Piledrivers And Blood Can't Be Used For WrestleMania 34 Week Events In Louisiana
John Pollock of Post Wrestling interviewed Russell Naquin of the Louisiana Boxing & Wrestling Commission to discuss certain statewide guidelines that professional wrestlers and promoters must follow. WrestleMania 34 will be taking place at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, and there are a host of other wrestling events scheduled in the state ahead of the big event. Naquin noted that both blood and piledrivers are prohibited on pro wrestling events statewide, due to an incident which injured a competitor several years ago.
In addition, Louisiana requires any promoter who is holding an event to have a license. The state does allow existing promoters with licenses to loan them out to others.
Performers are also required to have blood work completed that cannot be more than six months old, to prove that they are HIV negative, and Hepatitis B and C negative. Pro wrestlers are not allowed to compete unless this information is submitted prior to them competing. In addition, wrestlers are subject to completing a ringside physical at the day of the show.
These restrictions bring up an interesting dilemma. As previously reported, The Undertaker is rumored to compete against John Cena at WrestleMania, and has been training to prepare for the match. With these restrictions, Undertaker might not be able to perform his Tombstone at the event since it's considered a piledriver. Taker did hit a Tombstone on Brock Lesnar during their match at WrestleMania 30, which also took place at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, however that may have been before the move was outlawed.
Since blood and piledrivers have been banned for years, this should not be a major issue for WWE. However, although Vince McMahon has promoted WWE as a sports entertainment company to prevent having licenses for every state, Pollock did note that a license for a wrestler within the state costs $25.
Source: Post Wrestling