The number one rule in professional wrestling is for opponents to protect each other from legitimate, serious injuries, and if that isn't possible with a wrestling move, there's a good chance that move is banned by WWE. There are a number of different wrestling moves that have been banned because they've been considered too dangerous to the Superstars' well-being.
Granted, oftentimes, a move can and has been unbanned if the danger surrounding it can be minimized, perhaps by a wrestler doing it who is trustworthy or learning more facts about how to do the move safely. As a result, some of the moves on this list that were once banned are now regularly seen on television. That being said, there are also moves that are still considered unsafe to do inside of a WWE ring to this day.
10 Shooting Star Press
One Botch Had It Banned for Years
On an August 26th, 2004 episode of SmackDown, Billy Kidman wrestled Chavo Guerrero. His finisher was always the Shooting Star Press, until on this night, an awkward landing saw him land knee-first onto Chavo's temple, legitimately knocking him out for five minutes and causing a severe concussion.
That was enough to ban the move from WWE for a few years. It probably didn't help that this happened just over a year after a botched Shooting Star from Brock Lesnar gave the then-WrestleMania main eventer his own concussion, putting a stain on one of the best WrestleMania main events of all time. Upon g with WWE in 2008, the company would make an exception for Evan Bourne to do the move, as it was his finisher for the entirety of his pre-WWE indy run, and since he wouldn't injure anyone during his tenure, the move was eventually quietly unbanned in due time.
9 Michelle McCool's Wings of Love
Considered Too Devastating for the Women's Roster
Many readers will recall Michelle McCool's far more popular Faithbreaker finisher, largely because of the controversy it created because it drew inspiration from AJ Styles' Styles Clash. However, before she had the Faithbreaker, the future Divas Champion had the Wings of Love, which took inspiration from the Angels Wings, popularized by Styles' former TNA tag team partner, Christopher Daniels.
Still, its TNA-inspiration wasn't what caused the move to be banned. In McCool's personal blog (archived here), she says that WWE told her that she wasn't allowed to do the move anymore, because "it was too devastating for the girls!" Fast-forward two decades later, and this is the exact move that former NXT Champion Mandy Rose used as her finisher.
8 Muscle Buster
The Move That Ended Tyson Kidd's Career
Mere weeks after Samoa Joe debuted on WWE TV at NXT TakeOver: Unstoppable, the former ROH World Champion would wrestle his first match on Monday Night Raw, albeit in a dark match, against Tyson Kidd. All went fine in front of the live crowd until Samoa Joe hit his Muscle Buster finisher, a move he had been doing for more than a decade between Ring of Honor, TNA, and the independent circuit.
In a horrible freak accident, somehow, the Muscle Buster that Joe has done countless times manages to rupture a ligament in Tyson's vertebrae, almost paralyzing and killing him, immediately ending his career. While Joe would continue to do the Muscle Buster in NXT, he'd never do it on the main roster again, opting for the Coquina Clutch as his sole finisher.
7 Piledriver
One of the Most Infamous Moves in Pro Wrestling
The piledriver has been cited as being one of the most brutal moves for a wrestler to take. It's surprisingly safer to receive than most moves out there as long as the opponent re to tuck their head before the landing, so that their head doesn't connect with the ground. That being said, the piledriver is also a move with dire consequences if taken the wrong way, or even done wrong. One of those dire consequences is ending a wrestler's career or worse, paralyzing them.
The move ended up banned after SummerSlam 1997, where Owen Hart executed a piledriver on Stone Cold Steve Austin. Austin's head spiked to the mat, causing temporary paralysis and bruising his spinal cord. Austin was lucky, but his in-ring ability was never the same, as he had to drastically alter his wrestling style as a result of his nagging injuries. The moment likely knocked years off his career. The fact that it was performed by one of the best technical wrestlers ever, Owen Hart, simply proves that everything can go wrong at a moment's notice in a WWE ring.
6 Vertebreaker
A Piledriver Variation
When WWE decided to ban all piledrivers, they truly meant all piledrivers. An exception would be made for The Undertaker's Tombstone Piledriver, as the opponent's head makes no with the mat when The Phenom lands on his knees, but generally, every type of piledriver and all of its variations would be subsequently banned following the Austin incident. This would include the Vertebreaker, or Kudo Driver/Kudome Valentine, invented by Megumi Kudo.
