"That's the stuff people laugh at" - Former WCW Champion blasts AEW and Tony Khan over controversial spot (Exclusive)

AEW is no stranger to controversy. The young promotion led by Tony Khan has achieved impressive success, but it seems there have been constant growing pains. A recent AEW Dynamite botch may be one of the biggest controversies in recent months, and now a wrestling legend is blasting Khan and revealing the scoop behind one of the industry's darkest secrets.

Christopher Daniels received massive praise after recently retiring from in-ring competition amid backstage AEW controversy. However, Khan's Head of Talent Relations is now on the end of rare criticism after a botched AEW production shot caught the veteran wrestler blading, or punching himself to make the blood run better. Vince Russo and many others have provided takes, but now there's more insight into the act and consequences of blading.

Russo was one of many in the wrestling world who previously offered immense criticism over the recent AEW Dynamite botch with Daniels. On a new episode of Sportskeeda Wrestling's Writing With Russo, co-host Dr. Chris Featherstone asked the former Vic Venom of WWE if he's ever bladed.

Russo recalled an unsuccessful request for Kevin Nash to cut him, and a bloody TNA segment that involved Russo taking a guitar shot from Jeff Jarrett. He also suggested more advice for Khan:

"Bro, I'll never forget the one time I actually asked Kevin Nash to cut me, and then Kevin looks at me and goes, 'I'm not gonna cut you.' When he walked away it was one of those, 'What are you thinking?' moments, where you kind of need a minute to realize, 'OK, what am I doing here?' That was the only time. [what made you want to?] I don't know, bro, there was something I really, really wanted to sell. Bro, we did a great thing, though. They never do stuff like this anymore... we did a great thing, man, at TNA, where I had a white shirt on and I actually took the guitar shot from Jeff Jarrett," Russo said. [From 0:38 to 1:28]

Vince Russo continued:

"I went down like this [covers face], referees came down right away with a white towel, so inside the white towel they had the blood bottle. So, as he's putting the towel on me he's squirting the blood, so it looked... I mean, you wouldn't ever, in a million years... I mean, bro, there's ways to do it to where you don't have to gig yourself, but [that Christopher Daniels botch] was like, 'Guys!' See, the problem is, that's the stuff people laugh at. That's the exploding ring all over again," Russo said. [From 1:29 to 2:06]

AEW's infamous Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch debacle is one of the company's most regretful moments, noted Featherstone. It was acknowledged that AEW can't afford incidents like these, and that hopefully they can recover from the Daniels botch, and it will be forgotten because the pay-off to the angle is that good.

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Updated AEW Revolution lineup for Sunday

All Elite Wrestling now has 10 matches confirmed for its sixth annual Revolution PPV. Below is the updated lineup:

• Zero Hour Pre-show: 'Big Boom!' AJ and The Conglomeration vs. Johnny TV and MxM Collection
• MJF vs. Adam Page
• World Championship Contender's Match: Ricochet vs. Swerve Strickland
• Steel Cage Match: Kyle Fletcher vs. Will Ospreay
• World Tag Team Championship: The Hurt Syndicate (c) vs. The Outrunners
• Women's World Championship Falls Count Anywhere Match: Toni Storm (c) vs. Mariah May
• Continental Championship: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Brody King
• International Championship: Konosuke Takeshita (c) vs. Kenny Omega
• TBS Championship: Mercedes Moné (c) vs. Momo Watanabe
• World Championship: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Cope

Revolution 2025 will air live this Sunday, March 9, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, CA. This will be AEW's debut in the former Staples Center as they usually run the Kia Forum in nearby Inglewood when in the LA area.