WWE have had a very strong policy regarding blood in recent years.
Since the company went PG in the late 2000s we have seen less and less blood involved in the companies programming. While blood can be a motivating storytelling tool, it is also graphic. So due to this the company moved away from blood and one of those reasons was the reaction to some of the bloodiest matches in WWE history.
One such match would involve Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels which led to the WWE, and Vince McMahon, to change the policies regarding blood in WWE, instituting fines and more. Jericho recalled the match and reaction on a recent Talk Is Jericho podcast.
“It’s very much the reason why we got away from blood, Shawn got so much blood in that first match of the series, just a normal match where he got color. I think it was in Omaha or something like that. Or somewhere in Kansas, Wichita, maybe. So much blood that Vince was like, ‘We’re done. No more blood.’ Shawn will tell you, that was the one… I know that Shawn bled so bad that Vince was like, ‘We’re done with blood.” Because after that is when Dave Bautista got some blood in the cage and got that huge fine. I got fined when Flair got color, which is a whole other story. But he was fining people at that point in time. ‘No more blood!’ I’m not kidding, it’s a well-known story, he fined Dave Bautista a hundred grand for getting color in the cage match we had for the World Title in Tampa. He was very, very vigilant about it and it was because Shawn got so much color. Someone must have said something.”
Chris Jericho on Talk Is Jericho
H/t to Fightful for transcription
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