Details on Why RETRIBUTION vs. Hurt Business On Raw Ended In a DQ

A new report has details on why the Raw main event between RETRIBUTION and The Hurt Business ended with a DQ finish. On Monday’s show, the newly-named T-BAR, MACE, and SLAPJACK faced Bobby Lashley, Cedric Alexander, and Shelton Benjamin in a tag match that ended with a disqualification after T-BAR hit Lashley to break up a full nelson on SLAPJACK, who was the legal man. This caused a lot of confusion, as it didn’t seem the kind of action which would cause a disqualification.

According to the WON, we can blame this on one of Vince McMahon’s famous “secret rules.” According to a source backstage, McMahon is adamant that in a tag team match, tag partners who are not the legal man in the ring cannot hit the legal man on the other team unless it is done behind the referee’s back, or it is an automatic disqualification. There are permutations of this, of course; after tags there can be double-teams off the five-second leeway for tags, and you can make saves for your partner despite the fact that this is essentially the same thing, just with a pin involved.

The site reports that producers and in-ring talent have to be very careful regarding brawling dives and four-ways in tag team matches or the referees, who are told to call the match as a shoot, are required to call for a disqualification. This includes things like diving on a pile of wrestlers unless he lands on illegal guys.