Watch: AJ Styles Bloodied by Freak Accident at Backlash

When AJ Styles and Nakamura step into the ring, Ingenuity, and execution at world-class levels. Well, at Backlash we the ingenuity was there, but the execution was a little off.

To avoid Nakamura’s dreaded Kinshasa, Styles made a desperate effort to toss a chair at his charging enemy. The chair banged perfectly off of Nakamura’s knee but ricocheted into Style’s face, instantly opening up a gash

Here’s a better look at the damage:

At first, it looks like Styles had suffered something severe, but the bleeding subsiding within a few minutes. By the chair skipping across Styles’ cheek, rather than nose or eye, the WWE Champion may have to consider himself lucky.

Even though blood is explicitly outlawed in WWE, it still managed to find its way into a small percentage of matches. While wrestling is technically ‘fake’ there’s an element of physical that simply cannot be denied. And sometimes this leads to men and women bleeding by accident.

Before Styles, it was Finn Balor who was left sliced open at the Greatest Royal Rumble after a suspended Intercontinental championship swing into his forehead. Before that, WWE arranged bloodshed at WrestleMania 35 where a surgical elbow from Brock Lesnar left Roman Reigns looking like raw meat.

While that proved to be controversial, Style’s bloody face was merely a result of bad luck. The finish of he an Nakamura’s match can be accredited to a similar conclusion as things ended after they both kicked each other’s testicles into oblivious. As they writhed in pain, the referee counted them both out and their second-consecutive ended in a non-finish.