As seen during Monday night’s WWE RAW broadcast, RETRIBUTION (T-BAR, MACE, and SLAPJACK) faced Bobby Lashley, Cedric Alexander, and Shelton Benjamin in the main event. The match ended in a DQ after T-BAR hit Lashley to break up a full nelson on SLAPJACK, who was the legal man.
According to a report the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the reason for the confusing finish was because it is another one of Vince McMahon’s famous “secret rules.” For years now, Vince has been 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. If the referee sees it, it results in 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.
Many WWE 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.
