History Main / WorkedShoot

* In his first interview with Wrestling/VinceMcMahon since winning ''Wrestling/KingOfTheRing'', [[Wrestling/TripleH Hunter Hearst Helmsley]] stated, "This should've happened last year, but it didn't due to your politics." Clearly referencing the infamous "Curtain Call" incident with Wrestling/TheKliq, which resulted in Helmsley being punished when he was supposed to win King of the Ring that year.]]

* The worst-ever Worked Shoot for WCW was when the company ''started shooting on itself'', complete with the user of insider terms during the show.[[note]]For example, when Kevin Nash and Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} cut "shoot" promos and the commentators acted like it's a shoot. There was also rather explicit mentions of predetermined match finishes ''on purpose while the cameras are still rolling during the show''.[[/note]] Unsurprisingly, this came at a time when Wrestling/VinceRusso was writing for WCW. The stupidity culminated at the wretched New Blood Rising show, where WCW promoted a match between Goldberg, Kevin Nash and Wrestling/ScottSteiner who were going to have a "real fight". Midway through the match, Goldberg "stopped co-operating" and walked out on the match, with the announcers criticizing his lack of professionalism. Nash and Steiner then proceeded to "improvise" a finish, with the announcers praising how professional they were. Soon after, they ran Fall Brawl promos talking about how Goldberg [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cZtuwjdPJU "refused to follow the script".]] This was one of the factors that led to WCW going out of business less than a year later.

-->--'''Tod Gordon''', {{Wrestling/ECW}} founder, on Wrestling/ShaneDouglas seceding from the Wrestling/{{N|ationalWrestlingAlliance}}WA (''Forever Hardcore: The Documentary'')

* One of the most famous worked shoots was a interview made by [[Wrestling/MickFoley Cactus Jack]], known as the "Cane Dewey" promo, during his time in Wrestling/{{ECW}}. The promo was inspired by a sign Cactus Jack saw during a match against Wrestling/TerryFunk, which read "Cane Dewey".[[note]]Dewey being Mick Foley's son, who was 5-year-old at the time.[[/note]] Cactus Jack became somewhat disillusioned with the wrestling business at this time and, at the advisement of ECW promoter and booker Paul Heyman, channeled that into his feud with Wrestling/TommyDreamer, which had Cactus Jack, then a {{heel}}, being against the "Hardcore" wrestling style, and attempting to get Dreamer, who had a hardcore gimmick, to leave ECW for Ted Turner's WCW.[[note]]Which was at that time reviled by ECW fans.[[/note]]

* Wrestling/ScottHall's first pro wrestling appearance after no showing several TNA and WWC events was for Wrestling/JuggaloChampionshipWrestling, where he was a founding member of the "juggalo World order". Hall challenged the jWo to go "on the road" and invade either WWE, ROH, TNA or UFC. They decided to start with TNA, by buying front row tickets to the "Turning Point" event. TNA officials actually thought JCW was actually threatening to interfere with the show and even Samoa Joe was worried because he thought they might have been there on behalf of Hall, who he had dissed. Sheik Abdull Bashir thought the jWo [[ActuallyPrettyFunny was a welcome part of the show]] and started to "[[ThrowItIn fight]]" with 2 Tuff Tony, which security interfered with and had the jWo expelled. The "invasions" of the other three companies never got passed the planning stages.

* After Wrestling/HulkHogan and Wrestling/EricBischoff's [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs hostile takeover]], Hulk Hogan cut a promo about ending kayfabe and how everything anyone other than himself had did up to that point was worthless and fake.

* When the sports company Anthem acquired TNA and Wrestling/JeffJarrett's Global Force Wrestling, it decided to merge them into one brand under the GFW name. At the shows, this was gradually demonstrated by having the GFW associated talent assault those associated with TNA/Impact Wrestling, defeat them in matches, unify their title belts and gradually takeover everything until all was GFW. [[InvertedTrope Basically a shoot turned work]]. However, the Anthem suits had a falling out with Jarrett, who took the GFW brand name with him out the door, so the Impact wrestlers rallied and got their company back.

