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Ok, wrestling's not real. We get it. It's like an action film or your favorite TV show or your favorite book. Except it has a sports element to it, where people really get hurt and everything. But down to its most basic level, there's an understanding between promoter, performer, and viewer that what you are seeing is not completely real. This in a nutshell is called kayfabe.
Except sometimes things get real. Really real. Whether it's in the promoter's control or not, sometimes wrestling stops being polite and starts being real. And when it gets real, it gets damn real sometimes. Sometimes too real. That's breaking kayfabe, and sometimes it gets broken to the point where it might as well have been killed, exposing the business and pulling back the curtain far further than it should, destroying the trust of the fans. And sometimes, there's no coming back from that.
But what is the biggest kayfabe-killing moment ever?
Last month, we asked you that, and there was much debate (and about 40 or so nominations) as to what is constituted as "killing kayfabe". We have plenty of examples of that for you. 25 to be exact. So with that...
The top 25 kayfabe-killing moments in wrestling history.
(as voted by the Cagesiders, of course, so don't come crying to me if the list sucks. You voted for it. Own it.)
Steiner vs. Nash vs. Goldberg by Stinger1981
25. Goldberg refuses to follow the script.
Ah, Vince Russo. If there's a man that gives himself more credit that he should for what he's done for the wrestling business, it's him. Russo made it a mission for years to kill kayfabe in any and every way possible, running worked shoot angles everywhere he's been. He hardly got a chance in WWF (cause you know, Vince McMahon had a little sense), but in WCW and later TNA, when he had the book, he took every opportunity to put one right between kayfabe's eyes.
Case in point, New Blood Rising in August 2000 where Scott Steiner, Bill Goldberg, and Kevin Nash fought in a triple threat match for the right to challenge for the WCW world title at Fall Brawl. Late in the match, Kevin Nash was about to put it away with the jackknife powerbomb (it's at 9:48 of the above video). Except Goldberg pushes off. No problem. Then after briefly staring at one another, Goldberg walks away. Russo comes down for some reason and after a brief exchange, Goldberg, who didn't join in the match until about a third of the way through, walks out. While all that's going on, commentators Tony Schiavone, Scott Hudson, and Mark Madden blatantly--BLATANTLY--say that Goldberg was supposed to go up for the jackknife and now they would have to "improvise the finish". The live crowd in Vancouver was left confused. The people watching at home were probably left flabbergasted at this egregious disrespect of kayfabe and pretty much everything associated with wrestling.
This was par for the course for Russo-style booking, a style that often emphasized that everything you see in front of you is real in that moment, and everything else is fake. By the way, the match goes on for an agonizing FIVE MORE MINUTES, much of that time lamenting Goldberg REFUSING TO FOLLOW THE SCRIPT. And just so there's no ambiguity that GOLDBERG REFUSED TO FOLLOW THE SCRIPT, the next month's semi-main event between Goldberg and Steiner revolved around GOLDBERG REFUSING TO FOLLOW THE SCRIPT. Kayfabe: dead.
24. Kofi Kingston doesn't like country music.
On the RAW following Survivor Series last month, The New Day, which somehow has been together for a year, decided to celebrate their year being together by holding a country music jamboree...thing. Despite their gimmick being destined to fail right out of the gate, Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods have turned into some of the most entertaining minutes on WWE television in recent memory. So in said celebration jamboree thing, Kofi Kingston, in the captial of Country Music America (Nashville) says what many non-country music lovers are thinking.
Country music sucks. And this isn't his character talking. Country music sucks. It's the worst. These were words that came out of Kofi's mouth. In Nashville.
Regardless of reason, when you say "this isn't my character talking", you just kicked down the fourth wall whether you wanted to or not.
Also, country music does suck.
23. Gail Kim eliminates herself.
The WWE Divas division in 2011 was...to say the least... in a pretty bad place. Exhibit A: Kelly Kelly, your WWE Divas Champion. Trish Stratus, she was not. On August 1, there was a battle royal to determine the #1 contender for Kelly's Divas Championship. Ten seconds into the match, there were two eliminations. Melina goes out five seconds in by Beth Phoenix. Another five seconds later, Gail Kim is eliminated. Not by Alicia Fox, who she sent into one of the turnbuckles. By Gail Kim.
