Ask a “hardcore” fan to judge how good a match was and you’re likely to get some arcane reference to the “Muta Scale” with particularly gruesome matches getting “a full one” on the scale. The scale is of course named after legendary Japanese wrestler The Great Muta who bladed himself so deeply in a 1992 match against Hiroshi Hase that his face became unrecognizable under the sheer quantity of blood.

Since that legendary match, the Muta Scale has provided we “smart marks” with a handy measurement for just how bloody a match really was. It goes from 0.0 to 1.0.

You can watch the bloody birth of the concept below. If you’re in a rush the blood starts flowing around 14:25

The sad thing is that today’s ECW has to be scored in negative numbers on the Muta Scale. Old school ECW averaged about a 0.4.