WWE RAW didn’t just silence Jacob Fatu’s F-bomb on August 31. The broadcast also pixelated blood during multiple backstage segments, taking even more of the edge off the taped show.
The censorship was impossible to miss during the parking lot ambush involving Royce Keys, OTM and The Usos. Ringside News obtained unedited footage from the taping, but when the attack aired on RAW, blood visible during the aftermath was covered by a large block of pixels.
The segment began during Roman Reigns and LA Knight’s face-to-face. WWE suddenly cut to the parking lot, where Keys pulled Jey Uso through a car window while OTM slammed Jimmy Uso onto the back of the vehicle.
Jacob Fatu then charged into the parking lot with a metal pipe and forced the attackers to retreat. Keys and OTM escaped in an SUV before Fatu could reach them, leaving him furious enough to try throwing the pipe at the fleeing vehicle.
The blood from that attack wasn’t the only thing blurred during the broadcast. and also the blood when Solo Sikoa was attacked backstage. WWE also pixelated blood during another backstage segment on the same episode, suggesting this wasn’t a one-time production decision.
It also came after WWE bleeped Fatu screaming “Motherfcker!”* during the opening segment. His microphone had been cut at the taping, and the televised version was shortened before the profanity was censored.
It’s unclear whether WWE or Netflix made the call to blur the blood, but viewers didn’t get the same violent presentation seen inside the building or in footage from the taping. Between the bleeped profanity, trimmed segment and pixelated blood, the broadcast version came across far more sanitized.
Do you think WWE and Netflix went too far by pixelating the blood on RAW? Leave your feedback in the comments.
