The Miz, Brock Lesnar and how worked shoots are Best for Business
A worked-shoot is an insider wrestling term for any segment of a show or live event that appears to be unscripted but is actually put forward by the creative team.
Many will remember the shoot promo that CM Punk delivered in 2011 regarding the state of the industry back then, and how he was being held back. The best thing about this promo was it got people talking about wrestling again and most importantly, it got people talking about CM Punk as a legitimate contender to the top spot of the business.
You can go back further than that to one of the first worked shoots in wrestling history with Jerry “The King” Lawler and Andy Kaufman going as far as appearing on Letterman to further their feud and make the fans question what was really going on.
On the SmackDown Live post-show last night, Talking Smack, The Miz went off at Daniel Bryan and delivered what can only be described as an epic promo. During the passionate ranting, The Miz referenced Daniel Bryan’s broken promises to the WWE Universe about him coming back and challenging for the WWE Intercontinental Championship. Daniel Bryan looked shocked and taken aback by this and meekly responded by saying if he could come back he would, but he can’t get cleared.
Furthermore, The Miz referenced the indy circuit to Bryan and asked him why he doesn’t just go and compete there. Now this isn’t completely out of the ordinary for WWE to mention other promotions and I can’t help but think that it would have been awesome for The Miz to tell Daniel Bryan to go to TNA, but it still hit home that Miz didn’t care if the cameras were on him, didn’t care if he was going off script and quite frankly, didn’t care if he would be reprimanded for his little outburst.
What made the segment even more believable was Daniel Bryan simply leaving the set. That brilliant nuance gave The Miz’s rant a lot of credibility as it appeared he had actually offended the 4-time World Champion.
It got people talking on Social Media straight away. Did Miz go off script? Of course, we pretty much know now, since WWE posted the video on their Social Media account that he didn’t, but people are now talking about how awesome the segment was. I can tell you this, I’ll be tuning in for next week’s Talking Smack.
It would seem that Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Orton at SummerSlam 2016 started a revived trend in WWE that they flirted with during CM Punk’s rise to prominence. Breaking the fourth wall will always get people talking about the product.
Brock Lesnar busting Randy Orton open was vicious, unnecessary and the talking point of SummerSlam. It even took the focus off how bad the new Universal Championship looks with its ugly red strap. The only red people were talking about was the red pouring out of Randy Orton’s head. It has all come to light that while Lesnar was probably a bit overzealous, the original plan called for him to get hard blood. For those who are new to insider terms again, hard blood means getting cut open properly as opposed to blading or using a blood pouch.
I would assume that the reason this was the plan is because of the no exception blading ban that is currently in effect in WWE. It gets around this rule as they can pass it off as accidental to sponsors and the people who make sure WWE stays PG. It’s a little messed up as I would argue that blading is safer and actually looks a lot better in terms of the presentation when it’s mixed with the sweat and water that makes the wound look worse than it is.
Nevertheless, I live in the UK and I have never seen so much post-match coverage in my life. News sites that usually wouldn’t even go near wrestling or at least only cover it briefly were shocked and immediately put together articles about the brutality of the match. Speculating whether Brock Lesnar was unsafe, asking if they’d gone too far and was it right to end such a major pay-per-view in this way?
It was absolutely right as it created controversy and extended the WWE’s reach to places and potential fans it hadn’t reached in a long time.
It actually had bigger implications as WWE Superstar Chris Jericho was also taken in by it all as he confronted Lesnar about the incident in a backstage altercation. Vince McMahon ended up stepping in and told Jericho that it was a work rather than unsafe elbow. Mind you, even if it was agreed I can’t help but feel he had a point. Elbowing someone in the head in a business known for concussions and head injuries probably wasn’t the smartest move for the talent. However, it was best for business.
I hope we start to see more worked shoots in the future as is only serves to further feuds and careers. The feud between Edge and Matt Hardy in the mid noughties is further proof of this. When Edge began his relationship with Lita, essentially stealing her from Matt Hardy, Vince saw dollar signs and put them in a feud by bringing him back to the business. Matt Hardy had been released at the time and the crowd were very vocal whenever Edge or Lita would appear on screen.
However, this real life hate made for great television and what was great to see, especially in hindsight, was the professionalism between the two men during the feud. Edge was reported to have let Matt Hardy tag him with a few real shots during a brawling segment to get it out of his system, which is probably the best thing he could have done.
I feel the same thing will happen for the Miz following his outburst on Talking Smack. Raw General Manager Mick Foley has even praised Miz, in a post on Facebook, saying that in the past it would have been easier to make fun of Miz, but now he would be the one coming off as silly as it has essentially catapulted his character into that status.
He also legitimised the WWE Intercontinental Championship going as far as to suggest it means more to him than the WWE World Championship. Miz has just cemented his place on the upper-midcard of SmackDown Live and it really wouldn’t surprise me if he was a main event player in a few months.
Fans are a lot smarter nowadays and it takes incidents such as Lesnar’s elbow and The Miz’s passionate speech on Talking Smack to get people invested in the product, to get them hyped for storylines and most importantly, to get them talking about WWE.