5 times WWE Superstars recently broke kayfabe on TV

There was once a time when all WWE Superstars were required to live in kayfabe whenever they were within earshot of fans. This meant that more often than not, Superstars were forced to stay in character outside of arenas and even backstage.

The wrestling world has evolved quite a lot since the Attitude Era when heels would always be heels until they were safely home behind closed doors. Social media has meant that the WWE Universe now gets a peek inside the personal lives of many stars who are very different off-screen when their character walks past the curtain.

Despite this shift, kayfabe is usually always maintained on-screen, but in recent years there have been a few occasions when WWE has been happy to drop the curtain and allow the WWE Universe to see the other side.

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#5 Becky Lynch's pregnancy announcement on WWE RAW

The WWE Universe was handed the surprising news on Monday Night RAW that Becky Lynch was leaving WWE for an undisclosed amount of time because she was expecting Seth Rollins' baby.

Lynch then handed her RAW Women's Championship to Asuka despite the women being rivals at the turn of the year. Asuka also went on to hug Lynch when she revealed the news before The Man left the arena in tears.

Later in the night, Rey Mysterio congratulated Seth Rollins on the news ahead of his match, which was the first time Rollins was mentioned as the father. The Monday Night Messiah is currently working as a heel on RAW, which was why this came as such a shock.

The former World Champion has since updated his Instagram to reveal his thoughts on the latest addition to his family, which is definitely out of character.

#4 AJ Styles revealed that WWE Superstar Undertaker is Mark Calaway

AJ Styles stepped into a feud with The Undertaker heading into WWE WrestleMania 36, and The Phenomenal One decided to take it one step further than all of The Deadman's previous opponents by revealing the man behind the persona.

This was the first time on live WWE TV that The Undertaker had been referred to by his full name, and his wife Michelle McCool was also dragged into the feud when Styles blamed the former WWE Women's Champion for the fact that Taker couldn't retire.

This appeared to be the way that The Deadman was finally going to bow out of WWE since Styles revealed personal information that showed the man behind The Deadman gimmick. It made it hard to see him as the mythical beast that he once was after Styles made it clear that he was a real man with a wife and children.

Of course, it's relatively well known that Undertaker has a wife and children, but this is the first time either has been mentioned on WWE TV as part of an ongoing storyline.

#3 Roman Reigns reveals that his real name is Joe and that he has leukemia

Roman Reigns was on top of his game back in 2018, but much like Becky Lynch on WWE Monday RAW, Reigns was forced to relinquish his championship and walked away from the company for an undisclosed amount of time.

Reigns came out to the ring on a live episode of Monday Night RAW and told the crowd that his real name was Joe and that he had been battling leukemia for 11 years. It was sad news that Reigns was forced to hand the Universal Championship over and head home to battle the disease one more time.

Reigns had only recently been able to defeat Brock Lesnar to win the Championship, and it meant that he was no longer able to defend the title at WWE Crown Jewel.

It was a sad turn of events, but thankfully Reigns was able to return to the ring and pick up where he left off a few months later. WWE WrestleMania 36 should have seen him reclaim the Championship he never lost, but the COVID-19 pandemic meant that he was unable to be part of the show.

#2 Sami Zayn mentions AEW on WWE RAW

All Elite Wrestling has risen over the past year to become quite the competition for WWE, something that the main officials backstage in WWE never would have predicted a few years ago.

It was obvious that WWE was worried in the earlier months when AEW was putting on some fantastic shows, which is why it came as such a shock when Sami Zayn mentioned the company on a live episode of RAW.

Zayn was in "The Electric Chair" back in May 2019 where he could be asked anything by the audience in attendance and was visibly annoyed that none of the fans watching had decided to ask him about AEW.

"You could have asked me anything, you could have asked me about AEW."

Sami Zayn stated that before host Corey Graves stepped in and quickly changed the subject. The fans were audibly shocked by the fact that AEW had been mentioned on WWE TV, especially since this segment only served to help WWE's competition to gain more viewers.

#1 Vince McMahon comments on awful Bayley segment

Triple H celebrated his 25th anniversary on SmackDown a few weeks ago alongside his long-time friend Shawn Michaels, before the party was crashed by WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.

The episode of SmackDown was pre-recorded, but McMahon still went on to talk about some of the crazier moments of WWE over the years. One of the most notable comments that McMahon made was in regards to the "Bayley: This Is Your Life" segment from Monday Night RAW back in 2017.

This was the worst-rated segment in Monday Night RAW history and the chairman decided to liken one of Triple H's performances to the segment and he called it "crickets". Triple H seemed to find the comment hilarious, which means that WWE was aware of how bad the segment was received, but this was the first time that it had been mentioned publicly.

The segment interestingly ended with Vince McMahon heading backstage and turning the lights off on Michaels and The Game, which seemed to signal that the show was over.