10 Wrestlers Who Drew REAL Heat In The Post-Kayfabe Age
Drawing heat has never been harder, but MJF, Sasha Banks and Cody Rhodes brought the lighters...
"The post-kayfabe age" is a strange title, admittedly, because almost *everything* is the post-kayfabe age.
Legendary shooter Frank Gotch wrestled shoot matches and worked worked matches, jabroni mark. The transition to the work in full developed in the early 20th century because pro wrestling was really rather boring - just endless methodical slogs - so quite why WWE has taken on the pacing of the 1910s 110 years later is rather puzzling. It's no wonder that they find it difficult to reach a young audience.
So realistically, all the great, all-time heat moments - Ole Anderson locking Dusty Rhodes in the cage, Terry Gordy slamming the cage door on Kerry Von Erich's head, Terry Funk drilling Ric Flair through a table - all transpired when the game was up.
But the millennial generation for whatever reason defines "post-kayfabe," generally, as the period of time when they stopped believing, whether that belief was shattered by Brian Pillman or Vince McMahon's open acknowledgement that the events of pro wrestling were all scripted.
So, for the purposes of clarification, the "post-kayfabe age" is defined here as "the years after thirty-somethings grew up and stopped reacting earnestly".
The paradigm shifted into a paradox. Wrestling fans respected those who managed to draw boos, because it meant they were great at their job.
Unless...
10. FTR
FTR were exceptional as the Revival in NXT.
Modernising the classic live-and-die feeling of southern-style tag drama with what was a restoration and advancement of the art, they highlighted the peak of NXT in their amazing wars with American Alpha and #DIY. Those triumphs in which the babyface teams rose above - genuine scenes of life-affirming elation celebrated by thousands upon thousands of fans - would not have resonated with a spirit uncharacteristic of the 21st century, were it not for the expert heel work of Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler.
The two men engineered a different but no less potent strain of heat upon arriving in All Elite Wrestling.
They remain a fantastic tag team, but made the decision to really, really lean hard on the Jim Cornette-adjacent anti-new school schtick to an extent that worked several diehards. With their almost tedious ranting, FTR willingly invited a backlash. They did so at the perfect time - right at the precipice of their seminal Full Gear match with the Young Bucks - to make those fans want that babyface victory and want it badly.
Almost like they knew what they were doing.