WWE Superstars who don't break Kayfabe

[DCLXVI]

I thought this might be an interesting topic. Back in the old days wrestlers did not break Kayfabe, heel wrestlers would not travel with babyface wrestlers and so forth. In today's era, obviously a lot of WWE stars tweet and post on Instragam about their personal lives/pictures of their family. Then there are stars like Luke Harper who post either nothing, or cryptic in-character tweets, etc. Off the top of my head Undertaker and Sting have stayed pretty private, dropping clues about their real lives but keeping it professional.

I know Kayfabe really doesn't exist nowadays, but do you judge a Superstar sometimes from the things they post on the Internet? It's similar to actors, say Keanu Reeves never made headlines over his personal life. What stars can you think of who guard their wrestling personas?

 

[The Mattitude Era]

I watched an interview that Bray Wyatt did for some radio show, and even though the interviewer kept asking him kayfabe-breaking questions, Bray in answering them would never really come out of character.

I haven't listened to Bray on Austin's or Jericho's podcast from a couple weeks ago. I can't remember whose he was on. Was it any good, does anyone know?

 

[Double S]

Heel Jericho during his suit wearing days is the most recent that comes to mind, last truly great heel

 

[Mudlup50]

Cody Rhodes has been good at it from what I've heard, completely acting like he doesn't know who Stardust is. Aside from that, even Stephanie has broken kayfabe at this point so...I'm curious who else gets posted

 

[FlairFan2003]

I thought this might be an interesting topic. Back in the old days wrestlers did not break Kayfabe, heel wrestlers would not travel with babyface wrestlers and so forth.

Actually, heel & face wrestlers did travel together, they just didn't do it on commercial transportation like cabs or public planes. Remember how Mil Mascaras had to appear and wrestle right after the 1975 plane crash (although he did almost nothing in a tag team match) to protect "kayfabe" so no one would know he was traveling with heels like Johnny Valentine & Ric Flair in a private charter plane ....

 

[MR K]

I don't think its anywhere near as bad as it used to be though, Social media, dirtsheets, shoot interviews, the fans getting "smarter" and WWE breaking the 4th wall on occassion has really destroyed kayfabe.

Wasn't there a Mexican Wrestler who didn't take his mask off for decades then done it live on a tv show? Im sure i've seen/read this somewhere before but I can't for the life of me remeber the wrestlers name.

As the poster above stated after the plane crash of 1975 Mil Mascaras had to appear and wrestle, I believe with a broken back or neck. I think today this situation would be reported and we would find out who exactly was on the flight etc.

 

[chuckmdubya]

The guy who kept it kayfabe the best was David Shultz. If you've never seen the interview where he slapped John Stossel to the ground twice, you need to check it out.

 

[shalliin]

Undertaker has rarely broken character for 20+ years. Only a handful of times has he appeared out of character, usually when at an event as a bystander and never within the closed world of wrestling. He had an appearance on off the record prior to last mania in toronto, one or two interviews in WWE magazine during the American Badass phase, but aside from the odd private 'public' appearance at UFC or boxing events, rarely shows OOC.

 

[Rane]

Damien Sandow from what I've seen when he was the "intellectual savior of the masses". He would kind of patronize the interviewer at times which was funny and avoided questions about his character. I believe those efforts were all done and dusted when he later became a jobber for a while.

 

[enviousdominous]

Damn you internet! Pro-wrestling used to be so much more fun before easy access to the truth ruined it!

Back before the internet became a home necessity pro-wrestlers never broke kayfabe, you'd hardly ever find a televised example of something taboo like a heel and face getting along.

My favorite example of when things seemed to get really real was when Tommy Dreamer (kayfabe) accidentally caused Sandman's ciggarette to blind him. Sandman hardly ever left his house while the angle was being hyped, and if he ever left to check the mail he'd have his head bandaged up like he'd never see again. I'm pretty sure that it was months before Sandman came back to the ring, still wearing his bandages, only to rip them off and attack Dreamer from behind.

One interesting story of when a taboo was broken; Dick Slater attacked Sting before a show at one time. Dick had just broken up with Dark Journey. Dark Journey was still working for Mid-South, so she had to find a ride to the next venue as Dick ditched her. Sting, being young and naive, offered to drive her to the next venue. When Dick found out that Sting and Dark Journey had just arrived at the venue, he stormed into the face locker room and hit Sting so hard that Sting was out for ten seconds. Dick gave Sting a swirly in the toilet also, Sting didn't resist. Dick wasn't a very big guy, but everyone in the face locker room was terrified of him.