See, kids? Watch the video again. Gail Kim eliminated herself from the match. And other than a flippant mention by Michael Cole, hardly anyone noticed.
Seriously, look at it again. It comes at 40 seconds of the above video. Gail sends Alicia to the turnbuckle, ducks under the bottom rope, and is outta here. The camera cuts away, making most viewers at home none the wiser that Gail was eliminated. By Gail.
Kim, tired of her treatment in WWE during her second run, basically used those ten seconds to say, screw this, I'm outta here. She even took to Twitter to say that she was done, but WWE wasn't letting her out of her contract, especially since she had only two months left on it. Gail sat out the remainder of her deal and landed back in TNA the week after Bound for Glory, where assumingly she's been treated better. I think.
22. Daniel Bryan honors Connor the Crusher.
So, Connor the Crusher. He's sort of a legend around this corner of the Web, much in the same way Asuka is. But in reality, Connor was a WWE superfan who had his life end way, way, way, way, way, way too soon (eight years oldâseriously, fuck cancer). Earlier this year, at the suggestion of the late Ultimate Warrior, WWE instituted an award named after Warrior to go to one person who best embodied his spirit and passion (the story behind that award could be its own post).
The award at Wrestlemania 31 went to Connor "The Crusher" Michalek, the superfan that touched WWE fans and wrestlers alike in his short time. It would be Daniel Bryan that gave the induction speech before Connor's dad Steve accepted the award on his behalf. Daniel's first words puts it all in perspective (it's at 2:15 of this video).
"Everything I've done... it's all fiction. It's not, it's not real."
He goes on to say that inspiration is a real thing and Connor was an inspiration to him and we really should be chanting for Connor. The entire speech, which spans about eight minutes, repeatedly takes kayfabe to the woodshed, and it drew a few gasps from the crowd, but come on: some of you needed that reality check to begin with. This was a man expressing his love for someone he got to know, and when Connor died, it was like a member of his family dying, something that Daniel was all too familiar with in his recent days.
Network We Comin 4 U Ni**a!! (Paul Heyman/ECW) by f100003570148919
21. Paul Heyman shoots on TNN.
In 1999, Paul Heyman's journey of getting ECW to become a respectable third superpower in the wrestling industry was complete. He got the company a national TV deal with a truly national cable station. Ok, so 8pm eastern on Friday nights wasn't exactly aces, but it's a one-hour timeslot that most wrestling companies would kill for. They were followed by the popular roller-derby series Rollerjam, packaged together as the "Friday Night Thrill Zone".
But even before the first show aired, many saw this as a match made in hell: ECW was hip, young, edgy. TNN, the Nashville Network, was seen as old and stodgy and traditional. Despite TNN taking away most everything that made ECW... ECW, the show was the most watched hour on the network. It didn't matter, because ECW on TNN was nothing more than a test balloon.
Less than a year into the deal, Viacom, TNN's parent company, rips the WWF from the USA Network to the tune of $100 million. Paul Heyman, owner of ECW and straight shooter extraordinare, was none too pleased.
'And since this show is apparently going to make it to air this week, I'd like to take this moment to thank you for watching ECW. See, you have to be an ECW fan to watch this show because God knows the network has never put out one freaking commercial or one press release to let you know that we're here, but that's their scheme of things. You see in just a few weeks the network is going to give one hundred million dollars to Vince McMahon, like he needs it, to replace us, if they haven't thrown us off before then. And the fact of the matter is that we're not a publicly funded company like Vince McMahon or WCW, we survive, or even thrive, on your support and for that we thank you.
Now, in an industry where everybody wants to be real, and everybody wants to do a shoot, this my friends is a shoot. We hate this stinking network, we hate their guts for abandoning us, we hate their guts for not supporting us, we hate their guts for not advertising us and we hate their guts for not having the balls to throw us off the air. And in case you're watching this, hey network! I dare ya to throw me off the air, because I'm going to break every rule you put in front of me until you throw me the Hell off the air.
Now this my friends is a shoot, you better take that one hundred million dollars, that you're going to give Vince McMahon and you better spend it on attorneys because I promise you network, the war has just begun.'
