10 Wrestlers Who Broke The Muta Scale

This was blood in wrestling at its dramatic best and harrowing worst - an eternal symbol of the undecidable debate.

Eddie Guerrero sliced an artery in his forehead when he bladed beneath the timekeeper's table at Judgment Day 2004, perhaps momentarily frazzled at the stiffness of JBL's prelude of a chair shot. The effects were immediately and distressingly apparent; as Guerrero slumped against the barricade, both face and chest were drenched in blood. The red stuff sprayed from his forehead like a malfunctioning prop in a comedy horror. The blue WWE ring canvas was soon stained crimson. Eddie could only wobble, jelly-legged, barely able to stand on it - which lent the remainder of the match an unbearable and indelible dramatic heft. It was all too real.

What is worrying in hindsight, and what renders WWE's later blade ban understandable - even if it was imposed by the influence of corporate sponsors - is that Eddie Guerrero was a master of his craft.

The margin for error is as thin as the line between life and death itself. To date, there are no records of a wrestler dying as a result of exsanguination - but the risk is sufficient to accept the real death of the blading art.