Kevin Sullivan Discusses The Use Of Blood In Modern Wrestling, Jon Moxley

During a segment on the “Tuesday with The Taskmaster” podcast, former WCW wrestler and booker Kevin Sullivan weighed in on the issue of blading and excessive blood in wrestling.

Sullivan mentioned that he has two thoughts on the matter, emphasizing that blading should be used sparingly and in appropriate situations. He began,

“I have two things [to say] about it. One is, I think if we use it — because we understand now that we’re seeing entertainment that’s really sports entertainment, but the gimmick is out, everybody knows it, everybody’s using a razor blade. Some of them show guys on TV now actually blading, which I can’t understand how they let a cameraman shoot that. I’m thinking that if it’s done very rare, yeah. But, I mean, it has to be rare, it has to be the right situation.”

He also highlighted the importance of protecting a wrestler’s gimmick and finish, specifically mentioning Jon Moxley, who frequently bleeds during his matches. Sullivan continued,

“And the other thing is, back in the day when you asked a guy to do it. If he didn’t want to do it, they had a way of letting you know because they say, ‘Oh, no problem, no problem.’ But when they did it, it was a pap smear, a little trickle. So then you knew whether or not to ask them to do it again. But, again, and with today’s day and age, I think it may — if you run rampant with it, I think it belittles your own program that you can’t think about anything better than that.” 

Despite his reservations about excessive blading, Sullivan acknowledged that if done well and presented appropriately, some fans might rally behind it as a defining aspect of a wrestler’s character.

“If Jon thinks that that is a part of his act, go ahead and do it, but they gotta be careful that he’s given the — back in the day when finishes were protected, that’s his gimmick, nobody should be doing it following him. I mean, you don’t want to take away from [him], and he’s done a remarkable job there. You don’t want to take away from him. Let him be the guy. Sort of like in Florida when we wrestled in territories, Dusty [Rhodes] was the guy that bled. He was the guy that bled. So, he’s the guy that bleeds for your company and bleeds for his act. So, if it’s done well and presented well, I think some people may get really behind it.” 

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