10 Wrestlers Banned From Using THEIR OWN Moves
4. Randy Orton
Randy Orton introduced a new, vicious move to his repertoire in 2007 following a suggestion made by former WWE road agent Arn Anderson.
It was an inspired choice in that it legitimised the heel character and Orton as a performer overall; he was stigmatised as a failed experiment after Triple H was through with him in 2004, and in the two years since, WWE overcompensated with cheap heat in his role as the antagonist of Eddiesploitation. The move was a great device because it allowed Orton not to just play the flawless if methodical mechanic. It added a brutal flash of danger to his style. It was abandoned shortly after he concussed Vince McMahon and, beyond the odd special occasion, was retired until 2020.
WWE relaxed the restriction, allowing him to perform a more safe and drastically more ironic version of the move in which Orton, who hates NXT even more than the most hardcore AEW tribalist, slaps his thigh to excuse himself from the risky timing of the original move.
While ironic, it is also sensible: Orton himself admitted to talkSPORT in 2020 that "it's kind of hard to 'work' for lack of a better term".