So... Kayfabe. Personal Experience

deanodrummer

Hey dudes...

I was in L.A recently heading home from LAX airport. Seen Mark Henry in the security queue... Huge guy, didn't say anything to him though. Seemed cool. Later on I noticed a couple of lookers, upon closer inspection I realised it was Maryse and The Bella Twins. Absolutely stunning. So obviously I went over to see who else was there. CM Punk, Nexus, Goldust, AA, Kozlov, the Divas and others.. Got a bit starstruck if im being honest which is weird as I met a few famous people while over there and I'm never too bothered bout this. They're only people after all. Anywho I went to ask Punk for a photo when security asked me to leave them be. Punk just gave me a look as if to say F*** Off, so I disbanded my plans to ask the Divas for a pic as I was embarrassed tbh. Said hello to Nexus as I walked away, they seemed ok.

Sorry, bit long but I was just wondering are wrestlers usually a**holes? Punk certainly seemed to be. Or is kayfabe alive and well because the majority, if not all the guys I seen were heels. Have you guys ever met the wrestlers in this kind of scenario. Thanks for reading, just thought I's share that with you.

Handsome Bob

Ironically enough OP the stories I've heard about wrestlers being at their most moody took place in airports.

My mate did security at Raw when it was over here before, he said they're all generally cool, he singled out Orton, Jeff Jardy and Khali. He said Cena was cool too just not as happy go lucky as Jeff or Khali.

Lord TSC

Hmm, Punk did a podcast with Colt Cabana recently talking about fan etiquite (Sp?) and focused in on fans in airports. Forget exactly what he said now though.

flahavaj

In fairness I hate airports as well and I wouldn't take kindly to people annoying me for photos or autographs there either. Wrestlers, like everyone else, are entitled to their space as well.

rossie1977

we met punk right before he debuted on wwe tv, it was a day or two before mania 22 in chicago, really nice guy then, however i have heard from numerous fans that he is not being nice to fans these days, maybe he is staying in character though??

funny you mentioned henry, the only two wrestlers i have met that were not nice were henry and batista, steve austin and the rock were so down to earth in person but batista and henry walk around with bodyguards lol

american fans are really annoying though, i remember we landed at san antonio for the 2007 rumble on the saturday night and there was a massive group of wrestling fans with books ready to sign etc all in the luggage collection area awaiting the wrestlers (in alot of us airports you can just walk in off the street to the area)

deanodrummer

Yeah i know what ya mean lads... I hate airports too but then again if I had any level of fame I'd be nice to fans I think. I dunno it's awkward situation. For instance if i seen them in a resturaunt or in the jacks I wouldn't say a thing, but sitting around an airport playing on Blackberries/iPods and the likes I thought they might have time to give a fan a photo..

thebostoncrab

Teamshadowclan wrote: »

Hmm, Punk did a podcast with Colt Cabana recently talking about fan etiquite (Sp?) and focused in on fans in airports. Forget exactly what he said now though.

Just beat me too it!

Aye Punk isn't crazy about fans at airports, he doesn't mind elsewhere generally and if the fan has manors. But airports are always a nono. It's a mixture of being tired and then keeping kayfabe.

CMpunked

It sounds like he was just being a prick.

I've heard before that heels play the gimmick when in public but will still be nice enough to get in pictures with people.

Like a friend of mine once said he met the miz aaaggggeesss ago in england.(just after the morrison split)
He said he allowed for peoples photos, but gave them guff while they were being taken.
Light hearted stuff like "So how long have you been colour blind?" Fan:"What, im not colourblnd?"
Miz: "Then why they hell are you wearing that shirt?!"


Speaking of punk:


That just popped up on his twitter, an hour ago.

Is that you, deanodrummer? :P

Ridley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZEqg236d6k

About 2:45ish.

Lord TSC

deanodrummer wrote: »

Yeah i know what ya mean lads... I hate airports too but then again if I had any level of fame I'd be nice to fans I think. I dunno it's awkward situation. For instance if i seen them in a resturaunt or in the jacks I wouldn't say a thing, but sitting around an airport playing on Blackberries/iPods and the likes I thought they might have time to give a fan a photo..

