5 WWE moves you didn't know were once banned 

WWE puts on a number of live event matches each week which involve some high-risk moves from some of their biggest stars. Over the past few years, there have been some devastating injuries that have cut careers short as a result of moves that have never caused injury before.

Tyson Kidd suffered a career-ending neck injury back in 2015 following a Muscle Buster from Samoa Joe, whilst Paige's career was cut short when she was kicked in the back by Sasha Banks at a WWE live event.

Injuries can happen any time, which is why WWE officials have been forced to ban a number of moves in order to protect their Superstars. Interestingly, some of these moves have been used on WWE TV once again. So here are just five moves that WWE was once forced to ban.

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#5. Punt Kick

There was a time when The Legend Killer would finish off legends with his Punt Kick, which was a straight kick to the side of the head, often unprotected. There were many stars who took it including John Cena's father before the company decided to take it out of his arsenal.

Of course, like many other head based moves, promoting kicking someone clean in the head in this way didn't fit in well with WWE's PG era and so Randy Orton started to miss the Punt Kick more often and only set up for it in matches where he was looking to gain ultimate heat.

Cagesideseats reported back in 2012 that the move was banned due to concussion awareness since many lawsuits have landed at the company's door in recent years. Unlike some other moves on this list, the Punt Kick is yet to resurface in WWE, even though Orton does still occasionally tease it.

#4. Wings of Love

Former WWE Divas Champion and the wife of The Undertaker, Michelle McCool was once seen as one of the best female wrestlers in the company, which could be the reason why she was able to get away with using such a high octane move as her finisher- the Wings of Love- on WWE TV for so many years.

Wings of Love was just a variation of a facebuster which was later banned by WWE because the move was apparently too devastating for the women in the division at the time. It's a move that might be welcomed in the women's division at present, but in the era of Divas, this was a maneuver that seemed out of place.

The Wings of Love didn't actually injure any women, it was just considered to be too risky for the Divas Division and McCool was forced to find a replacement.

McCool went on to use her own variation of AJ Styles' Styles Clash until her retirement from the company back in 2011 and since Styles has joined the company, he has been able to continue to use the Styles clash throughout his WWE career.

#3. Canadian Destroyer

The Canadian Destroyer has been banned by WWE for several years since the company has a restriction on the use of Piledrivers. Undertaker's Tombstone Piledriver, or sometimes the one used by Kane, were the only ones regularly used on WWE TV at one point.

A Piledriver was once seen as one of the most devastating WWE maneuvers and it was the one that broke Stone Cold Steve Austin's neck, which was a big enough reason for the company to ban the move in all variations.

Times have changed since then, and wrestling has become much more fast-paced and this has included more variations of the move that can be delivered in a safer way. The Canadian Destroyer is now used by a number of stars even in NXT and from the summer of 2019, Vince McMahon officially allowed this move to be used on WWE TV once again.

The Wrestling Observer reported that Vince McMahon saw a video of the move and wanted to see more of it on WWE TV.

“I wish I remembered the details but the point of this is that someone showed Vince a clip of the Canadian Destroyer. Vince said something to the effect of ‘why don’t we do that cool sh** on our show?' "

#2. Buckle Bomb

I am not sure if it was linked. And I have asked for the direct reason.But I was told a few days ago that buckle bombs are banned in WWE now. pic.twitter.com/goAgd6GCdz

— SoDuTw (@SoDuTw) May 27, 2020

The Buckle Bomb was perhaps best known for a number of years in WWE as the set up to Seth Rollins' Curb Stomp, but following his World Championship match against Sting back at Night of Champions 2015, the move was put on the shelf.

Sting suffered a neck injury following the move that caused the WWE Hall of Famer to retire from in-ring competition and in the years that have followed Rollins has used the maneuver scarcely.

The former World Champion has changed his moveset a lot over the past few years, but several other stars have used the move including Nia Jax. The former RAW Women's Champion used the move on Kairi Sane as part of their Money in the Bank qualifying match a few weeks ago on Monday Night RAW. Sane looked to have sustained an injury when she took the bump on the bottom turnbuckle instead of the top.

There are now rumors that the move has been banned on WWE TV once again since it now has a history of causing injuries.

#1. Curb Stomp

Seth Rollins came to WWE with The Curb Stomp already in his arsenal since he once called the move Blackout when he was performing as Tyler Black in Ring of Honor(ROH). Throughout his time in The Shield, Rollins used the move to end his matches and it went well with the WWE Universe.

All this changed following his Money in the Bank cash-in at WrestleMania 31 since it was decided that the move should no longer be Rollins' finisher.

According to reports, Vince McMahon saw the move and decided that their World Champion should have a better finishing move and because the company thought kids everywhere would imitate the move and hurt each other. This left Rollins with The Pedigree for a number of months as he attempted to adapt to a new finisher.

Rollins went on to use the King Slayer knee for a number of years before the Curb Stomp finally returned to WWE a few years ago but like many returns, the move underwent a name change and from 2018 it was known as just "The Stomp". Rollins still uses the move on WWE TV at present.