The Death of Kayfabe will be the death of WWE

[Supreme Knowledge]

Mark my words, the death of Kayfabe will be the eventual downfall of WWE and pro wrestling on the main entertainment stage. People keep acting like its okay, like it's not a big deal, take ufc's approach and actual real sports.....but WWE is not a sport, it's sports entertainment. The internet and too much transparency will kill WWE, not now, not next year, but eventually. This is a huge reason why WWE is no longer enjoyable(besides the horrible writing, wrestling, & booking), especially with the product already being so lame. There are many problems with WWE, the fans having too much information, creative not being able to produce compelling television like it did back in the day, Vince being afraid to take risks because of todays climate.....WWE has been dying a slow death for years and it will continue. The death of kayfabe will be the eventual death of the business on the main stage.

This is just my OPINION on what I see. What do you guys think?

 

[PeaceLove&Y2J]

That could be true to an extent, but I think there would be more to the WWE dying outside of broken kayfabe. In spite of kayfabe being broken nowadays, good products can still be churned out. That's the top thing that matters; make something of high quality and the fans will follow.

For example, the leaked storyline for WrestleMania XXV between HBK and Taker was absolutely fantastic. I was disappointed that we weren't able to see an amazing story occur between the two wrestlers because if it looked intriguing on paper, then seeing it unfold in real life would've been great. Just think of it as actors seeing a sure-fire great script for a movie they're going to be in. Though they know how it will end, they'll still enjoy the experience and realize that the film is great.

So, in short, kayfabe's death doesn't necessarily equal the WWE's death. The WWE needs to stop making crappy stories and utilize their talents correctly. Then, a new golden era can commence and the company's future will be safe until kingdom come (If you believe in what I do, of course).

 

[Azane]

WWE is making more money than ever, and you think it's dying?

Interest isn't waning just because Kayfabe has a blacklight shining on it.
The more casual fans have always been the ones who think they're smart for pointing out "Lol Wrestlings fake!", and thats the market that WWE targets, the more realistic gimmicks and less cartoonish characters will eventually rope them in, while the Marks who followed Kayfabe, are just as interested in the backstage politics as they are on the products actual narrative.

Honestly, I think WWE's big chance is to just embrace that Kayfabes exposed and focus on being more like Saturday Night Live with Wrestling in between. Vince's vision is much closer to that than it is to the current product. The real cringe worthy storylines that I've been watching for the past couple years, have been stories where WWE tries too much to take itself serious, or try too much to be Corny. It's like there's no line between Hornswaggle Dance off and 30 minute staring matches.

I don't think anyone over 13 has completely believed Kayfabe in the past 20 years, WWF+WCW had too much mainstream exposure with media poking and prodding at it here or there, you even have the WWE Network airing specials where Vince McMahon himself talks about how the Mr. McMahon character was his complete opposite, I don't think they're that concerned with preserving Kayfabe anymore.

 

[Vanilla Midget]

The death of kayfabe would be a factor to consider if WWE ever folded, but in the end it can only be a contributing factor. Viewership is down and everyone is crying panic, but television viewership in general is down. The real thing that WWE needs to worry about now is its storytelling, that will be the deciding factor as we move into the post-kayfabe world.

When a story is good, the audience enters a willful suspension of disbelief. Thus kayfabe no longer matters. When the stories are told in the ring, by deep multi-dimensional characters, and payoff long form storytelling, it doesn't matter what you read on the dirt sheets, you buy in.

Kayfabe won't ever truly die. It's dead now in the sense that the audience thinks it's smarter. People have access to all this information online. How many of us read Smackdown spoilers to decide if we're going to watch or not? I live on the west coast, so I can read Raw results and still have time to decide whether or not to watch the show Monday before being in bed at a respectable time.

But I don't. I buy into a philosophy of delaying gratification. A lot of fans have become like a kid before Christmas peeking into their parents closet. Why spoil the surprise? When it comes to information available online it's up to us as fans, not WWE, to make that information sensitive.

