You may have noticed in recent months that the piledriver has made somewhat of a comeback in WWE.
Rey Mysterio and Andrade began prominently utilizing Canadian Destroyer piledrivers in their matches in 2019 after years of no piledrivers outside of the occasional Tombstone. It was banned for well over a decade, but has been given some wiggle room in recent months.
Still, not everyone gets off so lightly. Fightful were told that months back when Matt Riddle and Damian Priest did a Canadian Destroyer on an NXT live event, they were told not to do it again, and especially not without clearance.
In March, the Usos used an expanded, second rope version of the Canadian Destroyer. This led to Fightful reaching out in an effort to find out why the rules have been relaxed so much in the last year. While we didn't get an answer on that, we were told that Kevin Owens has made an effort to pitch the Package Piledriver as his finish "quite often," but the idea never makes it to Vince McMahon.
We heard from several WWE superstars that said they believe certain moves are able to make it through because they don't have "piledriver" in the name, and it's an element of perception
There have been some notable appearances of piledrivers on WWE TV since the "ban": CM Punk vs. John Cena in 2013, Tommy Dreamer vs. Rob Van Dam on WWECW, Shawn Michaels vs. John Cena at WrestleMania 23.
