The Shooters

[Guest SuicidalAfterBash91]

The Shooters

 

It must be up there with the ‘super played out gimmicks of all time’. Right behind an arrogant, narcissistic heel, a badass and a jam-loving necrophile. Okay, maybe not the last one, but the point is that the ‘shootfighter’ gimmick is a ‘classic’, whether the wrestler in question actually partakes in non-contrived pugilism or not.

It is obvious to see why the pro wrestling world is so captivated by shootfighting. It seems to have the hardcore edge that promotions like ECW provided, with actual, real hitting! However, when wrestling has used the word ‘shoot’ in conjunction with almost anything, another word, ‘failure’, has seemed inevitable.

The most obvious, and most mainstream, form of shootfighting was the first to have its waters tested by pro wrestling. Yes, I refer to the famously bad, riot-inducing Antonio Inoki vs. Mohammed Ali ‘shootfight’ in Japan. The whole match consisted of a prostrate Inoki aiming kicks at Ali’s legs. The normally sedate Japanese fans rioted and the rest, as some cheesy people say, is history.

You would think that people would be put off another boxing/wrestling union then, wouldn’t you? No such luck. ECW attempted a Leon Spinks match in the nineties. However, Spinks’ projectile vomiting inadvertently put paid to that escapade.

More recently, and again in Japan, Naoya Ogawa seemed set to face Mike Tyson in a shootfight, however Tyson’s disciplinary record being about as clean as a baby’s diaper ended those plans. And if the Inoki/Ali match was anything to go by, good riddance.

It was when pro wrestling ditched the shroud of secrecy and most of the sports-like aspects that the word ‘shoot’ snuck up on us like a Ninja, mostly thanks to that talented booker chappy Vincent Russo.

His love of putting ‘shoot’ in front of everything to assure us that ‘this is not a wrestling angle’ wore thin after a while, as no one really cared about a DDP shoot interview and most of the Russo-era stuff got buried anyway.

However, on the shoot-fighting aspect it was WWF who was leading the way (all though not everything was working). The acquisition of Dan Severn showed us the appalling side of the WWF’s love affair with the UFC. Severn had no character, and the fans’ unwillingness to say ‘gee, Johnny, look at the tendons on that guy’ made sure that his WWF honeymoon was short.

It was another, much more entertainment-friendly, UFC champion who married real with fake most pleasingly. That man was, of course, Ken Shamrock. His over the top portrayal of a shoot fighter (including the ‘snapping’ ritual, lack of personality and ‘world’s most dangerous man’ tag) was successful, due to him fitting in with WWF’s attempts to go hardcore and the whole ‘attitude’ era.

Most recently another over the top portrayal of a real fighter has lead to gain for the WWF. Kurt Angle’s milk-drinking, profanity-despising (except when he told the Rock to ‘fucking tap out’), all-American persona got over with the fans so much so that Angle has been a World Champion.

In short then, the WWF has managed to make successes out of real shootfighters by extended certain aspects of their character and giving them a more ‘gimmicky’ persona. However, when it came to promoting a UFC competitor ‘as is’ the WWF failed i.e. Dan Severn. So can a character like Severn (or, more accurately, non-character) make it in sports entertainment.

Recently the fad has worn off somewhat in The Big One, with Shamrock departing, but this is something that will never go away. In Japan shootfighting is now ingrained into pro wrestling culture with promotions like UFO and PRIDE becoming popular. But that is Japan, where pro wrestling is still a sport and the climate is more suited to shootfighting. But in America, real fighting will remain fringe…without ever going away. There’s times when seeing people really getting  beaten-up appeals to all people…in a weird kind of way.