Blading is one of the most gruesome practices in the world of professional wrestling. It’s when a wrestler pulls out a previously-hidden blade or sharp object and cuts them in order to produce real blood. This has been done for decades all over the world but has been especially popular in the United States and in Canada.
WWE has had a love/hate relationship with blood for a very long time. It was once considered standard practice and was even encouraged for especially important matches, as the sight of blood did wonders to elevate the drama of the match in which it was seen.
But Vince McMahon banned blading once in the 1990s, only for it to return in full force in the Attitude Era and beyond. Then, when WWE went PG in 2008, blading was once again banned altogether.
Since then, there have been only a small handful of matches in which blood was seen. In some cases, the blood came out the hard way, that is, unintentionally through the severe use of force in a match. In a few other cases, wrestlers decided to blade despite the ban on the practice.
In one famous case, Batista and Chris Jericho were fined a significant sum of money for having bladed in their match together, with The Animal reporting to have been fined $100,000 for doing so.
Keep in mind, the blade job that took place that day wasn’t especially violent or gory. By comparison to wrestling history’s more famous blading incidents, it wasn’t that bad. But if any wrestler tried to replicate one of these ten blade jobs, they’d be out of a job as soon as the match ended.
#10 ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin’s blade job at WrestleMania 13
One of the most iconic scenes in WWE history was the sight of ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin bleeding profusely as he screamed in agony while locked in Bret Hart’s Sharpshooter.
Up until that point, blood hadn’t been seen very much in WWE, and the overall product was very tame and void of any real drama. So when Austin was busted open and bleed profusely, fans became much more invested in that match.
Furthermore, Austin refused to give up no matter how much pain Hart put him through and no matter how much blood he had lost. This led to one of the rare cases of a ‘double-turn’ in wrestling, as the once-beloved Bret Hart became a villain and the reviled Steve Austin became a gutsy babyface.
Though it wasn’t that much of a vicious bloodbath, the match itself marked a critical turning point in WWE history. But that was a time when WWE began shifting to a more mature market, which isn’t the case today. WWE shuns blood so much these days that even if these men had a perfect match, the blading would be cause for at least one of them to be fired.
#9 Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H - Royal Rumble 2004
When one wrestler in a match bleeds profusely, it escalates the drama in a big way. When both of them do it, you can be sure the audience will go nuts. Such was the case in 2004 when Triple H and Shawn Michaels both bladed in their main event match.
Shawn was the first to blade after falling through the announcer’s table, and HHH followed suit shortly thereafter after being hit in the face with a steel chair. By the time both of them had gotten up, their faces were completely covered in blood, and if it weren’t for their different wrestling attires, one could be forgiven for being incapable of telling the two men apart.
Even though both men are very close to the McMahon family, they’d both be dangerously close to getting fired if they tried something like this in today’s WWE. A major reason that blood is banned is so that blood-borne illnesses don’t get contracted.
When you have two men with open wounds and blood pouring down their faces mixed with sweat and possibly saliva and ring dust, the potential for severe illness becomes much higher.
#8 Ric Flair at Taboo Tuesday 2005
Ric Flair is widely regarded as one of, if not the greatest wrestler of all time. He was a master at selling, ring psychology, and telling an incredible story in the ring. One of the ways he did this was by blading in such an extravagant and over-the-top way that made his head turn completely red.
Flair’s bladejob at Taboo Tuesday was no exception. Like many notable Flair bladejobs, “The Nature Boy” bladed shortly after being thrown into the steel cage by his opponent, Triple H. Within seconds, Flair cut himself above the hairline, and it was deep enough that it allowed for his bright blonde hair to be covered in blood.
Minutes after blading, Flair’s head looked like a tomato; his entire head – even the back – was crimson red.
Once the match was over, Flair looked like he had suffered a far more serious injury, as every inch of his entire head was bloody. As respected and revered Flair is, even he would’ve certainly lost his job if he tried something like this in today’s WWE.
