5 WWE Superstars who used banned moves

#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.