This follows on from a topic on the ukff about ten years ago when there was One Night Stand PPV where Shawn Michaels beat Davey Boy Smith for the European _title_. This got a lot of heat at the time with the British fans throwing rubbish in the ring.

Was this the biggest heat before the death of Kayfabe at Survivor Series 1997 not long after that year?

Was Survivor Series 1997 the death of Kayfabe or was it before then?

I've been told Vince declared pro wrestling wasn't a sport in 1994, as part of the steroid trial.

Was this also to do with the state athletic commision?
I recall he did this so he no longer had to pay them a fee.

I think wrestling was better before the business was exposed, anyone think otherwise?

Before then there weren't any shoot interviews.

Depends how you define "the death of k"...

I first watched Brit wrestling on black and white TV around 1959/60 and my Dad immediately told me it was what he called "a put-up job" (i.e. what others might cruelly call "fake").

Since I've believed him ever since (but still enjoyed the grappling game), any kayefabe must hav ebeen minimal chez nous.

Dave

1989 was the year wrestling in the States was deregulated. They wanted wrestling deregulated in New Jersey so went to court and said it was an exhibition.

Well I suppose that's two different things when you no longer knew it was fake and when it was officially announced as not being a real sport.
I don't think in this country it has ever been officially announced as such, although Mick McManus on a TV show referred to it as sports entertainment.

Those dates mentioned are when the business was honestly exposed as not being a sport.

quote:

After Montreal was probably the first time it was pretty much stated on the actual wrestling show that wrestling wasn't "real." Realistically though, pretty much everyone knew, deep down, from probably the '20s. When Vince went national, he was a lot more open about things in public, though obviously still kept most things quiet and never broke kayfabe on the air.

The first shoot interview is generally agreed to be "Looking For Mr. Gilbert" which Bob Barnett did with Eddie Gilbert in around 1993-ish. There weren't a lot more until Feinstein went crazy with them around the time he stopped being able to make a fortune with ECW tapes.