Comparison of professional wrestling and mixed martial arts
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In professional wrestling, kayfabe (/ˈkeɪfeɪb/) is the portrayal of staged events within the industry as "real" or "true", specifically the portrayal of competition, rivalries, and relationships between participants as being genuine and not staged. The term kayfabe has evolved to also become a code word of sorts for maintaining this "reality" within the direct or indirect presence of the general public.[1]
Kayfabe, in the United States, is often seen as the suspension of disbelief that is used to create the non-wrestling aspects of promotions, such as feuds, angles, and gimmicks in a manner similar to other forms of fictional entertainment. In relative terms, a wrestler breaking kayfabe would be likened to an actor breaking character on-camera. Since wrestling is performed in front of a live audience, whose interaction with the show is crucial to its success, kayfabe can be compared to the fourth wall in acting, since hardly any conventional fourth wall exists to begin with. Because of this lack of conventional fourth wall, wrestlers were once expected to maintain their characters even out of the ring, and in other aspects of their lives that could be made public. In general, everything in a modern professional wrestling show is to some extent scripted, or "kayfabe", even though at times it is portrayed as real-life, where it was once portrayed as real rivalries being conveniently settled by unscripted wrestling matches.
Kayfabe was fiercely maintained for decades with the intent to deceive fans, but with the advent of the Internet wrestling community, and the sports entertainment movement, the pro-wrestling industry has become less concerned with protecting so-called backstage secrets and typically maintains kayfabe only during the filming of shows. It is occasionally broken during shows, usually when dealing with genuine injuries that occur during a match or paying tribute to wrestlers.
^Washington, Tecoa T. (2009). Medieval Bedazzle. Mustang: Tate Publishing. ISBN 9781606046951. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
In professional wrestling, kayfabe (/ˈkeɪfeɪb/) is the portrayal of staged events within the industry as "real" or "true", specifically the portrayal...
Breaking Kayfabe is the debut album by Canadian rapper Cadence Weapon, released in 2005 on Upper Class Recordings. It was also released in the United...
Red Room trilogy. Piskor also co-hosted the YouTube channel Cartoonist Kayfabe with fellow Pittsburgh native cartoonist Jim Rugg. In March 2024, Piskor...
fostered a mentality that spectators were marks to be duped. The term kayfabe comes from carny slang. By the turn of the 20th century, most professional...
Next Issue Project. Rugg also co-hosted the YouTube channel Cartoonist Kayfabe with fellow Pittsburgh native cartoonist Ed Piskor. Rugg's influences include...
Apter mag An old-style professional wrestling magazine that sticks to kayfabe articles. The term refers to the magazines at one time connected to journalist...
WWF for the next decade. For several years, WWF Magazine operated as a kayfabe magazine; stories included biographies of wrestlers and feuds, as well...
Prussian Nazi. He was billed as the brother of Fritz Von Erich, making him a kayfabe member of the Von Erich family. Sieber was born in Toronto, Ontario. His...
her tenure in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as Gorgeous George, the kayfabe manager of "Macho Man" Randy Savage. After WCW, she worked for Extreme...
Cruiserweight Championship in its first stint. He was then revealed, in kayfabe, to be Vince McMahon's bastard son, and was exposed as the Anonymous Raw...
reinstated, McMahon shifted his sights to, then babyface, Test, who was kayfabe dating Shane's sister, Stephanie. Shane disapproved of the relationship...
Backyarding Blading Championship World Heavyweight Dirt sheet Glossary of terms Kayfabe Gimmick Face Heel Shoot Heat Job Push House show Match types Music Rib...
raised in Edmonton, Alberta, Pemberton released his first album, Breaking Kayfabe, in 2005 with positive reviews. He subsequently signed with the American...
The Taskmaster, Pillman shouted "I respect you, bookerman!", breaking kayfabe, before leaving the ring. The event featured wrestlers from pre-existing...
match after he considered Bret unable to continue after he sustained a kayfabe knee injury during the match. After the match, Owen berated his brother...
Team Champion and two-time wXw Shotgun Champion. Rukober is the first non-kayfabe Russian male wrestler to compete in the WWE, and is also the first Russian-born...
match" against The Ultimate Warrior, in which the loser would be forced (Kayfabe) to retire. After Savage lost the match, an irate Martel attacked Savage...
have worked for him, including Jim Cornette who, in his interviews with Kayfabe Commentaries, described how Laurinaitis failed to work in the same capacity...
officially acknowledged by the Canadian Forces, was considered an open secret. Kayfabe, or the presentation of professional wrestling as "real" or unscripted...
case. (Vince McMahon mentioned on commentary without completely breaking kayfabe that the "footage looked awfully familiar"; in reality, repurposed footage...
2019. Armstrong, Walter (1890), Wrestling Slack, Jack (4 February 2016). "Kayfabe Time Capsule: The Real Techniques of Professional Wrestling". Fightland...
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