7 Ups And 10 Downs From WWE Royal Rumble 2017

9. Why No DQ?

sheamus ref dead
WWE.com

Two weeks ago, Sheamus inadvertently hit a referee, which ultimately cost Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson the Raw Tag Team Championships when their pinfall was waved off in favor of a DQ.

Sunday night, with two refs assigned to the tag title match, Sheamus wound up for a Brogue Kick on Anderson, only for Karl to move and let the ref take the boot. The second ref outside the ring climbed in and let the match continue as if nothing happened. A few moments later, we had new tag champs.

Why didn’t this warrant a DQ again? Wiping out a ref is a DQ, isn’t it? Or does this fall under the inadvertent contact “rule,” so the match continues? (If that’s the case, shouldn’t the previous title bout been the same?)

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.