The history of wrestling shoots and worked-shoots

[Deathstroke]

Credit: Posted by Aaron Rift last year on NoDQ.com

The history of wrestling shoots and worked-shoots

In professional wrestling, a shoot refers to any event during a show that is unplanned and spontaneous: that is, it is real, not staged.

As virtually everything in pro wrestling is worked, shoots occur rarely. Shoots go against the nature of the business, similar to an actor ad-libbing or dropping character during a performance. Performers who shoot during a wrestling event are often fired, since they cannot be trusted to act according to the bookers' wishes. While the term technically only applies to wrestling performers, crowds also cause shoots by interfering in events, usually by assaulting a wrestler. For example, if a wrestler was standing at ringside, some of the spectators will throw objects at him/her. A famous example of this involved a fan running in on a ladder match involving the late Eddie Guerrero and Rob Van Dam, knocking Guerrero off the ladder.

Shoots also occur when wrestlers stop co-operating in a match. This may occur to teach the wrestler "a lesson."

Some interviews or promos during wrestling shows are described as being shoot; these are portrayed as being unscripted and genuine, although they rarely are. This is an example of the writers breaking the fourth wall and attempting to court the certain cache of fans who are interested in shoot, and are more accurately described as worked shoot.

A "true" shoot interview is generally conducted and released by someone other than a wrestling promotion, conducted out of character, usually when a wrestler is interviewed about their career and asked to give their opinion on other wrestlers. While some wrestlers used these as an opportunity to insult people they dislike (for example, Iron Shiek ripped on B. Brian Blair), many are more pleasant. These shoots are often released on DVD. Wrestlers and managers who have done shoots include Mick Foley, Noreen Greenwald, Jim Cornette, Bobby Heenan and Terry Funk.

Example of spontaneous events that are not shoots include mistakes by wrestlers (these are known as botches, which ECW fans started responding to with ruthless chants of "You f***ed up!") or matches where the wrestlers are good enough to not need to plan and rehearse beforehand, and make it up on the spot as time dictates.

The related term "shoot-fighting" is often used by wrestling fans to refer to mixed martial arts competitions, which, while superficially similar to wrestling matches, are actual athletic competition rather than scripted entertainment.

Drawing from this related term, a shooter is not a wrestler with a reputation for being uncooperative but one who uses legitimate hooking skills as a gimmick; an example is Dean Malenko, who used "The Shooter" as a nickname.

[Deathstroke]