I should mention this kayfabe-killing moment aired... on TNN. And just a few weeks after it aired, TNN, rebranded the National Network (which would be threebranded down the line as Spike TV), threw ECW off the air, and into the river, forcing the company to tread water until the company sank for good in early 2001.
20. Paul Heyman rips Vince McMahon.
The main event of Survivor Series 2001 pitted the WWF against the Alliance in a five-on-five tag team match, with the losing side to disband for all of eternity. That meant the Thursday before Survivor Series would be the last free television show with both entities existing. Paul Heyman, knowing his time may be running out, made the most of what little time he may have had left, by ripping into the man that had taken out the competition, including Paul's ECW.
And then the typical "heel promo" gets a little too real when Paul brings Vince's dead father into it.
Your father - your father, Vince McMahon - your father went around the country and shook the hand of every... You know I'm telling the truth don't you? You know in your heart that I'm telling you the truth... that your father shook the hand of every promoter in this country and swore to them that he'd never compete against them, that his son would never compete against them.
And when your father DIED, you competed! And with your ruthless, merciless, take-no-prisoners attitude, you drove everybody out of business, didn't you, Vince? You ran all the competition into the ground and you stole all their ideas and you made yourself a billionaire out of it! And you know whose ideas you stole the most, Vince? You stole mine. You see, I don't give a damn about Don Owen and Sam Muchnick and Jim Crockett; I care about what you did to me and my family. How you stole my dreams, how you stole my legacy, how you stole everything that Extreme Championship Wrestling represented.
Because while Doink the Clown had green hair and a rubber nose, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin was drinking his first beer in ECW, damn you. While Bobby Heenan and Gene Okerlund were dancing around singing "Tutti Frutti", ECW was producing the edgy TV that you named "Attitude." 'Oh, we've got Attitude!' You've got nothing, man! What you've got is my ideas and you stole my life, my money, my legacy! SCREW YOU! SCREW YOU AND YOUR FAMILY!
Interestingly enough, you can drop that same promo into any show in the 14 years since and it would very much apply. At the same time, what Paul Heyman said wasn't anything most knowledgeable wrestling fans knew. But it was a culture shock for many. For the record, WWF won at Survivor Series, and guess what happened to straight-shooting Paul the night after? Yup, he got fired. And caught a beatdown from Jim Ross.
19. Exposed! Pro Wrestling's Greatest Secrets.
When wrestling got hot in the late 1990s, everyone in the mainstream media wanted to get in on it. It's nothing new, mainstream media trying to latch on to the hot thing has been around for about as long as media has been around.
On November 1, 1998 (right at the beginning of what the television folks call "the sweeps period", where advertising rates are set for the coming quarter, so networks do extra stuff to inflate ratings), NBC presented Exposed! Pro Wrestling's Greatest Secrets. If the title sounds like a familiar program, well, that's because it does. The show was produced by the same company that produced the Breaking the Magician's Code: Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed series.
The special basically explained every trick of the trade in the wrestling industry. From pulled punches to matches being decided in advance, and of course, the stunt granny. Who could ever forget the stunt granny? (How's that for piledriving Miss Daisy?) The show was seen as insulting to both the viewers and the business itself. After all, in the words of the late Sean O'Haire, it wasn't telling you anything you didn't already know.
So, in case you're wondering since the statute of limitations is long up, who were men under the mask? Well, you may know some of them: former ECW tag champions The Pitbulls, future five-time NWA Champion Adam Pearce, multi-time tag team and X-Division Champion Christopher Daniels, Brent Albright, Donovan Morgan, "The Patriot" Del Wilkes, Roland Alexander as the referee, and future WWE Hall of Famer and seven-time NWA Champion Harley Race. Oh, and Salem from Sabrina, the Teenage Witch narrated.
18. Koji Kitao fucks with Earthquake.
So... protip when you go into the next life: don't fuck with John Tenta. It will not go well for you. Long before John Tenta was an avalanche, shark, or earthquake, Tenta was a pretty successful sumo wrestler, going undefeated in his brief eight-month career. His big tattoo on his left biceps more or less prevented him from progressing in sumo's higher ranks, so he went into pro wrestling, competing for Giant Baba's All Japan Pro Wrestling, before landing in the States in the WWF in 1988.
