Top 10 banned wrestling moves in WWE

WWE has banned some in-ring moves, citing them to be dangerous for the well-being of their performers.

WWE is known to produce some of the world’s best wrestling shows. The action is done by highly trained professionals who have acquired in-ring acumen by being trained by different mentors and teachers and learning different styles.

However, over the years, some of the moves executed by these performers have proven to be dangerous and unsafe, with wrestlers suffering major injuries and scares. Citing that WWE banned those moves out of which here are the top 10 in-ring moves from the arsenal of various wrestlers:

10. Wings of Love

Before WWE legend Michelle McCool adopted the Faithbreaker as her finisher, she used the Wings of Love move as her finishing manoeuvre, which was made famous by TNA star Christopher Daniels. However, she stated in an interview that WWE did not allow her to make the move after a while because they thought it was too devastating for women to execute on each other. This led to the move being banned for a long time until Mandy Rose began using it in NXT in 2022.

9. Piledriver

The piledriver move needs the wrestler to tuck the opponent’s head between his legs, raise them in half powerbomb position and drop them on their head. While it was easy to execute, it was highly dangerous upon impact. This was evident at SummerSlam 1997 when Owen Hart delivered it on Steve Austin, leading to a severe neck injury that even led to him being temporarily paralyzed and was banned right after the event. The move has since been used by CM Punk and Kevin Owens in the modern era.

Here’s a better look at Kevin Owens hitting a Package Piledriver on Cody Rhodes after #SNME went off the air. 🎥 Credit: (S_Universal) pic.twitter.com/BCpI6KzWSk

— KN Wrestling (@knwrestling) December 15, 2024

8. Muscle Buster

The Muscle Buster was the finishing move made popular by Samoa Joe. The Samoan Machine used it for a long time and continued to do so upon his arrival in WWE NXT. However, at a WWE live event, Joe delivered the move on Tyson Kidd. The spot led to him suffering a ruptured ligament in his vertebrae and could have led to serious ramifications. This ended his in-ring career, and Joe never used the move on the main roster.

7. Shooting Star Press

The Shooting Star press was a captivating high-flying move in which a wrestler would execute a 360 splash on the opponent. It became synonymous with Billy Kidman as his finisher. However, one time, due to an awkward landing on Chavo Guerrero in 2004, he landed knee first on him, knocking him out, which led to Chavo suffering a concussion.

A year prior, Brock Lesnar famously executed the move on Kurt Angle at WrestleMania XIX and nearly survived injuring his neck, with such instances getting the move banned. However, they did make an exception for Evan Bourne in 2008, who never botched the move in his run.

6. Brainbuster

The Brainbuster was created by wrestling legend Killer Kal Kox and involved executing a basic suplex. However, the opponent landed on their head instead of back, which was dangerous enough for WWE to ban the move for many years. However, in the modern era, Finn Balor and Sami Zayn did use an updated version of the brainbuster in 2024.

5. Vertebreaker

Vertebreaker was another form of piledriver move invented by Megumi Kudo. It was a reverse piledriver, unlike the traditional one. This became The Hurricane’s signature for a while before he abandoned it. Before that, like all piledrivers, the move was banned by WWE, much like all piledriver moves, for being dangerous, as if it had not been executed properly, the consequences would have been huge for the wrestler who took it.

4. Burning Hammer

Unlike many moves in the WWE that were considered dangerous and banned, The Burning Hammer move was a move that had the danger label all throughout since its invention by Kotestu Yamamoto, who himself used it only seven times in total. Moreover, the move was hardly used on WWE TV and eventually was placed on the ban list, citing the danger it was to the well of the in-ring performers.

3. Curb Stomp

The Curb Stomp was popularized by Seth Rollins, who would run and stomp the opponent’s head onto the mat. This was his primary move until 2015, when he won his first WWE title. Right after that, former WWE CEO Vince McMahon banned the move, mainly because the move was easy for children and fans alike to do. Rollins replaced it with a variety of finishers before adopting the Stomp back again in 2018.

2. Diving Headbutt

The diving headbutt was the finisher move of WWE legend Chris Benoit, which ultimately led to his demise. He adopted the move from his hero, The Dynamite Kid, who also suffered a terrible fate as Benoit. The dangerous move he made for the entirety of his career, alongside multiple chair shots to the head, led to Chris Beniot becoming a CTE patient and committing a heinous crime while taking his life. After the details of his case came to light, WWE decided to place a ban on it for life.

1. Punt Kick

Randy Orton was the one who used the devastating punt kick to shorten the careers of many WWE superstars. The Viper would run right at the opponent as they attempted to get up and kick them right in the head, knocking them out cold.

However, when Orton used the move on Vince McMahon in 2009, he legitimately suffered a concussion, while Orton also admitted that it was hard to execute the move with all safety measures. This led to WWE banning the move at the start of the 2010s and Randy never used it again.

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