Is Kayfabe dead?

[Lee]

I had this discussion earlier with someone about kayfabe and whether or not it was dead. A few things that people point at the fact it's dead is the likes of Twitter where we can find out that big heel Owens is actually a nice family man. Or there's that "Exposed! Pro Wrestling's Greatest Secrets" where it's the first time I was shown to what degree it was 'fake'.

Or is it that kayfabe has actually evolved. Go back a few years to Trump buying Raw and the week after it was sold back to Vince. Why? People thought he genuinely had bought Raw and stocks went down so they needed to make up for it. There's the likes or Jericho/Omega where everyone believed they hated each other and don't get me started on JBL.

So is kayfabe dead or has it evolved to mean something else?

[klunderbunker]

As we traditionally define it, yeah it's pretty much dead, at least for adults. You can't have WWE posting things on their official site and other platforms, showing these hated rivals at various functions. It destroys the illusion and therefore what kayfabe is by definition.

However, you can also look at it from a more modern perspective. It's something that's been said many times, but wrestling can be seen like a movie. Sure we know it's a bunch of people playing a character and once the show is over they're in the same locker rooms and in the same cars etc., but while the red light is on, they're playing a character. If you consider that kayfabe, then yeah it's still very much alive.

[Phoenix]

I feel that kayfabe has evolved because the majority accept that wrestling is a work now. With platforms like social media, WWE 24, Total Divas having the curtain pulled back that the fans treat wrestling now as a TV show, the wrestlers being actors because they are entertained by seeing the "male soap opera". People are too smart now, but it doesn't stop them from being entertained. We may boo Roman Reigns because he's handpicked to succeed, but we are entertained by the work that the likes of Styles and Owens put in to make us cheer and boo. It's still there, but people now treat the wrestlers as actors than being characters 24/7.

[ABMorales787]

Nah. I kinda feel that these days, there's a more defined line for kayfabe. When the show is on, we all suspend our disbelief with no questions asked. When a show is over, the line is determined by the wrestler. How they present themselves in public and in social media. There's a clear line for it, it's just different for everyone.

[Yaz]

I think is has evolved, at least as far as mainstream programming wrestling goes. You look at the old days, when heels and faces had separate dressing rooms and couldn't travel together or be seen together in public, that is definitely dead. You can blame Duggan and Sheik getting busted riding together, you can blame the Curtain Call, or you can blame the more connected world and social media, but traditional kayfabe is (mostly) long gone. Yeah, you still have a guy like Jervis Cottonbelly who goes out of his way to keep up kayfabe in public and on social media and some smaller promotions like Chikara do a lot to make you believe the guy in a dragon suit is an actual dragon, but that is mostly for comedic purposes.

That said, we (well the non assholes) still suspend our disbelief when we watch. JBL once argued, after his infamous goose stepping incident, that you have to realize the people you see are playing characters. Just like we all know Anthony Hopkins isn't an actual cannibal, we know that Bray isn't a cult leader, we know Kane isn't a demon, and we know Undertaker isn't an undead cowboy guy. We still accept that they are when we watch them on TV and occasionally in public, just the same that we still watch movies and believe that Jason Statham, a fifty year old man who isn't even six foot tall, can be a badass action hero.

Sure, the odd incident pops up from time to time. The Trump buying WWE thing is one. WWE also fooled fans with Cena's Rumble return, as they said he would be out with injury much longer than he was. Even on a smaller scale, people believed Punk's Pipebomb was real, debated if Joey Styles quitting was kayfabe or real, and people even bought Mark Henry's fake retirement. So it does still exist to an extent in the large promotions.

In a related incident, I have read stories about how Kamala's mom didn't know wrestling was fake and would constantly ask him why he was acting like a cannibal on TV. I also remember an interview that Kofi gave not long after he dropped the Jamaican gimmick where they asked him about the whole Triple H "Aren't you supposed to be Jamaican" incident. He said it wasn't the first time something like that happened. He would give all his old appearances and radio interviews and the like with the accent. So he was giving an interview in Boston, where his family moved to at a young age, and his mom calls in and asks him why he is talking in the fake accent. Completely froze him.

[DNA 2.0]

Of course it is. Look at the heels. You don't hate any heel anymore. Best thing you can do is wonder if they are really assholes or not, but you never really buy into it.

For example Brock Lesnar. You know that he is an ass kicking machine that cares about noone. Is he really though this way, or is he playing a character? That's what modern Kayfabe is.

It is redefined. Old school kayfabe is definitely dead though. Nowadays, it's more like legit things that create the kayfabe.

When Lesnar says he doesn't give a shit about Randy Orton, you buy into it. That's the magic of Brock Lesnar. Daniel Bryan got so over because you knew that WWE held him down. CM Punk got so over because you knew what he said during the pipe bomb were true. That's how modern wrestling works.

It's a redefined kayfabe.

[BestSportsEntertainer]

Yes kayfabe is dead. Everyone, or adults at least, knows the wrestlers are playing characters and are basically actors.

With that said, some of the best stories in wrestling today are the ones that blur the lines of kayfabe. People genuinely believed Daniel Bryan was being held back, which was a major reason why he got so over. Now whether he was being held back or not doesn't really matter. The fans bought into it, and the result was one of the best stories in a long time.

[Khalifa]

If you watch only Raw/SD/NXT and the PPVs, then no it isnâ??t. Everything other than that suggest it is. I can talk about one thing in specific, the Austin podcast that featured Vince. They were talking about the decision for Brock Lesnar to go over. They are saying itâ??s fake and everything the superstars do is fake. They sometimes even use kayfabe and then just throw it out the window in some documentaryâ??s.

I would much rather it go back to when it was all Kayfabe, but social media, story lines in wrestling and everything thatâ??s no done in the ring makes it seem like going back down that path is impossible. If youâ??re a young kid kayfabe will always be there, but it will never be there for most of the adult audience who has heard anyone speak about wrestling and to be honest has it been there since the 80s? Maybe even earlier.