10 Wrestling Legends Who Bled The Most For Their Art

Red turns to green.

That’s often been the logic in the world of wrestling. That bloodshed will up audience interest and in many cases, it does indeed appear to be true.

To get that grisly visual going requires the infamous practise of blading. Not nearly as popular these days due to the elevated awareness of blood-borne diseases, blading used to be a fixture of the industry.

The forehead is the traditional favourite area for blading thanks to its large number of blood vessels. Cutting this area leads to heavy duty bleeding but will heal at a surprisingly fast rate. Many wrestlers have relied on the blood mixing with the sweat pouring down their faces to exaggerate the extent of their injuries.

The bloodier match types and stories have frequently been brought out to play for hardcore gimmicked clashes, feud ending wars and everything in between. It takes some serious dedication (or insanity depending on who you ask) to shed one’s own blood for the sake of their craft.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at 10 all time greats who left a grisly part of themselves behind in the ring.

Latino Heat was one of the finest technical wrestlers of his generation. Boiling over with charisma, Guerrero worked as both a heel and face, inciting some serious crowd noise either way. His brief but memorable run as WWE champ in 04 led to one of the most disturbing matches in WWE history.

Judgement Day 2004 saw Guerrero taking on no. 1 contender JBL in a battle where things deteriorated horrifically in the wake of an unprotected chairshot to Guerrero’s dome. Nicking an artery in the blade job afterwards, Guerrero’s forehead turned into a geyser. What comes after is almost hard to watch with Guerrero turning the ring canvas into a Jackson Pollack painting.

The match went on another 10 minutes during which time Guerrero came dangerously close to doing himself irreparable damage. So severe was his bloodloss from the wound that he was not cleared to wrestle for several weeks afterwards.

While Guerrero was never a serial blader like some of the forthcoming greats on this list, this one time was enough to warrant him a place. Nothing short of astounding is the level to which he performs after the injury though many will understandably argue that the match should have been cut short given the severity of his situation.