5 Events that changed WWE's history 

#4 The Curtain Call

The Infamous MSG curtain call

In a world dominated by kayfabe, The Curtain Call was a scandalous departure from ongoing storylines. These were times when wrestlers did all they could to maintain the illusion that everything happening in the ring was real. The faces genuinely hated the heels, the heels were truly evil incarnates and so on. That is until The Kliq arrived on the scene.

The Kliq was a faction including Shawn Michels, Triple H, Kevin Nash and Sean Walterman. The group had a lot of pull backstage and got away with a lot that other wrestlers couldn't. It started with Eric Bischoff convincing Hall and Nash to come over from WWE to WCW. Their last match for the company took place at Madison Square Garden on May 19th, 1996.

WWE Champion Shawn Michaels went against the heel Nash in a steel cage match for the main event. Triple H and Hall went against each other earlier in the night. The four men would then embrace in the middle of the ring before posing for the fans.

At the time, it was synonymous to an act of blasphemy for faces and heels to mingle, let alone hug, in front of fans. While some still maintain that the whole thing had been blown out of proportion, it was still a group of wrestlers breaking kayfabe with no regard for the consequences and its effect on the storylines. It can be seen as a gesture of goodwill or a self-indulgent prank depending on who you ask, as the opinions are varied and strong on this incident.

The reason this incident is so vital to WWE's history is because of its aftermath. While Nash, Hall, and Michaels walked away from the incident unscathed, Hunter Hearst Hemsley did not fare so well. He was made the scapegoat and bore the punishment for the entire faction.

Triple H was earlier booked to win the 1996 King of the Ring. This booking was scraped and Stone Cold Steve Austin replaced him as the winner, starting his path to stardom. It can be argued that Hemsley's misfortune led to paving the path for Austin to shine.

The Kliq also lost a significant amount of influence as a result and were no longer in a position to call the shots. If Triple H had won the King of the Ring in 1996, there is little doubt that The Kliq would have maintained its prestige and leverage over the WWE bookings, making it harder for stars like Stone Cold Steve Austin to come up the totem pole.

The incident was an ushering in of the blurring lines between kayfabe and reality. It was also a start to delivering content for a more media-friendly audience who were no longer naive and could tell the difference between a storyline and real life.