It's essentially a reverse piledriver, which similarly, is safe to take if the opponent tucks their head, but could be deadly if taken or done incorrectly. The Hurricane briefly used it as a finisher before immediately having to drop it. WWE Champion Cody Rhodes would utilize the maneuver in a 2024 match with Logan Paul at King and Queen of the Ring, but it'd be a one-off.
5 Brainbuster
A Dealy Twist on the Suplex
Created by Killer Karl Kox, the brainbuster takes a basic suplex and makes it scary. Think of a simple suplex, but instead of landing on the back, a wrestler is dropped straight on their head, almost like an elevated DDT. It's a move that sounds as lethal as it looks, so much so that it was banned from WWE for some time.
Up until recently, the closest move that was allowed on WWE grounds was Finn Balor's 1916, an underhook brainbuster. More recently, Sami Zayn would bring his old indy finisher out of the closet for WrestleMania XL, using a top rope brainbuster to drop Gunther on his head off the pad to end his historic Intercontinental Championship reign. Before that, the move was banned for years as it’s harder to protect the opponent’s head on this move.
4 Burning Hammer
Dangerous Worldwide
All of the moves on this list at some point or another were considered too dangerous to do in a WWE ring. The Burning Hammer, however, is considered dangerous throughout the entire wrestling industry, to the point that the innovator of the move only did it seven times in total, deeming it too dangerous to do regularly.
It was created by Kotetsu Yamamoto and popularized by Kenta Kobashi, who only did it a handful of times in his career because it could be so high-risk (and to add to the mystique of the move when he would perform it). For the same reason, the move has been virtually absent entirely from WWE TV, only seen a handful of times. During their brief career in WWE, Tyler Reks used it as a finisher. The move would go absent again from a WWE ring until the Cruiserweight Classic when The Brian Kendrick executed it against Kota Ibushi.
3 Diving Headbutt
Concussion Protocol Marked This Move as Too Dangerous
It would be an understatement to say that the wrestling world as a whole changed drastically after the Chris Benoit tragedy. WWE in particular would slowly crack down on its concussion protocol once it was understood that Benoit's actions were largely due to the CTE he suffered as a result to strikes to the head throughout his career. Those strikes include the diving headbutt, which would be subsequently banned.
WWE would make an exception for Bryan Danielson during his time in WWE as Daniel Bryan, but the fact that Bryan himself was forced to briefly retire following his own history with concussions is a testament to how dangerous headbutts can be. Currently, Chad Gable uses the move as part of his repertoire, so WWE probably considers it safe when it's performed by the leader of American Made.
2 Curb Stomp
Don't Want Anyone Trying This At Home
Not long after winning the WWE Championship in 2015, steps were taken for Seth Rollins to quietly remove his finisher, the Curb Stomp, from his arsenal. It was then-WWE Chairman Vince McMahon who made the call to ban the maneuver. His primary concern was how easily a move like this could be duplicated by children.
The way the move works is that Rollins taps his foot on the back of someone's skull, but doesn't put full force on their head, leaving the opponent to merely sell the impact. That makes it a surprisingly safe move to endure, but obviously, children wouldn't know how to do that safely. Rollins would search aimlessly for a new finisher over the next few years, replacing it with the Pedigree, then the Ripcord Knee until Vince had a change of heart.
1 Punt Kick
Injuring Vince McMahon Was the Last Straw
In a fairly recent interview with talkSport, Randy Orton talked in-depth about the history of the Punt Kick, how Arn Anderson gave him the idea to do it, and how it was eventually banned from WWE. Even Orton its that it's hard to "work" a kick to the head, but it was hardest when delivering it to Vince McMahon in 2009. Orton says in that moment, he got too excited about being in such a major segment, and lost "sight of that number one priority - take care of your opponent."
As a result, Vince suffered a legitimate concussion. By the same sword, because the safety of the move is dependent on how hard Orton collides with his opponent's head, few people backstage wanted to receive that move. Therefore, the Punt was banned from WWE, which didn't stop Randy Orton from having some of the best matches in the company's history. When Randy returned from injury in 2020, he was confident he could perform the move safely on anyone, and he has since been using it, but very sporadically.
