The fierce fights between the wrestlers in professional wrestling make the viewers question whether they bleed real or fake. Reportedly, ticket sales increased when wrestlers bled. It used to happen frequently in the ring but has become a rare case due to the PG era.
WWE injuries and scars are real, while the blood can be real or fake, depending on the wrestler. You might not find a top wrestler with no career-threatening injury during his career. It might occur due to a bad landing or a critical move that went wrong.
75% of the weapons used in the ring are real. Weapons include hammers, chairs, etc. However, the wrestlers get trained for years to hit or face them without hurting anyone. Some weapons and moves are banned from WWE.
If the referee makes an X sign with his hands, it means the injury is too critical, and the injured requires immediate treatment. Sometimes, the crew members might bring the stretchers even if the wrestler is not injured seriously to make it dramatic. After all, the game lies in the word WWE (World Wrestling ENTERTAINMENT).
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WWE Blood: Fake Or Real?
Blood shown in WWE can be fake as well as real. Earlier, the wrestlers considered razor blades safe. Thus, they used them to cut themselves, especially on the forehead, and bleed. The referees used to secretly provide a razor blade after getting a signal from the wrestler in the ring.
Then, the wrestlers used to spread the blood throughout their faces. Bleeding intentionally with a blade is called ‘Blading,’ whereas unintentional bleeding is called ‘Hardway Blading.’ The scars on the wrestlers’ faces show how much they must have bled in the ring.
Making little cuts was fine. However, some wrestlers like John Cena, Ric Flair, and Shawn Michales went far, making life-threatening cuts. Thus, blading got banned in 2008. Bleeding is rare nowadays because the wrestling industry wants to reach out to the audiences more audiences, including children.
Instead of blading, wrestlers use two methods to bleed. First, they ask the referee or another WWE representative to pass them a blood capsule and ask the opponent to attack them. They break the blood capsule at the right moment and spread the blood on their body.
For instance, a few years ago, Triple H tried to hit Roman Reigns’ head more than twenty times on the announce table. Meanwhile, Reigns took the blood capsule from a team member while blocking every hit. However, he broke the blood capsule on his face before getting up.
Another method is to signal the opponent to punch them with their elbow or a permitted prop to get injured and bleed. It all happens in the ring, and you might even hear them (rarely) if you are careful enough. In this case, the injury is real. However, a blood capsule will do its job with no injury.
WWE Injuries: Fake Or Real?
WWE injuries are real, whether the wrestlers get them intentionally or unintentionally. The WWE wrestlers are better actors and fighters because the matches are scripted and well-rehearsed. Still, they might make a few unexpected moves.
Sometimes, the wrestlers overreact and pretend to be injured even after an easy attack. These overreactions are called ‘botches,’ which mean ‘mistakes.’ The moves and the winners are already decided. However, wrestlers’ skills, training, actions, and efforts are real. The blood might be fake, but the wrestlers are not.
WWE had many instances when the wrestlers got genuinely injured. Some wrestlers heal within some time, while some do not. Some even die. For instance, Darren Adrian Drozdov’s career ended, and he got paralyzed when the scripted move went wrong, and he fell on his head, cracking two vertebrae in his neck.
John Cena’s nose really bled after getting hit by Seth Rollins. Steve Austin broke his neck after taking a bump. Owen Hart died in the ring after jumping from a great height and the failure of the apparatus. The list goes long.
Fans watch wrestling for entertainment and do not care if it is scripted like movies and TV shows. It is not only in the case of WWE but for every other professional wrestling company in the world.
