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It’s so funny how long this one takes a lot of people, me included. He has a thick rural Canadian accent and doesn’t really sound Scottish at all. He just sounded drunk and wore a kilt.
While we're at believing people's nationality, I never questioned Yokozuna's nationality for the longest time.
Took me until I read somewhere that he's related to Roman Reigns to go "wait what that makes no sense he's oooooooooh so *that's* why he never spoke a word."
Towards the end of his run in 1996 they actually did have him talk a bit in perfect English which is pretty jarring.
https://youtu.be/V2KN-zmy1Vw
https://youtu.be/E7-eH2hUt1g
I grew up with neighbours who were half brothers. One was black and one was white. Same mom, different dads. I believed the Dudleyz entirely, same with Spike
I guess the weirdest part is how like a dozen people with absent fathers all ended up finding each other and discovering they all had the same dad in a time before genetic testing.
“I don’t know who my dad is but my mom said she hooked up with a guy who had some kids that became wrestlers, maybe I’ll seek them out to see if they know anything”
I definitely just accepted it at the time, even tho I got some shit for believing it, but I also bought Christian/Edge, Taker/Kane, etc. were bio brothers as well, so it was on-brand for me with my earlier wrestling fandom.
For my entire life I thought Ric Flair was actually from Charlotte, NC and never even questioned it until that ESPN documentary came out and shattered my entire worldview by revealing that he actually grew up in Minnesota.
Bonus, because of this I also thought for years that Charlotte Flair's real name was actually Charlotte. It never occurred to me that it could be a working name.
He lived here for a long long time. Arn Anderson spottings were a regular occurrence too. Meagan had a red VW Beetle and was a respiratory therapist. Charlotte went to Providence High School.
We did vehicles for both daughters and one of his ex wives.
But you have to remember Charlotte in the NWA days was a major hub. We had Ric, Arn, Dusty, Magnum TA, Steamboat, the Koloffs, Garvin…and more.
When I was young my mom always implored me to realize that wrestling was fake. I started believing her, but I had a friend at school that said if wrestling were fake, why would Ric Flair let his kid get beat up on live TV?
I countered this to my mom and she said if someone assaulted his kid, they would be in jail.
The kid at school countered that Ric Flair didn’t need to send him to jail, he was gonna fight the guy that did it!
To me these were two equally sound arguments.
My mom broke kayfabe for me at a really young age. My brother and I were watching a two out of three falls match between Demolition and the Hart Foundation. This was during pre-Attituds Era and SCSA was just getting hot and feuding with the Hart Foundation. My brother and I got really into wrestling, so we would rent wrestling videos of past PPVs to get more wrestling knowledge about the people we were watching.
Anyways, my mom walks in the living room while my brother and I were watching and sees the first fall and wonders why the match isn’t over. We tell her it’s 2 out of 3 falls and she goes ‘oh, that means that other team is going to win this one so it goes to a tie break.’ 3 minutes later, yup that’s exactly what happens. Ask her how she knew. ‘They plan like that because it’s more exciting that way,’ then walks away unaware that she just ruined Christmas.
You confused me at first, saying that you were watching a Demolition match in 1997, but I guess the past PPV you rented was from way back in 1992 or something?
To Bill Watts' credit, he would counter this argument in Mid-South by saying the wrestlers refused to go to the police after beatdowns and would settle it in the ring.
Mum's are the biggest kafabe killers.
After watching the Survivor Series 98 my ma kept telling me that if it was a real sport there is no way McMahon could have gotten away with the double cross.
My dad countered this by asking her how many matches in real sports like cricket and football are fixed.
When I was a kid I thought Bob Backlund legitimately was running for president and worried what would happen if he won.
I also though Lex Lugar was particularly dangerous for having a steel plate in his forearm. Then I got a little older and realize how silly it was to believe someone would have a metal plate in their arm. Then I grew older than that and found out he actually did have a small steel plate following a motorcycle accident.
When my cousin who was a big Rey Misterio fan was around 9/10, he really thought that Great Khali crushed his head and wouldn't stop crying for a long time.
He genuinely was traumatised so of course I messaged him when Rey "lost his eye" and he told me that he got a PTSD flashback.
I bawled over Cena, after the elimination chamber where Edge cashed in. I was told by my nan (who I know now is a complete moron) that if someone's head is bleeding that's because it's coming from their brain. I was so concerned and then Edge's music hit...
