Sin #9: The death of kayfabe

As wrestling fans we heard the term “kayfabe” often enough to know what is means and for those that don’t… To make it short, it’s staying “in character” while appearing publicly. For example, The Undertaker showing up as The Undertaker and being treated like The Undertaker while acting as the Undertaker. Of course his real name is Mark, his current wife’s name is Michelle and Kane is not his real brother, but that is reality, and I am talking about what is presented on screen. That is kayfabe, that is that thing the fans should suspend their disbelief on, that is how wrestling worked for years and it worked great, but that art has basically died in the mainstream wrestling.

Why is that? Well according to people there is at least a couple reasons, like the audience being more mature or the information being more accessible due to Internet, but honestly… I see no reason why it’s not there anymore.
So we have a son of a wrestler for years ago, let’s call him a different name, just because we could market that. If he does become big, he won’t be able to compete under that name outside of our company; but other then that, let’s not change absolutely anything about him. Let’s give him a generic personality, a generic motivation and people will buy it, right?
That’s a basic formula for a wrestler these days, cookie cutter personality, look and motivation, rinse and repeat, copy and paste. My question is, where are the actual characters? Where are the over-the-top characters of yesterday that are so deeply burned into our brains we will never forget them? Everyone will forever remember Andre the Giant, Ultimate Warrior, Hulk Hogan to name a few, while nobody will give two shits about 90% of guys and girls in the business today in less then 5 years.

I know the argument that there is no point for kayfabe, since everyone know everything about everyone. There is no reason trying to hide it, some say. Well I disagree. We all know that Undertaker doesn’t have actual magic powers, we all know his name is Mark, we all know he got old and his injuries caught up to him… We know this, but when we see him on screen, when we hear the bell, when the lights go off and when that choir starts to sing, we don’t see Mark William Calaway, we see The Undertaker. Characters create memorable moments, memorable moments create unforgettable experience and that makes it all worth it.

Sadly now we don’t get characters, we get flavors, we get fads. Who was the popular guy a while ago? CM Punk. People were supposed to chant his name everywhere, riot and hijack live programming. Where is that all now? Dead. Who was the popular guy recently? Daniel Brian. People so “hot” for the underdog against authority (what could be more cliché in wrestling…), they were “yes-ing”, they were “no-ing”, where is that all? Dead. Current flavor, the next fad is Roman Reigns, people love to cheer for him. He’s big, he’s strong, he’s explosive… and that’s about all he is. He doesn’t have the “talk”, and in a longer match you can see he doesn’t have much to show either.
You know what I’m saying? That is the problem with flavors, eventually people have enough of eating the same thing over and over and it starts to annoy them, that’s what happened to John Cena. “Fad” is just one letter away from “fade” and with the “monthly flavors” it transforms into that word very fast.

That is why kayfabe is needed, that is why actual characters are needed, that is why even if the whole world knows, it doesn’t matter. Superman isn’t real, nor is Batman, but people love the characters, people remember them, cause they have something distinctive about them, something identifiable even after 10, 20, 30, 40 years… That is what wrestling should be, that is how wrestling was for many years, that is why wrestling needs to go back to creating, not rehashing.