WWE moved away from including blood in its programming years ago.
And now, it sounds like the company would like for its wrestlers to follow suit on social media as part of a new rule.
“Apparently there’s a new rule that WWE talent are not allowed to take pictures of their injuries and there is an absolute (rule) that you are not allowed to take any pictures of any blood whatsoever,” Bryan Alvarez recently reported on “Wrestling Observer Live,” as transcribed by TJR Wrestling. “I guess they don’t want anyone to be making shirts or something like that with their image.”
The timing of this change is interesting. As noted by Cultaholic, a recent NXT match between Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne ended up with Jayne covered in blood, a visual she then posted to social media. And Finn Bálor suffered a gruesome head wound last month during his Hell in a Cell match against Edge at WrestleMania 39, an injury that forced officials to briefly stop the contest and required Bálor to receive 14 staples.
Again, WWE has long prohibited its wrestlers from blading, so the aforementioned injuries were sustained the hard way. But that didn’t deter Bálor and WWE from leaning into his ‘Mania mishap. He subsequently posted several images of the cut on social media, with WWE then producing “Finn: 14 Staples” shirts, an obvious play on the “Austin 3:16 shirts” made popular by “Stone Cold” Steve Austin in the late 1990s.
It’s unclear what sparked the new rule or how vigilant WWE will be in enforcing the measure. But this reported restriction certainly figures to cover up some of the battle scars superstars endure inside the ring, for one reason or another and for better or worse.