The responsibility that falls on WWE is to give us compelling stories. You can have a Rusev, Lana, and Ziggler love triangle, just put good writing into it and consistent characterization. WWE needs to rebuild its creative department first before we decide if kayfabe is dead or not. Jim Ross sits at home, Paul Heyman is basically a valet, and there's thousands of high quality writers graduating from real writing schools that WWE could be taking advantage of.

Kayfabe can die, but good quality storytelling is what takes us past it.

 

[John McCass]

Ahem, NXT, Ahem.

Death of kayfabe? It's never going to happen. You mean, a kind of programming that simply obliterates the line between kayfabe and reality. No matter how much boring WWE becomes, there is no way that kayfabe is going to end. Kayfabe has always been an alignment to the sports entertainment. I know, there has been a lot of things killing off kayfabe recently. Some part of this also on the fans. The fans are "grown up" these day. Long gone are the days when they used to live within the realms of kayfabe. Examples are, John Cena and Roman Reigns being mass disliked. Rusev and Seth Rollins being cheered over this guys. Kayfabe will always remain one of the prime factors of wrestling. Death of kayfabe means death of sports entertainment. Yeah, but it isn't going to happen.

Ok, let's take it the other way. Did you watch Takeover:Respect? If yes, you wouldn't have missed Sasha Banks vs. Bayley and the celebration afterward. It seemed way out of kayfabe. But, it was in kayfabe. They do things that seem to be out of kayfabe, but they're not. The conclusion is, if the booking's done right, there's no way fans are going to deny the product.

 

[klunderbunker]

Kayfabe has been dying for all intents and purposes for years. I don't really see how this is any sort of a new development.

Kayfabe isn't so much dead as much as it has evolved. People know that everything is fixed but they go along for the ride. It's worked in Hollywood since Edison filmed a garden party about 120 years ago, but people don't seem to mind. There's always a new generation to fool and draw in and that's always going to be enough to carry them. The people around here all know that kayfabe means nothing but we rarely miss a show. If that's not enough proof, I don't know what you want.

 

[Wrestlingaholic]

Why would the death of kayfabe kill WWE? People - who are fully aware that wrestling is staged (note: not fake; results and often full matches are pre-determined and laid out, but the moves are, by and large, real, and there's still a very real risk of injury) - need to see WWE for what it is: a soap opera.

If you watch "the Lord of the Rings" trilogy, would you have then got confused/upset had you seen Christopher Lee (Sauruman) and Sir Ian McKellan together in public? Would it have destroyed the myth of LOTR for you? Similarly if you saw Robert Patrick dining with Arnie after Terminator 2, or Tom Hiddlestone and Chris Hemsworth after Thor? Of course not, as rational people are aware that what we see in the cinemas is acting, staged. So why do we treat WWE differently when we KNOW the wrestlers all travel together and largely socialise together? That doesn't make sense to me.

The ONLY thing that will kill WWE is if the company runs out of money, whether it be due to poor storytelling or Vince suffering a financial crisis; kayfabe, dead or alive, has absolutely no bearing on the relative health of either WWE or the wrestling industry as a whole.

 

[willross]

WWE's stock closed today at $19.79 per share.....when it opened in 2000 (the prime of your favorite era) I am pretty sure it opened at about that number, perhaps a little bit more. The company as a whole on NYSE is worth $1.5 billion as of this posting.

Though TV ratings are down, it doesnt surprise me. Yes people are watching MNF instead but they also don't need to worry about RAW being spoiled on the radio on the way to work Tuesday morning. Simply being off Twitter until Tuesday night and watching RAW on some random streaming site is a safe way to go about not having it spoiled for you and also allows you to skip over what you don't want to watch.

