Times WWE Stars Broke Kayfabe And Fans Didn't Notice

Kayfabe has been around for as long as the wrestling industry has, although it no longer exists in the same forms as it once did. With kayfabe slowly diminishing as times go by, some wrestling fans and figures still can't let go of it, believing that it must always remain within the industry. But that is a tough task today, even more so than the past. We have seen plenty of moments in which kayfabe was broken on screen, especially these past few years. But there have also been times where kayfabe was broken in front of our eyes, yet we didn't notice.

With social media around these days, almost nothing goes unnoticed anymore as someone is bound to point out or post a clip of any event that fans may have missed. Today's fans have access to the internet, which means they can quickly learn anything about the product or WWE Superstars. But there was a time when some information - which may be considered to be basic for today's standards - was not made available to the public. Over the years, the audience has changed with fans becoming what is labelled as "smarks" as opposed to older eras in which professional wrestling wasn't yet viewed as sports entertainment.

During the Attitude Era, Vince McMahon famously declared that kayfabe was dead. Today, that statement is even more true than before thanks to the rise of social media. With this list, we look at 15 times WWE stars were breaking kayfabe and we didn't notice:

15 Daniel Puder Challenges Kurt Angle

In 2004, contestants from WWE's Tough Enough participated in different challenges to determine a winner. Among them was a segment featuring Kurt Angle, in which he took practically called them out to the ring and outwrestled each challenger.

However, Daniel Puder had a different plan in mind and what was supposed to be an easy win for Angle nearly turned into a severe injury.

With Angle being stiff in the ring, Puder opted against going down easy for him and instead locked him in a submission move that was seconds away from hurting Angle. Thankfully, the referee covered it up as fast as he could by doing a fast pinfall to save Angle. Fans had no clue that kayfabe was broken that night until it was reported by numerous sites, and then later on confirmed by both Angle and Puder - both of whom had a different outlook on what went down.

14 Randy Orton Consoles Shane McMahon's Son

For years, Shane McMahon has been apart of some of the wildest bumps in WWE history. While he may not be a true wrestler, he manages to create memorable moments that live on. At Survivor Series, Shane's son was in the front row to witness his dad doing what he does best. He was on receiving end of a devastating spear while attempting to pull a coast to coast. Shane reportedly had a concussion after the bump, which had many concerned.

Randy Orton was apart of the match, and took a moment to console Shane's son by telling him that his dad was doing fine and it's just part of the show.

Fans had no clue that Orton was breaking kayfabe by cheering up his opponent's kid, as it wasn't revealed until later that it was Shane's son. It may be a sweet move on behalf of Orton but you can bet that many WWE officials were upset.

13 Ken Shamrock Refers To The Undertaker As "Mark"

Coming off an impressive UFC run, Ken Shamrock was a major signing for the WWE. Although he never truly became the main eventer fans had hoped for, Shamrock had a decent three year run with the company. He was also involved in rivalries against some of WWE's biggest Superstars, including The Rock and The Undertaker.

During his feud with The Phenom, Shamrock referred to him as "Mark" in one of his promos, which is The Undertaker's real name.

Very few fans were aware about this fact back in the 90s, so the audience didn't exactly notice that Shamrock had broken kayfabe. It was a different time before all information about our favorite wrestlers was made available on the internet. We can only imagine how upset Vince McMahon must have been behind the scenes, as Shamrock broke one of his most treasured rules against The Undertaker of all people.

12 Eddie Guerrero "Where Is Vickie?!"

One of the most memorable feuds of the 2000s involved Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio, who competed against each other for most of 2005. At SummerSlam, they met in a ladder match of which the winner would get custody of Mysterio's son Dominik. The match was supposed to end with Vickie Guerrero coming to aid Mysterio by pushing Eddie off the ladder. However, she didn't show up and they were forced to improvise - leading to a bad fall for Guerrero.

Fans were unaware that Vickie had missed her spot, and thought that Eddie was only angry due to the pain.

But upon replays, it was determined that Eddie was screaming "Where the f--- is Vickie?!" They repeated the same spot a second time, but thankfully Vickie showed up this time to conclude the match. WWE edited the audio for later releases although you can still find it on YouTube.

