Why Vince McMahon Prohibited Seth Rollins From Using His Finishing Move
Seth Rollins has had a massive impact on professional wrestling over the last 15 years. Rollins debuted in WWE alongside Roman Reigns, and Jon Moxley — formerly known as Dean Ambrose — as part of The Shield. All three members have taken the wrestling world by storm, with each of them winning multiple championship belts. Rollins has been known to put on stellar matches and take opponents to their limits, a lot of times getting the best of whomever he faces. The Visionary is a Grand Slam Champion in WWE, winning the Tag Team Championships, the United States Championship once, the Intercontinental Championship, the Universal Championship, and the WWE Championship.
Rollins has used a variety of moves to win all of the championship gold in his collection, however, one move in Rollins' arsenal has always stuck out to fans. It's also the move that recently retired former WWE CEO Vince McMahon — who was never shy about banning terms, words, phrases, and moves on WWE programming — put on ice in 2015.
Vince McMahon thought The Stomp was "too harsh, too cruel, for his champion"
(Photo Credit: WWE)
Seth Rollins has used The Stomp, also known as The Blackout, as his finisher for years, but Vince McMahon at one point banned the move in 2015. Rollins explained during a June 2016 edition of "Talk is Jericho" why the former boss made the call to stamp out The Stomp. "It was right after I won the title at WrestleMania. I just think it was the first time Vince had thought about it. And he just decided that — because they're sending footage down to 'The Today Show' to show. I took the flight that night and they're showing me, and they have the footage to back up when we're talking, stuff like that, and a lot of it is me doing The Stomp. Aside from it having a fairly violent name and connotation, but just the visual of it."
Rollins explained that McMahon thought about how easily young children could imitate the move and that "it stuck in his head. As his champion and top guy, he just didn't want that lasting image" or for people to have any reason to be outraged.
Rollins used a couple of different finishers while The Stomp was banned, such as the Ripcord Knee and the Pedigree, but neither stuck as a finisher the way The Stomp did. The Stomp officially became unbanned in 2018 when he nailed Finn Balor with the move on "Monday Night Raw" in the lead up to WrestleMania 34, after then-tag team partner Jason Jordan tripped Balor.