Tenta did return to Japan in 1991, but not for Tenta's old home in All Japan, but for upstart Super World of Sports, which had money to burn. Kitao was also signed to SWS and was the company's #2 face behind founder Genichiro Tenryu. Thanks to a working relationship with the WWF, the two companies copromoted a supershow taking place a few days after Wrestlemania VII.
One of the matches of the supershow would be between Koji Kitao and Earthquake. Kitao, himself a sumo wrestler in a past life, you should probably know, was a hothead. He was banned from sumo competition, then fired by New Japan Pro Wrestling two years later for using a racial slur towards Riki Choshu.
The match is mostly a staring contest, with neither getting the clear advantage, save for when Tenta took Kitao down. And that's where the trouble began. Kitao, the #2 babyface in the company, stalls. And stalls. And stalls. Also threatens to poke Tenta in the eye, but mostly stalls while Tenta yells this is pro wrestling, chill the fuck out, dude. Eventually, the referee, who couldn't have been more than 150 pounds, is kicked down by Koji, and Tenta wins.
Nope. It wasn't supposed to go down like that. Post-match, Kitao grabs a mic and tells the crowd that wrestling's fake and he could kick Tenta's ass any time he wanted. That was about all SWS could stand, and they could stand no more. Kitao was immediately fired from the company in disgrace, much in the same way he was fired from sumo wrestling.
17. The Lita/Matt Hardy/Edge love triangle.
We all have a rudimentary understanding that wrestling from a general standpoint isn't real, and what wrestlers do on camera is pretty much what they don't do when the lights are off. For the most part anyway. I mean, there's a more distinct separation in 2015 than there was in say... 1995. Or 1985. Or 1975. Like for example, Kevin Owens may be a psychopath on television, but away from the ring, he's a loving husband and father, and we can all make that separation, right? Yeah, Kevin mentions it, but just enough to keep work life and home life separate.
But once in a while, home life and work life collide, and when that happens in a wrestling ring, results can be ugly. For example, I give you the story of Amy Dumas, Matt Hardy, and Adam Copeland, aka Lita, Matt Hardy, and Edge. In 2005, Matt revealed that Amy had cheated on him. Through dark corners of the Internet, Edge was the third man. People weren't this angry about a third man situation since Hulk Hogan in 1996. The whole love triangle turned one of the most beloved women on the roster into a villain overnight, and not in a "boo, we hate you but we're entertained" way. After Paul Heyman acknowledged the relationship at One Night Stand, WWE had little choice but to pair the couple on-screen.
Somehow, Matt got fired from this love triangle business, but he wouldn't be gone long. Three months later, he bumrushed a RAW attacking Edge. And he did it the next week. And the week after. Eventually MHV1 returned to the company, but he would be the big loser in the triangle, losing two out of three bouts to Edge over a six-week period and being banished from RAW.
Lita would leave the company by the end of 2006, surely in part due to being trashed everywhere she went for actions, but would regain the fans' good graces and wound up in the WWE Hall of Fame. Edge would also get back in their good graces, but it pretty much took his retirement for that to happen too. Matt, for all its worth, seems to have his life in order after an up and down decade. He's married with children now. But there's almost no chance he'll be back in a WWE ring.
16. Shawn Michaels oversells everything.
Back to 2005 (and I can't blame you if you didn't watch WWE at the time. It wasn't terrible, but its best days were long gone as they were building for the future--a future that would be summarily rejected by much of the faithful). Shawn Michaels and Hulk Hogan were two of the greatest performers in wrestling history. They're also two of the sport's greatest politicians. They probably are one and two, depending on who you ask.
But the two were lined up for an epic feud to take place during the summer and fall of that year. A battle of icons for respect and supremacy should have been enough to sell the feud. But not for master politician/human d-bag Hulk Hogan. See, Hogan wanted a tradition face/heel feud. Shawn in 1995 or even 2000 would have signed off on it gladly, but by 2005, Shawn had found religion, got married, started a family, and basically had righted his life, so no way in hell he was gonna channel that Shawn again. But in the interest of playing ball, he did. And he did so brilliantly (for more, see this Larry King Live-style promo here and "Who's your daddy, Montreal?" here).
