10 Precise Moments Kayfabe Ended
9. Jack Pfefer Snitches
There's a strange, circular irony to the legacy of controversial promoter Jack Pfefer.
Both promoter and troll, Pfefer wrote to the press to denounce the legitimacy of professional wrestling, presumably to put over his defiant, open brand of it, which wasn't too dissimilar to the sports entertainment coined (but not exactly invented) by Vince McMahon. Pfefer used "freaks" and theatrics as part of his vision, introducing little people as pro wrestlers to the public, in contravention to the norm of legitimate, strong men grapplers. Moreover, he promoted the French and Swedish Angels, remarkable for their acromegaly-shaped looks.
Pfefer, much like Vince McMahon, traded in the outlandish.
He ended the thinnest pretence of kayfabe in the New York territory with the gleeful cackle of a total irritant, and, his revelations to the New York Daily Mirror twinned with the Great Depression, plummeted the integrity of the racket and gates in the city throughout the 1930s.
The industry in New York only recovered through the formation of Capitol Wrestling Corporation Ltd, formed by Toots Mondt and Jess McMahon. The company formed the WWWF in 1963, which quickly set itself apart as the moneyed, dominant territory through its straight-laced booking and the earnest, super-popular babyface Bruno Sammartino.
From Pfefer's ashes, the phoenix that became WWE was born - but Pfefer's visionary spirit informed the monopoly it became.