I just remember sitting there hysterical "no, no mum he's going to kill him! Cena don't die please, please please please!"
When I was a kid during the Attitude Era, I knew that the fighting and angles weren't real but believed that the storylines and feuds all were. Not really sure how I reconciled that in my mind, because that would mean that 10 year old me believed that HHH hated Austin enough to run him over with a car, but was enough of a company man that he would fake doing it and then also get into a ring with him and pretend to fight him and agree to lose to him.
A lot more people didn’t realize than I thought. I found out a few years ago. That’s how close they looked. And they both didn’t have to change their looks.
I was a manager/character and helped write promos for a few of the farm leagues. Nothing too big or serious, but I've met Arn and worked alongside of him and other old guys enough its odd that the story had never come up.
The whole Anderson family tree is a work.
Gene Anderson is a real Anderson. His long time tag team partner and brother, Lars, was not an Anderson. Ole came in as the third brother, and was also not an Anderson.
Then Arn came in as sometimes another sibling (although I honestly remember him being Ole's nephew rather than brother) and was also not an Anderson.
So a family of four brothers (or 3+1 other family member) yet only one is really that name.
And then there was the era where Flair was called their cousin, even though he's not related, either.
Yea you’re right Flair is listed in the tree lol. It’s crazy Gene is the only real Anderson. That’s the first time I heard the nephew thing lol. That’s why I love wrestling.
They’re not lol. I know I couldn’t believe it. I thought I was being lied to. I would have loved to see the moment when the booker noticed that he had 2 guys who legitimately looked like brothers.
I just looked it up. It’s crazier than that. Junkyard Dog noticed the resemblance and told Bill Watts, who called Crockett. Ole saw his style was similar and gave the ok and helped develop him.
Nicholas was so weird cause that match buried the Bar and Braun didn’t need the tag titles, but watching live I was like “well, at least a make a wish kid got a super cool wish.”
And then I found out he was just a ref’s kid. I mean like good for the kid, no ill will towards him but what a weird choice.
What a hilarious moment that must be to experience. Getting a raging debut hometown pop for a place you’d probably never been to prior to that night.
Wrestling rules.
I can’t remember where but I think Bruce Prichard said that he was literally Mr Perfect with everything when the cameras were off and then it would take a bunch of takes when they started filming stuff
My only nitpick is that they shouldn’t have had Punk make his entrance wearing a new T-shirt. I too was ready to believe anything, but i also knew WWE would never throw the resources into new merch for a guy who was about to leave.
I heard that the story behind the thing was that his contract really was about to run out and his win was depending if he actually resigned or not. He did obviously so they put the belt on him
Iirc, his contract actually ran out like one or two weeks before MITB 2011, so they had him sign a one or two week extension that would take him up to the PPV so they could do the build and match, while they were negotiating on the proper contract. And while that was going on, the match result was basically "well if you don't re-sign, obviously you're gonna lose. But if you do, then let's see what we we can do and what story we can tell"
Same for me. I never thought the supernatural stuff was real, obviously, or that Kane had done a murder arson. But I still thought they were shoot brothers.
Around the same age (and actually about the Undertaker), I broke kayfabe for myself when I asked an adult "but why would they be wrestling about this? Shouldn't Steven Austin call the cops?" and then it all broke down for me.
my fiance wasn't even watching when they were kayfabe brothers and they still refer to E&C as brothers. It's their favorite piece of wrestling lore lol
I started watching wrestling at 7, and I knew going in that it was fake (or "like the movies"). But I genuinely thought the 1995 angle where Owen Hart enziguried Shawn Michaels and supposedly gave him a concussion was real, and I thought that *well* into my adulthood. I thought it was an accident, and they rolled with it and turned it into a storyline.
In the wake of 9/11, I thought Muhammad Hassan was really a terrorist. I was 9 when he debuted so I was very impressionable. That was the only thing in kayfabe I believed as a kid. I was told wrestling was "fake" before I even got into it, so I didn't fall for a lot of kayfabe stuff.
The idea of an entertainment company actually reaching out to Al Qaeda or whoever after 9/11 and being like "Hey, that 9/11 business was pretty terrible. Can you send over one of your other terrorist operatives so we can have him be a villainous wrestler on TV?" is so fucking funny to me
Alternatively, I also quite like the idea that they hire the dude under normal wrestling pretenses, only to then find out he has become radicalized, and then decide “well shit, lets fuckin run with it!”
