In professional wrestling, kayfabe (pronounced KAY-fayb; IPA: Template:IPA) refers to the portrayal of events within the industry as real, that is the portrayal of professional wrestling as not staged or worked. Referring to events as kayfabe means that they are worked events, and/or part of a wrestling storyline. In relative terms, a wrestler breaking kayfabe during a show would be likened to an actor breaking character on camera.
Kayfabe is often seen as the suspension of disbelief that is used to create the non-wrestling aspects of promotions, such as feuds, storylines, and gimmicks, in a similar manner with other forms of entertainment such as soap opera or movie. In the past, kayfabe was strongly adhered to in order to preserve the illusion that pro wrestling was not staged. With the advent of the Internet Wrestling Community and the sports entertainment movement in pro wrestling, the maintenance of pro wrestling's backstage secrets are more difficult to keep than they were in earlier decades. Today, kayfabe is sometimes broken to advance storylines, to explain prolonged absences due to legitimate injury, as a tribute to a wrestler, or even for comedic effect.
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However, (even today), wrestlers who unexpectedly break kayfabe are often punished for their actions. One of the most notable such cases was the MSG Incident where Triple H's rise to professional wrestling stardom in the
WWF was stunted for some time after he embraced his soon-to-be departing onscreen rivals, Diesel and Razor Ramon, at the end of a house show at Madison Square Garden.
Origins of the term kayfabe
Pro wrestling can trace some of its stylistic origins back to carnivals and Catch Wrestling, where the term "kayfabe" is thought to have originated as carny slang for "protecting the secrets of the business." The term "kayfabe" itself may ultimately originate from the Pig Latin form of "fake" ("ake-fay") or the phrase "be fake."
Kayfabe may also derive from another trick used by traveling carnival workers. With money tight, a carny would call home collect and ask for "Kay Fabian." This was code letting the people at home know they had made it safely to the next town without paying for the cost of a phone call.
Common types of kayfabe
The most obvious part of kayfabe is in the wrestling itself. Many of the moves employed in wrestling have the potential of inflicting serious injury, and it is the responsibility of wrestlers to protect each other in the ring while appearing to inflict massive amounts of damage (a notion known as selling a move in wrestling circles). As such, wrestlers are often less injured than depicted, and thus appear to have recovered in time for the following show. Hardcore wrestling is an example in which this part of kayfabe is enhanced (yet in a sense, broken) for good effect - that the moves that wrestlers often inflict on each other are legitimate, and should not be used to those who are not trained in wrestling.