Blading (professional wrestling)
Encyclopedia
In professional wrestling
, blading is the practice of intentionally cutting oneself to provoke bleeding. It is also known as juicing, gigging, or drawing color. Similarly, a blade is an object used for blading, and a bladejob is a specific act of blading. The blood
in pro wrestling is almost never, as often suspected, theatrical makeup, but actual blood, and the scar
s borne by longtime pro wrestlers are real ones. The act is usually done a good length into the match as the blood will mix with the flowing sweat
to make the wound look like much more blood is flowing from it than there actually is. "Juicing" which occurs outside the storyline is said to be juicing the hardway, or legitimately bleeding.
cites Terry Funk
as one of the few remaining active wrestlers who knows how to "bust an eyebrow open" in this way. 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 quite some time and will heal quickly. A cut in this location will allow the blood to mix in with the sweat on the wrestler's face, giving them the proverbial "crimson mask" effect.
In modern North America
n pro wrestling, blading is almost exclusively performed by and on male performers; blading of women is extremely rare due to the risk of adverse publicity and the increasing use of female performers as "eye candy
."
Typically, a wrestler will use a razor
or other blade hidden in the tape covering his fingers or part of his hand(s) or somewhere else on his person. The wrestler, however, always runs the risk of cutting too deeply and slicing an artery
in the forehead. In 2004, Eddie Guerrero
did this during Judgment Day 2004
, resulting in blood loss severe enough to affect him for the next two weeks of shows.
Some wrestlers like Abdullah the Butcher
, Dusty Rhodes
, New Jack
, and Devon Hughes (Brother Devon / D-Von Dudley) have massive, 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 to entertain and/or scare people.
Today, blading is a lot less popular than in the past, due to the prevalence of AIDS and hepatitis. In the 1980s, the willingness to blade was seen as an advantage of new wrestlers. From July 2008 to around the summer of 2011, due to its PG rating, World Wrestling Entertainment
did not allow wrestlers to blade themselves. In most cases, any blood coming from the wrestlers are out of storyline and legitimate. However, with the 2011 shift towards edgier content, blading during matches is becoming more common again.
wrestler The Great Muta
in a 1992 match with Hiroshi Hase; the amount of blood Muta lost was so great that many smarks to this day judge the severity of bladejobs on the Muta Scale.
Another such incident was during an ECW
house show
when a young wrestler known as Mass Transit forged documents and lied to ECW Owner/Promoter Paul Heyman
about his age and amount of training. He then asked his opponent, New Jack
, to blade him. Jack cut through two arteries in Mass Transit's head when he bladed the young man, and fifty stitches were required to close the wound. A wrestler allowing someone else to blade him is extremely rare.
During an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live
, Mickey Rourke
spoke about his experience with gigging himself for a scene in the 2008 movie The Wrestler. Rourke untruthfully agreed to gig at the initial request of director Darren Aronofsky
in hopes that he would revoke the demand come production time. Indeed, later during filming, Aronofsky admitted that Rourke needn't actually gig; however, by his own will, Rourke decided to go through with it anyway. In the film itself, Rourke's character is seen preparing for a match by wrapping a razor blade inside his wrist tape.
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...
, blading is the practice of intentionally cutting oneself to provoke bleeding. It is also known as juicing, gigging, or drawing color. Similarly, a blade is an object used for blading, and a bladejob is a specific act of blading. The blood
Blood
Blood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....
in pro wrestling is almost never, as often suspected, theatrical makeup, but actual blood, and the scar
Scar
Scars are areas of fibrous tissue that replace normal skin after injury. A scar results from the biological process of wound repair in the skin and other tissues of the body. Thus, scarring is a natural part of the healing process. With the exception of very minor lesions, every wound results in...
s borne by longtime pro wrestlers are real ones. The act is usually done a good length into the match as the blood will mix with the flowing sweat
SWEAT
SWEAT is an OLN/TSN show hosted by Julie Zwillich that aired in 2003-2004.Each of the 13 half-hour episodes of SWEAT features a different outdoor sport: kayaking, mountain biking, ice hockey, beach volleyball, soccer, windsurfing, rowing, Ultimate, triathlon, wakeboarding, snowboarding, telemark...
to make the wound look like much more blood is flowing from it than there actually is. "Juicing" which occurs outside the storyline is said to be juicing the hardway, or legitimately bleeding.