Examples of shoots

* Stanislaus Zbyszko defeated champion Wayne Munn on April 15, 1925 for the world title, when Munn was supposed to retain. A similar situation occurred on March 2, 1936 when Dick Shikat defeated champion Danno O'Mahoney. Apparently the winners felt they deserved the title, and genuinely out-wrestled their opponents.
* The MSG Incident (see The Clique).
* The Montreal Screwjob is generally acknowledged to be a shoot, in that an agreed-upon plan was secretly changed in order to take the WWF Title off of Bret Hart. It is also widely believed that since Hart and Shawn Michaels were in a real life argument, Hart was going to violently attack Michaels during the match, which would have also been a shoot.
* Tiger Mask wrestled Akira Maeda on September 2, 1985. The match was stopped by the referee as both men began beating each other up for real.
* On April 27, 1985, newcomers The Road Warriors wrestled veterans Larry Hennig & Jerry Blackwell but refused to sell their moves. Hennig and Blackwell proceeded to beat up the Warriors in the ring as a lesson.
* In January 1987, Lex Luger wrestled Bruiser Brody. Luger had angered other wrestlers by leaving to work for a rival promotion. A few minutes into the match, Brody stopped selling Luger's moves. A scared Luger quickly got himself disqualified and left the ring in a hurry, presumably further motivated by the fact that Brody taped up razor blades (commonly used for blading) to his fingertips.
* At the 1995 Royal Rumble, Bam Bam Bigelow, after losing a tag team match due to his partner's bumbling, noticed retired football player Lawrence Taylor laughing at ringside. Bigelow approached Taylor, to which Taylor stood and offered a handshake. An insulted Bigelow then (in what some suspect was originally a work that got out of hand) shoved Taylor to the floor and walked off, prompting a surprised reaction from the crowd, and the respective anger of Taylor, who was restrained by his colleagues, and Vince McMahon, who, according to co-commentator Jerry Lawler, had left the table in pursuit of Bigelow (explaining the sudden silence during the broadcast). A formal apology was made by McMahon to Taylor the following night on RAW, along with the announcement that Bigelow had received a 30-day suspension. As tempers decreased in the following weeks, the situation was later used as a story line when Taylor agreed to a match with Bigelow at WrestleMania XI, preceded by a moment of humor between the two men in which Taylor, during a quiet handshake, suddenly smooched Bigelow on the cheek at the official contract signing, eliciting laughs from the press.
* In 1998, Steven Regal was uncooperative during a live match with Goldberg on WCW Monday Nitro, seeking to expose the limited ability of Goldberg, and was dismissed from the company as a result.
* Though it wasn't "unplanned", the WWF's Brawl For All tournament in 1998 and 1999 featured genuine fighting, so the match results would not be known by anyone until the end of the match. Although the WWF wanted "Dr. Death" Steve Williams to win the tournament, Bart Gunn beat him in the 2nd round, and would eventually win it all, beating Bradshaw in the finals. Gunn would fight super-heavyweight boxer Butterbean in another shoot Brawl For All match at WrestleMania XV, but he lost quickly.
* In 1998 on a live Monday Nitro, the Four Horsemen stable was reunited, with Ric Flair returning to the company. In Flair's in-ring promo, he screamed obscenties at WCW President Eric Bischoff. Flair revealed in 2004 that the promo was "100% shoot."
* An apparent shoot was at Bash at the Beach 2000. Hulk Hogan was booked to lose to Jeff Jarrett; however, Hogan refused to lose, using his creative control to alter the outcome of the match. In response Jarrett laid down to throw the match, and Vince Russo fired Hogan live on PPV. However, in 2005, Russo revealed that this situation was actually a worked shoot. [1]
* In 2002, Stone Cold Steve Austin admitted that he hated the way the company was going on an episode of Byte This! He said "I'm not happy with the way the whole company is going. The writing has been pretty substandard. I'll go one better than that, it's been piss poor."
* In 2004, at a SmackDown! house show, Hardcore Holly was up against Ren? Dupr?e as part of a tag team match. At one point in the match, Holly was punching Dupree and later hit him in the head with a steel chair as hard as he could. Dupree then ran backstage. It was said that Holly did this because he let Dupree drive his rental car; and while driving it, he got a speeding ticket which he refused to pay for. Holly had to job to someone as punishment. After this incident, Dupr?e appeared with a black eye.
* During the Tough Enough competition in 2004, Kurt Angle and one of the contestants, Daniel Puder (a former mixed martial arts fighter) got in a 42-second shoot fight. During the fight Puder locked Angle in a keylock and almost made Angle tap because his arm was about to break. Angle did have Puder's back on the mat so referee Jim Korderas counted a quick 3 count even though Puder's shoulders weren't officially on the mat. Angle's arm was supposedly numb from his previous match with another Tough Enough contestant and he was said to be furious over what happened. Puder eventually took the lead in the votes after this night and won the competition. No storyline happened after this incident between the two.
* On June 12, 2005, at the ECW One Night Stand PPV, Rob Van Dam cut a shoot interview about his dissatisfaction with the direction of his character in WWE. Later in the same show, Paul Heyman cut a shoot interview where he scolded Edge for having an affair with female wrestler Lita, who was at the time the girlfriend of Matt Hardy. In the same interview, Heyman told JBL, "The only reason you were WWE Champion for almost a year was because Triple H didn't want to work Tuesdays!" (SmackDown!, the show JBL is a part of, is taped on Tuesdays.) In the brawl at the end of that show, JBL shot on The Blue Meanie, drawing blood with his stiff punches.
* Both Team 3D and Christian Cage gave scathing shoot interviews against WWE on-air when each premiered for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. Team 3D gave them the finger and told them to "Trademark This", in reference to their inability to use their previous gimmick because WWE trademarked it. Cage likened WWE to an old, tired promotion, and hinted he was sick of the politics.
* On the January 6, 2006 edition on SmackDown!, Juventud faced Kid Kash. Juventud (who reportedly had many backstage problems with the WWE) made several high risk moves even though he was ordered by the WWE not to do so. To top things off, he performed the 450 Splash on Kash which is a move that has been banned from the WWE.
* On January 9, 2006 edition of RAW, John Cena blasted the fans who were giving him negative reactions. He even told them to "kiss his ass."
* On January 2006, John Cena released all of his fraustrations on the fans during his weekly Internet show, Five Questions with John Cena. He stated his thoughts on the mixed reaction he is getting & for the fans not being creative for the new title of the said show. He also blasted the NFL later on the same show.

[Deathstroke]

Examples of worked shoots

These examples may not be confirmed "worked shoots", but are generally regarded as such, especially by the smark community.

