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.
#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.