History
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 well placed and forceful punch. In his third autobiography The Hardcore Diaries, Mick FoleyMick Foley
Michael Francis "Mick" Foley, Sr. is an American semi-retired professional wrestler, author, comedian, actor, voice actor and former color commentator. He has worked for many wrestling promotions, including WWE, WCW, ECW and TNA. He is often referred to as "The Hardcore Legend", a nickname he...
cites Terry Funk
Terry Funk
Terrence "Terry" Funk is an American professional wrestler and actor known chiefly for the hardcore wrestling style he adopted in the latter part of his career that inspired many younger wrestlers, including Mick Foley...
as one of the few remaining active wrestlers who knows how to "bust an eyebrow open" in this way. 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 quite some time and will heal quickly. A cut in this location will allow the blood to mix in with the sweat on the wrestler's face, giving them the proverbial "crimson mask" effect.
In modern North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n pro wrestling, blading is almost exclusively performed by and on male performers; blading of women is extremely rare due to the risk of adverse publicity and the increasing use of female performers as "eye candy
Physical attractiveness
Physical attractiveness refers to a person's physical traits which are perceived to be aesthetically pleasing or beautiful. The term often implies sexual attractiveness or desirability, but can also be distinct from the two; for example, humans may regard the young as attractive for various...
."
Typically, a wrestler will use a razor
Razor blade
Razor blade may refer to* A razor* The Razor Blade, a 1920s racing car* Razor blade steel, a type of steel originally designed specifically for razor blades...
or other blade hidden in the tape covering his fingers or part of his hand(s) or somewhere else on his person. The wrestler, however, always runs the risk of cutting too deeply and slicing an artery
Artery
Arteries are blood vessels that carry blood away from the heart. This blood is normally oxygenated, exceptions made for the pulmonary and umbilical arteries....
in the forehead. In 2004, Eddie Guerrero
Eddie Guerrero
Eduardo Gory "Eddie" Guerrero was a Mexican-American professional wrestler born into the Guerrero wrestling family. He wrestled in Mexico and Japan for several major professional wrestling promotions...
did this during Judgment Day 2004
Judgment Day (2004)
Judgment Day was the sixth Judgment Day pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment . This event took place on May 16, 2004 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California....
, resulting in blood loss severe enough to affect him for the next two weeks of shows.
Some wrestlers like Abdullah the Butcher
Abdullah the Butcher
Lawrence Robert "Larry" Shreve best known as Abdullah the Butcher, and also at times The Madman from the Sudan, is a semi-retired Canadian professional wrestler known as one of the most brutal or "hardcore" professional wrestlers of all-time...
, Dusty Rhodes
Dusty Rhodes (wrestler)
Virgil Riley Runnels, Jr. , better known as "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, is a semi-retired American professional wrestler currently working for WWE...
, New Jack
New Jack
Jerome Young is an American professional wrestler, better known by his stage name New Jack in ECW.He is known for his willingness to take dangerous bumps and his stiff hardcore wrestling style, often taking high risks and "shooting" on opponents, though he is only known to shoot on opponents who...
, and Devon Hughes (Brother Devon / D-Von Dudley) have massive, disfiguring scars on their heads from frequently blading throughout their careers. According to Mick Foley
Mick Foley
Michael Francis "Mick" Foley, Sr. is an American semi-retired professional wrestler, author, comedian, actor, voice actor and former color commentator. He has worked for many wrestling promotions, including WWE, WCW, ECW and TNA. He is often referred to as "The Hardcore Legend", a nickname he...
, the scars in Abdullah's forehead are so deep that he enjoys holding coins
COinS
ContextObjects in Spans, commonly abbreviated COinS, is a method to embed bibliographic metadata in the HTML code of web pages. This allows bibliographic software to publish machine-readable bibliographic items and client reference management software to retrieve bibliographic metadata. The...
or gambling chips in them to entertain and/or scare people.
Today, blading is a lot less popular than in the past, due to the prevalence of AIDS and hepatitis. In the 1980s, the willingness to blade was seen as an advantage of new wrestlers. From July 2008 to around the summer of 2011, due to its PG rating, World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...
did not allow wrestlers to blade themselves. In most cases, any blood coming from the wrestlers are out of storyline and legitimate. However, with the 2011 shift towards edgier content, blading during matches is becoming more common again.
