Worked Shoot: Difference between revisions

=== [[Trope Maker]] ===

* Arguably originated by [[Jerry Lawler]], Jimmy Hart, and Andy Kaufman, with the long-running Lawler/Kaufman feud. Qualifies as a Worked Shoot because some of the stunts Andy and Jerry pulled (like getting into a fight on the set of David Letterman's show) managed to convince a lot of people who weren't usually fooled into believing [[Kayfabe]].

*** While Carrey was doing publicity for ''[[Man on the Moon]]'', he was visited by Tony Clifton, resulting in a fight and Tony actually urinating on scene with a [[Gag Penis]]. The journalists gathered seemed to [[Genre Savvy|realize that it was a Work Shoot, however.]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAi08eAMG6E Seen Here.]

** Really, most of Kaufman's career consisted of Worked Shoots, like faking a British accent and reading ''The Great Gatsby'' instead of performing his comedy routine because he was "sick of your lowbrow American humor."

 

* To this day, it is still debated whether the [[Montreal Screwjob]] was a work, a shoot, or a worked shoot. [[Shawn Michaels]] has admitted that he was in on the screwjob after years of denying it, while [[Vince Russo]] claimed that was a work.

** In the civil suit over the death of [[Owen Hart]], both [[Bret Hart]] and [[Vince McMahon]] - under oath - said that it was a shoot, once again causing many wrestling fans to question the sanity of Mr. Russo.

* [[CM Punk]]'s on-screen feud with [[John Cena]] 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 [[Merchandise-Driven]] and firing his friends like Colt Cabana; 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 the WWE appointed a "new" WWE Champion, a re-hired Punk appeared on Raw to challenge with the old belt.

* One example that helped catapult wrestling into pop culture was the "Gold Record Incident" in Feb. 1985, where Roddy Piper 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, 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 first Wrestlemania.

** They also tried to turn the obviously scripted stage collapse accident on Vince in 2008 into a worked shoot. He can be heard saying "Paul, (The real first name of his son-in-law [[Triple H]]) I can't feel my legs." Then they pretty much just forgot about it.

** A similar event happened with Donald Trump "buying" RAW, despite the fact that RAW is a TV show, not a corporate subsidiary. Unfortunately, due to some official press releases from the company's headquarters in Stamford that seemed to imply the whole thing ''wasn't'' an angle, WWE stock dropped significantly the next day. Any long term plans for this arc were scrapped the next week with Vince buying it back for twice what he was originally paid.

* Not all worked shoots are full of hate and violence: Stan "Uncle Elmer" Frazier's wedding to Joyce Stazko on a 1985 broadcast of Saturday Night's Main Event, was the real thing; Roddy Piper's attempt at disrupting the ceremony and [[Jesse Ventura]]'s snide commentary were just part of the gimmick (this was when kayfabe was still alive and well in the WWF)

** This particular incident arose first as a dare by a fellow wrestler (and real life friend of Taker), and then Shawn decided to have some fun. The guy conducting the interview, [[Jim Ross]], was none too happy about it, but Undertaker took it better.

* Also in WWE, [[Matt Hardy]] discovered that his girlfriend [[Lita]] was cheating on him with fellow wrestler [[Edge]], and when he started to talk publicly about it, he was unceremoniously fired. After he slowly built a rabid fanbase using the sympathy from this incident on the internet, he suddenly began appearing on WWE RAW again, jumping over the barricade and attacking Edge, then being carried out by security while screaming things like, "I thought you were my friend, Johnny Ace!" (a reference to WWE executive John "Johnny Ace" Laurinaitis). Soon enough, the truth came out; Matt had been re-hired, and plans were in place for a storyline based on the problems between Matt and Edge (even though this meant [[Retcon|Ret Conning]] a year's worth of storylines in which Lita was [[Kane (wrestling)|Kane]]'s wife). To this day, fans still debate whether the infidelity that started the whole thing was work, or shoot. Realistically there's little question it was initially a shoot - WWE didn't talk about it, and you know that WWE.com would have been full of stories about it if it was a work. Note that the ''second'' [[Matt Hardy]] showed back up on Raw and bragged about it being "a shoot" on his blog, any illusion that he was acting independently was broken.