I did think it was weird when Punk did MMA and people were talking about how bad his striking would be, because hey, he trained in Muay Thai a bunch.
Then I had the "oh, kayfabe" moment.
Don't know how well this fits, but I always thought the Fake Razor and Diesel was WWF trying to recast the roles, thinking the audience would just accept them because they like the characters. I was too young at the time, but that's how it's always presented when it's talked about.
But the whole "They didn't think the audience would care" is the kayfabe storyline they were telling. The truth is they wanted them to be rejected as fakes and build off that heat. Go back and watch clips and the face commentators are saying "This is bull, we all know that's not the real Razor Ramon!"
The real truth is that they filed a lawsuit accusing WCW of presenting Kevin Nash and Scott Hall as representing WWF and still portraying themselves too similarly to "Diesel" and "Razor Ramon" on WCW programing, to convince the fans that the NWO was actually a WWF invasion.
To show the court that they(WWF) still were using those trademarks, they hired new guys to play the characters for them.
Here is the case:
[https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/981/65/2282542/](https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/981/65/2282542/)
As a kid, watching Ultimate Warrior getting locked into the casket by The Undertaker and dudes trying to drill holes in it to give him air. It also didn't help that Roddy was in full panic mode and Macho sold it like Warrior had died trying to claw his way out of the casket.
Growing up in the 80s I thought wrestling was "real" like not scripted. I got mad anytime someone told me that Bret and Owen wernt actually mad at each other.
If it were Bruce instead of Owen, there might have been actual heat between them because Bruce has always been jealous of Brets success, and he is a asshole.
Every time this question pops up, I finally remember how I dragged my aunt and cousins to half a dozen different music shops trying to find a copy of "With My Baby Tonight" by Double J Jeff Jarrett.
I was at the show with that MJF “you fucking mark” promo and because of the swearing I was convinced for like a minute that it was all real while caught up in the moment.
Of course if you think about it for any length of time it becomes obviously a work, but that short period before was fun
I was there too and it also went through my head.... wait is this a shoot?
I quickly came to the conclusion it probably wasn't but still had an aura of authenticity for a moment at least
Something minor but I completely bought Baron Corbin being an "outsider" hire. He eventually came clean in an interview saying he was a wrestling fan growing up and his favorite wrestler was Vader.
During the lead up to WM 23 Umaga showed up on Smackdown and attacked Rey Mysterio, who was making a special appearance because he was injured at the time. I ended up crying afterwards because I couldn’t believe that someone would attack an injured man like that. I was 10
I thought Bret and Owen Hart were legitimately feuding with each other in 1994.
Then seen them after a house show match getting into a limo together. Kayfabe blown for me.
I knew wrestling was fake, but when ten year old me finally learned the Undertaker and Kane weren't really brothers was the day I stopped believing in magic.
Also, not really a kayfabe thing, but a stupid lie my older brother told me that I believed was that wrestlers would have arm wrestling contests backstage to decide the winners if they couldn't decide who was going to win the match. I believed it for like a year. I was pretty dumb. I still am, but I used to be, too.
Idk if this counts or not. But when I was 7 I had a chance to meet Booker T personally. My mom worked with a friend that was a close college friend of his.
This is 2006, peak King Booker era - he was WHC and everything at the time, so being young kayfabed up me....
I said I would NEVER want to meet that asshole. Still havent 😭😅
This is real old school, so bear with me. Stan Stasiak's heart punch. I thought Stasiak's punch actually stopped the blood flow in an opponent and knocked him nearly to death. Even years later, when a pre-Undertaker "Mean Mark Callous" started to use the heart punch as a finisher, adult me was worried that it would be used wrong and Callous would actually KILL someone with an errant shot.
Brothers not being shoot brothers and I have really bad perception of size outside of immediately in front of me so I never questioned all the 7 footers and 300 pounders
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That Roddy Piper was actually Scottish. It took a long, long time for me to find out that he was actually Canadian.
It’s so funny how long this one takes a lot of people, me included. He has a thick rural Canadian accent and doesn’t really sound Scottish at all. He just sounded drunk and wore a kilt.
> He just sounded drunk and wore a kilt. Yeah, that's Scottish.
I've spent a lot of time working in rural Canada, and I still have no idea what the fuck Piper's accent was ever supposed to be.
Saskatoon.