* On the very first WCW card Russo booked, Buff Bagwell and former tag partner Scotty Riggs shot a backstage segment where Riggs informed Bagwell that he (Riggs) would be winning the match, and Bagwell reacted with disbelief - and then when they actually had the match, Bagwell used a small package pin and "wouldn't let go", winning the match. A couple weeks after that Bagwell was in a match against Wrestling/LaParka. He no-sold everything, then took a dive from the "run into someone's feet in the corner" spot and "threw" the match.

In [[ProfessionalWrestling professional wrestling]] parlance, a "work" is anything scripted (i.e. anything that's part of {{kayfabe}}), while a "shoot" is anything "real" (i.e. not scripted). Put them together and you have the worked shoot; something that is definitely part of the act, but attempts to trick the viewer into thinking (if only for a second) that it's real.

* The Wrestling/WWEBrawlForAll was made out to be legitimate shoot fighting where nothing was scripted, but behind the scenes, Wrestling/DrDeathSteveWilliams was "scripted" to win, and there were accusations leveled about the judges fudging the scores to favor Williams in his matches. Whether that was fact or fiction, the plan was derailed by Bart Gunn, who defeated Williams by KO and disrupted the entire planned work. Bart Gunn proceeded to win the Brawl For All Tournament, and was in turn set up in a match against professional boxer Butterbean at Wrestling/WrestleMania. Accounts differ as to whether this was a punishment for winning when he wasn't supposed to, or whether booker Vince Russo actually expected Gunn to win. Gunn would be KO'd in less than a minute, and fired as soon as he made it back to the locker room.
* Wrestling/CMPunk's on-screen feud with Wrestling/JohnCena and off-screen contract squabbles in the summer of 2011 were turned into one giant worked shoot. After declaring he was leaving WWE on TV, he then cut a promo where he bashed WWE for being MerchandiseDriven and firing his friends like Wrestling/ColtCabana;[[note]]Cabana had had a brief, unsuccesful run as Scotty Goldman.[[/note]] he was promptly "suspended" for his words, only to be reinstated the following week at Cena's request (WWE actually announced the reinstatement five days earlier, possibly to suggest further that the suspension was real). Punk then beat Cena at Money in the Bank and ran out with the WWE Championship, only to keep popping up at WWE promotional events, inciting smarks in the area and daring new WWE head Triple H to hire him back. Sure enough, once WWE appointed a "new" WWE Champion, a re-hired Punk appeared on ''Raw'' to challenge with the old belt.

* The Wrestling/WWEBrawlForAll was made out to be legitimate shoot fighting where nothing was scripted, but behind the scenes, Wrestling/DrDeathSteveWilliams was "scripted" to win, and there were accusations leveled about the judges fudging the scores to favor Williams in his matches. Whether that was fact or fiction, the plan was derailed by Bart Gunn, who defeated Williams by KO and disrupted the entire planned work. Bart Gunn proceeded to win the Brawl For All Tournament, but was punished for ruining the "work" part by being set up in a match against professional boxer Butterbean at Wrestling/WrestleMania. Gunn would be KO'd in less than a minute, then fired shortly thereafter.

* When UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump "bought" ''Raw'', despite the fact that ''Raw'' is a TV show, not a corporate subsidiary, the company did a poor job signaling that he didn’t ''really'' buy the company. There were some official press releases from the USA Network that seemed to imply the whole thing ''wasn't'' an angle, and there were also press conferences held by Vince and Trump reiterating the storyline. Any long term plans for this arc were scrapped on next week's show with Vince "buying ''Raw'' back" for twice what he was originally paid because the storyline was affecting the company's stock.