* The "Pillman's got a gun" storyline in 1996, in which Brian Pillman pulled a gun on Stone Cold Steve Austin on-camera when Austin "invaded Pillman's home."
* Ken Shamrock calling out The Undertaker using his real name, Mark (Calaway), on an episode of Monday Night RAW.
* Stephanie McMahon referring to Test by his real name, Andrew (Martin), throughout 1999.
* Also on RAW, a mid-2005 storyline in which Lita left her storyline husband Kane for Edge. Subsequently, the previously-fired Matt Hardy began appearing at WWE events, attacking Edge and berating Edge, Lita, and the WWE for the situation. This may be a shoot because Hardy would refer to Edge by his real name, Adam, during the attacks. This is generally thought to be an attempt to cash in on a recent real-life affair between Hardy's former girlfriend Amy Dumas (Lita) and Adam Copeland (Edge). Eventually, it was reported that Hardy signed a new contract with WWE just before he started making these appearances, and that WWE planned to run the storyline as a worked shoot. Later, on the August 1, 2005 RAW, WWE owner Vince McMahon came to the ring and officially acknowledged Hardy's return, inviting him to the ring and giving him the microphone. Hardy proceeded to cut a worked shoot promo in which he recounted the affair and referred to Lita and Edge by their real names.
* At WCW New Blood Rising (August 13, 2000), Goldberg sandbagged a powerbomb attempt by Kevin Nash during a three-way match also involving Scott Steiner, and pushed him away. The commentators acted like the incident was a shoot, and acted like they were completely unprepared for the match afterwards, while the wrestlers also acted like they were improvising. This led to a storyline in which Nash and Goldberg traded "shoot" promos at each other to build to a later one-on-one match.
* A few weeks after ECW One Night Stand, The Blue World Order made a shocking appearance on SmackDown!, highlighted by a vicious and bloody attack on JBL. Stevie Richards hit JBL on the head as hard as he could with a steel chair, opening up a serious and bloody gash on his head in what is called a "receipt" for JBL's earlier assault on The Blue Meanie at the ECW pay-per-view.
* On the July 25, 2005 edition of RAW, Shawn Michaels cut an in-ring promo for his upcoming match with Hulk Hogan at SummerSlam. Notably, he finished the promo by telling Hogan "Whatcha gonna do when the Heartbreak Kid, Shawn Michaels, won't lay down for you?" This is not only a play on Hogan's normal "Whatcha gonna do..." catchphrase, but is also a thinly veiled reference to the infamous Fingerpoke of Doom, a 1999 incident in which Kevin Nash blatantly laid down for Hogan in a WCW Championship match. He also made other such comments during the feud.
* On the October 11, 2005 edition (aired October 14) of "Smackdown!", the late Eddie Guerrero refered to then World Heavyweight Champion Batista by his real surname (Bautista) when he said he wanted a title rematch from No Mercy.
* When Bob Backlund lost the WWF Title to the Iron Sheik in 1983, his manager, Arnold Skaaland, threw in the towel without Backlund's knowledge.
* At the 1995 Royal Rumble, Bam Bam Bigelow, after losing a tag team match due to his partner's bumbling, noticed retired football player Lawrence Taylor laughing at ringside. Bigelow approached Taylor, to which Taylor stood and offered a handshake. An insulted Bigelow then shoved Taylor to the floor and walked off, prompting a surprised reaction from the crowd, and the respective anger of Taylor, who was restrained by his colleagues, and Vince McMahon, who, according to co-commentator Jerry Lawler, had left the table in pursuit of Bigelow (explaining the sudden silence during the broadcast). A formal apology was made by McMahon to Taylor the following night on RAW, along with the announcement that Bigelow had received a 30-day suspension. The confrontation was used to propel a storyline in which Taylor agreed to a match with Bigelow at WrestleMania XI, which was preceded by a moment of humor between the two men in which Taylor, during a quiet handshake, suddenly smooched Bigelow on the cheek at the official contract signing, eliciting laughs from the press.

[xrisfox]

Heymans shoot at ONS was the best IMO.

[PROVERBS]

Great thread Snits.

Originally Posted by Snitsky

* On the July 25, 2005 edition of RAW, Shawn Michaels cut an in-ring promo for his upcoming match with Hulk Hogan at SummerSlam. Notably, he finished the promo by telling Hogan "Whatcha gonna do when the Heartbreak Kid, Shawn Michaels, won't lay down for you?" This is not only a play on Hogan's normal "Whatcha gonna do..." catchphrase, but is also a thinly veiled reference to the infamous Fingerpoke of Doom, a 1999 incident in which Kevin Nash blatantly laid down for Hogan in a WCW Championship match. He also made other such comments during the feud.

