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Breaking character used to be something frowned upon in the wrestling industry years ago, even outside the ring. However, things have changed now and we see practically every wrestler on the planet out of character on their social media accounts.
However, one thing that still is a taboo is breaking character on air, but make no mistake, it's been done many times. There have been times where it's been noticeable, but what about the times when it happened and you missed it?
Without any further ado, here are 5 times when you probably missed wrestlers breaking character on-air:
#5 Kofi Kingston breaks character to insult country music
It was 2015 and The New Day were celebrating their one-year anniversary and they were in the midst of their second run as WWE Tag team champions. This was the early stages of what would go on to become the record-breaking 483-day tag title reign.
Since they were in Music City (Nashville) on the night, a great way to get heat was to insult the beloved local country music. The New Day were going on for minutes insulting country music when Kofi Kingston popped the line of the night:
This is me saying this, not my character. Country music suuuuuuuuuuucks!
It definitely took everyone by surprise when Kofi Kingston unsubtly broke character on-air just so he could insult country music. One would have to wonder what the backstage reaction of that could have been.
You can watch the clip in good quality over here
#4 Randy Orton forgets his lines and asks Sheamus
When we think of Randy Orton and Sheamus, the most recent memory that comes to mind is their god-awful never-ending feud that took place in 2015. The two had a countless number of matches and that seemingly came to an end around October after a few months of zero interest from fans.
However, prior to WrestleMania 29 in 2013, the two had formed an alliance along with The Big Show to take on the new team on the block: The Shield. They were unsuccessful against the then-up-and-comers and Big Show wound up turning on both Randy Orton & Sheamus.
On the RAW after WrestleMania, Randy Orton and Sheamus had a back and forth promo and in the middle of it, Randy Orton seemingly forgot his line. You can visibly see him asking Sheamus: "What's my line?". The Celtic Warrior did end up telling him and turning away.
The funny part is that all Randy had to say was "Big Show is mine tonight".
#3 William Regal gets ribbed and loses it along with Daniel Bryan
Daniel Bryan and William Regal have a long history together. While it's been mentioned multiple times before that Bryan trained during his early days in Shawn Michaels' wrestling school, Bryan has given far more credit to William Regal for mentoring him through the years.
The two did meet in a match on Main Event in 2011 (surprising that they'd have such a small stage for such a match) in Liverpool, and William Regal received a great ovation from his home country crowd. However, during his entrance, someone backstage decided to play an absolutely hilarious prank on him.
Just for some context, many many years ago, when he was known as "Steven" Regal in the WWF, this was his abomination of a theme song:
While he was entering to his regular theme song, it was switched over to his old Steven Regal theme song. As the speaker was blasting "He's a maaaan, such a maaaan", you can see William Regal unable to control it and bursting out into laughter. He looked across the ring to Daniel Bryan, who also wasn't able to hold it together.
This was one of the cases of harmless ribs on wrestlers, and to be fair, it was absolutely hilarious. You can see for yourself right below. If you notice carefully enough, even the commentators are struggling to hold it together:
#2 CM Punk laughs at Stephanie McMahon's praise for Triple H
It was December 9th of 2013, and WWE wanted to host a celebration of several world champions in the ring to commemorate the then-to-come World title unification bout between John Cena and Randy Orton.
The segment is more famous for the Seattle crowd going wild for Daniel Bryan and not allowing anyone in the ring to say a word. On the long run, this segment will undoubtedly go down as one of the most amazing crowd pops of this era. This was arguably a huge turning point in WWE's push of Daniel Bryan and it let the office know just how the WWE Universe felt about the man who would go on to defy the odds and headline WrestleMania the following year.
However, one subtle moment missed from this segment is when Stephanie called Triple H as "the pinnacle of all world champions. You can see CM Punk absolutely lose it in the back, to the point where he had to cover his face to control himself.
Punk was always a big supporter of Daniel Bryan, and one can imagine that he would've been very pleased hearing the WWE Universe's reaction to his good friend.
#1 The Rock's sunglasses fall off mid-promo and Mick Foley is forced to pick them up
It was the second episode of SmackDown ever filmed and after it went off the air, The Rock was doing his regular schtick with Mick Foley in the ring.
The most comical thing happened when The Rock turned his head sideways and his sunglasses fell right off. The Rock stood there puzzled and the crowd burst out laughing.
Mick Foley said that he realised at that point that The Rock wasn't going to pick up the sunglasses, so Foley did it himself. What was not captured, according to people in the crowd was the fact that as Foley was handing back his sunglasses, The Rock was trying very hard to keep it together.
It took The Rock a minute but he composed himself and just Foley "The Rock thanks you for that". He went on as per usual, but these are some of the moments which you don't hear much about or see very often. It must be quite a memory for the talent as well, looking back at it.
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