When it's almost Summerslam, Hogan suddenly has a change of heart. Citing "back problems", instead of a best-of-three, it would be a best-of-one, and he was fucking going over. One would think Shawn would play ball and be professional about it.
Nope.
Shawn expressed his displeasure, not by stiffing Hogan, as most would do in such a scenario, but by comically overselling everything. You know how some wrestlers would sell say, 10% or 20% more than necessary? Here's Shawn going HAM on selling Hogan's moves. I mean seriously HAM. Like check out when Hogan gives Shawn the big boot. He took like ten seconds to drop. Hogan hits the leg drops and WINZLOL because of course.
Hogan leaves, Shawn's turned back face the next night, and the bout's pretty much never mentioned again. Shawn would go on to put over some of the new generation over the next few years before bowing out himself in 2010, while Hogan went on to... be Hulk Hogan.
15. JBL bloodies The Blue Meanie.
So, dirty little secret, you guys. John "Bradshaw" Layfield was a locker room bully; in fact, he was one of the biggest locker room bullies on the roster, hazing those he thought were beneath him time and time again. Most took their hazing and moved on with their lives. Brian "The Blue Meanie" Heffron: not so much.
Now how this impromptu beatdown came to be depends on who's telling the story. One source said the blood goes back to their days when the two were in the WWF together during the Attitude Era. Another said it was a confrontation on the Internet that spiraled out of control. Yet another said JBL planned on beating up Blue Meanie during the show.
So ECW One Night Stand ended with a huge brawl between original ECW guys and some WWE guys who were none too cordial to the extreme organization. The worked brawl became a shoot when JBL went full potato on Meanie. Oh, and it should be pointed out, Blue Meanie the night before wrestled for ECW's other reunion show, Hardcore Homecoming, and got fourteen staples after what he went through there. So the wound opened up and...
Yeahhhhhhh.
You'd think after a stern talking-to from some higher-ups, cooler heads would prevail and they both move on with their lives.
Nope.
WWE somehow managed to make this legit breach of kayfabe a part of a storyline, even briefly reuniting the Blue World Order. The brief feud ends with a no-disqualification match between JBL and Meanie on the July 7, 2005 Smackdown (you may remember this date as the episode that ended with the infamous terrorist angle involving Muhammad Hassan and The Undertaker taking place right around the time of the London bombings), and late in the match, Stevie Richards gives one of the stiffest chairshots you'll ever see. It was a full-on shoot chairshot. Safety be damned. Stevie stuck up for his friend. In the end, JBL, who three months earlier was in a Wrestlemania main event match, was looking up at the lights with blood all over his face.
All things considered, it could have been worse: Meanie considered filing a lawsuit.
14. The Original Screwjob.
Wendi Richter, billed as 150 pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal, was one of the most over people in the WWF in the mid-1980s thanks to the Rock ‘n Wrestling Connection and her association with popular pop singer Cyndi Lauper. In fact, some would argue that Richter's popularity rivaled that of one Hulk Hogan. And Hogan was a MEGASTAR in 1985.
Unfortunately, while fans treated Wendi like a star, her boss Vince McMahon didn't, as Richter was not exactly well compensated for her efforts (in fact, Richter once said her biggest wrestling payday was just $5,000, occurring at the original Wrestlemania). Surprise, surprise. Richter was talked into signing a new deal, but Wendi wanted more time so her attorney could look at it. But McMahon didn't have time on his hands. It was a take-it-or-leave-it scenario. So the stage was set. Oh, and the Fabulous Moolah, who controlled women's wrestling in the United States for YEARS, just happened to be there. And she wasn't scheduled to wrestle. Or so Wendi thought.
November 25, 1985. Madison Square Garden in New York City. Richter took on a masked "Spider Lady", who moved pretty much like Moolah. The New York crowd, always the savvy bunch, caught on quickly. Richter repeatedly tried to grab the mask, but Spider Lady rolls her up, and referee Dick Kroll quickly counts three. Richter eventually unmasks the Spider Lady and it's revealed to be the Fabulous Moolah. The fix was in. Richter just had the WWF Womens Championship ripped from her cold dead hand--literally. Except the dead part. And probably the cold part.
