Leaked document reveals what WWE wrestlers are not allowed to do.

Attending a WWE Live Event can be an excellent experience for wrestling fans. With the intruding cameras and showy pyrotechnics from televised shows safely tucked away, wrestlers can interact with the audience with more ease, and the audience can enjoy the competition in its purest form.

But despite the supposed freedom inherited from the lack of pomp and circumstance, WWE shows are still micromanaged to the smallest detail.

Those rules were clearly laid out in a leaked schedule from a WWE event this past weekend, and we can only say thank you to Jamie for forgetting to look after the document.




Amongst an intriguing number of regulations, four key points stood out.

No piledrivers

Despite being one of the most beautiful moves in all of wrestling, the piledriver is also one of the most potentially damaging.

While The Undertaker often breaks out his iconic Tombstone variant of the move, the classic edition has long been outlawed in WWE, with the lone exception of a CM Punk vs John Cena match from 2013.

Remember when CM Punk hit John Cena with a piledriver on Raw? February 25, 2013. pic.twitter.com/PHbMW3J8Pc — Strong Style (@StrongStyle16) December 13, 2016

Pile drivers began to be eliminated from WWE bouts after Owen Hart broke Stone Cold Steve Austin’s neck at SummerSlam 1997, but the move continues to be used regularly on the independent scene.

No belt shots

Bland Will Smith movies aside, concussions are one of the biggest stories in sports right now, and it’s not just combat based activities which are affected.



Young footballers have been recommended not to head the ball until their teenage years, while rugby players are constantly vetted the moment perceived head damage is incurred.

Wrestling has suffered its fair share of concussion based incidents over the years, leading to the banning of steel chair shots to the head in the mid 2000s.

Using championship belts in any physical angle is also prohibited for much the same reason, but also to prevent damage to the belts.

Referees are not part of the entertainment

Back in the Attitude era, referees getting bumped around was as common as political turmoil.

Barely a match went by without Earl Hebner or Mike Chioda getting slammed, and poor Tim White was forced into early retirement after being thrown into a steel cage by Chris Jericho.

Fans began to grow wary of this trope however, and the remit now is for referees to not have an impact in finishes except for counting the pinfall.

Thankfully, there are no rules on referees not dealing with invading fans, as expertly displayed by the late Brian Hildebrand.

Impromptu is bad

One of the biggest criticisms regarding WWE television is the fiercely scripted interviews that wrestlers have to give, and the opportunity for creative speaking is also lacking at Live Events too.

The leaked memo revealed that there should be ‘no impromptu talent promos’ and that all promos must be approved by a producer ahead of time.



There is no word as to whether WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens was allowed to berate a young child at a recent show, after which the child’s mother wrote a letter of complaint on Facebook.

Owens was having none of the criticism however

"A wrestler told my son not to not to touch him. I'm completely heartbroken…Well, not really but if I complain maybe I'll get free stuff!" pic.twitter.com/VbXjLzLYOg — Kevin Owens (@FightOwensFight) December 12, 2016

Although some of these rules may seem unnecessary, they don’t tend to detract from what are typically entertaining events.

Watching a professional wrestling show live is an experience like no other, it can transport you back into childhood with the speed of a clothesline or make you feel emotions you never knew you were capable of.

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