He’s Hardcore!

There was a horrific fight at work today. Blood everywhere. Myself and a colleague heard an eruption of noise from a classroom next door to us as we worked. Wet break. Too many 14/15 year olds trapped indoors unable to let off steam outside in the downpour. People running down corridors - “there’s been a fight! Come quick!”

And when we arrived, a kid in the corner drenched in his own blood - desks overturned. The blood focusing our attention to the point that we didn’t notice who the specific people were around him. Who the attacker was. Who was responsible. Just checking if the bloody mess that was this student was going to be ok as we cleared the room and got him some air.

He said he was fine and didn’t even know where he was bleeding from.

That’s when the wrestling fan in me kicked in and I looked at his head. The blood wasn’t coming from his skull, but from over his eye. The classic wrestling “hard way” to make someone bleed if blading isn’t an option: a quick, sharp punch to the eyebrow. A big gusher but relatively little damage. Still painful, but hopefully not concussive or a sign of significant damage to the head.

“It’s your eye”, I offered, and as he wiped away the area he looked like something off the cover of Pro Wrestling Illustrated during the heady days of the 1990s - ECW and WWE “Attitude”. Steve Austin at Wrestlemania 13. Any Ric Flair match ever. Mick Foley or Terry Funk.

As further help arrived and the incident began to be dealt with, the kid seemed shaken but, importantly, conscious and not too injured. I messaged him this evening to check if he was alright and was delighted - again, as a wrestling fan - to learn that the hospital had glued his wound together. I used to read about Sabu using crazy glue backstage at the ECW arena to mend his barbed wire gashes before driving to the next show. Now doctors were doing it.

He’s hardcore! He’s hardcore!

A great angle - but hopefully a one-shot deal that won’t lead to a rematch…