10 Wrestlers Who Broke Kayfabe In Unusual Ways

3. Bayley, Sasha, Alexa And Nikki Stop Wrestling...

Becky Lynch
WWE

...when the whole world probably should have followed their lead.

The first ever pandemic SmackDown was a curious experiment of an episode that had Triple H bantering Michael Cole off the face of the earth in a coy way to cosy up workplace bullying, highlights of other pay-per-views to fill the gaps between the "novelty" Performance Center bouts, and absolutely no mention whatsoever of why the f*ck we were all suddenly all locked indoors.

Given the difficult task of opening up a historic and slightly tragic show, Bayley, Sasha Banks, Nikki Cross and Alexa Bliss put forth a decent doubles effort under the pressure of atmosphere unlike any in wrestling history. No fans, no noise, no point, in reality, and the four of them understandably agreed when the show cut to break.

Though SmackDown was live, a lack of audience rendered anything within the commercial break completely redundant, apart from select feeds in various corners of the world that got the lot. The lot, in this case, was a shot of the two teams simply stopping wrestling and prepping to come back from commercial.

What once might have scanned as a scandal didn't even register as as misstep, as a fanbase with more on their mind were forced to get used to understanding and accepting some extremely difficult circumstances.

In this post: 
Becky Lynch
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett