Louisiana Wrestling Commission Bans List of Moves From Wrestlemania Weekend

Hold on a second there. With the wrestling world coming to New Orleans next week, it brings up a few issues. Where do you hold all of these shows? What makes them so different than all the others? Why should I pay to see one show rather than another? There’s a lot more than WWE in town but that means there’s a lot more to deal with from the state athletic commission, and Louisiana has put some strict rules in place.

According to Wrestlinginc.com, the commission has put in place a variety of rules that ban different types of wrestling and a long list of specific wrestling moves. Some of these include basics like powerbombs and several moves from the top rope. In this case however, the ruling states that both Ring of Honor and WWE are exempt from these rules as both are considered “major league promotions”. This allows them to basically do whatever they want, within reason of course. Here’s the list of moves and actions that are officially banned from all other promotions:

1. All variations of the Pile Driver;
2. All variations of the Power Bomb;
3. The “Moonsault”, “Shooting Star”, or “450 Splash” or any variation thereof which involves one wrestler, leaping or flipping off the ropes or turnbuckles to contact the head or neck of the opponent with any part of his body;
4. The “Stungun” of any variation thereof which results in the one fighter’s head or neck being dragged, draped or “closelined” [sic] across the ropes;
5. The striking of a wrestler’s head with any object, chair, trashcan [sic] lid, etc., and
6. No wrestler shall throw, push, shove or force another out of the ring or over the top rope.

In other words, none of these.

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Note that Impact Wrestling is NOT exempt from these rules, which not only means that their show co-promoted with Lucha Underground may be in danger, but also that it is officially considered a minor league promotion by the Louisiana Boxing & Wrestling Commission.

Opinion: That’s quite the downgrade for Impact Wrestling, but it’s not like it’s that big of a surprise. These rules aren’t going to affect the most important shows of the weekend, but it wouldn’t shock me if some wrestlers and promotions found a way around them. I’m sure someone making the proper “donation” etc. could sway the commission to deem them as a major league organization. It’s not like this changes anything for WWE though and really, that would be the one that makes the most difference anyway.

Do you agree with any of these rules? Are you surprised that Impact Wrestling isn’t viewed as major league? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his Amazon author page with 26 wrestling books. His latest book is the WWE Grab Bag.

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