Use Your Blood

I’d like to shine a light on an iconic moment that might not be known to those who are not fans of presidential wrestling (oops, that was a typo: I meant to say professional wrestling).

Five years ago, WWE superstar Becky Lynch took a real punch to the face, live on TV, unintentionally delivered by fellow WWE superstar Nia Jax. This, or worse, can happen from time to time—you try your best not to actually injure your opponent/partner, but the reality is that you are two strong people going at each other.

If the story were just that, it wouldn’t be much of a story, as fans of wrestling are used to these occasional accidents (though we of course don’t relish them in the least—we love our wrestlers). The story of course doesn’t end there, though: it wasn’t just a punch that Becky took, it was a punch that Becky took that significantly bloodied her. Like, a lot. Like, a lot, a lot, a lot of blood. Not as much as the Attitude-era wrestling thing of ‘oops I bladed myself in the wrong place and now my forehead is fountaining blood’, but way more blood than one would expect the punch would cause. It was so much blood that, to this day, the official WWE YouTube account shows the footage in black and white rather than in color (though you can find plenty of in-color photos of it on the internet).

If Becky had simply rolled out of the ring after taking that blow and received immediate medical attention, abandoning what else she was meant to do in that ring that night, no one would have blamed her for it. You do not have to keep performing when you are injured. But, of course, she kept fighting, she used her blood, the show ending with an instantly legendary shot of her smiling, through bloodied face, across the arena at her on-screen rival, former UFC champion and then current WWE superstar Ronda Rousey.

Becky Lynch used her blood because she understood that, to paraphrase a line from my own movie Ramekin, ‘blood is the gold that is inside of a person’. When you are performing on a stage—any stage—and life gives you your own blood for whatever reason, and you still have your faculties, use it. Use the blood. Because it is no longer blood in that moment—it is paint (again, I’m borrowing a Ramekin line here). And artists use paint—that is what we are here to do.

Donald J. Trump, versed as he is in professional wrestling, having been featured in the WWE several times, knew the value of one’s own blood intuitively in that moment yesterday where, at a rally, seconds after surviving an assassination attempt, the bullet grazing his ear, he rose up from the ground triumphantly, blood streaming from his ear, and raised a fist. Within a moment, he turned what had almost ended his life into an iconic, printable, unforgettably badass moment.

After Becky Lynch’s night, and her choice to use her blood, she was unstoppable—the most ‘over’ (popular) superstar in the company, instantly. People liked her before, even loved her (I sure did)—but she became a legend that night. The same will be true for Trump after yesterday.

Using your blood is what living, and performing, is made of, and made for. These moments are more important than any other. Sure, you can try and force them, like some hackneyed performance artist intentionally cutting themselves (yawn) but that won’t yield much benefit. In truth, these moments must happen to you, not from you. And in these moments, if you instantly alchemize that blood, nothing can stop you in whatever quest of yours—a pathway is carved for you instantly from that moment on, all the way to the top. Not by man, not by fans, but by the universe. The universe rewards the use of one’s own blood. I cannot pretend to know why, but I do know that it’s true—otherwise, I wouldn’t have put it in Ramekin, I wouldn’t have called blood ‘paint’ or ‘gold’ in that film. (Sure, that’s a silly little horror movie, but by god is it deep.)

Vote for whoever you want in November, but I’m voting for the guy with blood on his ear, not the guy with shit in his pants.

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