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In the Professional Wrestling business, the term Kayfabe represents the portrayal of organized/staged events which usually take place within the industry in order to perfectly orchestrate a particular storyline. Kayfabe generally helps wrestlers to portray their on-screen characters, helps in developing a rivalry, and overall helps in the progression of a story.
The term Kayfabe also revolves around various on-screen feuds, angles, and a wrestler's particular gimmicks as well, however, as the WWE gradually progressed and slowly moved on from the Attitude and Ruthless Aggression era towards the PG era, Kayfabe eventually started to die, at least for a particular fanbase who have been closely following the WWE for quite a few years now.
For several years, certain superstars such as the likes of The Undertaker, Kane, and Rey Mysterio have been best known for keeping kayfabe alive and it is somewhat unfair to the superstar's of today's generation who get exposed for breaking kayfabe every now and then.
That being said, let us not exclude the fact that back in the good old Attitude Era days there has been some legendary kayfabe breaking moments and with that being said, we'll take an in-depth look at 10 times kayfabe was broken within the WWE.
#10 Baron Corbin consoles a child
Having been called up to the main roster in 2017, Shinsuke Nakamura immediately found himself in the middle of a feud against 'The Lone Wolf' Baron Corbin, who in the build-up to their rivalry made sure that Nakamura didn't get his hands on the Money in the Bank briefcase, eventually winning it himself as well.
On an episode of SmackDown Live in July of 2017, following Baron Corbin's dark match defeat to Shinsuke Nakamura, the former Money in the Bank briefcase holder was seen consoling a child in his arms at ringside.
Corbin, who clearly was a mean bad heel, broke kayfabe in order to show compassion towards the kid was certainly a bit shocking and for that matter, 'The Lone Wolf' also gifted the kid a t-shirt and as it turned out the child was apparently Corbin's family member. Well, that's what 'The Lone Wolf' had claimed at that time.
#9 Triple H and Stephanie McMahon
The husband and wife duo of Triple H and Stephanie McMahon are considered as one of the evilest pairings' in WWE history and are hated by the majority of the WWE Universe for overexercising their powers and for also living by the term "best for business".
Despite the duo been long gone from television now, both Triple H and Stephanie McMahon did provide the WWE Universe with some memorable moments and one of those certain moments took place on an episode of Raw back in 2015.
During the main event for an episode of Raw, both Triple H and Stephanie McMahon sat at ringside and constantly heeled up the crowd with their antics, however, amidst to all the fan interaction, the so-called "menacing" duo of The Authority made a young boy cry, who was sitting in the front row.
This immediately prompted 'The Game' Triple H to give the little man a hug and make him feel better and as it turned out, The Authority weren't such bad people after all.
#8 Randy Orton expresses sympathy to Shane McMahon's son
With Survivor Series 2018 almost upon us now, let us go back to the 2016 Men's Survivor Series match featuring the likes of AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Shane McMahon, Randy Orton, and Chris Jericho, the match itself was destined to be another classic and to be fair, the bout did live up to its hype eventually.
There were several talking points from the match itself, including the elimination of Shane McMahon, who prior to his eventual elimination leapfrogged from the top rope for a Coast-to-Coast but was eventually caught by Reigns with a devastating Spear in mid-air. With both men laid out on the floor, the referee had decided to call for the bell instead of a 10-count, thus eliminating Shane in the process.
McMahon was immediately rushed to the back by medical facilities as the WWE Universe was in shock, as Team SmackDown and McMahon's fellow teammate Randy Orton was pictured talking to Max McMahon at ringside, seemingly providing an update on his father.
#7 Randy Orton goes off on Kofi Kingston
Back in 2009, Kofi Kingston was quite possibly one of the breakout stars' of the year, as he found himself in the middle of an exciting feud against Randy Orton. However, Kingston's push seemingly came to an end during one particular singles match against Orton on Raw.
Initially, it seemed like Orton was charging up for his devastating Punt Kick on Kingston, however, the latter seemed to have messed up the spot, prompting 'The Viper' to hit the current New Day member with an RKO instead, as a pissed off Randy Orton started yelling "stupid" towards Kingston's direction. In addition to that, Orton also yelled some presumable inaudible verbals towards the former US Champion as well.
This eventually earned Orton a shot at Sheamus' WWE Championship match and didn't help Kingston's career much either, up until the point he had eventually joined The New Day along with Big E and Xavier Woods.
#6 Chris Jericho once again proves why he's a veteran
During an infamous match between Chris Jericho and Neville on Raw which took place a couple of years ago, the former 'King of The Cruiserweights' went for a baseball slide through Jericho's legs, unfortunately, though, Neville's leg got caught on the canvas and he ended up rolling his ankle. Legitimately hurt at this point, Neville tried to convince referee Charles Robinson that his leg was indeed not in the best of conditions to continue the match before Chris Jericho took the matter to his own hands.