The Network numbers are growing. They seem to have found a groove with it and it's content. The original content + network exclusives + NXT + PPVs, it is only a matter of time before it breaks the 2 million mark. Over 200,000 idiots or people who don't have network access still buy PPV's so get them to buy is the next target and then once more expansion of the Network comes, which will be the case over the next few years....

basically WWE is fine bro

 

[FromGlasgow]

I don't think so as even as a young child as far back that I can remember in the early 80's growing up I knew pro wrestling wasn't real competitive matches and so did those around me it wasn't the best kept secret I wasn't shocked when I did start hearing more honesty about the ins and outs of the wrestling business.
I don't actually believe any rational person since about the 1950's have believed pro wrestling to be a true competitive sport if anything I think they look better for it now than attempting to fool their audience in this age especially with the internet it would be well difficult to keep it completely kayfabe.
One thing I do think they could improve on kayfabe wise is the lack of mystique with some of their characters maybe keep some off of social media as they come over too nice and average instead of getting some over as true heel type characters. One of the few guys left like this is the Undertaker I know he's probably just an average regular guy in real life but staying so mysterious theres always kind of been a mystique about him.

 

[Softcore Holly]

Mark my words, the death of Kayfabe will be the eventual downfall of WWE and pro wrestling on the main entertainment stage. People keep acting like its okay, like it's not a big deal, take ufc's approach and actual real sports.....but WWE is not a sport, it's sports entertainment. The internet and too much transparency will kill WWE, not now, not next year, but eventually. This is a huge reason why WWE is no longer enjoyable(besides the horrible writing, wrestling, & booking), especially with the product already being so lame. There are many problems with WWE, the fans having too much information, creative not being able to produce compelling television like it did back in the day, Vince being afraid to take risks because of todays climate.....WWE has been dying a slow death for years and it will continue. The death of kayfabe will be the eventual death of the business on the main stage.

This is just my OPINION on what I see. What do you guys think?

The internet WWE can't do anything about and not so much for the transparency either. As long as the internet exist people will find out things they're not supposed to, it's annoying but that's a reality of life and it's hardly WWE's fault. For the most part kayfabe hasn't all that important in a long while, everyone knows what they're watching is a work of fiction and really that shouldn't affect your enjoyment of the product since it certainly doesn't affect theirs. Like do you think anyone burying movies studios in money really cared that the comic book superheroes onscreen doesn't really have any powers? Or that Harry Potter wasn't really a wizard? That romantic couples aren't really in OK you get the point.

Really all that matters is that they get good parts to play and that they play their parts well, both which doesn't require Kayfabe to work. Sure a little reality every once and a while can make things exciting but it's hardly necessary to make good shows.

 

[the_peoples_adam]

Looking at NXT and the Future talents i can say that WWE aint gonna die for a long time..
Kayfabe wont die in this art man..
They are making more money day by day, i mean they are making huge profit but there will be ups and downs in that profit thats all..
But the current product is not upto the mark for sure. Its bcoz lack of competition..Hopefully after Vince passes away Pro Wrestling will see big changes im sure...

 

[OYDK]

Well, if kayfabe in every sense of the word were to die than it wouldn't be pro-wrestling, it would be a crappier version of UFC. So yes with the death of kayfabe goes the death of pro-wrestling. But for all intents and purposes, kayfabe in the general sense (real vs. scripted) died long ago and wrestling is fine. Just because people know it's scripted doesn't mean much. It all rests in WWE's ability to suspend our disbelief.

So in a sense you're right. If wrestlers were to come out of the curtain, act exactly like themselves and actually beat the crap out of each other just because they're scheduled to, pro-wrestling dies. But that will never happen. Which is why you're also wrong (in my opinion).

 

[Rayne]

The way people understand 'kayfaybe' is outdated these days.

Once upon a time, kayfaybe was about being told that what you were seeing on the screen (or in person) was real. After professional wrestling was revealed as scripted during the '50s, it became about the 'realism' of the stories being portrayed in the ring. Then came the rise of the Internet, where every person in the connected world could find out the personal details of the actors that they were watching. Suddenly, everyone knew if so-and-so were really a couple, which professional wrestlers hung out backstage that kayfaybe said they shouldn't, and so forth.

