"There's no kayfabe in the business anymore. "

[Karl Kox]

     "There's no kayfabe in the business anymore. "
 
My whole life I heard this repeated time and time again from my father and other old wrestlers.

In 1954 a 24year old Herb Gerwig was living in Cleveland fresh out of the Marines playing semi pro football,  and working construction. In his free time he would workout at the local YMCA,  where he met an old wrestler by the name of "Gentleman" Fred Bozik. One night there was a snow storm and some of the wrestlers couldn't make it in to Cleveland,  so Fred calls my dad and asks him to come down to the arena and fill in. He got down there,  was handed a pair of old green tights and shoes. "Who am I wrestling? " He asked. The promoter pointed to an old man sitting in the corner.   My dad said he thought,  I'm young, strong,  in the best shape of my life,  there's no way that old man has a chance.  He went out,  the bell rang and the old man beat the the hell outta him. "He tied me up like a pretzel" he used to always say. The old man was Ralph Ruffy Silverstein, who was a former NCAA champion in 1935.

Young Herb Gerwig wrestled on and off for the next year or so getting his ass handed to him night after night,  quiting several times and not knowing wrestling was a work.  They never told him it was fake!

That's how well protected the business used to be. There were no smart marks,  or wrestling reality TV shows.

"I still feel that old SOB" he'd say.

THAT IS TRUE KAYFABE






    

[Montague]

Great story.
There are lots of accounts of how guys in the business would stiff the shit out of noobs in hopes that - whether they returned, or not - they would spread the word of how brutal professional wrestling is.
Many of my favorite stories involve how guys back in the fifties and sixties were smartened up.


As for kayfabe, I have mixed feelings...

I could never understand why so many guys were so touchy about it.
IMO - anyone who bothered to think about it for just a few seconds could figure it out; even back in the day.
I think the old mantra of, "They won't buy tickets if they don't believe it's real" is, and has been, antiquated from quite a while.

Even forty years ago, the names alone should have clued you in.
Seriously, did you ever know anyone who named their kid "The Missing Link?"
Did they ever announce a pro boxer as hailing from Parts Unknown?

I just think it was a little condescending and unreasonable to throw some of that stuff out there and then worry about "protecting" the inner-workings for the sake of the business.
Hell, after the old man came clean on his own show following the '97 Survivor Series, business EXPLODED, surpassing even the Hulkamania boom!

Anyway, kayfabe certainly has existed in some form/capacity over the years, and it's always interesting to hear stories about it.

[Karl Kox]

I will say and my dad agreed that the best thing fir the business was Vince "exposing " it as he used to say. 

My dad was just old school,  kayfabe to the old guys just wasn't about protecting the business,  it was like a camaraderie thing as well.  Not only did the protect each others but a lot of the old guys also talked in carny if they were talking about the business in public. 

Even up until my dads death if him and I were talking about something,  not necessarily wrestling,  he'd say kayfabe.  Like if we were talking about a girls ass and my mom walked in the room.  My whole family says it.

One thing I remember really burning his ass was back stage at a wwe event The Road Dogs were discussing their finish for their up coming match right out in the open in front of a janitor and even got her input ob the whole thing. They thought it was so funny to see him all worked up about it. 

Another time when I was very little back stage WWF house show my dad and Black Jack Lanza were talking and a young wrestler walked by a wrote kayfabe on a chalk board that was there.  My dad said hey erase that,  you don't have any idea what it means. 

[The Showstoppa]

Kayfabe was great for the business from the standpoint of allowing younger viewers to REALLY get into it....now all the young viewers I know are such "smarks" that even if their fav guy loses, they will talk about the politics of it, etc... whereas at their age I would get legit pissed and actually worry about it...haha.....  Of course at a certain age we all "get it" but to me it's a lot like VKM pulled the curtain back on Santa Claus for younger viewers. 

[OLE BIG]

Kayfabe was great for the business from the standpoint of allowing younger viewers to REALLY get into it....now all the young viewers I know are such "smarks" that even if their fav guy loses, they will talk about the politics of it, etc... whereas at their age I would get legit pissed and actually worry about it...haha.....  Of course at a certain age we all "get it" but to me it's a lot like VKM pulled the curtain back on Santa Claus for younger viewers. 

I fall on this side as well.

I remember when I first started thinking something was up.  My thought then became that some of the stuff I saw on tv might be fake, but the big matches, Starrcade, Great American Bash, etc. were the real deal.

I think that says something to the way the business was back then, which I think might be the thing that ruins it for me nowdays as much as anything.  Things were built for a while, and the blow-off match was almost always something special and defined a clear ending.  Nothing has time to build anymore, you talk one week, take it to the PPV and then on to the next sorry chapter.