Blading (professional wrestling)

Prior to the advent of blading, most storyline blood in wrestling came from one wrestler deliberately splitting the flesh over their opponent's eyebrow bone with a hard well placed and forceful punch.[4] In his third autobiography, The Hardcore Diaries, Mick Foley cites Terry Funk as one of the few remaining active wrestlers who knows how to "bust an eyebrow open" in this way. However, on a very rare occasion, in the 2012 Extreme Rules event, Brock Lesnar caused John Cena to bleed without blading with a vicious elbow to his head and further hard strikes to Cena's body, though Cena ultimately won the match and the match being critically acclaimed.[5] The forehead has always been the preferred blading surface, due to the abundance of blood vessels. A cut in this area will bleed freely for a length of time and will heal quickly.[6] A cut in this location will allow the blood to mix in with the sweat on the wrestler's face, giving them a "crimson mask" effect.

Popularity of blading has declined in recent years. The wrestler always runs the risk of cutting too deeply and slicing an artery in the forehead.[1] In 2004, Eddie Guerrero accidentally did this during his match with JBL at Judgment Day, resulting in a rush of blood pouring from the bladed area. Guerrero lost so much blood because of the cut that he felt the effects from it for two weeks.

In the past North American professional wrestling, blading was almost exclusively performed by and on male performers.[6][7] However in promotions that allows blading in the 2020s such as All Elite Wrestling (AEW), women have bladed as well, for example in a match between Britt Baker and Thunder Rosa in 2021, Baker underwent excessive bleeding because of blading during the match.[8]

Some wrestlers like Abdullah the Butcher,[9] Dusty Rhodes, New Jack, Bruiser Brody, King Curtis Iaukea, Carlos Colón Sr., Perro Aguayo, Devon Hughes (Brother Devon/D-Von Dudley), Steve Corino, Tarzan Goto, Balls Mahoney, Kintaro Kanemura, Jun Kasai, Villano III, Ian Rotten, Sabu and Manny Fernandez, have disfiguring scars on their heads from frequently blading throughout their careers. According to Mick Foley, the scars in Abdullah's forehead are so deep that he enjoys holding coins or gambling chips in them as a macabre party trick.[9]

Presently, blading is a lot less popular than in the past, due to the prevalence and heightened awareness of AIDS and hepatitis.[1][6] In the 1980s, the willingness to blade was seen as an advantage of new wrestlers.[10] From July 2008 onward, due to its TV-PG rating, WWE has not allowed wrestlers to blade themselves. In most cases, any blood coming from the wrestlers is unintentional. To maintain their TV-PG rating, when a wrestler bleeds on live television, WWE tends to attempt to stop the bleeding mid-match or use different camera angles to avoid showing excessive blood. During repeats of said footage, WWE television programs often shift to black-and-white.[11] However beginning in 2023, WWE has once again permitted wrestlers to bleed intentionally during matches.

Impact Wrestling, formerly known as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), used blading frequently until adopting a new no-blood policy in 2014. Wrestlers Abyss and Raven were famed for the matches involving the most blood in TNA before the new policy in 2014.[12][13][14]