So kayfaybe changed.

The television presentation gradually changed throughout the '90s, featuring less 'gimmicky' characters like "Earthquake" and "Zeus", and started featuring more personable performers- actors that were people, but outsized versions of people. At the same time, elements of the show started incorporating outsized versions of real life events. Triple H and Steph, Edge/Lita/Matt Hardy, professional wrestling organizations began using fictionalized versions of real life events. The WWF/E became this evil company using its control over the acting to keep fan favorites from being popular, best exemplified by the Mr. McMahon character.

Today, that has sprawled into a multimedia empire, where people speculate about Paige's engagement (of course it's real, I saw it on TV), boo the performers that they get told secretly run the show backstage, cheer the performers whom they think are being held back. This is all based on information received through the Internet, leaked to trusted mouthpieces by members of the professional wrestling companies seeking to sell their events.

Kayfaybe's just as real as ever- people are trying to look behind the curtain of kayfaybe now, without realizing that the curtain's been moved.

 

[wwe fan2009]

Why would the death of kayfabe kill WWE? People - who are fully aware that wrestling is staged (note: not fake; results and often full matches are pre-determined and laid out, but the moves are, by and large, real, and there's still a very real risk of injury) - need to see WWE for what it is: a soap opera.

If you watch "the Lord of the Rings" trilogy, would you have then got confused/upset had you seen Christopher Lee (Sauruman) and Sir Ian McKellan together in public? Would it have destroyed the myth of LOTR for you? Similarly if you saw Robert Patrick dining with Arnie after Terminator 2, or Tom Hiddlestone and Chris Hemsworth after Thor? Of course not, as rational people are aware that what we see in the cinemas is acting, staged. So why do we treat WWE differently when we KNOW the wrestlers all travel together and largely socialise together? That doesn't make sense to me.

The ONLY thing that will kill WWE is if the company runs out of money, whether it be due to poor storytelling or Vince suffering a financial crisis; kayfabe, dead or alive, has absolutely no bearing on the relative health of either WWE or the wrestling industry as a whole.

this. how would the death of it affect anything. im pretty sure most fans know its fake, plus hhh said its the reaity era

 

[FlairFan2003]

if the death of "kayfabe" killed the industry it sure has taken awhile....you realize that kayfabe died back in the 80s when Vince McMahon went on CNN and admitted wrestling was fake right ?

You know mainstream media all over the country covered Jim Neidhart & Iron Sheik getting arrested for drug possession....TOEGTHER even though they were sworn enemies on TV

Do you not remember scenes of Hogan, Vader, Savage, & Flair...all together getting along, as they worked on scenes for their Baywatch appearance ??? I remember seeing them on TV all just fine....

Certainly by the late 90s Kayfabe was DEAD! Of course this was also in the middle of a huge boom period for business, the best and longest business increase since the mid 1980s - Entertainment Weekly was doing feature articles on pro wrestling, interviewing Austin, Flair, Hogan, it was very interesting.....and very revealing in that WRESTLING IS FAKE

People finding out things like HHH & Steph are married in real life, Flair & Sting are actually life long friends not mortal enemies, Austin & Rock don't hate each other, etc isn't hurting wrestling business right now....the inability of WWE to create consistentlyt entertaining programming and create compelling storylines for anyone not named Undertaker, Cena, or Rollins is what is hurting the product's popularity. Fact is, Vince himself BLEW THE LID off of wrestling is fake and "sports entertainment" three decades ago, and wrestlers in a variety of forums in the entertainment industry have been doing it ever since. Up until the mass exodus of 80s & 90s stars no longer working or working barely at all (HBK, Hogan, Taker, Edge, HHH, Flair, Taker, Austin, Rock, Foley, Sting) the industry has struggled - but "kayfabe" was long dead before that, and the industry thrived !