Jericho then muttered something to Robinson, presumably telling him to do a quick count and end the bout, however, Y2J's message wasn't exactly clear, as Robinson only counted to two, prompting Jericho to get into the ref's face, pushing him and yelling "he's hurt". After a failed attempt, Jericho then made it clear to Robinson that Neville had broken his ankle and in response to it, the latter also had another heated reply to Y2J.
The pair eventually went on to confirm of Talk Is Jericho that the segment was indeed a shoot and that they were legitimately mad at each other.
#5 The Proposal
John Cena and Nikki Bella's relationship was by far one of the most popular relationships' not just in the Pro Wrestling industry but has gotten all the attention in the world from the mainstream media as well.
The pair's relationship has certainly played a huge role in WWE's reality TV series Total Divas and on Total Bellas as well, however, the pair did keep their relationship off WWE TV for as long as they could and as a matter of fact we got to witness very little interaction between the two on WWE TV, up until the point when they finally ignited a feud against 'The It Couple' Miz and Maryse.
The proposal might seem scripted to the WWE Universe but it sure as hell was the most real thing we saw on WWE TV for a while. Cena and Nikki eventually went on to split but the WrestleMania proposal will definitely go down as a touching moment in WWE history.
#4 Jerry Lawler's heart attack
While watching WWE TV, one always needs to remember the fact that anything can happen while watching a live WWE show and back in 2012, things got very very real for legendary WWE commentator Jerry 'The King' Lawler. While doing his usual commentary with fellow partner Michael Cole, Lawler seemed to be in some sort of distress as a tag team match between Team Hell No and The Prime Time Players was in full swing in the ring.
Unfortunately, though, Lawler within a few short moments collapsed at ringside and suffered a heart attack, having already competed earlier on in the same night in a tag team where he joined forces with Randy Orton to face the team of Dolph Ziggler and CM Punk.
Lawler was quickly rushed to the backstage area and received medical attention, who performed CPR on the Hall of Famer, as Michale Cole informed the WWE Universe around the world about Lawler's condition and broke kayfabe by noting that it wasn't a part of the storyline.
#3 Roman Reigns' leukemia revelation
Having finally won the WWE Universal Championship at SummerSlam by defeating 'The Beast' Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns was finally on top of the food chain on Monday Night Raw and was finally a World Champion after all these years.
However, on 22nd October, 2018, Reigns kicked-started the episode of Monday Night Raw but something seemed very unusual, given the fact that Reigns came out wearing casual clothes and addressed the WWE Universe about his leukemia being back after 11 years.
Reigns started off his promo by stating that his real name is Joe and eventually went on to relinquish the Universal Title on a very emotional episode of Monday Night Raw. Shortly within a few moments, Reigns' Shield brethren Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose, who by this point were already shedding tears on screen, walked out to the ramp and hugged it out one final time before Reigns would begin his on-going battle with leukemia.
This sure was the most recent example of WWE breaking kayfabe on screen and was surely a very emotional moment as well.
#2 The Curtain Call
During the Attitude Era, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash were two of the biggest stars in WWE, as they had become super popular within the WWE fanbase, thanks to their unique Razor Ramon and Diesel characters. However, the two men wanted more money and WWE's rival promotion WCW was willing to offer that to the two men, therefore, both Hall and Nash decided to jump ship to WWE's rival promotion.
However, before their move to WCW, Hall and Nash had one final WWE show to commit which was a house show at the Madison Square Garden and that's when the two men, along with their real-life friends Triple H and Shawn Michaels decided to break kayfabe.
Michaels, Triple H, Nash, and Hall (along with X-Pac) had their own backstage crew known as The Kliq and despite being portrayed as rivals on TV, the five men were the closest of friends off-screen.
The 1996 Curtain Call took place right after the MSG main event between HBK and Diesel, as Ramon and Triple H made their way out and the four men embraced each other, much to the crowd's disbelief.
#1 The Montreal Screwjob
As mentioned before, the 2018 Survivor Series pay-per-view is almost upon us now and if you're familiar with Survivor Series, then I'm pretty sure of the fact that you also know what The Montreal Screwjob is. Regarded as the most controversial moment in WWE history, or rather in Professional Wrestling history, for that matter. The 1997 Montreal Screwjob is the perfect example of kayfabe been broken on WWE TV.
Bret 'The Hitman' Hart was by far one of the most popular WWE superstars' of all time and walking into Survivor Series, 1997, 'The Hitman' was the WWF Champion, however, the one little problem that was presented on Chairman Vince McMahon's table was that Hart had received a big money offer from WCW and was all set to jump ship to WWE's rival promotion.
To add further troubles to the WWE Creative, Survivor Series, 1997 was set to take place at Hart's hometown, thus 'The Hitman' refused to drop the title to long-term rival Shawn Michaels and rather requested to lose the belt next night on Raw or even vacate it.
But that wasn't the case to be, after having agreed to do the discussed finish, Vince McMahon and referee Earl Hebner called for the belt, despite the fact that Hart did not tap out as Michaels was awarded the WWF Title.
This eventually sent the Pro Wrestling industry into a frenzy and remains as one of the biggest controversies of all time.