Even a small touch of blood is taboo these days (pardon the pun). If Flair were to do what he has always done best – that is, sacrifice his body and blood to put on a good match – he’d be fired from WWE instead of being praised.
#7 Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho – the Great American Bash 2008
This is the match that caused intentional blading to be banned from WWE. Shawn Michaels did such a good blade job (or bad, depending on your interpretation) that his face was covered in blood within mere seconds.
Not only was Michaels’ face a deep shade of crimson towards the match’s conclusion, but Chris Jericho’s knuckles were likewise turning a dark shade of red from battering HBK’s bloodied head so many times.
While the blood in this match made complete sense from a storytelling and dramatic perspective – Jericho and Michaels were embroiled in an incredible personal rivalry at the time – it was apparently enough for Vince McMahon to make a critical decision and ban intentional blading in all subsequent WWE matches.
Even if it was a small cut above the eye, if anyone tried this blade job in today’s WWE, they’d be fired as soon as they reached the backstage area.
#66 John Cena at Judgment Day 2005
John Cena is the embodiment of WWE’s most cherished virtues: respect, patriotism, honour and determination. He is not a man that bleeds…at least, that’s according to WWE’s own narrative.
Yet there was one occasion on which John Cena did bleed… and boy did he ever.
Cena faced JBL in an I Quit Match for the WWE Championship and got his head crushed with a steel chair. Seconds later, Cena bladed and it looked like he had lowered his head into an enormous vat of cherry jam. His face, arms, and chest turned a morbid shade of crimson, and it looked like he had lost an unhealthy amount of blood.
In today’s WWE, the company doesn’t want anyone – especially their top babyfaces, showing any weakness. And to those power-brokers, bleeding is a sign of weakness and ‘humanity’; these larger-than-life Superstars shouldn’t bleed like everyone else and are thus forbidden from showing any colour.
Even if it would’ve turned a modern WWE babyface into a total badass by bleeding like this, Vince would fire anyone foolish/brave enough to blade in such a manner.
#5 The Undertaker at No Mercy 2002
The Undertaker is not known for blading that often. So naturally, when he did it, he bladed so badly that it stopped being fun and soon became gruesome.
Early in this HIAC match in which ‘Taker faced Brock Lesnar, the Deadman was hit with steel steps and then he proceeded to blade. However, the Undertaker made an enormous mess of things, blading so deeply that from some angles, you could literally see a stream of blood pour out of his head like a ruptured water pipe.
This blade job was so intense in this one that at one point, the lens of the main camera recording the match had drops of Undertaker’s blood on it.
This bladejob was terrifying to watch, even though it was in a match featuring two men that were noted for their endurance and resilience. Yet by the time the match had ended, there was more concern over how much blood the Undertaker had lost than anything else.
While we doubt that the Undertaker would ever get fired from WWE, any agent that would’ve allowed the Undertaker to blade if they knew this would’ve been the outcome would’ve been fired in a heartbeat.
#4 Freddie Blassie vs. Rikidozan - July 25, 1962
Very few copies of this match exist today. But if any wrestler got the reaction that Blassie and Rikidozan got, they’d be fired faster than you can say ‘blade job’.
Back in the days when Freddie Blassie was an active wrestler, he was one of the many ‘evil foreign heels’ that tried to defeat Rikidozan, the man now known as the Father of Puroresu. To sell his viciousness to the audience, Blassie had filed his teeth before the match, and during the actual bout, he made it look like he had bitten into Rikidozan’s forehead.
Shortly afterwards, Rikidozan bladed and Blassie created the illusion that he was an actual vampire (which was a nickname the Japanese press had given him) that was drinking his opponent’s blood.
Though this would be considered hokey (not to mention extremely risky from a health perspective) in today’s WWE, this match gained infamy in Japan because it was alleged that numerous senior citizens that were watching this match suffered heart attacks and died after watching the bloodbath unfold.