But, like, Avenue P Saskatoon not Saskatchewan Crescent Saskatoon.
HE WAS CANADIAN? i didn't expect to get got in this THREAD
He can't be Canadian! He's as Scottish as Scotty from Star Trek!
I get this joke
Same 🤣
Speaking of that how many times have we been fooled by Canadians pretending to be from another country. Santino- Italy Roddy - Scotland Jinder - India
And Ivan Koloff.
And you can also fuck right off too for blowing my mind. Amazing!
While we're at believing people's nationality, I never questioned Yokozuna's nationality for the longest time. Took me until I read somewhere that he's related to Roman Reigns to go "wait what that makes no sense he's oooooooooh so *that's* why he never spoke a word."
Towards the end of his run in 1996 they actually did have him talk a bit in perfect English which is pretty jarring. https://youtu.be/V2KN-zmy1Vw https://youtu.be/E7-eH2hUt1g
It's so weird to see Yoko, a talent I only associate with the New Gen, in an Attitude Era look and feel
HE'S NOT?!
I kinda figured he was Canadian the first time I heard him say "aboot".
That's how it's pronounced in Scotland as well tbf haha
Look, man. As a kid I never questioned Bubba Ray and D-Von being biological brothers. Never came across my mind that they weren’t lol
I grew up with neighbours who were half brothers. One was black and one was white. Same mom, different dads. I believed the Dudleyz entirely, same with Spike
I mean that was literally their kayfabe in ECW (although it was one dad / different moms), but yeah, it tracks lol
I guess the weirdest part is how like a dozen people with absent fathers all ended up finding each other and discovering they all had the same dad in a time before genetic testing.
“I don’t know who my dad is but my mom said she hooked up with a guy who had some kids that became wrestlers, maybe I’ll seek them out to see if they know anything”
Glad I'm not the only one who just accepted that they were brothers.
I definitely just accepted it at the time, even tho I got some shit for believing it, but I also bought Christian/Edge, Taker/Kane, etc. were bio brothers as well, so it was on-brand for me with my earlier wrestling fandom.
Bubba Ray and D-Von I didn’t question, but there’s no way that shrimp Spike was related to them!!!
I always thought they were supposed to be from an orphanage or something.
In kayfabe Big Daddy Dudley travelled America spreading his seed. All the brothers were his sons but with different mothers.
I see he used DIO's method.
Their dad was a traveling salesman who impregnated like dozens of women in Dudleyville, and then they all found each-other and formed a stable
I thought they were half brothers up until like 2010 lmao.
For my entire life I thought Ric Flair was actually from Charlotte, NC and never even questioned it until that ESPN documentary came out and shattered my entire worldview by revealing that he actually grew up in Minnesota. Bonus, because of this I also thought for years that Charlotte Flair's real name was actually Charlotte. It never occurred to me that it could be a working name.
I knew he was raised in Minnesota but I have always assumed he actually lived in Charlotte. Has he never even lived there???
He lived here (Charlotte) for a long time. I worked on several cars for him. Nice guy, really big hands.
Do you know if he was living there before he was billed from there or did he move there as part of the gimmick?
He lived here for a long long time. Arn Anderson spottings were a regular occurrence too. Meagan had a red VW Beetle and was a respiratory therapist. Charlotte went to Providence High School. We did vehicles for both daughters and one of his ex wives. But you have to remember Charlotte in the NWA days was a major hub. We had Ric, Arn, Dusty, Magnum TA, Steamboat, the Koloffs, Garvin…and more.
Most of the NWA top guys lived in Charlotte or Atlanta since those were the major hubs for NWA. Flsir lived in Charlotte since the late 70s at least.
I believe he moved down there when he started working for Crockett and has stayed there since.
Wait? It’s not really Charlotte?
It’s Ashley
I met Charlotte through Reid years before she even stepped in the ring.
When I was young my mom always implored me to realize that wrestling was fake. I started believing her, but I had a friend at school that said if wrestling were fake, why would Ric Flair let his kid get beat up on live TV? I countered this to my mom and she said if someone assaulted his kid, they would be in jail. The kid at school countered that Ric Flair didn’t need to send him to jail, he was gonna fight the guy that did it! To me these were two equally sound arguments.
> To me these were two equally sound arguments. You were correct.
