Kayfabe is an integral part of professional wrestling. There are wrestlers and individuals portraying characters on the screen, and they are in storylines meant to entertain audiences. However, not all that is said on the mic is necessarily fiction. There have been several instances where real life incidents have been mentioned and referenced.
In the last decade or so, when all the fans were aware of the fact that pro-wrestling is a work, there have been certain promos and angles in which it is difficult to identify where the line has been drawn between storyline and reality,
However, “worked shoots”, as they are called, are not a new concept. They have happened multiple times in the past, and not just in the WWE. Here are 10 instances where wrestling blurred the lines between fiction and reality:
#11 AJ Lee gives The Total Divas a reality check
Before the boom in the women’s division on NXT which saw the rise of stars such as Paige, Emma, the four horsewomen – Sasha Banks, Charlotte, Bayley & Becky Lynch – among others and change people’s perspective on women’s wrestling, there was the Divas era.
Women were being hired more for looks rather than talent and they were given little time to even try and prove themselves. AJ Lee stepped in, and rose to the top of the division, holding the Divas champion for a record 295 days (which would then be broken by Nikki Bella).
AJ Lee was the standout among this batch of women and she was respected by the fans for being a talented overall superstar. On the August 28th, 2013 episode of Raw, AJ Lee dropped a pipebomb on the Total Divas – The Bella Twins, Eva Marie, The Funkadactyls and Natalya, insulting them of not having earned the same opportunity and referred to them as “plastic mannequins”.
She then went on to say this famous line: “No matter how many red carpets you guys wanna walk in your 4000 dollar ridiculous heels, you will never be able to lace up my Chuck Taylors”.
It is a shame that AJ Lee left when she did because she undoubtedly was one of the women who fueled the engine for the boom of the women’s division that we see today. And there is no doubt that she would’ve fit in just perfectly today.
#10 The Undertaker’s worked shoot promo
On the Raw after Over The Edge in 1998, the Phenom came out more as Mark Callaway than he did as The Undertaker. He cut a promo about how Vince McMahon gave him opportunities but then after a point the “giving stopped, and it was all taking”. He mentioned that he had two world championship reigns, but they were cut short because Vince McMahon didn’t want him to represent the company.
He also proceeded to emphasize on his loyalty to the company, despite several of their stars leaving to “greener pastures” (read WCW), where they earned more money. While he was at it, he took a jab at Shawn Michaels saying that he didn’t “lose his smile”.
Undertaker then dwelled a bit into Kayfabe and said that the company used his “family history” for ratings. Then he asked for a title shot to which Vince McMahon obliged and announced that he would compete for a Number 1 contender match against his half-brother, Kane. This was clearly a worked shoot but, nonetheless, Undertaker definitely meant a lot of what he said.
#9 Vince Russo-Hulk Hogan-Jeff Jarrett controversy at Bash at the Beach 2000
By 2000, WCW was dwindling downwards and it had become painfully clear that WWE won the Monday Night Wars. At the Bash At The Beach pay-per-view, Vince Russo came out during the WCW World Title match between Hulk Hogan and Jeff Jarrett, and Russo ordered Jarrett to lie down and allow Hogan to pin him. Hogan refused at first, and then picked up a mic and told Russo: “This is why the company is in the damn shape it’s in, it’s because of bullsh*t like this”.
According to Russo and Eric Bischoff, this was a planned angle. However, this would turn out to be Hogan’s final match with WCW. Later in that show, Vince Russo came out and cut a profanity-heavy promo about Hulk Hogan playing backstage politics and went on to state that the championship Hulk Hogan had just won was worthless and that Jarrett was still the real champion and that he would be defending the title later that night against Booker T. Russo then fired Hulk Hogan. Here is the promo:
Now, it is an interesting case of what actually happened. Russo said that the unanimous decision by the creative team was to crown Booker T as the champion by the end of the night, but Hogan wanted to crown himself champion before eventually agreeing to the finish that happened.
Hogan and Bischoff both said that after the match they left and celebrated the success of the angle, but Russo firing Hogan on air was, in fact, a shoot. Hogan sued WCW for character defamation, but it was later dismissed. The truth behind this entire incident is debated till date.
#8 Brian Pillman’s “I respect you, Bookerman”
During the WCW Superbrawl of 1996, Brian Pillman had a strap match with Kevin Sullivan, the booker of WCW at the time. The loser of the strap match had to say “I respect you”. Before the match even started, the two got into a brawl, and once the bell rang, about a minute in, Pillman said “I respect you, Bookerman”, and stormed away. This exposed Sullivan as the booker.
