unbanned by just doing it and not asking for permission and never using the name 'Styles Clash' while taking about it with Vince. Now it's one of AJ's biggest moves."

As you can see in the video above, Styles' first successful Styles Clash on WWE television actually came when he defeated Curtis Axel on a January 2016 episode of SmackDown. The move has become one of his main finishers in WWE, along with the Phenomenal Forearm and the Calf Crusher.