That's where you draw the line but that doesn't mean its where Punk et al. do. In fairness, I could imagine how infuriating it would be getting pestered for photos at an airport, since once you give one, you probably have to give dozens. I know one could say "it's part of the job", and thats valid. But I can also see how annoying it must be to be in an airport, tired and bored, and being pestered by countless people who think you should dance for a peanut <_<

GTR63

I've met a few wrestlers that have kinda stayed in character but none of them behaved like a bell end.Kayfabe has been dead for a long time.Does the Undertaker stay in character at Ufc events no,what about when wrestlers do the now very common autograph sessions do they refuse to sign stuff no.I'd imagine if they tell you off their either in a bad mood or more likely not a nice person.

mitchmeister

have to bring up the time again after summerslam 08 and i was at indianapolis airport.....hbk was in the check in line in front of me and i debated whether to go up to him or not...after he checked in i seen him posing with fans a few times so i left it as i couldnt build up the courage to go up to him.
when i found out we were at the same gate I thought, well he took some photos earlier, so i nervously approached 'sorry shawn to disturb you, any chance of a quick photo?' and his reply was 'eh not right now man' and off I went with my tail bewteen my legs.....alright he was polite about it, but if you take photos with others then take pics with everyone, and nobody was even bothering him at the gate!

after the hbk debacle... i saw jr, i wasn't gonna ask him as shawn had refused but i went up anyway again politely asking...when i asked he reluctantly posed for a photo with such a sour puss on his face...so i got a weird looking photo...

met mvp at the time aswel waiting on a rental car....was very standoffish and heel like which is what he was at the time but he still posed for a pic and i mean posed!

bottom line is you are in the public eye, fans are gonna come up to you deal with it and take their photo, they are your bread and butter....if your a heel then you can do what ya like!

deanodrummer

Nice to have a diff. perspective on it guys... TBH I wasn't too bothered about it I was just more confused ya know. It's only a pic at the end of the day. On the one hand, yes they are just people who happen to be in the public eye and deserve their space and on the other hand, it's because of the fact that they're in the public eye that they make their living.. Whatever happened anyways he still a good wrestler. I just won't expect to go for a drink with him anytime soon.

Oh and CMPunked, no thats not me.. :0

CMpunked

The fact of the matter is that american fans have ruined it for the rest of us.
They will run, scream, kick and pull while trying to crawl over anyone who is in any way famous.

But ive heard of people say all my life "oh the irish are so friendly and manorly and just leave you be.

Thats what makes me think that maybe they ^^^ were just expecting you to be a certain way.
I know Kane-n-nite met loads when they were up in belfast and they were all cool.

kronsington

this is all very interesting reading. i agree with the point about american fans.

most irish people dont really give a ****e about celebrity and even if they really fancied a picture would probably be very polite and respectful in doing so. it only takes a few seconds to take photo with a fan and its the least they can do, especially if thats the only fan around at the time.

how do i find that cm punk cast through itunes? whats the show called?

Charisteas

I know it's really easy to type it here, sitting behind a laptop living a normal existence, but if I was a wrestler in the WWE, I don't think I could ever say the word no to a fan asking for an autograph or photo.

We, the fans, essentially pay their wages. And they, as a WWE superstar, are essentially working 24 hours a day. They know this when they sign the contract.

CMpunked

Charisteas wrote: »

We, the fans, essentially pay their wages. And they, as a WWE superstar, are essentially working 24 hours a day. They know this when they sign the contract.

That is true.
In theory.

In reality a wrestler, in this case, is paid by the wwe.
The wrestlers job is to be an entertainer on the tv screen and on the other side of the barrier at the events.
And the odd signing event.

Anything else, meeting wrestlers about from airports to pubs, bumping into them when their on holiday with their family etc are never paying opportunities as meeting a fan isnt going to affect their pay that they take home. either positively or negatively.


It would be the same if you were a mechanic. When your working on cars 9-5 monday to friday, if you pass a broken down car on the road on a sunday afternoon, its up to you if your going to pull over and offer some advice or whatever. Even though it doesnt pay.

I guess this is the same for a wrestler when they are out and about, its up to them how they react to a fan.

Charisteas

Interesting point of view, but I still think that whilst you are a WWE superstar, you have a 24 hour a day job.

Obviously it is the discretion of the superstar whether or not they agree to a photo or autograph in the airport, but you have to assume that in each WWE contract is a certain code on conduct that they have to abide by whenever they are in public which would state something along the lines of they are representing the WWE at all time, and for me this would entail signing autographs and posing for pics a lot of time.

There are a few exceptions, such as if there was a security risk, if the superstar was with a child, or if they were late for a flight or coach.

Ok so they won't be paid on the spot by the fan, but i'm sure Vince wouldn't be over the moon if he oversaw a superstar refusing a fan, as by taking the 10 seconds to sign an autograph or take a photo, you may have potentially sold a future t-shirt, DVD, or ticket. 30 dollars for 10 seconds work, not bad if you can get it.

CMpunked

Im not sure.

What about these moments?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3uPzsSKgA4

or:




I know the jericho situation was a little over the top, it doesnt exactly happen every day..

But i remember being on here and there was speculation over what should be done to him, like if he should be suspended or charged with assault and all that.

