Paris, the gluten in dough is formed two ways- chemically (the passing of time) or mechanically (movement). The moment water and flour are combined, the chemical formation process is initiated. It's like a train leaving the station- there's nothing you can do to slow it down or stop it. For instance, you can just dump flour into water and let it sit for a while without any mixing and gluten will have been created. Flour, being a dry particle, takes time to fully absorb water (hydrate), so this chemical process can take quite a few hours, even as long as overnight.
This chemical gluten formation is the reason why some bread recipes put rests between combining the ingredients and kneading. It's basically a way of letting time do the kneading for you, so you don't have to put as much labor into physically kneading the dough.
Mechanical gluten formation is quite simple. When dough is agitated, protein molecules will brush up against each other and form gluten. Kneading is the most obvious and most aggressive means of mechanical formation, but there are other mechanical methods through which gluten is formed. Balling, folding, punching down, opening- any time you work with dough, gluten will form. Even if you're not working with the dough, there's still mechanical formation occurring. As the yeast generates CO2 and the dough rises, the act of rising itself causes protein molecule brushing.
Every dough, based upon it's protein content and characteristics, has the potential to create a set amount of gluten. Once that gluten is generated, either mechanically or chemically, that's all you've got. Further manipulation only damages it. Damage can reveal itself in a lack of extensibility/toughness or, if pushed far enough, complete failure/tearing.
Bottom line- post-rising (or even mid-rise) kneading (or balling or folding) is gluten abuse. At least for pizza doughs with traditional levels of hydration. As you go wetter, gluten seems to form more slowly so very wet doughs can handle more agitation than their drier counterparts. For up to 70% doughs, though, kneading dough after it's risen is a travesty. It would be akin to taking a perfectly roasted, succulent, moist cut of beef and putting it back in the oven for 5 more hours. You're taking something at it's absolute peak of readiness and pushing it completely past what it's able to do.
Overnight fermentation, be it cold or room temp, involves a tremendous amount of chemical and mechanical gluten formation. This is why you want to do minimal kneading, no rests and immediate balling on overnight fermented doughs. It's also a valid reason to re-think punch downs.
High gluten flour is pretty tolerant to abuse, so when you see recipes that perform lots of unnecessary and complex dough manipulations, it's not like they produce complete failures, but they will produce inferior results.
Respect your gluten
