Should women be blading in professional wrestling? Willow Nightingale says yes.
While blood is common in men’s matches for promotions that allow blood, women’s wrestling has often gone years if not decades without a single laceration.
That has changed in recent years, though there are some (including Ric Flair) who are opposed to the idea of women blading.
The Tag Match
During the January 13, AEW Rampage, Nightingale teamed with Ruby Soho to face Tay Melo and Anna Jay, which saw plenty of the red viscous liquid.
Speaking on The Sessions, Nightingale recalled the match and the restrictions put in place before the bell rung.
“We are all very excited to be given the opportunity to do something like this. Anna and Tay have already done this a year ago on Television. They had a lot of fun with it. There are limits, I guess, on how grotesque it’s allowed to be. I can only speak from my experience. I don’t know if this is the case with other matches, other tag matches, or men’s wrestling. I don’t know what those conversations are like. I only know the conversations that we had and for us, it was that one person from each team was allowed to bleed.
“We all wanted to get our hands dirty and we all wanted to do crazy stuff.”
Willow Nightingale.
“We all wanted to get our hands dirty and we all wanted to do crazy stuff, but we were like ‘okay, understood.’ We didn’t have to worry about it because Ruby bled enough for everybody. I felt it was awesome, I thought she looked killer. She thought she looked great. She had to get stitched up after and I held her hand as she got injected [with an anesthetic.]”
The match saw Soho and Nightingale get the win in the main event of Rampage
Backlash
While the match was lauded by many, many fans also criticized the match, arguing that the level of blood wasn’t fitting for a women’s division match.
Speaking about the negative response, Nightingale felt fans needed reminding that countless women will bleed once a month, whether they want to or not.
“We were just really excited about everything and I think if people are getting their panties in a bunch about [women blading in wrestling,] then that’s the least of your concerns. Like, we bleed every single month. Nobody talks about that, and I’m sure if that happened [in the match] or if it happened ever on the show, people would make a big deal about that too. You know, If someone was to bleed through their gear.”
“If people are getting their panties in a bunch about [women blading in wrestling,] then that’s the least of your concerns.”
Willow Nightingale.
“We bleed the same as men do. We take the same bumps in the ring as they do. We’re at the same risk so I just don’t understand why there has to be a double standard about physically seeing blood. Ultimately, it’s what we signed up for. We were aware of this possibility.”
For use of these quotes please give a h/t to SEScoops.