The story behind this is that Pillman and Bischoff had agreed to work everyone into believing what happened was legitimate, and Pillman even convinced Bischoff to file a legitimate paper of termination, so he could go to ECW and develop “The Loose Cannon” gimmick, cause a stir there and return to WCW. This eventually backfired, as Pillman ended up joining WWE.
#7 Goldust burns his outfit
In 1998, Goldust was 3 years into his second tenure with WWE. Goldust came out as himself – Dustin Runnels and poured gasoline over his costume, and proclaimed that “Goldust dies tonight”.
In the promo, he said that he worked too hard and that Vince McMahon took his dignity away due to his sick imagination. He then blamed him for losing his father Dusty Rhodes (who he was not talking to at the time) and losing his wife and daughter, Terri and Dakota. One can only imagine the truth stated in this promo.
#6 Bret Hart’s anti-American promo
Wrestlemania 13 saw one of the most perfect matches in professional wrestling history between Bret Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin. A perfectly executed double turn saw the top of the cherry in what was incredible storytelling by the two.
Going into the match, Bret Hart walked in as the babyface and Stone Cold the heel, while walking out of it, Bret was the Heel and Stone Cold was the babyface. Bret became a tweener after this and was booed heavily in the United States, however, he was cheered in every other country that he went to.
His character was constant and he started speaking against the American audience when he reformed ‘ The Hart Family’ with Owen Hart, Jim Neidhart, Davey Boy Smith, and Brian Pillman. Here is a promo of him denouncing the American crowd:
#5 Scott Steiner shoots on Ric Flair
Scott Steiner, despite not being involved in a program with Ric Flair, clearly did not care enough to hide his disdain against the 16-time World Champion, even on live television. The best part of the promo is when he opined that when Flair was on TV the previous week, the fans “changed the channels to WWF to watch Stone Cold – a guy you and your friends fired from here” and that Flair belongs “in WCW because WCW sucks”.
#4 Matt Hardy’s attacks Edge and Lita
Edge’s affair with Lita, while she was dating Matt Hardy, was well known on the internet, though not publicly acknowledged on WWE television. Hardy was released in the fray of all this, and on Raw, Hardy made a surprise return and attacked Edge, before he was subsequently held back by security.
However, later that night, during Edge’s match with Kane, Hardy again returned and jumped Edge, referring to him as Adam, and calling Lita a “wh**e”, and then went on to say “The WWE can kiss my a**”. They had a feud based on the real-life incident, and the animosity of the feud felt so real.
#3 Paul Heyman drops a heavy pipebomb on Vince McMahon
The Invasion Angle saw WCW and ECW form what was known as “The Alliance” against the WWF. Paul Heyman, Stephanie and Shane McMahon had found themselves aligned in this storyline. The feud was set to culminate at Survivor Series 2001.
However, at the SmackDown before Survivor Series, Heyman called out Vince McMahon and dropped a bomb on him about his ruthlessness, him going against his father’s promise to other promoters that they would never compete. He then accused Mr. McMahon of stealing his creative ideas in ECW and using it to fuel The Attitude Era. Watching it, it is evident that Heyman believed every word he said.
#2 Joey Styles rips on WWE and “Sports Entertainment”
On the May 1st edition of Raw in 2006, after being humiliated by The Spirit Squad and constantly picked on by Jerry Lawler, Joey Styles, the then colour commentator of Raw, had an outburst and went on to deliver a worked shoot promo belittling WWE for referring to professional wrestling as “Sports Entertainment”, for their emphasis on the commentators “telling stories” rather than calling the moves in the ring.
Styles also abused Vince McMahon in general for his sick sense of humor and amusement which he called his “insatiable ego”. In general, Joey Styles insulted the WWE and it’s obsession with corporate brand image and also jabbed at the fans for “buying into this crap” . The entire promo is one of the earlier examples of a “pipebomb” before it became popular.
#1 CM Punk’s pipebomb
This was the expected one, as it usually is on this topic. But it is because it has to be. No single worked shoot caused as much of a stir as CM Punk’s speech, which became more of an anthem. It was the origin of the term “pipebomb”. This heated up one of the hottest angles in wrestling history, and shot Punk to superstardom and immense popularity.
The weeks and months following this saw an increasing amount of people wearing CM Punk shirts, and “CM Punk” became a war cry by the crowds. It is a chant that is heard till date. In his famous pipebomb, Punk insulted the entire system of WWE and the McMahon family including the system of how things work in the WWE. There is nothing that can be said here that hasn’t been said before, but when this pipebomb is referred to as “earth shattering”, it is because it indeed was.
