So what are the definitive rules of Pro Wrestling? You’d be surprised how much this confuses the casual viewer. so I thought it would be a fun thread to compile together at the end on the rules we agree on for the official pro wrestling rule book.

Seeing as a lot of wrestling rules are debatable at best I’ll split into three groups. Green is a definitive rule we can all agree on, orange debatable and Red being a rule that is either seemingly phased out or very conflicting depending on what match you watch

For example at one of the shows I announced they did the heel jumps the babyface spot and demands to have the match there and then. Babyface is downed as ref calls for me to ring the bell.
I did it because it’s a work but the fan in me was thinking “doesn’t the opponent have to be standing and agree to compete before the match starts?

Green
- A standard match can end by pinfall,submission,knockout, disqualification, referee stoppage or count-out.
- A wrestler must break the hold/pinfall is void if opponent touches the rope, with a 5 second time limit to release the hold or face disqualification.
- A Champion can not lose their title via disqualification or count-out.
Use of a foreign object is an immediate disqualification



Orange
You must hold the tag rope to be eligible to tag.
There is a time limit for having your opponent in the corner.
You must get your entire body into the ring to break a count-out.
Using a banned move and/or eye gouging results in disqualification
Tag team - when someone tags out they have 5 seconds to leave the ring



Red
You can’t punch with a closed fist.
If a referee didn’t see a wrestler break the rules, their decision is still final
Throwing your opponent over the top rope results in DQ
(Obsolete - except in NWA)
Doing a move from the top rope results in a DQ
(Obsolete - was a WCW rule for a short period)


.



Contributers System RT

If you think something is in the wrong colour section let me know!

Add on to this list and after we discuss we should have a definitive set of rules by the end . 
Discuss!

How specific to we want to get? Because I can list a ton of green rules like "a count-out is 10 seconds" or "use of foreign objects is an immediate disqualification."

Or we can gloss over those because we all know them and focus on the orange and red rules, which I find more interesting. The tag rope thing came up on Raw last week when Curt Hawkins was refereeing the Revival vs Roode/Gable, and I was thinking how that was interesting.

Couple orange rules that I think of right away...

Tag team - when someone tags out they have 5 seconds to leave the ring

This one almost always gets ignored in the final moments of tag team matches, at least in WWE matches anyway. It's enforced every time as the match goes, but when it's time to go home the referee just allows whoever to enter the ring at any time, and doesn't seem to care what happens as long as the legal men are the ones that pin/submit each other, and foreign objects aren't used.

I know it's to get in all the double team moves and such, but at least in the WWE anyway, it's almost like the referee loses control of the match every. single. time.

Using a banned move and/or eye gouging

If I'm not mistaken, throat strikes are banned. Yet last week Baron Corbin struck Elias in the throat right before beating him and did it in plain sight of the referee. Corey Graves called it out and said Corbin could have been disqualified, but that's as far as it went.

And eye gouging/raking/poking happens all the time and the result is usually a warning from the referee, which I guess is fine but I feel like I've seen matches in the past where someone has been immediately disqualified. I could be wrong.

...

Also I was just looking at a list of rules and throwing an opponent over the top rope used to be illegal everywhere, but apparently is now only an illegal move in NWA. Interesting.

I didn’t put the 10 seconds as I know NJPW does 20 second count-outs, but then in Lucha tag match rules you can slide out instead of tagging so I’m opening up a can of worms. Forgot about the weapons.

We can add the old school rules to the red section like the time WCW banned top rope moves.

I’ll edit new rules in momentarily

This turned out to be a timely thread.

On Raw there was an uncommon finish with Braun Strowman being DQ'd for attacking the legal man outside of breaking up the pin attempt. I wonder how many teams have been guilty of this over the years? Hundreds?

Feb 9, 2019 17:48:53 GMT Big Pete said:

This turned out to be a timely thread.