To tell apart between a real shootfight and a worked shoot, you have to question:

* One of the most famous worked shoots was a interview made by [[Wrestling/MickFoley Cactus Jack]], known as the "Cane Dewey" promo, during his time in Wrestling/{{ECW}}. The promo was inspired by a sign Cactus Jack saw during a match against Wrestling/TerryFunk, which read "Cane Dewey".[[note]]Dewey being Mick Foley's son, who was 5-year-old at the time.[[/note]] Cactus Jack became somewhat disillusioned with the wrestling business at this time and, at the advisement of ECW promoter and booker Paul Heyman, channeled that into his feud with Wrestling/TommyDreamer, which had Cactus Jack, then a {{heel}} being against the "Hardcore" wrestling style, and attempting to get Dreamer, who had a hardcore gimmick, to leave ECW for Ted Turner's WCW.[[note]]Which was at that time reviled by ECW fans.[[/note]]

** Following ''Over the Edge 1998'', Undertaker came to the ring in street clothes and delivered a promo where he seemingly aired Mark Calaway’s legitimate grievances with the company and Wrestling/VinceMcMahon such as his short title reigns. He then segued into complaining that Vince was exploiting his troubled relationship with his [[UnrelatedBrothers “brother”]] for storyline purposes, trying to push the idea that Mark and [[Wrestling/{{Kane}} Glenn]] really were half-brothers with a lot of bad blood between them, even if their characters were fake.

* On the very first WCW card Russo booked, Buff Bagwell and former tag partner Scotty Riggs shot a backstage segment where Riggs informed Bagwell that he (Riggs) would be winning the match, and Bagwell reacted with disbelief - and then when they actually had the match, Bagwell used a small package pin and "wouldn't let go", winning the match. A couple weeks after that Bagwell was in a match against La Parka. He no-sold everything, then took a dive from the "run into someone's feet in the corner" spot and "threw" the match.

* WCW once attempted to save an angle with a worked shoot. Dustin Runnels' new character, Seven, was hyped in a series of creepy vignettes that left the unfortunate impression that he was a child abductor. Turner Standards and Practices axed the gimmick, and in an attempt to get some use out of Seven's elaborate entrance and costume, had Dustin interrupt his own debut, rant about how Goldust had caused him to be stuck in silly gimmick characters, and swear vengeance on WCW for firing his father, Dusty Rhodes.
* This quote, taken verbatim from a 2000 WCW broadcast, from Tony Schiavone, of course, "We do not wrestle in WCW." Note that the company's name was World Championship Wrestling. For those wondering, the quote was from a Hulk Hogan-Wrestling/BillyKidman backstage brawl that ended with the Hulkster throwing Kidman into a dumpster and then ramming it with a Hummer.

* One of the most famous worked shoots was a interview made by [[Wrestling/MickFoley Cactus Jack]], known as the "Cane Dewey" promo, during his time in Wrestling/{{ECW}}. The promo was inspired by a sign Cactus Jack saw during a match against Wrestling/TerryFunk, which read "Cane Dewey".[[note]]Dewey being Mick Foley's son, who was 5-year-old at the time.[[/note]] Cactus Jack became somewhat disillusioned with the wrestling business at this time and, at the advisement of ECW promoter and booker Paul Heyman, channeled that into his feud with Tommy Dreamer, which had Cactus Jack, then a {{heel}} being against the "Hardcore" wrestling style, and attempting to get Dreamer, who had a hardcore gimmick, to leave ECW for Ted Turner's WCW.[[note]]Which was at that time reviled by ECW fans.[[/note]]

