10 Wrestlers Banned From Using THEIR OWN Moves
Even the Undertaker couldn't cross the boss...
For somebody with balls the size of grapefruits, Vince McMahon was always something of a bitch.
He didn't want his talent to get dropped on their heads. Rampant chair shots were fine, but come on, it was the Monday Night Wars! There was a company and its independent contractors to put out of business!
No Japanese Ocean Cycle suplexes, no Burning Hammers, no Ganso Bombs: Vince dictated a safer and slower in-ring style premised on theatrical stalling and flat-back bump-and-feed offence. He didn't want his talent to burst through their matches too quickly nor soar through the skies with too many risky rotations, either.
Of course, Vince didn't do this out of the goodness of his heart, oh no. There were towns to make, an exhausting amount per week, in a loop that required his performers to drive themselves around in decent fettle.
This is why those moves were banned. There was an element of safeguarding to his restrictions, but it could be argued that the damage accumulated was still rather too much.
Sometimes, however, the promoter has little to do with it...
10. Andrade El Idolo
Andrade's spinning back elbow is a much-missed weapon from his arsenal; a perfectly-timed jaw-wobbler of a move, it is nearly up there with Kenny Omega's V-Trigger as the strike most likely to cause a concussion. It's invariably executed so safely that it only appears that way.
Of course, it isn't executed anymore: as Andrade teased on Twitter, he's no longer allowed to use it. It is easy to both infer and understand why.
Chris Jericho is one of AEW's top stars, and smashed his difficult, unprecedented task of launching the promotion as a television mainstay. In yet another extraordinary career reinvention, he has slimmed down and somehow rediscovered in 2008/9 form - but initially, he was playing the bulked-up heel bully. As part of the transition to top star heavyweight, he took on a new finisher, the Judas Effect.
He's protected the f*ck out of it, too; only Jon Moxley has kicked out of it in more than three years. He's done such a tremendous job with it that, despite not looking great, it is taken seriously as a guaranteed match-winner.
Andrade's is better, but Jericho's is more over, he was in AEW first, and he's a far bigger star.
That is how it works.