On Raw there was an uncommon finish with Braun Strowman being DQ'd for attacking the legal man outside of breaking up the pin attempt. I wonder how many teams have been guilty of this over the years? Hundreds?

This is the first thing that popped into my head and how much it bugged me on Monday. If it were consistent than fine but I don't ever remember the rule being enforced that strictly and they seemed to just pull it out of nowhere for convenience. 


I don't know what category this belongs in but: Wrestler A enters and reexits the ring , breaking the 10 count. I'm still not sure how the exact rule works seeing as they change it for convenience of the match or finish. 

Feb 9, 2019 17:48:53 GMT Big Pete said:

This turned out to be a timely thread.

On Raw there was an uncommon finish with Braun Strowman being DQ'd for attacking the legal man outside of breaking up the pin attempt. I wonder how many teams have been guilty of this over the years? Hundreds?

I’m guessing they did that stupid finish to set a precedent as I have a feeling Lashley/Lio Rush VS Finn Balor is going to have a screwy finish in this manner.

^ Well that aged well 😂.

My brother was arguing that there is a rule you can’t be in the Royal Rumble if you have a title match earlier in the card, hence Becky Lynch and Kevin Owens being “replacements” in their respective matches.

Is there anyone that has entered officially after said match?

Dolph Ziggler 2012?

Quick look at the last 10 years (may have missed someone), there was at least one person every year from 2010-2018 that did double-duty.

MVP and The Miz (2010)
Randy Orton and Dolph Ziggler (2011)
Big Show (2012)
Daniel Bryan and Kane (2013)
Cody Rhodes and Goldust (2014)
Mizdow and Miz (2015)
Ambrose, Owens and Del Rio (2016)
Sheamus, Cesaro and Reigns (2017)
Sami Zayn (2018)

Thank you gentleman, I’ll enjoy proving my brother wrong :lol:
Though Zayn doesn’t count because he replaced Dillinger, was his argument for Becky this year.

Becky Lynch VS Charlotte - Fastlane 2019

The referee calls for the bell while Becky has a foreign object in clear sight of the ref?! I know she threw her crutch away straight after anyway. C’mon Charles!

Pat downs don’t really seem to happen anymore either.

Also the short black ref (I wish they still named refs) looking straight at Lio interfering from the outside on RAW, yet they had that non legal man BS earlier in the year.

There was one that really bugged me a couple of months ago, not sure if it was on a PPV or Raw, but both competitors were outside the ring and the ref was counting. One of them got back in the ring with the count at 7, and instead of continuing the count on the guy down outside, he went and spoke to the guy in the ring and then restarted the count from 1. Never seen that before

Mar 11, 2019 17:32:45 GMT daveymolz said:

There was one that really bugged me a couple of months ago, not sure if it was on a PPV or Raw, but both competitors were outside the ring and the ref was counting. One of them got back in the ring with the count at 7, and instead of continuing the count on the guy down outside, he went and spoke to the guy in the ring and then restarted the count from 1. Never seen that before

I’m also certain Baron Corbin won at Fastlane via count out of 100 at Fastlane while The Shield were powerbombing Drew McIntyre
:lol:

Bump as so many fans keep saying that Edge pinned Daniel Bryan at Fastlane.

Both Edge and Bryan’s shoulders were down, take Reigns out of the equation and it’s a draw.



We really do need a physical wrestling rulebook.

I think Lil Naitch knew this and wasn't going to count the pin until he saw Roman's face.

I'd do the exact same thing AND ruin my britches.

Every match is essentially a no DQ match these days

Apr 19, 2021 11:48:46 GMT Big Pete said:

I think Lil Naitch knew this and wasn't going to count the pin until he saw Roman's face.

I'd do the exact same thing AND ruin my britches.

It’s a legit pin as both their shoulders are down, however Charles can’t see Edge’s shoulders at all from that angle so maybe he wanted to check.

WWE refs are shoot refs, they don’t give leeway to people breaking counts etc.