Excerpt: We live in the age of kayfabe capitalism

The following is an excerpt from The Big Fix: How Companies Capture Markets and Harm Canadians.

“My real name is Joe, and I’ve been living with leukemia for 11 years . . . and unfortunately it’s back.”

Roman Reigns, an imposing pro wrestler, stood in the middle of the ring in front of thousands of fans and a packed arena. The crowd fell to a hush as he spoke.

Roman Reigns’s real name is Leati Joseph (Joe) Anoa’i, and at the time he was the reigning World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Universal Champion. His run of 1,316 days was the fourth-longest world title reign in WWE history. “And because the leukemia is back, I cannot fulfill my role, I can’t be that fighting champion, and I’m going to have to relinquish the Universal championship,” Joe announced.

Moments of authenticity like this, which break the fourth wall, are so rare in championship wrestling that there is a special term for it: breaking “kayfabe.” Kayfabe is the illusion of rivalry. It is what all of pro wrestling is built on: invented characters and storylines, fake rivals engaged in fabricated feuds and staged events that are portrayed as real. Everything down to the last detail of a match and a wrestling season is highly scripted. All wrestling fans know this. It is part of the suspension of reality that we all indulge in when we go to movies or any form of escapist storytelling.

It’s a perfect metaphor for markets today. Many companies have become experts in the illusion of rivalry. They pretend to compete, but it’s all an act. Monopolists and oligopolists are kayfabe geniuses.

Read more at The Globe and Mail.