Shoot (professional wrestling)
In professional wrestling, 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. Whilst the term technically only applies to wrestling staff, crowds also cause shoots by interfering in events, usually by assaulting a wrestler as he stands by the edge of a crowd or throwing objects at him.
Shoots also occur when wrestlers stop co-operating in a match. This may occur to teach the wrestler 'a lesson'.
Some interviews or promos are described as 'being shoot'; these are portrayed as being unscripted and genuine, although they rarely are.
Example of spontaneous events that are not shoots include mistakes by wrestlers (these are known as botches, and are usually greeted by repeated chants of "YOU FUCKED UP!!!" from the crowd) 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.
Examples of shoots
- The MSG Incident (see Clique).
- The Montreal Screwjob is a possible shoot, in that an agreed-upon plan was secretly changed in order to steal the WWE title from Bret Hart.
- 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.
- 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, the newcomers 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.
- In 1998 Steven Regal was non-cooperative 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.
- In 1998 on Monday Nitro the Four Horsemen stable was reunited, with Ric Flair returning to the company; in Flair's promo, he screamed at WCW President Eric Bischoff. Flair revealed in 2004 that the promo was "100% shoot."
- Owen Hart died accidentally in 1999 in Kansas City, Missouri, shortly before a match in which he was to participate. He fell 78 feet into the ring while being lowered from above.
- An apparent shoot was at Bash at the Beach, 2000. Hulk Hogan was scheduled to lose to Jeff Jarrett; however, Hogan refused to lose, using his creative control to alter the outcome of the match. In response Jarrett lay down to throw the match, then Vince Russo fired Hogan live on Pay Per View.
- Another possible shoot occurred on June 5, 2004. After entering the ring, John Bradshaw Layfield attempted to draw heel heat by giving a crowd in Munich, Germany several Nazi salutes while goose-stepping around the ring. Such a display is illegal in Germany if used for political purposes; the German government chose not to prosecute because the display was obviously for show only. Three days later, the TV financial news channel CNBC fired Layfield from his position as an analyst for the network as a direct result of this incident.
See also: professional wrestling slang
