Randy Orton's "Punt" has been Banned!?

[trashboy]

I hate when they mention stuff like this on twitter. I mean, I haven't even thought of the punt in a while because he just hasn't been doing it. If he never mentioned it on twitter, no one would have never thought about it. Now it would have made more sense, to have Orton punt someone on an upcoming Raw and maybe the following week on Raw, then have the GM come out and say the Punt is banned and if Orton uses it again, then he's fired. Some of us don't follow Twitter, so I never hear about all this stuff unless it's posted on this site or said on a WWE show.

 

[cm ben]

I'm kind of 100% behind this, if this is true. Sometimes I tutor grade school kids, many of whom are big WWE fans. When RKO was heel, none of them liked him, so the punt kicks were okay. When he turned face and was fighting the New Nexus and punting all of them one by one, that got real weird. The fact is, no matter how many commercials warn them not to, kids copy the moves their favorites do, and the punt is so much easier to perform "effectively" than most other moves in WWE's arsenal. It made me really uncomfortable seeing watching that storyline unfold on TV and imagining what kids could do to each other.

MAYBE JUST ME THOUGH.

 

[BellaEaglesArmy]

Well right now Randy Orton is not a heel, I would like to see him turn heel soon though. Randy Orton was my favourite wrestler back in 2008/2009 and I loved when he did the punk kick. Hopefully what he said on twitter turns into a storyline because I would hate to never see the punt kick again.

 

[GameOver]

my understanding is that the kick itself is pretty legit - you just can't fake it even thought he doesn't put his full force behind it. but if you don't want kids to imitate things, you need to pull certain moves. a kid won't understand that the kick isn't real and you really don't need someone getting kicked full force in the head out of stupidity.

pretty legit? ok from someone watching away from ringside it may appear legit and if it were a real move it would cause serious injury. but same could be said for 98% of what they are doing.

When he punts he doesn't connect or if he does it's too the hand, same as the Bro Kick/Yakuza Kick. they are directed to the side of the head and it's upto the recipient to roll out of the way at the right time. Sure there are mistakes but they would be few and far between.

as for the If you don't want kids doing it, they would have to pull every single move, if you don't want kids doing it, kids shouldn't be exposed to it PERIOD!!! or parents should do there job and explain they are just pretending.

Saying that i watched WWF from 1984 (i was 11 at the time) and my 2yr older brother and i use to play wrestle and occasionally he would do strangle holds or headlocks with a bit too much force, but never did we do it to intentionally hurt each other. we had the illusion that it was somewhat real and the results were real and ref's were blind but we still knew without anyone telling us that it was not completely legit.

 

[ultramattman]

If WWE were concerned about bad press due to concussions, why would they ONLY ban the punt? Why would they allow Punk's head kick or running knee to the jaw? Cody Rhodes' beautiful disaster kick? Alberto Del Rio's back brain kick? This is a plot device. Expect Michael Cole to mention Orton's tweet on the next Smackdown or Raw.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

My mind tells me he wouldn't of bothered even mentioning it if it wasn't going to pop up soon.

A follower asked him on Twitter why he doesn't use the punt anymore. I know Randy doesn't come across as one of the Einstein's of the world but he'd hardly pull out is Nokia Lunia and decided, for the hell of it to tweet a move which has been seen like six or eight times in total throughout his career was banned.

And that leads me to why I don't personally give a fuck if it is banned.

We see it like once a year anymore, and I can't pinpoint the exact date or receiver but the last time Orton punted someone I can recall it coming across about as well as a Dolph Ziggler oversell does. Looked pool, but people were shaking their heads thinking, "Why the fuck did it have to happen like that?"

Only a moron would muse over a move, rarely seen being banned. That's like if Bruce Springstein goes on tour but decides he's dropping the song "Backstreets" from the playlist and people care. Why? Wasn't that good to begin with and rarely ever played. Fuck Orton's punt, he is still a beast without it.

 

[berlinbrawler]

The punt has been done to death anyway. First time he used it it was this big scandalous thing. Later on it was almost just another move. Then Orton kicked another Nexus member into oblivion on a weekly basis. That was overkill.