And then a few days later it emerged that vince was backstage laughing and joking about it all making sexist remarks and all that.

krudler

Charisteas wrote: »

I know it's really easy to type it here, sitting behind a laptop living a normal existence, but if I was a wrestler in the WWE, I don't think I could ever say the word no to a fan asking for an autograph or photo.

We, the fans, essentially pay their wages. And they, as a WWE superstar, are essentially working 24 hours a day. They know this when they sign the contract.

Say that after working for a week straight doing house shows, trying to fit in time with your family and flying from one side of the country to the other with barely any sleep. Just because someone is a celebrity doesnt mean they're not entitled to want some space and time to themselves. I met a few wrestlers over the Wrestlemania 24 weekend and they were all nice, saw JR in Orlando airport as he was waiting for his bags to come along the conveyor belt thing and he looked utterly exhausted, there was no way I'd go up to someone, seeing him in person was enough.

Avian

Tbh, I've not ran into many wrestlers really in the wide world. I know Punk is infamous for being a douche though, my friend had a run-in apparently where he told him to piss off or something. To his credit he was right ,apparently my friend was refusing to pay for his autograph (pre-wwe days).

The funniest story is what Super-Rush told me about running into Sheamus and Drew. Don't wanna steal their stories though ha!

Other than that, I've met Doug Williams, well did some training with him actually. He was a top gent but wasn't really a fan-airport situation. Was at our school and he was taking us on to train for a couple of hours. Also, out in Phoenix spoke to Austin Aries, who totally played the heel as I put my hand out to hi-five but he ignored but responded to my praise of his match with a 'thanks man'.

TheTwiz

What's the Sheamus Drew story?

grames_bond

CMpunked wrote: »

I know the jericho situation was a little over the top, it doesnt exactly happen every day..

But i remember being on here and there was speculation over what should be done to him, like if he should be suspended or charged with assault and all that.

the scumbag spat on jericho, in the states that is assault to nothing was ever gonna happen to him! That situation in and of itself not really the kayfabe question!

I dont like kayfabe that much but its fun to cathc them off guard, outside the claridge after the last dublin show miz got off the bus and he was kayfabing to the nines, my mate shouted "quit with the kayfabe" (miz had his headphones in at the time with no music playing), he stuttered and smilled a bit, was fairly funny!

gimmick

krudler wrote: »

Say that after working for a week straight doing house shows, trying to fit in time with your family and flying from one side of the country to the other with barely any sleep. Just because someone is a celebrity doesnt mean they're not entitled to want some space and time to themselves. I met a few wrestlers over the Wrestlemania 24 weekend and they were all nice, saw JR in Orlando airport as he was waiting for his bags to come along the conveyor belt thing and he looked utterly exhausted, there was no way I'd go up to someone, seeing him in person was enough.

Agree. They aint our property. For example, a friends brother is a fairly big movie star. He was out with us a few weeks ago, and the poor guy was demented with people coming up for photos, autographs, chats etc. He tried to be nice about it, but in the end had to start ignoring people. He was home for the birth of his first nephew and just wanted to wet its head and have a nice night out with friends.

It is probably the same with every WWE wrestler. They need time to themselves as well.

CMpunked

Imagine this experience in one that wasnt a meet and greet situation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYjLZRu38ow

Such a tool.

Wompa1

Was at WM20 and WM24. Heard alot of stories from fans and met some guys myself. Foley was very nice. Cena seemed nice. JR had a sour puss when I met him too..I think that's just his way, I know with the Bells Palsy attacks he probably can't emote much but just his whole interaction was pretty forced. I think he does appreciate the fans but seems pretty run down. I suppose being Vinces whipping boy will do that to you.

Heard awful things about Ric Flair and Bubba Ray Dudely while in New York. Mean Gene and the Coach were pretty cool. Big Show seemed pretty cool. Mark Henry could have been dead in his seat for all I knew.

After meeting so many at WM20 I decided I couldn't be arsed when WM24 rolled around...saw a few but couldn't have cared less really. They are just people, they entertain me on the shows but I don't give a toss about them as people.

Mr.Nice Guy

I take the point about wrestlers needing time to themselves and I think there are situations when they ought to be left alone such as at airports, when eating a meal etc. and generally I think people with a bit of cop on can realise these situations. On the other hand though if they are seemingly not in a situation like this and someone asked for an autograph or a picture then I don't see why they should be pricks about it. Kayfabe is dead and McMahon put the nail in the coffin of it after the Montreal screwjob so I don't accept the argument that heels acting like twats are protecting the business.

The way I look at it is there are ways for fans to uphold themselves, as I touched on above, and ways for wrestlers, and other 'celebrities', to uphold themselves too. What might seem like a minute or two of hassle for them will likely be a memory that lasts a lifetime for the person asking. From what I've read of guys like Cena and Foley they handle it the right way and if they are busy then they will explain so in a decent fashion. It seems guys like Punk, JBL etc. just act like pricks for the hell of it and I can't say I approve of that. No doubt they enjoy the perks of their notoriety such as getting into exclusive places, hitting up the ladies etc. so I think they should be decent enough to give something back to a guy who could very well have bought a shirt of theirs, a DVD, paid to see an event they were involved in and so on.

Lord TSC

What might seem like a minute or two of hassle for them will likely be a memory that lasts a lifetime for the person asking.

While I agree in principal, it presumes that if a photo is given or autograph signed, it's for a single person. The truth is though that the one moment you stop to give that one photo, you could be mobbed and end up having to spend an hour dealing with everyone. Worse then, you can sign 99 people's autographs and ask the 100th to forget about it, and that one person will be the one who makes the most noise. Human nature is that you'll always shout loudest about the injustices and not the times people are good to you, and that can make it a lose/lose for them :S

sliotor

Most of yee have said that yee were polite enough when asking for a photo or autograph, but the point to remember is that for each person who is polite there is another 50 pricks wrecking there heads. Or the ghouls with the cameras from reelwrestling.com etc annoying them. There is a lot of bull**** they have to take when stopping to sign autographs for some of the deserving fans.
So in theory they should stop to take time to the fans who support them but wouldn’t you get tired of the bull**** that comes with it, I know I would.

Ridley

kronsington wrote: »

how do i find that cm punk cast through itunes? whats the show called?

The Colt Cabana Art of Wrestling Radio Podcast.

gimmick

What might seem like a minute or two of hassle for them will likely be a memory that lasts a lifetime for the person asking.

While I see what you are saying, just going from personal experience, the guy I am on about was almost being poked every minute, and that is no exaggeration. These celebs are people at the end of the day and they want some downtime as well. I should also add that this fella despite being in some major movies does not hog the limelight in any sense of the word.

irish_stevo815

CMpunked wrote: »

Imagine this experience in one that wasnt a meet and greet situation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYjLZRu38ow

Such a tool.

WOW :eek:

What a f*****g A-Hole. I dunno how the Miz didnt get up and clock him one. Fair play to him for giving him **** back. I had to lagh at 3:21 - "You'll never be WWE Champion". I like the Miz that little bit more after seeing that video.

CMpunked

irish_stevo815 wrote: »

I like the Miz that little bit more after seeing that video.

yeah me too!
The video was posted on here a few months ago and when i watched it i thought i want the miz to win the wwe championship just to piss that guy off!

Terry

Kayfabe may be dead to most, but there are still those who still believe. On top of that, there's over-zealous dicks like the dude in the video above.

The memories are still there for some wrestlers of being chased out of high schools and town halls by mobs of angry rednecks. These rednecks also use airports, and the stories are passed along to the younger wrestlers by the likes of JR, Lawler, AA and so on.

Then there are the already mentioned ebay pimps.

At the end of the day, it's give and take, but to a certain limit.

They entertain you at their shows, and you pay for that entertainment. After that, they don't owe you anything. This applies to all aspects of the entertainment industry.

Were I to meet Scott Hall in the airport bar, would I ask if I could join him for a drink? Damn right I would. However, if he said no, I'd respect his right to privacy and sit a few stools up.

By the way, gimmick, it was Cillian Murphy, wasn't it?

Mr.Nice Guy

gimmick wrote: »

While I see what you are saying, just going from personal experience, the guy I am on about was almost being poked every minute, and that is no exaggeration. These celebs are people at the end of the day and they want some downtime as well. I should also add that this fella despite being in some major movies does not hog the limelight in any sense of the word.

Yeah I can understand that. I think it comes down to fans being able to know when to leave off. If I saw someone famous and they were getting swamped and looking uncomfortable I don't think I'd want to add to his or her discomfort. I think a lot of the time it comes down to being able to read a situation and look at the person's body language and demeanour.

CMpunked

I wonder what do kids think when they see undertaker out and about. I'd say he doesn't get hassled as much as others because some aren't sure if it's him or not.

Lord TSC

Kid: "Daddy, why is Undertaker dressed like a redneck? And why is he doing those things with Michelle McCool? She's a bad guy. Oh Undertaker, you have betrayed our little souls."

Tbh though, I just try and avoid checking out what Taker is like in real life, given one of the few pics I've seen of him involved a part of him I never want to see again :S

gimmick

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

I think a lot of the time it comes down to being able to read a situation and look at the person's body language and demeanour.

Thats exactly it.