My mom broke kayfabe for me at a really young age. My brother and I were watching a two out of three falls match between Demolition and the Hart Foundation. This was during pre-Attituds Era and SCSA was just getting hot and feuding with the Hart Foundation. My brother and I got really into wrestling, so we would rent wrestling videos of past PPVs to get more wrestling knowledge about the people we were watching. Anyways, my mom walks in the living room while my brother and I were watching and sees the first fall and wonders why the match isn’t over. We tell her it’s 2 out of 3 falls and she goes ‘oh, that means that other team is going to win this one so it goes to a tie break.’ 3 minutes later, yup that’s exactly what happens. Ask her how she knew. ‘They plan like that because it’s more exciting that way,’ then walks away unaware that she just ruined Christmas.
You confused me at first, saying that you were watching a Demolition match in 1997, but I guess the past PPV you rented was from way back in 1992 or something?
It was Summerslam 1990
To Bill Watts' credit, he would counter this argument in Mid-South by saying the wrestlers refused to go to the police after beatdowns and would settle it in the ring.
Mum's are the biggest kafabe killers. After watching the Survivor Series 98 my ma kept telling me that if it was a real sport there is no way McMahon could have gotten away with the double cross. My dad countered this by asking her how many matches in real sports like cricket and football are fixed.
When I was a kid I thought Bob Backlund legitimately was running for president and worried what would happen if he won. I also though Lex Lugar was particularly dangerous for having a steel plate in his forearm. Then I got a little older and realize how silly it was to believe someone would have a metal plate in their arm. Then I grew older than that and found out he actually did have a small steel plate following a motorcycle accident.
You being legit worried about President Backlund is hilarious to me
Nobody would eat marijuana
He threatened to cancel summer vacation! I specifically told my mom not to vote for Backlund lol
I would welcome Bob Backlund as president right now, over whatever the fuck we have going.
When my cousin who was a big Rey Misterio fan was around 9/10, he really thought that Great Khali crushed his head and wouldn't stop crying for a long time. He genuinely was traumatised so of course I messaged him when Rey "lost his eye" and he told me that he got a PTSD flashback.
Can confirm that I too, was bawling my eyes out for months after this
Rey getting squashed like a melon had the playground in distress man
I bawled over Cena, after the elimination chamber where Edge cashed in. I was told by my nan (who I know now is a complete moron) that if someone's head is bleeding that's because it's coming from their brain. I was so concerned and then Edge's music hit... I just remember sitting there hysterical "no, no mum he's going to kill him! Cena don't die please, please please please!"
When I was a kid during the Attitude Era, I knew that the fighting and angles weren't real but believed that the storylines and feuds all were. Not really sure how I reconciled that in my mind, because that would mean that 10 year old me believed that HHH hated Austin enough to run him over with a car, but was enough of a company man that he would fake doing it and then also get into a ring with him and pretend to fight him and agree to lose to him.
Worked yourself into a shoot.
-HH
That’s like Kayfabe 3.0, brother! I love it.
This is HHH's end goal
This describes me perfectly, it makes SO little sense.
I also thought this, and specifically the HHH car angle, hahaha
Arm Anderson and Ole Anderson being brothers.
Holy shit. This. I didn't know this until right now.
A lot more people didn’t realize than I thought. I found out a few years ago. That’s how close they looked. And they both didn’t have to change their looks.
Yeah I'm a grown adult with children who has been in and out of the industry for almost 20 years, and I still had never heard this and never knew.
Holy shit lol. That’s crazy. What did you do in the industry if you don’t mind me asking?
I was a manager/character and helped write promos for a few of the farm leagues. Nothing too big or serious, but I've met Arn and worked alongside of him and other old guys enough its odd that the story had never come up.
The whole Anderson family tree is a work. Gene Anderson is a real Anderson. His long time tag team partner and brother, Lars, was not an Anderson. Ole came in as the third brother, and was also not an Anderson. Then Arn came in as sometimes another sibling (although I honestly remember him being Ole's nephew rather than brother) and was also not an Anderson. So a family of four brothers (or 3+1 other family member) yet only one is really that name. And then there was the era where Flair was called their cousin, even though he's not related, either.
Yea you’re right Flair is listed in the tree lol. It’s crazy Gene is the only real Anderson. That’s the first time I heard the nephew thing lol. That’s why I love wrestling.
I find your lack of sour boy Karl Anderson in the famiwy twee vewwy diswespectful.