11 Perry Saturn Lets Loose On Mike Bell

Perry Saturn is one of the toughest wrestlers of his era and not someone that you wanted to mess with. During a match against Mike Bell, Saturn was on the receiving end of a badly executed move that nearly injured him. Saturn got really upset with his opponent being sloppy, and although he was scheduled to get an easy victory, Saturn decided to take it one step further by beating up Bell. He hit Bell with some stiff shots and performed all his moves as painful as possible to teach him a lesson.

It ended up being tough to watch for some members of the audience, who had no clue that Saturn was breaking kayfabe as he had really snapped on his opponent and decided to use the rest of the match as an assault session until it was finally over. Officials were furious at Saturn backstage for losing his cool. Saturn's infamous Moppy gimmick to follow was reportedly punishment for his unprofessional display.

10 Mankind Is Not A Fan Of The People's Elbow

Before they formed one of the most beloved teams, Mankind and The Rock engaged in a feud in the late 90s that resulted in some several classic moments. It was a time when breaking kayfabe was becoming the norm thanks to the rise of nWo and D-Generation X, but it was still uncommon to hear a wrestler criticize someone else's finisher like a smark. Mankind did exactly that when he mocked The People's Elbow, claiming there is no way such a terrible move could put him away during their upcoming bout.

Fans were surprised to hear that comment and it took them a moment to realize that Mankind just casually broke kayfabe in the middle of his promo.

In his defense, The People's Elbow is among the worst and least impactful finishers, although it is more for show than anything else and a perfect move for someone as flashy as The Rock.

9 Kofi Kingston Hates Country Music

It's not often that you hear Superstars mention their character on television. Kofi Kingston did just that during one of his promos in which he really wanted to demonstrate how much he hates country music, by emphasizing that it's him speaking and not his character. It was reported that Kingston broke kayfabe since he saw an opportunity to deliver that line in his promo, and it seems like WWE officials didn't mind much.

Kingston has been in the WWE for over a decade, which some may find hard to believe, so he may have earned enough respect to break kayfabe from time to time. And the audience didn't seem to catch on exactly to what was happening although Kingston did his best to make it obvious. But as always, nothing goes unnoticed on social media as wrestling fans had plenty to say about his promo.

8 Hulk Hogan No Sells For The Undertaker

At Judgement Day 2002, the main event featured two of the WWE's two biggest Superstars as Hulk Hogan defended the WWE Undisputed title against The Undertaker. The match is remembered for all the wrong reasons, as it ended up being terrible from start to finish.

The most memorable moment remains when The Undertaker delivered a chokeslam to Hogan, who reportedly tried his best to make it look terrible.

His mission was accomplished as it ended up being the worst chokeslam delivered by Taker, yet fans thought that it was simply a botch upon first viewing it. As we have come to learn, Hogan isn't exactly keen on making fellow wrestlers look good so he reportedly sabotaged the move on purpose to embarrass Taker. It's safe to say that Hogan succeeded with his plan as most believe that Taker was at fault for being unable to lift him.

7 JBL Singles Out Blue Meanie

It's well-known that JBL is quite the jerk who bullied several wrestlers during his career. Being one of the top veterans of the WWE earned him a pass, but there have been some horrifying stories about him. Although he never got into trouble, JBL's antics never stopped while he was an active wrestler. At ECW One Night Stand in 2005, JBL showed up among many WWE Superstars and decided to go off script by brutalizing The Blue Meanie.

Although he was initially supposed to attack him, it wasn't booked to be nearly as brutal as it turned out. Most fans thought it was simply part of the show and had no idea that JBL was acting out on his own, as they wouldn't find out until the PPV was finished. They had a feud for several years afterwards although they did end up patching things up in recent times.

6 Floyd Mayweather Fractures Big Show's Nose

In 2008, Floyd Mayweather was spotted front row at No Way Out and eventually got involved by defending Rey Mysterio against Big Show. The latter was mocking Mayweather, who jumped into the ring with his crew, and delivered a devastating punch to Big Show. While that was supposed to happen, perhaps he wasn't supposed to connect since he ended up breaking his nose.