Examples
Perhaps the most famous such incident was a bladejob performed by JapaneseProfessional wrestling in Japan
Puroresu is the popular term for the predominant style or genre of professional wrestling that has developed in Japan. The term comes from the Japanese pronunciation of "professional wrestling" , which is shortened to puroresu . The term became popular among English-speaking fans due to Hisaharu...
wrestler The Great Muta
Keiji Mutoh
is a Japanese professional wrestler who first gained international fame in the National Wrestling Alliance. He is mostly known for his work as The Great Muta in New Japan Pro Wrestling during the 1990s, but he has also competed in United States, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Taiwan...
in a 1992 match with Hiroshi Hase; the amount of blood Muta lost was so great that many smarks to this day judge the severity of bladejobs on the Muta Scale.
Another such incident was during an ECW
Extreme Championship Wrestling
Extreme Championship Wrestling was a professional wrestling promotion that was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1992 by Tod Gordon and closed when his successor, Paul Heyman, declared bankruptcy in April 2001...
house show
House show
A house show is a professional wrestling show run by a major promotion that is not televised, though they can be recorded. Promotions use house shows mainly to cash in on the exposure that they and their wrestlers receive during televised events, as well as test reactions to matches, wrestlers, and...
when a young wrestler known as Mass Transit forged documents and lied to ECW Owner/Promoter Paul Heyman
Paul Heyman
Paul Heyman is an American entertainment producer, best known for his career in professional wrestling as a promoter, manager, commentator and journalist. He is also an occasional actor in film....
about his age and amount of training. He then asked his opponent, New Jack
New Jack
Jerome Young is an American professional wrestler, better known by his stage name New Jack in ECW.He is known for his willingness to take dangerous bumps and his stiff hardcore wrestling style, often taking high risks and "shooting" on opponents, though he is only known to shoot on opponents who...
, to blade him. Jack cut through two arteries in Mass Transit's head when he bladed the young man, and fifty stitches were required to close the wound. A wrestler allowing someone else to blade him is extremely rare.
During an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live
Jimmy Kimmel Live
Jimmy Kimmel Live! is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and broadcast on ABC.The nightly hour-long show made its debut on January 26, 2003, following Super Bowl XXXVII. Jimmy Kimmel Live! is produced by Jackhole Productions in association with ABC Studios...
, Mickey Rourke
Mickey Rourke
Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke, Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter and retired boxer, who has appeared primarily as a leading man in action, drama, and thriller films....
spoke about his experience with gigging himself for a scene in the 2008 movie The Wrestler. Rourke untruthfully agreed to gig at the initial request of director Darren Aronofsky
Darren Aronofsky
Darren Aronofsky is an American film director, screenwriter and film producer. He attended Harvard University to study film theory and the American Film Institute to study both live-action and animation filmmaking...
in hopes that he would revoke the demand come production time. Indeed, later during filming, Aronofsky admitted that Rourke needn't actually gig; however, by his own will, Rourke decided to go through with it anyway. In the film itself, Rourke's character is seen preparing for a match by wrapping a razor blade inside his wrist tape.
Regular bladers
- Steve CorinoSteve CorinoSteven Eugene "Steve" Corino is a Canadian professional wrestler, who currently works for Pro Wrestling Zero1, Ring of Honor and numerous other independent promotions. Corino is a former NWA World Heavyweight Champion and ECW World Heavyweight Champion.-Early years :Corino began wrestling in 1994...
- Ric FlairRic FlairRichard Morgan Fliehr is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Ric Flair. Also known as "The Nature Boy", Flair is one of the most well-known professional wrestlers in the world....
- Mick FoleyMick FoleyMichael Francis "Mick" Foley, Sr. is an American semi-retired professional wrestler, author, comedian, actor, voice actor and former color commentator. He has worked for many wrestling promotions, including WWE, WCW, ECW and TNA. He is often referred to as "The Hardcore Legend", a nickname he...
- Terry FunkTerry FunkTerrence "Terry" Funk is an American professional wrestler and actor known chiefly for the hardcore wrestling style he adopted in the latter part of his career that inspired many younger wrestlers, including Mick Foley...
- New JackNew JackJerome Young is an American professional wrestler, better known by his stage name New Jack in ECW.He is known for his willingness to take dangerous bumps and his stiff hardcore wrestling style, often taking high risks and "shooting" on opponents, though he is only known to shoot on opponents who...
- Dusty RhodesDusty Rhodes (wrestler)Virgil Riley Runnels, Jr. , better known as "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, is a semi-retired American professional wrestler currently working for WWE...
- Tom PrichardTom PrichardThomas Prichard is an American professional wrestler currently signed to WWE, working in their developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling as a trainer using his ring name Tom Prichard...
- Hulk HoganHulk HoganTerrance Gene "Terry" Bollea , better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, is an American Semi-retired professional wrestler, actor, television personality, and musician currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling ....