10 Wrestlers Who Were Punished For Breaking Kayfabe

Stick to the script!

Fans watching Raw this past Monday were treated to quite the spectacle. Earlier that day, TMZ broke the news that Rusev and his former manager, Lana, had gotten engaged. The story picked up mainstream coverage, and while WWE probably should have chosen to ignore the news - at least on television - they promised to address the storyline-damaging events live on the Raw broadcast. When Rusev's segment on the show rolled around, the former possessor of a year-long undefeated streak was jobbed in three minutes, then verbally ripped to shreds by his current manager, Summer Rae. While it is possible that there's a longer plan at work, the booking of Raw certainly seemed counterproductive to keeping Rusev over as a strong heel. This wasn't the first time that a wrestler has been punished for breaking "kayfabe" - the law of upholding storylines and angles both on and off TV. Granted, it may have been the pettiest punishment for the strangest reason - especially given how haphazardly kayfabe is enforced these days - but many wrestlers have found themselves in trouble for pulling back the curtain. For good reasons or bad, they were jobbed out, suspended, or even fired...

Contributor
Contributor

Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried. *Best Crowd of the Year, 2013