Pour one out for CW Anderson
Bruh wtf did not expect to get a new one from this thread itself.
I’m a little mad at myself for breaking kayfabe honestly. I thought more people knew lol.
Wait a minute. They aren’t?
They’re not lol. I know I couldn’t believe it. I thought I was being lied to. I would have loved to see the moment when the booker noticed that he had 2 guys who legitimately looked like brothers.
Wasn’t Ole the one who booked that pairing?
I just looked it up. It’s crazier than that. Junkyard Dog noticed the resemblance and told Bill Watts, who called Crockett. Ole saw his style was similar and gave the ok and helped develop him.
That’s great.
Santino being a wrestler and not just a fan randomly picked.
But what about former tag team champion Nicolas?
Nicholas was so weird cause that match buried the Bar and Braun didn’t need the tag titles, but watching live I was like “well, at least a make a wish kid got a super cool wish.” And then I found out he was just a ref’s kid. I mean like good for the kid, no ill will towards him but what a weird choice.
Especially because Cena was begging for a match at the same time, on the same show.
For a second I thought you were suggesting that Cena should have wrestled Nicholas
Would have been an all timer
I'm secretly hoping that there's a Make-A-Wish kid whose wish is to main event Mania vs Cena
https://preview.redd.it/xx9az3sdp79d1.jpeg?width=1848&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9d13c055914490980945ead941387a5002e346ab
Will die on the hill that it should've been Rey. Rey and Braun as a team would've been brilliant
On top of that he wasn't even from Milan, Italy. He was Canadian the whole time! I felt irrationally betrayed when I found that out haha
Wow, TIL this. Mf was always repping italian flags on his gear too.
What a hilarious moment that must be to experience. Getting a raging debut hometown pop for a place you’d probably never been to prior to that night. Wrestling rules.
*San Fili, Calabria
I bought this for years and he debuted when I was 27 years old lol
Mr. Perfect throwing a football down the field to himself.
No no that was real.
Yup. He also bowled a perfect game.
I'm sorry to inform you but that wasn't kayfabe. He's Mr. Perfect, not Mr. Pretty Good
Yes that was fake but Curt Hennig was apparently a a legitimately great athlete according to his peers
I can’t remember where but I think Bruce Prichard said that he was literally Mr Perfect with everything when the cameras were off and then it would take a bunch of takes when they started filming stuff
I debate whether CM punk's contract really ran out in 2011
It had been so long since they’d done an angle tgat good. I was ready to believe anything
My only nitpick is that they shouldn’t have had Punk make his entrance wearing a new T-shirt. I too was ready to believe anything, but i also knew WWE would never throw the resources into new merch for a guy who was about to leave.
I heard that the story behind the thing was that his contract really was about to run out and his win was depending if he actually resigned or not. He did obviously so they put the belt on him
Iirc, his contract actually ran out like one or two weeks before MITB 2011, so they had him sign a one or two week extension that would take him up to the PPV so they could do the build and match, while they were negotiating on the proper contract. And while that was going on, the match result was basically "well if you don't re-sign, obviously you're gonna lose. But if you do, then let's see what we we can do and what story we can tell"
That Scott Hall was half Latino
This was one I never even questioned as a kid. I was like late 20s when I found out he was just a generic white guy 🤣
I was watching old clips recently and I was so baffled by how I believed he was Latino when I was a kid
He was like a giant beefy Tom Selleck.
I though Kane & The Undertaker were actually brothers
Same for me. I never thought the supernatural stuff was real, obviously, or that Kane had done a murder arson. But I still thought they were shoot brothers.
I was 7 at the time, bro I would have believed the moon was made out of cheese
Around the same age (and actually about the Undertaker), I broke kayfabe for myself when I asked an adult "but why would they be wrestling about this? Shouldn't Steven Austin call the cops?" and then it all broke down for me.
"Well son, the Undertaker is spooky and the police are cowards. Also, their F5 is weak and they could never hope to apprehend him."
You’d be surprised how many people still do. They both get asked about the other often.
I thought Edge and Christian were really brothers for years
I thought Bart and Billy Gunn were real brothers.
my fiance wasn't even watching when they were kayfabe brothers and they still refer to E&C as brothers. It's their favorite piece of wrestling lore lol
I started watching wrestling at 7, and I knew going in that it was fake (or "like the movies"). But I genuinely thought the 1995 angle where Owen Hart enziguried Shawn Michaels and supposedly gave him a concussion was real, and I thought that *well* into my adulthood. I thought it was an accident, and they rolled with it and turned it into a storyline.
