Nearly 30 years after he first drank from a goblet on the ring steps, Gangrel is still spraying blood on independent shows every weekend. He is also still paying for it himself, and there is more thought behind the mix than fans might expect.
Speaking on Insight With Chris Van Vliet, Gangrel said the blood is non-negotiable.
“I spray the blood every night. I still get off my wallet for the blood,” Gangrel said. “You got to have the blood and the impaler DDT.”
Asked what flavor it is, his answer was immediate.
“Zesty mint,” Gangrel said. “I don’t drink it. I just put it in my mouth and I spray it up in the air. But I have fresh breath for my opponents. That’s very important.”
He will not let a promoter provide it.
“I get my own blood. If I leave it to them, they’ll give me something toxic and I’ll die. They’ll cut corners,” Gangrel said. “The blood I will splurge on. I’ll get it out of costume shops. Mostly I order out of L.A. And I used to just go right into magic shops and buy it.”
The consistency changes show to show, and Gangrel said the building dictates it.
“I water it down a little bit depending upon canvases,” Gangrel said. “What determines the thickness of the blood is the house and the canvas. So if it’s a light house and a white canvas or a blue canvas, I’m gonna water it down so it’s almost a pinky mist. Now, it’s a full house and it’s kicking and it’s rocking and it’s a dark canvas, I’m thick. It’s going in heavy, and I’m gonna spray heavy.”
The distance of the spray itself, though, he says he has never worked at.
“I think I just had a natural spray. I don’t know. I just did it, and it was the same the whole time,” Gangrel said. “I’ve never even thought about this spray till you mentioned it.”
Asked whether WWE ever raised an issue with him spraying a liquid given that Triple H built his own entrance around the same idea, Gangrel said the conversation never happened.
“I think I was spraying before he was spraying,” Gangrel said, before joking, “Maybe that’s why I’m not there then.”
One part of the original look has not survived. The white puffy shirt, bought at Hot Topic the night before his 1998 debut, is long gone.
“I haven’t worn a white shirt in 20 years. I don’t want to be a pirate. I love Seinfeld. I don’t want to be a pirate,” Gangrel said. “If somebody wants a puffy shirt, if they request it, I say sure, you buy it. I’ll sign it and leave it with you. But I won’t go hunt them down. They don’t make them the same. They’re cheesier, and to custom make them costs way more than what you could buy one for.”
They also did not last, though not for the reason you would think.
“You get one show out of them. They’re either torn or you can’t get the stains out,” Gangrel said. “Not the blood stains. The blood comes out.”
