Kayfabe
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In professional wrestling, kayfabe (pronounced KAY-fayb; IPA: Template:IPA) refers to the portrayal of events within the industry as real, that is the portrayal of professional wrestling as not staged or worked. Referring to events as kayfabe means that they are worked events, and/or part of a wrestling storyline. In relative terms, a wrestler breaking kayfabe during a show would be likened to an actor breaking character on camera.
Kayfabe is often seen as the suspension of disbelief that is used to create the non-wrestling aspects of promotions, such as feuds, storylines, and gimmicks, in a similar manner with other forms of entertainment such as soap opera or movie. In the past, kayfabe was strongly adhered to in order to preserve the illusion that pro wrestling was not staged. With the advent of the Internet Wrestling Community and the sports entertainment movement in pro wrestling, the maintenance of pro wrestling's backstage secrets are more difficult to keep than they were in earlier decades. Today, kayfabe is sometimes broken to advance storylines, to explain prolonged absences due to legitimate injury, as a tribute to a wrestler, or even for comedic effect.
However, (even today) wrestlers who unexpectedly break kayfabe are often punished for their actions. One of the most notable such cases was that of Triple H, whose rise to professional wrestling stardom in the WWF was stunted for some time after he embraced his soon-to-be departing onscreen rivals at the end of a house show in Madison Square Garden.
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Origins of Kayfabe
Pro wrestling can trace some of its stylistic origins back to carnivals and Catch Wrestling, where the term "kayfabe" is thought to have originated as carny slang for "protecting the secrets of the business." The term "kayfabe" itself may ultimately originate from the Pig Latin form of "fake" ("ake-fay") or the phrase "be fake."
Kayfabe may also derive from another trick used by traveling carnival workers. With money tight, a carny would call home collect and ask for "Kay Fabian." This was code letting the people at home know they had made it safely to the next town without paying for the cost of a phone call.
Common types of Kayfabe
The most obvious part of kayfabe is in the wrestling itself. Many of the moves employed in wrestling have the potential of inflicting serious injury, and it is the responsibility of wrestlers to protect each other in the ring while appearing to inflict massive amounts of damage (a notion known as selling a move in wrestling circles). As such, wrestlers are often less injured than depicted, and thus appear to have recovered in time for the following show. Hardcore wrestling is an example in which this part of kayfabe is enhanced (yet in a sense, broken) for good effect - that the moves that wrestlers often inflict on each other are legitimate, and should not be used to those who are not trained in wrestling.
Conversely, healthy wrestlers may be absent for prolonged periods of time in order to recover from a fictitious injury or storyline termination of employment, when in fact other commitments may preclude them from appearing (in the past, it may be the case where wrestlers tour abroad, and in recent years, appearing in movies). Journeyman wrestlers may appear or disappear from various promotions without explanation, sometimes due to the fact that either the wrestler or promotion may travel while the other does not.
It is common for pro wrestlers to play certain characters, and in turn, adopt ring names that conform to their gimmick. To break kayfabe in this case is to refer to a pro wrestler by their real name instead of their ring name. Some pro wrestlers, however, choose to wrestle under their real names (or some appelation therein), so to imply that their behavior inside the ring is identical to their behavior outside of the ring. Some wrestlers, such as Dallas Page or The Ultimate Warrior, may even legally change their real name to that of their adopted ring names, or refer to themselves solely by the ring name that has made them famous.
Wrestlers, when considered as fictional characters, are typically organized into an alignment spectrum, with faces and heels on opposite ends. A well-known form of kayfabe that was used in the past is that faces and heels were not to associate with each other in public, except in the cases where the possibility of a character changing alignment is being entertained. Many storylines that pit two wrestlers against each other are those that, while opposing each other in the ring, may develop or enhance friendships outside of the ring. Because of this, some feuds and storylines between wrestlers would be highly implausible in real life.
Examples of Kayfabe
- Wrestlers having ring names like Justin Credible or The Undertaker, often with exaggerated personality traits like being "evil" or having a gimmick.
- Edge and Lita as an onscreen couple.
- Tag teams who are presumed to be related because of their slight resemblance but are not really related to each other in real life. Examples include The Hollys (Hardcore Holly, Crash Holly, and Molly Holly), Edge and Christian, and The Basham Brothers (Doug and Danny).
- Kayfabe families the Andersons and the Grahams. The Von Erichs, despite being a real life family, had peripheral kayfabe relatives (most notably Waldo Von Erich and his "son", Lance). Additionally, the "Von Erich" name itself was somewhat kayfabed; their real family name was Adkisson.
- Kurt Angle "breaking" Randy Orton's ankle during the April 14, 2006 edition of SmackDown! Days before the show, Orton had been suspended by WWE for 60 days; this "injury" was used as kayfabe for Orton's upcoming absence.
- Chavo quits his job after a lose to Shelton Benjamin.