In professional wrestling, blading, is the practice of cutting oneself to provoke bleeding ("juicing"). Similarly, a blade is an object used for blading, and a bladejob is a specific act of blading. The blood in pro wrestling is generally not, as often suspected, theatrical makeup, but actual blood, and the scars borne by longtime pro wrestlers are real ones.

In modern North American pro wrestling, blading is almost exclusively performed by and on male performers; blading of women is extremely rare due to the risk of adverse publicity and the increasing use of female performers as "eye candy."

Typically, a wrestler will blade his forehead, often with a razor or other blade hidden in the tape covering his fingers or part of his hand(s). However, the wrestler always runs the risk of cutting too deeply and slicing an artery in the forehead. This has happened several times; in one recent instance, the late Eddie Guerrero did this during the 2004 Judgment Day PPV, resulting in blood loss severe enough to affect him for the next two weeks of shows. Perhaps the most famous such incident was a bladejob performed by Japanese wrestler The Great Muta in a 1992 match with Hiroshi Hase; the amount of blood Muta lost was so great that many smarks to this day judge bladejobs on the Muta Scale. Another such incident was during an ECW house show when a young wrestler known as Mass Transit forged documents and lied to ECW General Manger Paul Heyman about his age and amount of training. He then asked his opponent, New Jack to blade him. Due to lack of experience (and because Mass Transit was not used to the pain), he flinched and an artery was cut resulting in massive blood loss.

See also

• Professional wrestling slang

professional wrestling slang