http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I38RnTapKh8 Kayfabe, the traditional code of wrestlers to keep up their character at all times, is, in the era of constant reality and exposure, a construct of the wrestling business that wears at the very fabric of being human. It seems, on the surface at once both antiquated and necessary to the deceit of wrestling. Over the years, only the biggest of faces (Stone Cold, The Rock, HBK, Hogan, Cena) have found a way to balance their in-ring personalities with their everyday lives. For most, it can oft times be a bitter pill, and for the WWEs creative structure, it can be something that cripples its appeal in an era where every action is under constant scrutiny. It only took CM Punk 5 minutes to take this conundrum and blow it completely to smithereens. As Punk sat down on stage at the end of Raw on June 27, 2011, WWE fans expected a traditional promo; we knew about Punks plan to leave the WWE, and that he had heat with Cena. What followed however was a promo that literally broke the Internet. CM Punk took everything that die-hard wrestling fans understood about sports entertainment; the politics in the back, the treatment of certain former employees who didnt want to follow tired gimmicks, the hypocrisy of the pecking order within the company, and he aired it out in front of an audience that suddenly no longer had to suspend its disbelief. It caused social shockwaves so large that people who had never watched a WWE match were immersing themselves in the promo. In the eighty years since Gorgeous George invented the concept of a wrestler having a character, no one had dared to truly break the fourth wall. There had been incidents before in which the construct had dissolved (The Montreal Screwjob and Stone Colds injured victory over Owen Hart at SummerSlam 1997 to name two), but it had never been as daring or as blatant. CM Punk, a man frustrated by being shackled with Nexus, a gimmick that forced him to act like a literal savior, demanded that he be allowed to express himself as who he really is, not merely by his decision to live straight-edge. That night, he proved that he wasnt just arrogant on the level of a poorly drawn character. He proved that the arrogance of CM Punk was defined by his belief, as a real person, that he is the best in the world. In those five minutes, the Reality Era of the WWE was born, and it was once again thrust into a new exciting future, much as the Attitude Era once was compelled forward by Austin 3:16. The WWE is once again flying by the seat of their pants, and it is in those moments when they are at their best.