But the whole okey-doke on Wendi was all she could stand, and she could stand no more. Unsurprisingly, the women's division never recovered, as Moolah, at the time 62, held the title for two years before being defeated by the debuting Sherri Martel.
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13. Vince McMahon gives up the ghost: wrestling's not real.
Pro wrestling is not real. We get it. Outcomes are predetermined by an overseeing party, and everybody tries their hardest not to hurt them or who they're in the ring with. We're all okay with this. Though promoters try their best to push it as real, by the 1980s, with the explosion of wrestling on television, we kinda all figured it out. It's essentially a live action cartoon.
A live-action cartoon that was often regulated by state athletic commissions, meaning they were forced to follow the same guidelines as legit sports. That's a problem, because as it turns out, following said guidelines costs money. Lots of money. In February 1989, Vince McMahon fought to save some money by telling the New Jersey State Senate what we all knew: pro wrestling's not real. It's sports entertainment, "an activity in which participants struggle hand-in-hand primarily for the purpose of providing entertainment to spectators rather than conducting a bona fide athletic contest". That's a ballsy gamble. If his plan didn't work, he pretty much gave up the ghost for nothing and killed the wrestling business dead.
As it turned out, the gambit worked, as the Senate voted nearly unanimously to deregulate wrestling. But it wouldn't be completely deregulated until 1997 because of a huge media tax ($100,000 per live TV event). And for those who thought this blatant breach of kayfabe would kill the business dead, I present as Exhibit A, the Monday Night Wars, the most popular period the business enjoyed ever. (photo via Vince's Twitter)
12. Triple H consoles a young fan.
So, Triple H. He's a bit of an asshole on TV. Some say he's a bit of an asshole in real life (one sociopathic straight-edged atheist jerk from Chicago, Illinois would agree with this assessment). But Triple H has a heart. No, seriously, you guys. He does.
On the January 19, 2015 RAW, Triple H and his wife Stephanie McMahon accost WWE superstar John Cena from ringside as he was getting handed a beating by three members of the Authority. COO H took time to rub it in the face of eight-year old Lucian Deering.
At which point, Lucian started crying. And in that moment, COO H stops playing tough guy and starts playing dad. He hugs it out with Lucian, as does his wife Stephanie. At that moment, it didn't matter if the cameras were rolling. Trips decided to take a moment or three to drop the act and you know, be a human being. Lucian and his dad are escorted backstage, and Lucian gets an "I'm sorry" package full of WWE stuff. The moment goes viral on Twitter, and by the end of the week, this moment of kayfabe-killing is national news.
While us "smarks" ridicule the direction of the product--and rightly so--sometimes we need a reminder that to some people, it's still real to them, damnit. And that sometimes, not all people who play assholes on television are assholes in real life. Oh, and that hey, once in a while, the mainstream media actually can write a positive story about wrestling.
11. The Four Horsewomen curtain call.
Mercedes Kaestner-Vardano, Ashley Fliehr, Pamela Martinez, and Rebecca Quin are probably four of the most important people in wrestling in 2015. Their matches through over the past year or so have become must-see events, and have often been the best matches on said events. So who are Mercedes, Ashley, Pamela, and Rebecca?
You may know them as Sasha Banks, Charlotte, Bayley, and Becky Lynch, NXT's "four Horsewomen". About a month before Summerslam, three of the four women would land on the WWE's main roster to bolster the flailing divas division. On the night before Summerslam, two of the four would face off for the NXT Womens Championship in front of what was a record crowd for the Orlando-based developmental territory. Sasha and Bayley tore the house down, with the match (and the title) won by Bayley with a poisoned frankensteiner followed immediately by a Bayley-to-Belly suplex.
Post-match, the four women, at one time rivals with one another, shared a genuine hug that immediately brought back memories of a very infamous moment that will obviously be brought up later. It felt like a true end of an era, despite the fact that more than a month later, Sasha and Bayley would face off again in an Ironwoman match. Maybe the four were on to something: regardless of what they did going forward, it would never be as good as it was on that warm Saturday night in Brooklyn, New York.
Except maybe at a Wrestlemania. Maybe.
Cliffhanger, kids. You'll have to wait another day or two for the rest. I'm sure you'll welcome it, as you've read about 5,000 words already.
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While you wait, you may as well check out these past Cageside Countdowns.