5 Most Insane Things Happening In Wrestling Right Now (Feb 15)
2. The Biggest Wrestling Company On Earth Does Not Know What A Piledriver Is
According to Ringside News - who stole the story from Fightful - WWE still considers the piledriver a banned move.
In parallel, Rey Mysterio is busting out Canadian Destroyers on SmackDown, but they don't call them Canadian Destroyers, of course. WWE has renamed the move 'Panama Sunrise'.
Whatever it's called, the move is controversial because it requires, very obviously, the cooperation of the recipient - unlike the Irish whip, the velocity of which is such that the person taking it has no choice but to rebound back off the rope, involuntarily reverse their position, and take a forearm to the face before falling back theatrically. That move is literally hand-in-hand.
The Panama Sunrise is controversial. It is also a f*cking piledriver.
WWE banned the piledriver because the head-first impact is deemed too much of a risk to talent wellbeing. The Panama Sunrise also drops the recipient on their head, but is actually more dangerous, because the recipient performs an athletic feat beforehand, leaving themselves a narrower margin for error. This is typical of WWE, really; blading is banned, but shoot elbows to the skull are an acceptable means of drawing blood. Chair shots can return under this bold strategy - WWE can just call them Seated Facebusters.
We're thick, we're morons. It's fine. We'll never know the difference.