 

[Messiah]

WWE won't be around in 10-15 year's.. Watching the show it's like they don't care anymore. It seemed like they did when they created the Performance Center, but what happens on TV it seems like lazy booking. They don't know what to do anymore, maybe because its hard for them to create compelling storylines when they have no freedom. Anything edgy they do with offend people and it's hard for it to be interesting when it's not edgy at all.

Kayfabe being dead can only benefit the business.. What happened at the Takeover events with the woman should NEVER happen, but outside the ring it's ok. just don't break kayfabe on the show.. Its rare you see actors being in character when they promote a movie somewhere, it happens occasionally but not very often... It's not real and they need to acknowledge that more often. They're putting on a show, not a sporting event.

 

[X]

WWE won't be around in 10-15 year's..

I would gladly take that wager any day of the week. You could not be more wrong. Doesn't matter how stale you think the product is, Wrestlemania still sells out in 90 minutes, and the profits from that one single show alone would be enough to sustain their business for the rest of the year. They've reached a point as a business where it would take monumental, incredible, nearly-impossible odds to shut them down. Like, Vince would have to be caught raping a child on camera. And even then, he'd probably just be outed from his own company and they'd still move on and continue to exist.

Kayfabe has been dead for decades now. Introducing wrestling to the medium of television was the start, and by the time Hulkamania came around the cat was out of the bag already, though there was still doubt and debate from the diehard fans and old timers who didn't want the fantasy to die. But by the time the 90s hit, the steroid trials, the explosion of the internet, kayfabe was dead. I mean we live in an era where the WWE now broadcasts programs dedicated to breaking kayfabe and "shooting" (Austin's podcast show, all of the Legends Roundtables). They know their audience knows it is fake, and it really doesn't matter. Did you stop liking wrestling when you discovered it was fake? I'm guessing not since you're on this board right now. Sure, the illusion of it being a real athletic competition is great when you're a naive 6 year old, but that's not what hooks you and keeps you watching years later, it's the drama, the storytelling, the action.

Kayfabe has been dead a long time.

 

[Navi]

WWE won't be around in 10-15 year's.. Watching the show it's like they don't care anymore. It seemed like they did when they created the Performance Center, but what happens on TV it seems like lazy booking. They don't know what to do anymore, maybe because its hard for them to create compelling storylines when they have no freedom. Anything edgy they do with offend people and it's hard for it to be interesting when it's not edgy at all.

Yes it will and it will be bigger than ever, just look at who's coming up in NXT. NXT shows sell out in minutes, and the fans love it. Maybe not so much the main shows as ratings are down, but their development brand is going strong.

No one seems to care about "Kayfabe" anymore. We all know wrestling is fake, scripted, pre-determined use whatever adjective you want to describe it. We all sit down on Monday night to watch RAW though, even though we can most likely tell in advance what's going to happen.

For me personally I don't give a damm if it's fake. I would rather watch it than UFC to be honest. I really don't want to watch two men genuinely beat the crap out of each other. I watched someone had their ear nearly ripped off, it was horrible to watch. Now most aren't like that, but that turned me right off watching it again for a long time.

With regards to wrestling they are now operating in a PG world, the kids are the ones bringing in the parents who spend the money, and never forget that. If it was just adults watching and attending shows, the WWE wouldn't be half as profitable as it is now. So forget edgy they will not offend their biggest fanbase, the under 14 year olds. That is a never ending fanbase as well. As more than more kids grow up and leave, more and more take their places. Obviously they don't care if it's fake or scripted either.

The one thing the WWE fails at and with the roster they have shouldn't is entertain everyone. And the blame for that falls at the feet of one person, Vincent McMahon, who is so out of touch. He uses the wrestlers as his own personal chess pieces on a huge board, and he has lost the understanding of what the game is about. If anything kills wrestling it will be the man who built it up to what it is today.