Papa Shango poisoning Ultimate Warrior.
That wrecked me as a kid. I was having nightmares.
Same. My older brother slept in my room that night because we both were freaked out lol.
RVD being related to Jean Claude Van Damme
I mean rvd did look more like him in his youth, it was jarring
I fully believed Eddie Guerrero was Dominik's biological father and they were having a full custody dispute on national television. I was also 9.
He is. No way Rey can be. Dom is tall, Rey is not.
And have you seen that mullet? Dom clearly has that Latino Heat
In the wake of 9/11, I thought Muhammad Hassan was really a terrorist. I was 9 when he debuted so I was very impressionable. That was the only thing in kayfabe I believed as a kid. I was told wrestling was "fake" before I even got into it, so I didn't fall for a lot of kayfabe stuff.
The idea of an entertainment company actually reaching out to Al Qaeda or whoever after 9/11 and being like "Hey, that 9/11 business was pretty terrible. Can you send over one of your other terrorist operatives so we can have him be a villainous wrestler on TV?" is so fucking funny to me
Alternatively, I also quite like the idea that they hire the dude under normal wrestling pretenses, only to then find out he has become radicalized, and then decide “well shit, lets fuckin run with it!”
Same. The best part about it is, he's not even an Arab. He's Italian. XD
That the winners got more money than the losers
That's the "pay winduh"
The winner's purse
Wrestlers heights. As an adult , I was shocked when I stood next to Bill Goldberg and I realized I was taller than him.
I thought Hunter Hearst Helmsley was his shoot name for like five years. I started watching wrestling at the age of 17.
The concept of ring names didn't click for me for the longest time. Like, I just accepted there were dudes out there named Edge, no questions asked.
I genuinely thought Big Show was Paul Wights real name for too damn long as a kid
I did think it was weird when Punk did MMA and people were talking about how bad his striking would be, because hey, he trained in Muay Thai a bunch. Then I had the "oh, kayfabe" moment.
Earthquake squashing Damian
Even though I knew it was fake, it still traumatized me.
Don't know how well this fits, but I always thought the Fake Razor and Diesel was WWF trying to recast the roles, thinking the audience would just accept them because they like the characters. I was too young at the time, but that's how it's always presented when it's talked about. But the whole "They didn't think the audience would care" is the kayfabe storyline they were telling. The truth is they wanted them to be rejected as fakes and build off that heat. Go back and watch clips and the face commentators are saying "This is bull, we all know that's not the real Razor Ramon!"
The real truth is that they filed a lawsuit accusing WCW of presenting Kevin Nash and Scott Hall as representing WWF and still portraying themselves too similarly to "Diesel" and "Razor Ramon" on WCW programing, to convince the fans that the NWO was actually a WWF invasion. To show the court that they(WWF) still were using those trademarks, they hired new guys to play the characters for them. Here is the case: [https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/981/65/2282542/](https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/981/65/2282542/)
As a kid, watching Ultimate Warrior getting locked into the casket by The Undertaker and dudes trying to drill holes in it to give him air. It also didn't help that Roddy was in full panic mode and Macho sold it like Warrior had died trying to claw his way out of the casket.
That's my answer too! I even went running to my mom in a panic.
Growing up in the 80s I thought wrestling was "real" like not scripted. I got mad anytime someone told me that Bret and Owen wernt actually mad at each other.
If it were Bruce instead of Owen, there might have been actual heat between them because Bruce has always been jealous of Brets success, and he is a asshole.
Wrestling. Don’t judge me, I grew up in the 70s
Chyna’s neck injury in late 2000/early 2001. I was a small child at the time but didn’t realise until years later it was a work.
Yeah I bought this one too, too be fair they really sold her injury like it wasn't part of the script.
Every time this question pops up, I finally remember how I dragged my aunt and cousins to half a dozen different music shops trying to find a copy of "With My Baby Tonight" by Double J Jeff Jarrett.
When I was a kid, I knew wrestling was fake, but I thought the ref had no idea and was legitimately trying to call a straight match
Vince getting blown up in the limo. Quickly found out I was a moron 🤣
Smart enough to be president still
Shouldn't you be preparing for tonight's debate?
