Shoot (professional wrestling)

A shoot in professional wrestling is any unplanned, unscripted, or real-life occurrence within a wrestling event. It is a carny term shortened from "straight shooting" which originally referred to a gun in a carnival target shooting game which did not have its sights fixed (terminology such as this reflects the professional wrestling industry's roots in traveling carnivals).^[1] This term has come to mean a legit attack or fight in professional wrestling, and its meaning has broadened to include unscripted events in general. The opposite of a shoot is a work.

Occurrences

Professional wrestling is staged entertainment rather than a sports competition. As such, virtually everything in professional wrestling is worked (a part of the show), and shoots rarely occur. Shoots in general are 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 punished (often by lower pay or relegation to opening bouts) or even fired, since it is thought that they cannot be trusted to act according to the bookers' wishes. Shoots can also occur when wrestlers stop cooperating in a match. This may occur to teach one of the wrestlers "a lesson" for whatever reason.

Shoot interview

A "shoot interview" is generally conducted and released by someone other than a wrestling promotion. They are conducted out of character with a wrestler, promoter, manager, or other insider generally being interviewed about their career and asked to give their opinion on wrestlers, promotions, or specific events in their past. While some wrestlers used these as an opportunity to insult people or promotions they dislike, many are more pleasant. These shoots are often released on DVD, or end up on YouTube.

One example occurred on October 23, 1999, when Doug Gilbert, then with the Memphis independent promotion Power Pro Wrestling, turned a televised interview intended to further a feud with Brian Christopher into a shoot that soon led to the demise of the promotion. Gilbert publicly exposed the fact that Jerry Lawler, previously the owner of another significant Memphis-based promotion, was Brian's father—a blatant violation of kayfabe, the portrayal of events within professional wrestling as not being staged (in this case, Brian being not Jerry's son). He also made disparaging remarks about both Lawlers, as well as the promotion's booker Randy Hales.^[6]

Shoot fighting

Drawing from this related term, a shooter or shoot-fighter is not a wrestler with a reputation for being uncooperative but one who uses legit hooking skills as a gimmick. A prime example of this tactic is Dean Malenko, who used "The Shooter" as a nickname. These wrestlers often gain their skills from martial arts (Ken Shamrock or Josh Barnett), or amateur wrestling (Kurt Angle or Dolph Ziggler). These kinds of shooters are sometimes referred to as stretchers (from their ability to use legit holds on their opponents to stretch them).

Despite the worked nature of the spectacle, shooters have been around since the beginning. Originally, the National Wrestling Alliance's World Champion was typically a shooter or "hooker" in an effort to keep regional champions and other contenders from attempting to shoot on them and win the title when they were not scheduled to do so.

The use of the term "shoot" to describe a single or double-leg takedown attempt (in legit fighting situations such as mixed martial arts) is inspired by early professional wrestling shooters, who would often utilize these basic wrestling moves when shooting on an opponent (as opposed to the flashier takedowns used in worked matches, such as suplexes).

An example of shoot fighting happened on November 4, 2004, episode of SmackDown!, taped in St. Louis, Missouri, during an unscripted segment of Tough Enough, Kurt Angle, a former American amateur wrestler and 1996 Olympic gold medalist, challenged the finalists through a squat thrust competition.^[7][8] Chris Nawrocki won the competition, and his prize was a match against Angle.^[9] Angle quickly took Nawrocki down, breaking his ribs, then made him submit with a neck crank.^[9] After defeating Nawrocki, Angle challenged the other finalists.^[9] Daniel Puder, an American professional mixed martial artist, accepted his challenge.^[9] They wrestled for position, with Angle taking Puder down, but in the process Puder locked Angle in a kimura lock.^[8][9] With Puder on his back and Angle's arm locked in the kimura, Angle attempted a pin. One of two referees in the ring, Jim Korderas, quickly counted three to end the bout, despite the fact that Puder's shoulders were not fully down on the mat, bridging up at two.^[8][9] Puder later claimed he would have snapped Angle's arm on national television if Korderas had not ended the match.^[9] Dave Meltzer and Dave Scherer gave these following comments:

It was real. If you don't follow fighting, Puder had Angle locked in the Kimura, or keylock as Tazz called it, although Tazz didn't let on the move was fully executed. Not only was Angle not getting out of the move, but most MMA fighters would have tapped already. Angle couldn't tap for obvious reasons. The ref counted a three even though Puder's shoulders weren't fully down, trying to end the thing, because the reality was Angle would have been in surgery had it gone a few seconds longer or had Puder not given up the hold.

— Dave Meltzer^[8]

As you would expect, Kurt Angle was less than happy backstage at Smackdown after almost being forced to tap out to Tough Enough contestant Daniel Puder. Downright ticked off would probably be the best way to describe his mood. The unscripted nature of the contest was the main reason that Angle was made to look so bad since Puder just reacted to the situation and could have forced Angle to submit had the referees not thought quickly and counted a pin that wasn’t there on Puder.

— Dave Scherer^[8]

The term is also often used by wrestling fans, in another definition (in this case, also known as shoot wrestling) to refer to mixed martial arts competitions, which, while superficially similar to wrestling matches, are actual athletic competition rather than sports entertainment.

Other shoots

Example of spontaneous events that are not shoots include mistakes by wrestlers (these are known as botches) or matches where the wrestlers are good enough to not need to plan and rehearse beforehand and can make it up on the spot as time dictates.

Shoots may also involve those outside the wrestling business. In 1984, while filming a 20/20 segment on professional wrestling, reporter John Stossel remarked to wrestler David "Dr. D" Schultz that wrestling was fake. Yelling "You think this is fake?", Schultz slapped him and knocked him to the ground twice.^[10] Stossel claimed that he still suffered from pain and buzzing in his ears eight weeks after the assault.^[11] Schultz maintains that he attacked Stossel because the head of the WWF wanted him to.^[12][13]

See also

• Shoot wrestling
• Glossary of professional wrestling terms
• Breaking the fourth wall
• Breaking character

References

Further reading

• Laprade, Patric (August 31, 2017). "Mat Matters: Sexy Star has lost my respect". SLAM Wrestling. Retrieved October 27, 2017.