Blading has been a part of wrestling almost since its inception.
In case you are unfamiliar with the term, it's listed on Wikipedia as "the practice of intentionally cutting oneself to provoke bleeding." So, if you have ever seen a wrestler bleed from the forehead during a match, chances are he bladed himself.
Now, news is coming from WrestleZone.com that CM Punk may have brought this banned practice back.
The article states:
WWE Champion CM Punk reportedly cut himself to draw blood during his match on Raw with Jerry Lawler. This is known as a blade job in wrestling which WWE has outlawed. As of now, no backstage fallout or punishment has took place between management and CM Punk. This would mean either CM Punk has gotten to a status where he's able to get away with making a decision like this if he feels its best for the match or he convinced management that the blood was from a legitimate cut.
Punk is far from alone here.
Several stars like Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, etc have used this technique to tell a story or get fans over. This practice has been banned by WWE in the "PG" era. However, it appears over the past few months that WWE has been allowing mild blood to be shown on its airwaves.
Let's face it, when you ram a head into a steel cage and it doesn't bleed, it's not too believable. I think WWE had to change things around and allow moderate bleeding.
In the end, I am not a fan of this practice as it has left permanent scars on many wrestlers.
Not to mention, do we really need to go back to the days of seeing Ric Flair's hair covered in blood?
If this turns out to be true, and WWE allows it, we could go back to actually seeing real wrestling played out on our TV's for weeks to come.