* The phrase was also applied to what is more popularly known as "shoot wrestling", a Japanese wrestling style reminiscent of MMA (in fact, many early UFC participants like Ken Shamrock or Dan Severn were veterans of groups employing this style). Although outcomes were predetermined (the "worked" part), holds and strikes were generally applied in a realistic manner (the "shoot" part). Many of these later became full-shoot MMA organizations.
** Worked shoots were somewhat endemic to Japanese professional wrestling. First, there was Wrestling/AntonioInoki, who won a series of (fake) shoot fights with fighters of various martial arts disciplines (and drew a real fight with Muhammad Ali, doing serious damage to Ali's legs in the process despite goofy restrictions on his side.[[note]]Ali was under the understanding that the match would be a work, and only found out 15 minutes before bell time that Inoki had planned on fighting for real - the rules were then cobbled together in that 15 minutes before the match started. One of them was that Inoki could only throw kicks if one knee was in contact with the ground, leading to a surreal fight where Inoki lied on his back and kicked Ali's legs a lot.[[/note]]) Then in the 1980s, several wrestlers in Inoki's New Japan promotion with real martial arts backgrounds felt that they were being forced to lose to inferior opponents. Two of them ([[Wrestling/SatoruSayama Satoru "Tiger Mask" Sayama]] and Wrestling/AkiraMaeda) formed the UWF, which was the first shootwrestling promotion. The shootwrestlers eventually made their way back to the mainstream promotions, and New Japan to this day still has a heavy emphasis on matwork and submissions due to their influence (and almost all major promotions in Japan go to clean finishes for the same reason). Several promotions down the line, shootwrestlers such as Wrestling/MasakatsuFunaki and Wrestling/MinoruSuzuki felt they were being forced to lose to inferior opponents, and formed Pancrase, which did away with the whole predetermined outcome thing, and set the stage for Japan's next cultural fad (and America's MMA PPV phenomenon.)

** Following ''Over the Edge 1998'', Undertaker came to the ring in street clothes and delivered a promo where he seemingly aired Mark Calaway’s legitimate grievances with the company and Wrestling/VinceMcMahon such as his short title reigns. He then segued into complaining that Vince was exploiting his troubled relationship with [[UnrelatedBrothers his “brother”]] for storyline purposes, trying to push the idea that Mark and [[Wrestling/{{Kane}} Glenn]] really were half-brothers with a lot of bad blood between them, even if their characters were fake.

** Following ''Over the Edge 1998'', Undertaker came to the ring in street clothes and delivered a promo where he seemingly aired Mark Calaway’s legitimate grievances with the company and Wrestling/VineMcMahon such as his short title reigns. He then segued into complaining that Vince was exploiting his troubled relationship with [[UnrelatedBrothers his “brother”]] for storyline purposes, trying to push the idea that Mark and [[Wrestling/{{Kane}} Glenn]] really were half brothers with a lot of bad blood between them, even if their characters were fake.

** Following ''Over the Edge 1998'', Undertaker came to the ring in street clothes and delivered a promo where he seemingly aired Mark Calaway’s legitimate grievances with the company and Wrestling/VineMcMahon such as his short title reigns. He then segued into complaining that Vince was exploiting his troubled relationship with [[UnrelatedBrothers his “brother”]] for storyline purposes, trying to push the idea that Mark and [[Wrestling/{{Kane}} Glenn]] really we’re half brothers with a lot of bad blood between them, even if their characters were fake.

* While The Undertaker was leading the Ministry of Darkness, the idea that Mark Calaway, the man behind the gimmick, was beginning to really believe in the Satanic cultist stuff was floated a couple of times. Most notably when Ken Shamrock cut a promo in the ring where he called "Mark" out and threatened to beat a sense of reality into him.

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* The Wrestling/WWEBrawlForAll was made out to be legitimate shoot fighting where nothing was scripted, but behind the scenes, Wrestling/DrDeathSteveWilliams was "scripted" to win, and there were accusations leveled about the judges fudging the scores to favor Williams in his matches. Whether that was fact or fiction, the plan was derailed by Bart Gunn, who defeated Williams by KO and disrupted the entire planned work. Bart Gunn proceeded to win the Brawl For All Tournament, but was punished for ruining the "work" part by being set up in a match against professional boxer Butterbean at WrestleMania. Gunn would be KO'd in less than a minute, then fired shortly thereafter.