Thankfully it takes more to take down the giant, as he proceeded to chase Mayweather and his crew outside of the ring.

Big Show was in visible pain and couldn't help but break kayfabe despite his best attempt to maintain a tough look.

The feud may not have picked up steam if Mayweather didn't truly hurt Big Show since it made even more headlines, which goes to show that unplanned moments tend to pay off from time to time as evident by this one.

5 Royal Rumble 2005 Finish

The 2005 Royal Rumble had one of the most memorable finishes with Batista and John Cena eliminating each other, and declared as winners by different referees. The last elimination appeared to be too perfectly timed to be scripted since they fell on the floor at the same time. But what some may not know is that Batista was supposed to hang on the ropes to win the Rumble although his hand slipped. It forced both Superstars, as well as the referees, to improvise on the spot before Vince McMahon came down to the ring and tore both of his quads.

Fans didn't think much of him sitting inside the ring, as they couldn't really tell that he was in pain at that moment. Despite breaking kayfabe numerous times with the finish of the 2005 Royal Rumble, most fans didn't notice until years later thanks to wrestling websites.

4 Daniel Puder Taught A Lesson At The Rumble

The 2005 Royal Rumble had its fair share of controversy. As previously mentioned, Daniel Puder nearly injured Kurt Angle when their match took a turn for the worse, and despite winning the Tough Enough contest, there was still plenty of heat on him. When he came out at the Rumble, he was on the receiving end of a punishment by some of the WWE's veterans including Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit and Hardcore Holly.

They took turns in delivering some devastating chops to the chest for minutes, which was embarrassing to say the least.

It was the WWE's way of punishing Puder for nearly humiliating and hurting one of their top Superstars in Kurt Angle. The locker room also didn't like his behavior, which is why all three Superstars broke kayfabe by tearing him apart in the ring before throwing him over the top rope.

3 Bret Hart's Sunny Days

Unlike previous eras, it was very common to break kayfabe in the Attitude Era as the wrestling industry has significantly changed, as did the fanbase. It is the very reason why we witnessed more edgy characters and storylines, and as Vince McMahon once put it, the company was no longer insulting the fans' intelligent. During the intense rivalry between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, kayfabe was broken on more than one occasion but one particular moment stood out in which Michaels referred to Hart's Sunny days.

He was alluding to a real life affair, which was a pretty big deal considering that Hart was married at the time. Most fans didn't really understand the reference since personal information wasn't nearly as available back then as it is today. While it did go unnoticed by most members of the audience, that has quickly changed and it became one of the most famous moments from their feud.

2 The Undertaker Shoots On Vince McMahon

For most of the Attitude Era, The Undertaker struggled to find a place on the roster as the industry moved further away from gimmicks to edgy and relatable characters. He was upset with his position and booking for many years, although he remained a professional and always loyal to the company despite seeing many of his peers switch to WCW.

During one of his promos in 1998, The Undertaker broke kayfabe by turning his promo into a real life shoot - moving away from the character that fans had known at the time.

He called out McMahon for making him a transitional champion and not a true headliner, as Taker vented for minutes about his status in the company.

Fans were surprised although they suspected that it was simply to advance the feud between Taker and McMahon, which was true to an extent but Taker took it a step further by breaking kayfabe to deliver his point.

1 Randy Orton Berates Kofi Kingston

When you're one of the top Superstars, it's normal to expect them to have a pass in the way they behave in the ring. Such has been the case with Randy Orton, who has been known as a controversial figure since his younger years. He has had problems with everyone from fellow wrestlers to Divas, and even fans. Orton has never been one to hold back his emotions, and has gained a reputation as a troublemaker.

Even his peers agree that he isn't the nicest person, including John Cena who didn't hesitate to refer to Orton as a jerk. Kofi Kingston learned the hard way in a match against Orton, in which the latter berated him on television by repeatedly calling him stupid. Fans initially thought that Orton was simply talking trash, but as it turned out, he was breaking kayfabe by shouting insults at Kingston in the ring.