If WWE were to do something that was to cause a fan watching to have a heart attack, it would bear serious consequences for the company. Most critics of wrestling are quick to point out negatives and tend to overemphasize wrestling’s dark side instead of highlighting the good things wrestlers do and the stories they tell.
Even if one elderly fan suffered a heart attack while watching a WWE show, the media would be all over it, blaming WWE for this instead of that person themselves. And just like that, WWE would witness more bad publicity and Vince McMahon would be out for blood himself (metaphorically-speaking, of course) and would thus fire someone for doing something like this.
#3 The Great Muta creates 'The Muta Scale'
When wrestling commentators and fans discuss bloody matches, they’re rating on what’s called ‘the Muta Scale’. This is based on what was once considered the bloodiest match in wrestling history, a match between Hiroshi Hase and Keiji ‘the Great Muta’ Mutoh on November 22nd, 1992 (which is considered 1.0 Muta on the scale).
In that match, Hase used a foreign object to strike Muta in the forehead. Seconds later, Muta bladed very deeply, and within seconds, Muta’s head, face, chest and pants were covered in blood, as was the ring canvas around him.
Muta continued wrestling the rest of the match, despite his face being covered in a deep shade of red. This wasn’t just an ‘ordinary’ blade job that left a portion of his face red; Muta’s face was so bloody that one could barely see his actual facial features beneath the deep crimson mask. If it weren’t for his open eyes; you wouldn’t be able to make out his face altogether.
At the time, it wasn’t often that the silent and respectful Japanese wrestling audience would react and groan in the same way that their American counterparts do. But when those fans saw Muta’s head bloodied to such a degree, they were shocked beyond belief.
Such a blade job would get any WWE Superstar fired in an instant. It’s bad enough that the mat was bloody beyond belief within seconds. But Muta bladed so badly that he actually set the standard for bloody matches.
To this day, only one WWE match has surpassed this legendary bloodbath in terms of causing fans discomfort, and that’s not an accomplishment you want for yourself, no matter how good of a wrestler you consider yourself.
#2 Eddie Guerrero's infamous blade job at Judgment Day 2004
This is arguably the bloodiest match in the modern history and serves as a prime example why modern wrestlers should not blade. Eddie Guerrero bladed after taking a chair shot from JBL, but he cut himself far too deeply and severed an artery in the process.
Seconds later, blood was literally pouring from Eddie’s forehead like a fountain, and soon the ring canvas went from its normal white colour to being covered in large blotches of crimson and burgundy.
After the match ended, Eddie went into shock backstage over how much blood he had lost, which only further proves how dangerous blading is and can be. If this happened in today’s WWE, the match would’ve been stopped as soon as the blood starts pouring, and both guys involved in the blood spot would be fired… as soon as their foreheads were closed.
#1 The Mass Transit Incident
That little footage exists of this horrifying incident is so grainy and of such poor quality that you can barely make sense of what’s happening. But there’s still enough to see that this blade job is so horrifying that it wouldn’t just get one of the today’s superstars fired, it’d also get WWE programming taken off the air and the superstars involved possibly charged with attempted murder.
Eric ‘Mass Transit’ Kulas managed to parlay his way into a match against New Jack and Mustafa Saed, even though he was not a trained wrestler in any way. New Jack was always known for being exceptionally violent and barbaric, but this ‘match’ took things to a whole new level.
Not only did he jeoperdise his Mass Transit with several stiff strikes involving foreign objects, but at one point, he even cut Mass Transit’s head with a surgical scalpel. The match was stopped shortly thereafter, as Mass Transit collapsed due to sheer blood loss.
That match led to ECW’s Barely Legal PPV being cancelled and had serious ramifications for the company going forward. If anyone tried something this graphic, not only would they be out of a job, but the company they’d be working for would fold as well from the controversy and extreme violence.
