9 Ups And 3 Downs From NXT TakeOver: Dallas

By Scott Carlson /

Downs...

3. €˜Let Them Bleed€™

This is a tough thing to count as a €œdown,€ but it bears mentioning somewhere in this column. The hardway cut Samoa Joe suffered in the opening moments of the NXT Championship match was a pretty good illustration of just how much WWE has changed as a company over the past decade. The sight of a wrestler wearing a €œcrimson mask€ in a televised bout was not uncommon for several years, with competitors like Shawn Michaels, John Cena, Triple H and even Vince McMahon being covered in blood at some point. The departure from this (and the prohibition against blading) is not what is being questioned here. But watching the referee stop the title match numerous times so doctors could work (unsuccessfully) on stopping Joe€™s bleeding really was, as the fans put it, €œbullsh**.€ Sure, you should try to stop the bleeding and occasionally wipe the cut and face clean, but after the third stoppage in the match, it called to mind other big money matches that involved blood and how different things would have been if the ref had stopped the bout several times so a ringside doc could try to superglue the cut shut. Again, tough to criticize, but still, something needed to be said about the difference.