I loved the promos HBK did during the Hogan feud .. hard to tell if they were worked or not .. alot of his comments sure sounded like shoots.

[Deathstroke]

Yeah I came across it while searching for Pillman's WWF contract signing. It's a nice read. Alot of the shoots and worked-shoots I knew about but some of them I didn't. I thought others might like to read it despite NoDQ getting such a bad rap.

[JUSA]

Originally Posted by PROVERBS413

Great thread Snits.


I loved the promos HBK did during the Hogan feud .. hard to tell if they were worked or not .. alot of his comments sure sounded like shoots.

HBK is one of the few guys who can make a work seem like a shoot. I think it's just because he's willing to go out there and for the most part speak his mind or build on real feelings he has. I loved the part of "Wrestling with Shadows" where Bret is talking about Shawn in the back of his limo. He was saying how HBK was encouraging him to push the "homo" thing about him and Bret just couldn't understand. Good stuff.

[Vakas]

Originally Posted by Snitsky

* In 2002, Stone Cold Steve Austin admitted that he hated the way the company was going on an episode of Byte This! He said "I'm not happy with the way the whole company is going. The writing has been pretty substandard. I'll go one better than that, it's been piss poor."

Hasn't gotten better thats for sure.

Great find as well, repped.

[jimbob007]

I don't think anything about Lawrence Taylor was a shoot- he had done an angle for WCW in 1991 at the house show where Flair won the belt back from Sting and was just a convincing actor.

I never thought the Hogan/Russo thing was anything other than the two of them trying to work everybody with an awful scenario but it eventually went to court so it seems it actually turned into a shoot after the fact.

[Rusty Shackleford]

I remember reading about an annoucement made on WCW.com back during it's dying days...

Apparently Psicosis (I think) was given the cruiserweight title for no clear reason and the explanation for this on WCW.com was that "Psicosis was awarded the cruiserweight title after the West Texas Rednecks angle was dropped..."

Ludicrous

[HardGainer82]

Originally Posted by jimbob007

I don't think anything about Lawrence Taylor was a shoot- he had done an angle for WCW in 1991 at the house show where Flair won the belt back from Sting and was just a convincing actor.

I never thought the Hogan/Russo thing was anything other than the two of them trying to work everybody with an awful scenario but it eventually went to court so it seems it actually turned into a shoot after the fact.

That's what happens when you call Hogan "bald."

[Rusty Shackleford]

Oh and the backstage skit in WCW where Buff Bagwell was talking to someone and said something like: "I just the got finish for our match....I'm going to be lying down for the 1-2-3"

Probably not 100% accurate but still amazing nonetheless

[ricanarab]

Great post. Would rep if I could (like you need it).

The worked shoot always fascinated me, until it started getting overdone in the 90's, probably due to the internet.

I think wrestling promotions place WAY to much stock on the internet, and WCW seemed to putting on shows just for smarks towards the end, and 97% of the paying audience didn't even get it.

When it comes to actual fights, it's never ceased to amaze me how well some of the Japanese guys perform worked shoots, such as the old UWF-I matches.

[Deathstroke]

Originally Posted by jimbob007

I never thought the Hogan/Russo thing was anything other than the two of them trying to work everybody with an awful scenario but it eventually went to court so it seems it actually turned into a shoot after the fact.

From what I understand it did start out as a work but became a shoot when Russo cut his promo on Hogan.It was one of those angles that Russo loved to run where only the internet fans understand and the rest of the fans don't understand and are confused.

The idea was to play off of Hogan having creative control. People were made to believe that Hogan was unwilling to lose to Jarrett and was playing his creative control card and politicking to win the title. I think the "worked-shoot" part which only Hogan, Russo and Jarrett were in on was that Jarrett would lay down for Hogan in their match leading to Hogan reluctantly pinning him to the title and then cut a promo on Russo and quit leaving Jarrett with the title which Jarrett would defend against Booker T later in the PPV.

Somehow it did become a total shoot, at least on Hogan when Russo cut his promo against him and vowed he would never be seen in WCW ever again. Then Hogan ended up filing a lawsuit against WCW/Turner. Yeah, sounds about right.

[DontTreadOnMe]

great thread once again Snits

I don't remember the Cena shoots, looking for a vid now

EDIT: can't find ****

[Deathstroke]

Originally Posted by ricanarab

Great post. Would rep if I could (like you need it).

The worked shoot always fascinated me, until it started getting overdone in the 90's, probably due to the internet.

I think wrestling promotions place WAY to much stock on the internet, and WCW seemed to putting on shows just for smarks towards the end, and 97% of the paying audience didn't even get it.

