10 Most Effective Wrestling Blade Jobs Ever
When red really does equal green - starring Steve Austin, CM Punk and more...
Does AEW rely too much on - and dilute the effects of - blood?
This isn't a bad faith argument. For once.
On at least a monthly basis, Tony Khan books a stipulation match involving plunder. At least one performer blades in this scenario. Almost three years into the company's existence, AEW has not yet reached an ECW-style nadir, but the effects are rendered, at the very least, uneven. In the correct context, blood is an incredibly effective dramatic device. It is pro wrestling's greatest work; executed correctly, and sparingly, it is as safe to do as it is harrowing to witness. Provided the wrestler doesn't Abdullah their own heid, the risk is minimal - but the reward is vast. The wrestler gets over as a heroic badass enduring what is only visually - provided they don't Muta their own heid - a horrifying ordeal.
Much of the time.
If you list every blade-job ever seen on AEW television, and analyse what benefit it actually had to a wrestler's career, there's a strong argument to be made that the promotion could do with limiting the use of the blade. Joey Janela bladed himself silly in the summer of 2020, and nobody will ever remember.
People still recall an awesome blade job from 1985, and that is because...
10. CM Punk Sells A Pay-Per-View
Per his latest estimate, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has calculated that Revolution 2022 is "easily" on course to become AEW's second-highest grossing pay-per-view.
It was sold by a plethora of well-built matches. It wasn't a one match show. But if one programme sold fans on it, which achieved a massively impressive conversion of television viewership to paying audience, it was MJF Vs. CM Punk.
Deftly plotted to obscure its stipulation in plain sight, Punk and MJF created a trad wrestling masterpiece between a wisened babyface and the cowardly heel intent on ruining his legacy and subsuming it as his own. The destination was a Dog Collar match, but in an ingenious twist, MJF explored stan culture to exploit the goodness within Punk. Through the lens of a unique, captivating storyline, Punk was a good babyface for falling for the heel's ruse on the go-home Dynamite. MJF folded a superb story beat into a callback - "Old man, I'm a snake" he said, referring to both the original Summer of Punk and Punk's failure to put away Lee Moriarty and QT Marshall quickly. Long-term storytelling works.
MJF and the Pinnacle bloodied Punk, and thick streams of the red stuff cascaded from his face in an awesome - and very, very lucrative - visual.