 

[Poop Master Flex]

It would take something COLOSSAL to bring down WWE and kayfabe ain't it because quite frankly it's pretty much dead now. Kayfabe in todays age is like that South Park episode Best Friends Forever where Kenny is hooked up to life support and brain dead, it's only alive as a technicality because there may be a few people who still think it's legit but to 99.99% of the fans its dead.

You don't need kayfabe for people to be interested in a product, wrestling isn't a real sport and that has been known as fact for damn near my whole lifetime and during that time WWE has done incredible business even when their product wasn't very good. There business model is pretty solid and because of that (and the fact they pretty much have wrestling monopolized) they can get away with putting a lot of crap on television. I will always love wrestling but I can't watch too much of WWE's main shows right now but it really doesn't matter, whatever they aren't doing right in creative they more than make up for it in business sense and it will take a hell of a lot more than the absolute death of kayfabe to even make a noticeable dent in their armor.

 

[d_henderson1810]

A obvious example of killing kayfabe is this.

This week, they announced the engagement of Rusev and Lana.

However, in storylines, Rusev and Lana have been broken up for months, with nothing showing on screen that they were getting back together.

No, we have only had Lana angry at Dolph Ziggler, and then no being on screen because of a wrist injury (I don't see how a wrist injury stops her standing in Dolph's corner or stops her showing fear towards Rusev. She could just slap Summer with her other hand). There has been no indication on-screen that Lana and Rusev are in love again, so this engagement has actually stopped the storyline dead (a lot will be glad, because the story was dying anyway).

But I think they should still have had Lana on-air, and have that Dolph and Summer are having an affair, Lana finds out, Dolph goes heel (which would match his Twitter handle) and, as a result, Rusev would go face. Rusev and Lana could then get engaged on-screen, and even have a mock wedding on--air, which is ruined by Dolph and Summer, to continue the feud.

In fact, I think Vince should have ordered Rusev and Lana to not get engaged until they are back together on-screen, to create some synergy with real life, and not have wasted six months on a story which now has no conclusion.

So, what now, when Lana comes back, is she back in Rusev's corner, or all over Dolph like a cheap **** again. How does she explain being back in the arms of someone who mistreated her last time, and has shown no indication on-air that he has changed his ways? Rusev and Lana went into business for themselves.

I mean, back in the day, you never questioned "Macho Man" and Elizabeth, who had been married and divorced, having a wedding at "Summerslam". No-one questioned how Triple H and Stephanie, who had divorced on-screen, and also had an aborted on-screen wedding, are suddenly married with three daughters.

Also, you have things where it is acknowledged on "Total Divas" that John Cena and Nikki Bella are lovers, yet there is not one mention ever on air about this. They never share air-time and it is treated like the relationship doesn't exist.

Also, how come Daniel Bryan or John Cena never confront their partners on-air, and ask them why they are being such bitches in the Divas Division. You have the Bellas as heels, and their beaus as faces.

It makes more sense when a TV actor gets engaged to a co-star, but they are in different relationships on-screen, because everyone can suspend belief, but the "half sports entertainment, half reality show" take WWE has done lately, and Vince's obsession with being known in Hollywood circles and getting their "approval" has made things confusing. It was middled further in the dying days of WCW when Vince Russo had "worked shoot" angles all the time, from Goldberg refusing on-air to take a move and do the job, to Hogan laying down to Jarrett because he played the "creative control" card.

I don't think it will kill wrestling, since everyone is now in it, and accept it somewhat, and yet wrestling is still around. But I think it makes things very confusing.

 

[mlp420]

WWE is squeezing the life out of this genre. I can't imagine how people who don't spend time on sites like this can watch it now. Seeing guys who've never been on TV in their life show up on RAW and have the crowd react to them like their Stone Cold Steve Austin. Hearing people who lose a bunch of matches fair and square cut promos about how they are more deserving than people who've won matches fair and square. If WWE keeps going in this direction, it's only a matter of time until nobody will be able to follow this stuff unless they are hip to all the happenings backstage. Then I think we start to see popularity collapse the way it did in WCW towards the end.

