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The wrestling term “kayfabe” means that you are willing to set aside your common sense and play along with the story line. That term is familiar to professional wrestling fans as the characters adopt a certain personality and fans generally go along with it.
It is also much like those who watch television soap operas and feel like the performers are real.
Perhaps you remember the villainous Stefano DiMera on the long-running soap opera “Days of Our Lives”?
Let’s take a look at a few sports stories which may have fans scratching their heads in disbelief this week.
Not Kayfabe – LSU-Shreveport’s baseball team just established a new NAIA record with 44 wins in a row
The #1 ranked LSU-Shreveport Pilots wrapped up a three-game sweep over nationally ranked University of Houston-Victoria (34-12) last weekend to run their 2025 season record to an amazing 44-0.
The weekend sweep also gave LSU-S the NAIA national record for most consecutive wins in a baseball season.
Speaking of records, the NCAA’s Division 1 major college mark is 34 straight wins by the Texas Longhorns (1977) and later tied by Florida Atlantic in 1999.
NCAA Division III’s Trinity College (Connecticut) still holds the D-III record at 44 straight wins from the year 2008. LSU-S just tied that mark.
Only NCAA Division II’s Savannah State 2000 team (46 consecutive wins) is now ahead of LSU-Shreveport’s incredible winning streak.
LSU-S could finish the regular season with a perfect 47-0 record this weekend if they are able to complete a three-game road sweep against the Jarvis Christian Bulldogs.
Jarvis Christian (located about 20 miles north of Tyler, Texas) is just 5-24 this spring and will be the final team with a chance to prevent the Pilots from completing a perfect regular season of college baseball.
If LSU-S survives the opening rounds of the NAIA playoffs in mid-May, the Pilots may be off to Lewiston, Idaho to compete in their World Series from May 23-31.
“The Streak” will be long remembered at the school. However, this year’s LSU-Shreveport Pilots baseball team would prefer to bring home the university’s first NAIA national championship next month.
Kayfabe – John Cena turns wrestling heel and wins 17th WWE title belt
WWE wrestling legend John Cena started his career more than two decades ago as a “face” (good guy) and has continued in that role for his lengthy grappling career.
John Cena followed fellow WWE star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson into the movie business and left the wrestling to the younger stars in recent years.
Apparently, the 47-year old Cena’s cash register stopped ringing in Hollywood.
He decided to mount one final comeback to pick the pockets of his loyal pro wrestling fans during 2025.
John Cena did the unthinkable this spring and turned “heel” (bad guy) for the first time in his lengthy career.
In my opinion, Cena’s acting chops have not delivered a very convincing performance thus far as most fans aren’t buying his new darker persona.
On Sunday night, John Cena (with a little outside interference) defeated Cody Rhodes to grab the WWE title for a record 17th time. Ric Flair (the 16-time champ) is now 76 years old and (let’s hope) won’t be making one final comeback trying to get his record back.
This new sinister version of John Cena now holds the WWE title. He was purposefully rude to the press following Sunday night’s victory at the latest WrestleMania event in Las Vegas.
Try as he might, John Cena is simply not very convincing as a heel. Perhaps that is his new gimmick?
Meanwhile, the exhausted former champion Cody Rhodes is now able to take a well-deserved rest away from this grueling physical faux sport.
It’s only a matter of time before John Cena will come to his senses and return into his true “good guy” mode in the coming months. I expect Cena’s reign as champ will be relatively short and come to an end prior to the end of 2025.
During that time, Cena will have stuffed enough money into his wrestling boots to finally walk away from WWE even wealthier.
Wrestling fans want the soon-to-be retired John Cena to morph back into the more likable persona he developed over the past two decades.
Not Kayfabe – Shedeur Sanders’ football number retired by University of Colorado
Coach Deion Sanders arrived at the University of Colorado two years ago and brought two of his talented sons from Jackson State along with him.
Buffaloes’ cornerback Shiloh Sanders played well but is unlikely hear his name called in the NFL Draft coming up later this week. He still might be signed to an NFL roster after the draft concludes.
Quarterback Shedeur Sanders is projected to be selected at some point during the first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday night. The New Orleans Saints (with pick #9) and Pittsburgh Steelers (with the 21st selection in Round 1) are possible landing spots for the talented but highly hyped Sanders.
Shedeur Sanders has already become a millionaire in college football by utilizing the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) gravy train to his personal advantage. Entering last season, Shedeur Sanders was worth nearly $5 million in the NIL market.
The Sanders trio has helped to turn around the University of Colorado’s football program over the past two seasons. The Buffs improved from 1-11 in 2023 to post 4-8 and 9-4 records in 2023 and 2024.
That impressive feat is worthy of praise from fans and alumni at Colorado.
But is two years of exceptional play worth retiring the football number of Sheduer Sanders at CU?
Shedeur Sanders’ #2 jersey was officially retired by the Colorado Buffaloes during the team’s annual spring football game last Saturday. Teammate Travis Hunter (who won the Heisman Trophy in 2024) also had his #12 football number retired by the school.
Though Sanders’ stats were solid, his team posted a measly 13-12 record over his two year stint in Boulder.
Prior to Saturday, the Colorado Buffaloes had retired just four other players’ numbers in the school’s lengthy football history.
Nominations to retire a football number are totally within the purview of the University of Colorado’s athletics department – of which “Daddy” Deion Sanders is the head football coach.
Questionable? Absolutely.
The entire ceremony felt like a Kayfabe moment, but it really did happen on Saturday at CU!
Not Kayfabe (but it seems like it) – Tennessee QB jumps to UCLA, while UCLA QB transfers to Tennessee?
Last week, I provided a detailed description about the departure of University of Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava.
In a nutshell, the college quarterback wanted a raise from $2 million last season to $4 million this year. He was dismissed from the team by Tennessee’s head football coach for skipping mandatory practices as he negotiated to be paid more NIL loot.
Over the weekend, we learned that Nico successfully navigated the NCAA’s transfer portal to land at UCLA for the 2025 fall football season.
But wait, there’s more!
A different transfer quarterback (who utilized the portal last winter to come play quarterback for UCLA) is now responding by jumping back into the transfer portal this spring.
He is expected to sign with (yes) the University of Tennessee!
Joey Aguilar was the starting quarterback for Appalachian State University of the Sunbelt Conference in 2024. Over the winter, he utilized the NCAA transfer portal to go west to UCLA.
Joey Aguilar was expected to become the Bruins’ starting quarterback in 2025.
That was before the Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava showed up last weekend in southern California.
This week’s hot rumor is that Tennessee may pilfer Joey Aguilar away from UCLA before he even plays a down for the Bruins this fall.
This weird quarterback saga is getting stranger by the day as more news surfaces.
The word is out that Nico Iamaleava’s younger brother named Madden is transferring away from the University of Arkansas following his freshman year to join his brother at – you guessed it – UCLA this fall.
For those keeping score at home, that makes three UCLA quarterback signees, but one has already departed for Tennessee.
Tennessee lost a quarterback but just signed one from Appalachian State via UCLA.
Appalachian State and Arkansas have just been stood-up for the fall dance.
Welcome to college football 2025!
It may feel like this odd college football news must be kayfabe, but it isn’t.