What’s the Story?
WWE.com has edited out the blood on the forehead of Goldberg from their gallery of Monday Night Raw last night.
The blood was the result of the headbutt to the door that Goldberg typically does during his entrance, the actual injury was nothing more than a minor cut.
In case you didn’t know...
The WWE has a history of avoiding blood whenever they deem it necessary. Typically, their policy for blood is either to avoid showing it or to have it be black and white in both photographs and their YouTube videos.
A recent example would be the clip of Raw from February 22, 2016, when Triple H attacked Roman Reigns and left him a bloody mess. The video aired on Monday Night Raw in regular colour but was changed to black and white when Reigns’ blood couldn’t be hidden.
Another example of this would be the video from February 25, 2013, where Brock Lesnar was busted open by Triple H after getting thrown into the ring post. The original video was aired without black and white, but the YouTube clip was changed to black and white as well.
The heart of the matter
The amount of blood Goldberg showed in the ring was a very small one, which indicates how serious the WWE’s policy is regarding such things.
It was a small amount of blood, so for the WWE to go to such lengths to hide it means they have every intention of trying to maintain the PG rating they’ve been abiding by since 2008.
What’s next?
So long as the WWE remains PG, expect to see more edits and colour changes to videos involving blood.
They’ve been doing this for several years now, so it’s likely that the trend will continue until they change their TV rating; which is highly unlikely given their sponsorship.
Sportskeeda’s Take
These seem like extreme lengths for the WWE to go to for a small amount of blood on their own website. The fact that they can’t show blood in its original colour seems to be a bit too much regulation.
No one is calling for the return of blading, but if people happen to bleed, what’s wrong with showing some of it?
It’s understandable that the WWE wants to cut down the risk of infection, so cleaning up in matches makes sense, but if it’s not a match and there’s no prolonged exposure, then it really doesn’t make sense to edit out the blood for reasons other than the PG rating.
Tweet Speak
Despite editing it out on their website, the company’s other twitter page “WWE Universe” had no problems tweeting out the image of a slightly bloody Goldberg.
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