Wrestling fans are up in arms after photos leaked online from a WWE show appear to picture wrestlers rehearsing for the night’s action.

The vast majority of those who enjoy the wacky world of professional wrestling do so knowing that what they see is about as ‘real’ as an episode of EastEnders or an iconic Marvel movie.

CM Punk and Drew McIntyre are heated, bitter rivals on WWE TVCredit: WWE

That’s to say that, while the likes of Drew McIntyre, Roman Reigns and Rhea Ripley can and do sustain very real and serious injuries in the course of performing, there’s very rarely real beef or angst between on-screen rivals in WWE.

As a result and to fully enjoy the show, wrestling fans have, for generations, invested in the art form known as kayfabe – the illusion that what they are seeing and hearing from the stars of the wrestling world is very real indeed.

Kayfabe goes back generations. Back in the day, fans would detest the villains of the piece and worship their heroes, and the idea that they might actually share a hotel room or a car ride between their appearances was simply unthinkable.

Rival wrestlers and the companies they work for would often insist they all travel, eat and enjoy downtime separately, so as to protect the sacred art of kayfabe, with big punishments ahead should a fan with a camera catch them in the act.

Understandably, maintaining the art of kayfabe in 2024 is almost impossible – wrestlers regularly conduct media interviews out of character, away from their on-screen personas, while Logan Paul frequently features his co-stars as guests on his Impaulsive podcast.

Even WWE themselves shatter the illusion of their own world by releasing documentaries like Behind the Curtain, which delved into the development of storylines going into this year’s WrestleMania.

Despite it all, though, die-hard fans and traditionalists still love and respect kayfabe, which resulted in some being sent into a meltdown with the leaking online recently of images appearing to show WWE stars gathering together to rehearse an upcoming show.

One snap pictures a crowd of wrestlers in and around a ring at what looks to be the lead-up to an episode of Monday Night Raw.

Dressed in their casual clothing rather than their wacky and colourful ring attire, good and bad guys alike are seen mixing alongside producers and agents.

Visible are bitter rivals Randy Orton and Gunther, who wrestled each other for the latter’s World Heavyweight title at Bash in Berlin last weekend, stood conversing.

Many WWE fans were fascinated by the leaked photos but others were enraged it was sharedCredit: X/@iyosthelimit

Fans were divided over the photo of Drew McIntyre and what many felt was CM PunkCredit: X/@pchaccoskevin

Shayna Baszler is seen appearing to work through some action with fellow stars as Head of Creative, Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque, oversees the scene, chatting casually at ringside with what looks to be Drew McIntyre, while commentator Michael Cole busily prepares at his announce position.

The sight of so many wrestling stars in such a natural but unfamiliar setting blew the minds of fans on X, with one saying: “This feels illegal to look at.”

Another added: “It’s so weird remembering they don’t actually hate each other,” while another simply said: “What is this? Kayfabe is dead. Delete this now!”

Taking a closer look, a further fan mused: “I’m not surprised by the wrestlers all mingling despite their rivalries, what I’m surprised at is how they are all clearly going through their match plans all at the same time.”

Many fans believed a similar image, which looks to have been taken at a similar setting, showed fierce rivals McIntyre and CM Punk standing and talking at ringside, despite the former brutally attacking the latter on Raw this week, gouging his eyes and leaving him on a stretcher.

While not all fans were completely sure Punk was in the photo, it had plenty convinced, with one saying: “It feels so illegal to see CM Punk & Drew Mcintyre chilling together at Raw.”

Another frustratingly added: “It’s bad enough they have Gunther and Orton standing right next to each other, but there’s another photo making the rounds of Drew and Phony Phil standing side-by-side laughing.”

Formerly Triple H, Paul Levesque has overseen on-screen success for WWE in the US and Internationally

The intimate photos cast a light on a company in WWE that’s in the middle of a boom period with Triple H at the helm. The company completes its switch to Netflix in 2025 and recently concluded another successful European tour.