10 shocking Moments from WWF (WWE) 1996

#10 The 'Curtain Call' incident

A turning point for kayfabe

In an attempt to transition WWF away from the sports industry and more towards entertainment, Vince McMahon publically decided to confirm everyone's suspicions that professional wrestling is scripted. Ever since then, companies have been free to showcase their talent without having to pretend any of the action on screen wasn't predetermined and planned out.

However, the desired approach when watching wrestling is for viewers to suspend their disbelief, much like they would for Game of Thrones or Marvel movies. We know the action isn't real, but we buy into it as entertainment. This is a practice known as 'kayfabe', the imagined reality of wrestling where superstars try their best to act like the characters they have been assigned, and we as fans try our best to respond to them like we're supposed to.

In 1996, a certain incident pretty much killed off kayfabe forever, allowing wrestling to embrace more true-to-life storylines and acknowledge the outside world of social media and internet dirt sheets.

The night before the departure of Scott Hall from the WWF, the company held a house show in Madison Square Garden. As a way to give their friend the ultimate send off, Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash and Triple H managed to convince McMahon to allow them to enter the ring together after the cameras were turned off. What they didn't account for, however, was that sitting in attendance was a fan filming the whole affair on a hand held camera.

The four men took things way too far, disobeying Vince's orders to keep the occasion low-key. For almost 10 minutes, the Kilq embraced the cheers from the WWF fans, basically acknowledging that the company was about to lose two of its top main event stars to their biggest rival.

McMahon punished the two remaining superstars, most noticeably Triple H who had his King of the Ring victory taken away from him. Wrestling is now an industry that has developed a working relationship with the internet and social media. Superstars who are meant to be feuding with each other are free to take selfies together and put them on Instagram. Back in 1996, however, doing anything to discredit kayfabe was a huge faux pas.

The 'Curtain Call' incident, as it came to be known, sent shockwaves through the industry and changed the wrestling landscape forever.