So if it's on ice for the time being, all the better. Let it rest for a long time and only do it on a very special occasion.

 

[Martin Gabriel]

I wouldn't be surprised if this ban was kayfabe. The way Orton does his punt isn't really a punt kick it's more of him running and slapping somebody with his shin lol. It's never really looked all that bad.

 

[Viola Moonlight]

There are a multitude of reasons as to why his punt kick has been banned:

• WWE is trying to lower the risk of head injuries (and this is a precaution)
• Randy might want to move away from the kick and focus more on his wrestling skills
• It's been done to death and the concept isn't as useful as it was
• Triple H, Johnny Ace and Vinnie Mac are in a conspiracy to hate on Orton for he has done to them
• Global warming

We may get a proper answer later on, we may not: but the fact is that over his Twitter account, Orton decided he'd tell the world that his punt is gone. Orton's moveset does not need a punt as the moves he executes and the way he moves is devastating enough: a punt was just icing on the cake. He might bring in a new move to replace that could be considered much more worse such as a submission.

Change is a good thing. Something as insignificant as this shouldn't be time for worry. In six or so months, people will be drawing blanks when you ask them what a punt kick is.

 

[cm ben]

as for the If you don't want kids doing it, they would have to pull every single move, if you don't want kids doing it, kids shouldn't be exposed to it PERIOD!!! or parents should do there job and explain they are just pretending.

No, that's not true. If a kid tried to do an Attitude Adjustment, unless he was some freakish, steroid-pumping grade schooler, it wouldn't work. You've got to be pretty huge to pull it off, and both people need to cooperate. A Five-Knuckle Shuffle? Okay, they could do that, but even if landed with full-force, it would only result in a broken nose or a knocked out tooth. Deal with it!

A punt kick, though, is extremely easy to pull off, and would almost inevitably result in a real bad injury--extreme concussion, fucked jaw, uh, death, etc. The punt kick is like one or two steps up from the curb stomp, ya know?

 

[Workrate]

It's kind of a bummer to read fans complain when something like this is banned, be it a wrestling move, a type of football play, or whatever. If you really think about it, how barbaric is it that the first reaction is entertainment value and that the health of the people actually involved is merely a secondary concern? The worst part is, the things that get banned are often negligible. Randy Orton's punt? There's no way eliminating something that minuscule is going to hinder anyone's ability to be entertained.

Perhaps even more frustrating -- and maybe this applies more to professional sports than to wrestling -- is when people say things like "well he makes millions of dollars, those are the risks!" Believing that money makes everyone happy and everything perfect is a huge, huge fallacy. Are millions of dollars worth the agony of a mental illness suffered from compiled head injuries? Is it worth it to die early and not be able to see your children grow up? How about if you end up confined to a wheelchair? Sure, there are inherent risks and the athletes are there by their own free will, but that doesn't mean we should treat them as circus animals who exist solely to entertain us.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

That move ended one of the careers of the best of all time. Back in WCW Bret Hart took a punt to the head from Goldberg and it gave Bret a severe concussion, he only wrestled three more matches after that and he ended up with a stroke the concussion was so bad.

The piledriver is also banned in almost all major organizations. In the UK you can get fined for real for using it. Only a few guys in the WWE have permission to use it because of the danger.

Protecting your workers, especially the head should be the utmost priority. It makes sense that the punt would be banned. With the shift in more family oriented programming in recent years, it makes sense they would ban it, its tough to watch. There is a reason soccer kicks to the head are banned in most MMA organizations, its dangerous, even when fake. Plus if you have to rely on one move to get you over, then you aren't that good. Randy can still get over as a great heel without the punt

 

[fuzz69]

