Nick Patrick Calls Use Of Blood In Wrestling 'Dangerous' & 'Nasty'

Referee Nick Patrick has been involved in a lot of wrestling history, but according to the former WCW referee, he didn't really experience excessive bleeding in wrestling until he joined WWE.

"Bleeding didn't become a thing until my WWE career," Patrick said on a recent episode of "Monday Mailbag." According to Patrick, while in WWE, he dealt with a couple of guys "bleed[ing] really hard" but the wrestlers were able to finish their match. Patrick says that the general protocol was to wrap up the match as long as both men could still continue. 

"I seen Brad Armstrong zip one time," Patrick said. "He used one of those surgical blades ... they're so, so sharp that you really can't feel exactly what you're doing." Patrick says not being able to feel the wound led to Armstrong making a serious cut, creating a scary situation in the locker room. "They couldn't get [the bleeding] to stop...even with compression...they had to take him to the hospital."

"That s***'s dangerous, and it's nasty," Patrick continued, noting that between the sweat and the ring mat — which he says are not "steam cleaned" between matches or even shows — bleeding can be a dangerous way to get an infection.

"Back in the old days ... you didn't know if guys had Hepatitis," he said, remembering a Hell In A Cell match involving Undertaker, Randy Orton and Bob Orton. Patrick had to bleed during the match, as did Bob Orton, who suffers from Hepatitis C, potentially exposing everyone in the match to the deadly disease.

Blood in wrestling has become a divisive topic in modern wrestling, especially since WWE banned the practice. Once a constant, it has become gauche in today's health-conscious society. Even wrestling legend Konnan admitted that excessive blood comes off as "gratuitous" in America.