This week’s WWE Monday Night Raw featured the rare use of blood on WWE television, as The Rock attacked Cody Rhodes in the closing moments.
Rock promised Rhodes earlier in the night that he would make him bleed, and Rock delivered as he beat Rhodes throughout the arena and tossed him up against a tour bus.
Rhodes was bleeding from the forehead. Rock removed his weight-lifting belt, rubbed Cody’s blood on it, and stated, “I kept my promise to Mama Rhodes.” The Rock and Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns will face Rhodes and World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 40 – Night 1.
Vince McMahon banned blood on WWE television for years, to the point where matches had to be paused so a wrestler could be bandaged up before continuing to compete. It got to the point where after a steel cage match on Raw between Chris Jericho and Batista, fines were issued because Batista was busted open the hard way.
In the most recent edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer stated, “As far as what it all means, we were told that Dwayne Johnson as always will get to do pretty much what he wants. The further he pushes, it’s likely the further at least some of the top stars can with language. With blood, the key is that this is no longer Vince McMahon’s company. We were told that going forward it will be used very rarely. There are no plans to turn it into AEW where it’s used more liberally.”
It was also stated that if Rock wants to do something in an angle, he has more power than Brock Lesnar did under McMahon’s regime.
