Why is the Piledriver banned in WWE?

The animosity between former friends and tag team partners Kevin Owens and Randy Orton is far from over, despite going to war at Crown Jewel 2024. On the latest episode of SmackDown, The Viper called out The Prizefighter to settle their feud in the ring. However, his plans backfired on him as he was brutally attacked and taken out on a stretcher.

Kevin Owens has never backed down from a fight, living up to his slogan. The former Universal Champion came out and Nick Aldis and the security team tried their best to keep both men away from each other. Owens found space and caught The Viper off-guard, pushing the guards away before dropping Randy Orton with a banned move, the “Piledriver.”

Color commentator Michael Cole also stressed how dangerous “Piledrivers” are in general and noted there were reasons why they were blacklisted in the Stamford-based promotion. After what happened on the blue brand tonight, many fans might wonder why the Piledriver was banned from World Wrestling Entertainment.

Piledrivers are maneuvers used by professional wrestlers time and again. However, due to safety reasons, WWE had to ban the usage of the move in the early 2000s. The maneuver had caused life-threatening injuries to some of the biggest names in the industry. The most prominent name on the list is Stone Cold Steve Austin.

At SummerSlam 1997, Stone Cold locked horns with the late Owen Hart, and during the match, Hart performed a “Piledriver” on Steve Austin. Things turned out rather scary as The Rattlesnake’s head was not positioned correctly, leading to his head crashing onto the mat.

The injury was so serious that the biggest babyface of the Attitude Era was temporarily paralyzed by the impact of the move. Furthermore, after becoming a publicly traded company, the Stamford-based promotion started to promote the “Do not try this at home” warnings heavily as the safety of superstars and fans was paramount, which ultimately led to a ban on the move.

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WWE made exceptions for some superstars to use Piledrivers.

Although the “Piledriver” was banned amid serious worries, soon after, WWE bought a policy and made exceptions for some superstars who were allowed to perform a variation of the move.

The names in question are The Undertaker and his kayfabe brother, Kane. Both legends used a variation of the “Piledriver” as their finishing move in WWE, which is popularly known as Tombstone Piledriver. The WWE Universe has seen both of these stars using the move despite the ban, which indicates the promotion had provided an exception for them and they had the authority to use the maneuver, unlike others.