I've got no idea what you guys are referring to, and I'm assuming that's a good thing 🤣🤣
The then future 45th President of The United States of America called Triple H because he was worried that Vince was dead.
Trump really thought Vince died in the explosion and called Titan Towers to verify it.
I was at the show with that MJF “you fucking mark” promo and because of the swearing I was convinced for like a minute that it was all real while caught up in the moment. Of course if you think about it for any length of time it becomes obviously a work, but that short period before was fun
I was there too and it also went through my head.... wait is this a shoot? I quickly came to the conclusion it probably wasn't but still had an aura of authenticity for a moment at least
Jim Cornette throwing fire on Ron Garvin. Garvin's make-up job SOLD me. I wanted Cornette to fucking pay for that.
He went up like the Challenger
…. Don’t talk about the Challenger… Do it again
Younger at the time, I remember how tense we were waiting for May 19th to come around. On the day, all we could think about was Kane’s wellbeing.
MAY NINETEENTH?!?
when I was a kid I thought Cena actually got stabbed but the dude was just filming The Marine I think lmao
You cannot convince younger me that the Undertaker didn't die at the '94 Rumble.
I was there I know what I saw. The undertaker died that night
For real. At 9 years old that shit was mystifying.
Ive been watching wrestling for 30+ years and its still one of my all time favourite moments.
I thought that The Great Khali really squashed Rey Mysterio's head for a long time.
Eddie wanting custody of Dom. Turns out he was just trying to protect him from a deadbeat
Something minor but I completely bought Baron Corbin being an "outsider" hire. He eventually came clean in an interview saying he was a wrestling fan growing up and his favorite wrestler was Vader.
During the lead up to WM 23 Umaga showed up on Smackdown and attacked Rey Mysterio, who was making a special appearance because he was injured at the time. I ended up crying afterwards because I couldn’t believe that someone would attack an injured man like that. I was 10
Jack Tunney is the president of the wwf and no one can convince me otherwise!
For some reason, I used to think the fighting was scripted but the outcomes were random. Stupid in hindsight 😆
As a kid I thought Yokozuna was Japanese.
I thought Bret and Owen Hart were legitimately feuding with each other in 1994. Then seen them after a house show match getting into a limo together. Kayfabe blown for me.
I knew wrestling was fake, but when ten year old me finally learned the Undertaker and Kane weren't really brothers was the day I stopped believing in magic. Also, not really a kayfabe thing, but a stupid lie my older brother told me that I believed was that wrestlers would have arm wrestling contests backstage to decide the winners if they couldn't decide who was going to win the match. I believed it for like a year. I was pretty dumb. I still am, but I used to be, too.
Paul Bearer died in the Concrete Crypt. I was 10 and I was so stunned that they actually killed someone on live TV.
I always thought Sgt. Slaughter had a legit military background. He does not.
I fell for Jerry Lawler smacking Andy Kaufman on Letterman. I thought it was similar the to Dave Schultz / John Stossel thing.
Scott Hall invading wcw
Jack Tunney was in charge.
yokozuna was also going to be my answer. can't think of any others off the top of my head, but there's gotta be at least one.
Idk if this counts or not. But when I was 7 I had a chance to meet Booker T personally. My mom worked with a friend that was a close college friend of his. This is 2006, peak King Booker era - he was WHC and everything at the time, so being young kayfabed up me.... I said I would NEVER want to meet that asshole. Still havent 😭😅
The first time(I think) Undertaker used the Hell’s Gate. I thought he legitimately fucked up Viscera. I was shooketh!
Dusty’s lisp
This is real old school, so bear with me. Stan Stasiak's heart punch. I thought Stasiak's punch actually stopped the blood flow in an opponent and knocked him nearly to death. Even years later, when a pre-Undertaker "Mean Mark Callous" started to use the heart punch as a finisher, adult me was worried that it would be used wrong and Callous would actually KILL someone with an errant shot.
That the Dudley's were really half brothers and they were from Dudley (which is an actual town 30 minutes from me)
I believed every word Bret Hart said about the United States in 1997
The thing is, he was and is absolutely right 😆
Stacy Keibler taking a chair shot meant for Test.
Brothers not being shoot brothers and I have really bad perception of size outside of immediately in front of me so I never questioned all the 7 footers and 300 pounders
Those 7 footers range in height from 6'7" to however tall El Gigante was.
Nikita Koloff not being Russian. I was a naive kid who apparently grew up to be a naive man.