 

[sMark]

Kayfabe is dead for years now, the death changed the way fans view the product. Today, when people watch wrestling, instead of go with who won and who lost, they question the result (because they know, it's staged) when their favorite lose for some reason. The fans "universe" itself is a wild thing where you can find individuals who liked Great Khali or Bastion Booger or who diehard fans of guys like Samy Zayn and Finn Balor, there an ocean of other fans between them, but the general rules are the same - you go with some unique gimmick or great talent (in ring or on the mic) or story where characters add to each other, or your homie, you don't follow the guys simply because of wins and loses, they probably don't matter that much anymore, what is matter is WWE pushing more talented guys over less talented (no matter how many years these guys works for E) instead of their usual win/loss road, and smartly blur the lines in Internet for hot rivalries. Unfortunnely the guys who really run the things in WWE were born so long ago, they can't understand what Internet and social media is and how to use it to make their products better, they also constantly push the guys, fans reject (see couple of last Royal Rumbles) or the guys well past their prime who fans tired of years ago (Kane, Show, Henry).

Broken kayfabe (in it's classic meaning) can be used to make the new one and in the end attract more fans, but you need a team who can understand how to do this, not Vince & co.

 

[Rayne]

WWE is squeezing the life out of this genre. I can't imagine how people who don't spend time on sites like this can watch it now. Seeing guys who've never been on TV in their life show up on RAW and have the crowd react to them like their Stone Cold Steve Austin. Hearing people who lose a bunch of matches fair and square cut promos about how they are more deserving than people who've won matches fair and square. If WWE keeps going in this direction, it's only a matter of time until nobody will be able to follow this stuff unless they are hip to all the happenings backstage. Then I think we start to see popularity collapse the way it did in WCW towards the end.

And yet, the WWE makes more money and has become a much larger company since the Monday Night era. They've launched their own version of Netflix which pulls in $10m in revenue every month. A smaller percentage of the total television population is watching, but they're spending more money per person.

It's one thing not to like the entertainment presentation of the WWE. Besides NXT and The New Day, I'm not really finding much entertainment in the current product either. (Although I could probably watch The New Day for, days.) You can't theorize about The Life and Death of the WWE by talking about what parts of the storytelling you don't like; you have to look at how the company is doing on their balance sheets. This requires more than reading the latest headline on this page's front site, but I'm going to go off on a limb and say there aren't many WSJ readers on this board.

BTW kids, now's the time you want to buy WWE stock if you're planning on flipping it in six months. WWE corporate performance is typically slack during the 3rd quarter as they don't really try too hard to compete with the NFL, but comes rocketing back every year for Wrestlemania season.

 

[BaconBits]

Trying to maintain total kayfabe would be worse for WWE, and professional wrestling in general than anything. Everybody, even the kids that watch the product, know it's fake. They know the results are predetermined. They know wrestler A likely doesn't actually hate wrestler B.

If you try to maintain total kayfabe, you're insulting your audience's intelligence, way, way worse than any stupid illogical storyline.

People don't, even watch wrestling as "sports entertainment" anymore. It's a performance art all it's own, way closer to dancing, than actual sport.

For all the shit that Vince McMahon gets on the internet from supposed "smart" wrestling fans, he figured all this out a long time ago, and despite all the doom and gloom talk, has actually expanded his business since he supposedly "killed" kayfabe.

 

[mkw1962]

The main problems are the writing and story telling is terrible and stories leak out like so and so is coming back, we are not surprised anymore. We know it is fake but I still love it, I wish they would hide some of the stories leaking out from us. For instance we know Lana and Rusev are engaged in real life so that messes up the Rusev/Summer storyline. John Cena leaving for a while so we know he will lose his title soon. This is the main problem with wrestling.