It kinda sucks Orton isn't a heel anymore. He is the type of guy you love to hate i don't like really watching him anymore since he isn't heel. Orton had some good runs as heel him and undertaker,triple h, Legend killer. It was all good story lines that i think the fans would rather see in the day and age wrestling is in right now. IMO nobody wants to see Orton as a good guy cause he has so much potential as a bad guy especially the punk. The punt to the head was a automatic finish and he could play it off so well. They are professionals they know what to do to make it look real but make it as painless as possible so i doubt he ever hurt someone. I think they banned it just because it was one of them moves that looked worse that what it was. They prob banned it just because it was a move that was to brutal for wwe today. Even with the punk shoot last year and stuff wwe still seems to get more childish. Don't get me wrong i have watched wwe since 1994 and only missed 3 episodes or raw since then but i feel like each year it goes more and more down the drain they could of done a lot with the rock lesner tensi ryback but instead they let rock do his thing lesser watch from home tensi fight big names beat them but don't get a story line to go along with it and ryback i don't know if he shows up on smack down cause i don't watch it but i know he shows up on ppv beats guys that never meant nothing to the business and go on. Vince told hogan they needed to wind this thing down and move on i feel they should do that with cena turn him into heel and or ton to heel that would make good business and story lines.

 

[Uncle Sam]

That move ended one of the careers of the best of all time. Back in WCW Bret Hart took a punt to the head from Goldberg and it gave Bret a severe concussion, he only wrestled three more matches after that and he ended up with a stroke the concussion was so bad.

Actually, Bret was concussed by some sort of, well, kick. Standing. To the head. "Standing side kick!" apparently. It was an entirely different move:

[YOUTUBE]TFYXYQ1gvCQ[/YOUTUBE]

And the stroke, while probably linked to previous concussions, was primarily caused by Bret hitting his head in a motorcycle accident.

 

[fuzz69]

That move ended one of the careers of the best of all time. Back in WCW Bret Hart took a punt to the head from Goldberg and it gave Bret a severe concussion, he only wrestled three more matches after that and he ended up with a stroke the concussion was so bad.

The piledriver is also banned in almost all major organizations. In the UK you can get fined for real for using it. Only a few guys in the WWE have permission to use it because of the danger.

Protecting your workers, especially the head should be the utmost priority. It makes sense that the punt would be banned. With the shift in more family oriented programming in recent years, it makes sense they would ban it, its tough to watch. There is a reason soccer kicks to the head are banned in most MMA organizations, its dangerous, even when fake. Plus if you have to rely on one move to get you over, then you aren't that good. Randy can still get over as a great heel without the punt

And no it didn't end Brett Harts career at all. It wasn't no where near what Randy Orton did it was a side kick the same thing Booker T, Undertaker, Rikishi etc had used no where near the same thing its not like Randy Orton. He doesn't kick them with the front of his boot he kicks them in the side of the face with the laces of his boot.

 

[MCMG]

If it is is legit i can understand their apprehension. Injuries are never good especially when they are avoidable. If it isn't legit and it is a work than it could be used very interestingly. As it stand Johnny and Orton haven't had a feud or any big altercation so they could use the punt as a way for them to cross paths. Have Orton punt Otunga or someone else and then Johhny could "suspend" him. Could definitely work.

 

[DetectiveZelix]

Lowsy lowsy. For a move that hasnt been done in a while and was supposed to be a novelty, now is announced that it is banned. Well, I hope it plays to orton's Rulbreaker character and he uses it on someone again That's one of the things I miss about his dangerous chanracter...well, we'll see what he makes of it. I'm not really willing to believe WWE has really baned it. It's hard to believe anything these wrestlers claim on their social network sites now days

 

[The ShIT Factor]

I can see why it has been banned because the wwe is trying obtain less injuries to their superstars. A move to the head has the potential to end or shorten a career and stars need to be healthy to earn money. Also, the wwe is trying to gain a better public image so it can be marketed to a larger crowd than just people who want to see pain. Think of the kids watching the show, do you really want them to be punting each other in the head? This ban is just preventing more bad publicity for the business, we don't need any more Benoit head trauma, no offense to one of the greats though. So in my mind it doesn't matter because Randy isn't using it and it is preventing more problems.

 

[Dirk]

If they ban chairshots to the head and tombstones, they might as well ban the punt. I like the punt, but if it's botched, it could lead to serious injury. It seems like a miracle that Austin Aries gets away with that brainbuster of his.

But the banning of the punt isn't all bad, it could be used to kick-start Randy's heel turn, like mister 5000 suggested.