Fun Fact #434
Fun Fact #434
Shoots and Kayfabes
Wrestling –by its very nature as a Combat sport– can be dangerous if done incorrectly. As such today most combat sports have an incredible number of safety rules except for one: Professional wrestling. The reason for this is simple as most of their matches are actually staged performances with predetermined outcomes to generate appeal. Heck, even their rivalries, Relationships, fighting styles, and outfits are part of their Character. This is called crafting a “Kayfabe” or the portrayal of events as “Real”
Yet what about events that the creators didn't plan for? In short this is called a “Shoot” and is taken from the carnival phrase “Straight Shooter” which was when a carnival game had a gun whose sights weren’t misaligned. Shoots can be almost anything from dropping their character during the fight, to an interview gone bad or even interference from fans. Generally these are stamped out as soon as possible and wrestlers –or interfering fans– can face severe punishments.
One such example is from November 4th 2004 when Kurt Angle, Chris Nawrocki, and Daniel Pounder got a bit too serious about a competition resulting in Angle breaking Chris’s wrist, ribs and injuring his legs, before he then nearly broke Pounder’s arms only being stopped when referees gave him the win since pounder was physically incapable of tapping out or speech at that moment in time. Angle had no clue of the injuries he had caused Chris until after the fight. Angle would be relegated for a time after the fight, as it was unsure if he’d Shoot again leading to a decline in his popularity before he resigned in 2006 now running a podcast.
