Our Story: Kayfabe News
Meet the one-man team behind pro wrestling’s version of The Onion.
Only one media outlet has been covering the untold stories of professional wrestling:
Sexist women-only Royal Rumble unfairly excludes male wrestlers.
Finn Balor makes jaw-dropping entrance at local Arby’s.
Make-A-Wish visit goes horribly awry when Lesnar eats child.
You know those headlines, and you look forward to them every day. So does Colin Hunter, the man who has written them for the past six years. He’s the founder of Kayfabe News, a one-man operation that produces wrestling’s version of The Onion.
“Even when it’s serious, I find wrestling to be the strangest, most hilarious, wonderful, bizarre thing,” Hunter says.
The London, Ontario native discovered his beat during the height of Hulkamania in the mid-1980s. Even as a child, though, he never really had a favorite superstar. He didn’t write “get well” cards to Ricky Steamboat or tremble when Andre aligned with The Brain. Hunter had been bit by the wrestling bug, but he had different symptoms than most fans.
“I’ve always been fascinated by it, but I don’t know if I actually like wrestling,” Hunter says. “I never go to the shows and jump up and down and scream the chants or get super angry at the heels and super charged over the faces. I always enjoy going to shows because I love the atmosphere. I’m fascinated by the whole thing – a bunch of grown men in skimpy spandex and spray tans are going to pretend to fight each other for the amusement of these people and we’re all going to suspend our disbelief, knowing deep down that they’re not going to hurt each other and they’re going to go to the next town tomorrow and do it all over again.”
IT WAS HIM, AUSTIN! IT WAS HIM ALL ALONG!@steveaustinBSR @KayfabeNews @POTUS pic.twitter.com/33CHmQHLpF
— Mick Foley (@RealMickFoley) February 9, 2017
Writing had always been a passion of Hunter’s – he studied English literature and philosophy at McMaster University and then moved to Japan for two years to teach English. He returned to Canada to attend a journalism graduate program at Ryerson, and soon began working as a reporter at a daily newspaper. With wrestling still on his mind, he convinced his bosses to send him to Florida to do a profile on Christian and Eric Young, two hometown boys making a living in the strange subculture of wrestling known as TNA.
“I’m not the person to go on the internet and criticize somebody’s work rate or dump on some promotion,” Hunter says. “Anybody who does this for a living fascinates me. I’ve talked to wrestlers about that and they’re self-aware that what they’re doing is a very absurd way to make a living. It’s a very vaudevillian, carnival lifestyle.”
It should come as no surprise that Hunter’s writing is influenced by Pro Wrestling Illustrated, the long-running institution that covered pro wrestling as a legitimate sport, publishing articles and (often made-up) interviews that kept in tune with storylines. From about 2005 until 2011, he wrote for PWI under the pen name C.F. Hunter. It was his introduction to the kayfabe style.
“They paid me, but they didn’t have to,” Hunter says. “I didn’t care about the money. It was about the fun of writing for these magazines that I used to stare at as a kid. At times, I’d go over the top with the humor or some kind of ironic twist, and occasionally, (publisher) Stu Saks would tell me to dial it back a bit.”
As newspapers and magazines suffered with the rise of the internet, business dwindled and writing opportunities shrank. Hunter was thinking about his next step, and he still wanted to dive deeper into the absurdity of wrestling. He had just interviewed Colt Cabana about his podcast which was gaining traction, and they talked about the overlap between wrestling and comedy. Then he went to one of Mick Foley’s one-man shows.
“I had a drink or two and got courageous and invited myself to dinner with Mick and some people,” Hunter says. “At the time he was okay with it, and then many months later when I saw him again, he was like you’re the guy that just tagged along for dinner. Behind the scenes, he has been a big help. We correspond and he sends me ideas and I send him ones. A few were written because they were his idea.”
Kayfabe News officially becomes a buddy with Marty and Sarah of @MartySarahPod. Have you heard? They love wrestling! #wrestlecon pic.twitter.com/vGv35PRpqh
— Kayfabe News (@KayfabeNews) April 6, 2018
In January of 2012, Hunter decided to give his brand of sarcastic wrestling writing a shot. Instead of simply concocting ridiculous plots or puns, he took a page from PWI and maintained a straight-faced, journalistic voice. He kept kayfabe, treating every preposterous story as though he was reporting for the New York Times. Initially, he wrote 10 stories and posted them online, just to see if people would react. As the positive feedback mounted, and a couple supportive Mick Foley tweets opened him to a much larger audience, he vowed to write one story every day for a year.
“WWE keeps providing me with fodder,” Hunter says. “It continues to amaze me that people enjoy it. Colt Cabana told me to just do it because you enjoy doing it. I didn’t set any goals for how much money I wanted to make or how many followers I wanted to have. I wanted to see if I could find this little niche in the wrestling world where I could contribute in a way that wasn’t wrestling.”
Of course, with such a massive following, it’s only natural that Hunter receives story ideas from readers. After all, he gives off the impression that Kayfabe News has a team of writers at the New York or London “bureau.” “I chuckle because it’s just me with my dog sitting on my lap while I’m typing away on my laptop,” Hunter says. “Bless their hearts for wanting to contribute, but the vast majority are not very good. There are certain standards of grammar, writing and style that stories have to have or they don’t work.”
Generally, he doesn’t accept fleshed out stories, but he will take suggestions for headlines or stories. And he’s sure to give credit whenever taking those suggestions. It’s not a matter of ego; it’s simply that the joy of writing is what Hunter gets out of the endeavor. While he makes some money from advertising and T-shirt sales, the true pleasure comes from racking his brain and typing away.
“I’m glad I don’t rely on Kayfabe News for my daily existence because it probably wouldn’t be fun,” Hunter says. “It would feel like I’m doing anything I could to get an extra thousand page views. In my daily life, I write about quantum physics, black holes and The Big Bang, so writing about wrestling is a nice way to change gears.”
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