* Bash at the Beach 2000 was almost as bad. Wrestling/HulkHogan [[ProtectionFromEditors was pulling his creative control card]] and insisting on beating Wrestling/JeffJarrett for the title while Vince Russo and Creative were set on Booker T ending up with the belt. The negotiation between Hogan and Russo ended with this: Russo would tell Jarrett to lay down in the ring to make Hogan win in a way that would make Hogan look bad, Hogan would leave in a huff, and then Russo would come back out by himself and reveal everything that went on backstage to the fans just so he could nullify Hogan's win and put the belt back on Jarrett - with no one but Russo and Hogan actually knowing it was all a work. As a result, Jarrett was obviously incensed but went along anyway, but the end result in not telling the announcers was them actually saying ''on the air'' "This is not part of the script!" and then saying Russo was not "in character" when he cut his promo. The promo ended up being the reason Hogan later sued Russo for defamation of character (the suit was dismissed in 2002), claiming that he never knew about it, or at least (according to ''The Death of WCW'') that it was a worked shoot turned half-work half-shoot where Russo went completely overboard in calling Hogan a "big bald son of a bitch." The likely real reason for the suit was Hogan reading claims from fans online that Russo had finally "put him in his place" while Russo didn't call him the next day after claiming he would because TNT president Brad Siegel told him not to (according to Russo in a later interview). Enraged by this, Hogan refused to continue working for WCW despite having a contract.[[note]]Which is really ironic, because, according to Hogan's 2002 book, the reason he was insisting on winning the belt was Russo supposedly trying to force him off of WCW TV; given what Siegel told Russo about not calling Hogan so they wouldn't have to put him on the air, it's clear ''someone'' connected to WCW wanted Hogan gone and thus he gave them just what they wanted by refusing to work.[[/note]]

* Wrestling/TheMiz actually did several of these throughout 2010 during his reign as the United States and later WWE Champion. He referred to the real life bullying he suffered in the locker room at the hands of [[Wrestling/JohnBradshawLayfield JBL]].
** His more recent rant against Wrestling/DanielBryan on the 8/23/16 edition of [[Wrestling/WWESmackDown Talking Smack]] leaned into the RealitySubtext of Miz being accused of [[DirtyCoward wrestling like a coward]] and using the "soft WWE style", in contrast to Bryan [[CareerEndingInjury being forced to retire from the ring]] as a consequence of the high-risk style he'd been using since his indie days. The argument got so heated it caused news outlets to speculate on whether both men had gone off-script or not.

* At Wrestling/{{TNA}} Turning Point 2007, Wrestling/SamoaJoe was supposed to team up with Kevin Nash & Wrestling/ScottHall in a match against Wrestling/AJStyles, Tomko & Kurt Angle. However, Hall no-showed the event. Joe was asked before the match to go out and cut a promo to announce their replacement for Hall, Eric Young. However, Joe used the opportunity to bury Hall and voice his frustrations against the company for not properly using the younger talent and giving more breaks to the older, more established stars, frequently shooting nasty looks at his partner Kevin Nash and his opponent KurtAngle while talking. Kevin Nash was shown to be visibly upset by Joe's words, as was TNA President Dixie Carter, who was sitting in the front row. Towards the end of his promo, Joe looked down into the crowd where Dixie was sitting, noticed she wasn't happy and said "Are you mad? No, go ahead, fire me. I don't care." After the match, Joe and Nash had an argument backstage that nearly became physical and the next day, Joe apologized to the TNA locker room for his comments.

* One example that helped catapult wrestling into pop culture was the "Gold Record Incident" in February 1985, where Wrestling/RoddyPiper interrupted an award ceremony on MTV with Lou Albano and Cyndi Lauper, smashed Albano's commemorative record over his head and then body slammed Lauper's manager David Wolff. The whole thing was so realistic that a NY cop rushed into the ring and tried to stop Piper, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero which made him mess up his slam and actually hurt Wolff]]. The whole thing was a setup for the "War to Settle the Score" special, which itself was a setup for the original ''Wrestling/{{WrestleMania''.