7 Shocking Times WWE Revived Banned Moves
5. Blood
Blood was still a strict no-no when Bret Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin produced perhaps the most effective use of it in modern industry history. Their electric WrestleMania 13 clash was robustly enhanced by the claret, as 'The Rattlesnake' desperately staved off blood loss and exhaustion in an effort not to submit to 'The Hitman's Sharpshooter.
In his lengthy memoir, Hart revealed that he cut Austin himself without requesting permission from Vince McMahon before the match. The Chairman had banned blood outright for virtually all of the 1990s, but Hart had twice managed to fool him with grisly gashes sustained against Roddy Piper and Davey Smith in 1992 and 1995 respectively.
Regardless of how McMahon felt about Austin's crimson mask upon first sight, he clearly knew the value of it as the match wore on. Even if the gaffer hadn't directed the cameras to focus on it from his commentary table spot, he certainly knew exactly how to sell the drama on headset.
Stone Cold's pained, bloody expression remains one of the most iconic images in company history, and came to represent everything about the persona that would drive the product out of the doldrums and into the colossally successful carnage of the Attitude Era.