When it comes to actual fights, it's never ceased to amaze me how well some of the Japanese guys perform worked shoots, such as the old UWF-I matches.

I always need more green blocks.

Yeah it held my interest too back in the 90's, especially everything Brian Pillman did working WCW, ECW and the WWF. Some of that stuff seriously had me fooled at the time.

Another thing that had me fooled was that enzugiri from Owen Hart to HBK that caused him to collapse in the ring.

And when he forfeited his title to Dean Douglas then they played the "Tell Me A Lie" video...the beating was real as far as I know, and I was very surprised they made it known that he was jumped out in the real world. They didn't tell us the entire story but still, back then I had expected them to just kayfabe the hell out of everything.

[30/7/66]

* In 1998, Steven Regal was uncooperative during a live match with Goldberg on WCW Monday Nitro, seeking to expose the limited ability of Goldberg, and was dismissed from the company as a result.

anybody have a video of this?

[YourFired85]

Originally Posted by 30/7/66

* In 1998, Steven Regal was uncooperative during a live match with Goldberg on WCW Monday Nitro, seeking to expose the limited ability of Goldberg, and was dismissed from the company as a result.

anybody have a video of this?

Heres the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dnCnvet_iA

Can't remember how to embed the video, but theres the link right there

[30/7/66]

Originally Posted by YourFired85

Heres the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dnCnvet_iA

Can't remember how to embed the video, but theres the link right there

****ing repped!

[jsheppard1]

one of my favorite worked shoots



the actual shoot starts about half way in

[jsheppard1]

another "worked shoot" that i like. a lot of people forgot about this one, but it's really good.

[Disenfranchised]

Originally Posted by jsheppard1

one of my favorite worked shoots



the actual shoot starts about half way in

Yeah that was great. I marked like a little bitch.

[NukeDukem]

I thought this was a great worked shoot, Bret Hart calls out Goldberg in Toronto on Nitro

I was quite the mark at the time, this may even have been what got me on the internet looking for wrestling news



Of note: Hart makes some "shoot" comments about ratings, bischoff, people not wanting to face him

Also, WCW didn't like the bizarro world crowd so they turned off the sound when they Boo'ed Goldberg, and piped in fake Goldberg chants.

When I first saw this, I was wondering what if Bret had gone into business for himself and really injured Goldberg by goading him into spearing a steel plate

[user23960508710788]

Originally Posted by YourFired85

Heres the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dnCnvet_iA

Can't remember how to embed the video, but theres the link right there

What's the big deal about that? I watched it and it still looked like Goldberg dominated most of the match.... Regal threw in a few holds, so? Goldberg still dominated him and won.

[Deathstroke]

Originally Posted by BigLifter85

What's the big deal about that? I watched it and it still looked like Goldberg dominated most of the match.... Regal threw in a few holds, so? Goldberg still dominated him and won.

Regal was supposed to go out there and get completely destroyed and jobbed out in a quick squash match during Goldberg's superman-push. He didn't cooperate. Instead he tried to mat wrestle him and at one point when he got up for the pin, Regal legitimately kicked him in the face. After the match, Bischoff confronted him and said "What were you doing out there?! You made him look like a damn fool!" then he was released from WCW.

In short, Regal prolonged the match and dominated it in parts when it was to be an all Goldberg squash. Regal tried to lead him through a sequence of moves but Goldberg being green/inexperienced didn't react each time he was fed a move. SO, it looked like Regal could hang in the ring against Goldberg at a time when WCW was pushing him as being completely unstoppable.

[guym]

Originally Posted by jsheppard1

another "worked shoot" that i like. a lot of people forgot about this one, but it's really good.

It's great 'cause even as a smart fan, you wonder "Crap...er, is this for real?"

[jimbob007]

Regal also took a piss on an airplane aisle and a stewardesses foot before this which nearly got him fired so Goldberg was the final straw.

[TheGame240]

You must spread some reputation around before giving it Snitsky again.

I never realized this, but that message is a little gay.

[Deathstroke]

Originally Posted by TheGame240

I never realized this, but that message is a little gay.

Hey it is gay, I agree completely. And you're not the only one who gets that message regularly!

Jimbob, yup. Regal had a drinking problem back then which I believe also led to him being released from his first stint in the WWF during the Attitude Era when he wrestled Severn piss drunk.

Looking back I agree with the firing. I would have been professional about it. It was supposed to be a complete squash and thanks to him, it was more like a normal match.

[ChuckieB]

My favorite worked shoot was the Pillman/Sullivan "booker-man" angle. God, what Pillman could have been to the sport. An Austin/Pillman Wrestlemania main event for the title would have been classic story telling.