The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 Most Important Shoot Works

Historically, wrestling was a closely protected business and the people in it kept their secrets—including the fact that matches had predetermined outcomes, and the wrestlers worked together. That fans would believe wrestling was on the up and up seems absurd nowadays, but, to be fair, wrestling became a lot more over the top in the last thirty-five years—not least of all including Vince McMahon out and out calling the business sports entertainment, and making it pretty plain that it was a show to dodge local sports commissions. Technology developments, including home video, the Internet, social media, and podcasts all facilitated greater exposure for the business, too.

While there was an industry of wrestlers recording shoot interviews—typically after they’d retired, or at least left the mainstream—the last fifteen years have seen things blown wide open. This article looks at seven of the most important shoot products, or works in wrestling, judged based on the ground they broke, their impact and influence and, as always my personal opinion.

(Note 1: I briefly considered including Tough Enough and the Brawl for All tournament in this countdown either of which I could see an argument for—particularly the former. In the end, as an episodic and season-based show rather than a single episode, and as actual fights rather than a story, I decided they didn’t fit the concept.)

(Note 2: For those just skimming the intro, this is about shoot works, not worked shoots, though at least a couple entries blur the line.)

#7. A Lion’s Tale by Chris Jericho

Chris Jericho’s first book was a compelling memoir that chronicled his journey from childhood, to wresting training, to working independents and traveling internationally, to his WCW years, right up to his WWE debut. It’s an honest, informative, and entertaining read, worth checking out for any wrestling fan. Additionally, though, it was an important shoot work for when Jericho chose to cut it off.

A Lion’s Tale dropped in 2007, after Jericho had not only debuted for WWE but worked there for six years, won the Undisputed World Championship, and gone on sabbatical. In short, this book could have covered his WWE run, but Jericho made a calculated decision in cutting off his own story strategically, at a key moment many fans would be eager to read about, thus setting himself up for a sequel.

Jericho has now published four books, the first three of which legitimately chronicled well-defined periods of his career. While one could argue his fourth book is more of a self-help than a wrestling memoir, chronicling his principles for achieving success, the first three nonetheless demonstrated an approach to insider telling story that was business minded and laid a template for other figures in wrestling to follow in maximizing their longevity and profits as authors.

#6. Roman Reigns on Straight to the Source

Since launching the WWE Network, WWE has embraced not only the documentary format used in its DVD releases, but also staging shoot interviews in a talk show format. These shows ranged from The Steve Austin Podcast, to Legends with JBL, to stand-alone interviews conducted by the likes of Chris Jericho and Mick Foley. The most unique show of all to loosely follow this format: Corey Graves’s Straight to the Source.

At first glance, Graves’s conversations with Sasha Banks, Alexa Bliss, Enzo Amore, and most notably Roman Reigns were straight up shoot conversations. However, discerning fans soon recognized a pattern particularly in the case of Reigns and Amore, that the interviews had an edge. More than real life conversations, there were big hints that the interviews were, if not scripted, at least carefully molded to churn up controversy. Amore’s included him being a particularly big jerk in personally insulting Graves (not to mention Big Cass). Reigns was more subtle, but The Big Dog made huge headlines in that initial episode by proclaiming himself, “the best in-ring worker in the world right now.”

Is it possible Reigns actually thinks this is true? Theoretically, sure. But not only is it a problematic claim (when, while his detractors underrate him, it would still be controversial to call him one of the ten best workers in WWE alone), but one that it seems hard to believe Reigns would make for the sheer arrogance of it, and because he’s never seemed particularly concerned with work rate to begin with.

Reigns on Straight to the Source signaled that WWE had had its shoots, and would now manipulate the form to create worked shoots. The Reigns interview played into exactly the parts of Reigns that his critics most loathe about him, and was a fine suggestion of how WWE might use platforms like this moving forward to play with its audience, and even use ostensibly shoot formats to drive storylines.

#5. CM Punk on The Art of Wrestling

Shoot interviews, in and of themselves, are nothing new, but there’s a common thread through the traditional ones peddled by tape traders: they tend to focus on wrestlers who are all washed up. Sometimes that makes the interviews more candid, for the self-awareness that Vince McMahon won’t be calling them anytime soon; sometimes there’s a touch of reluctance in wanting to the say the right thing just in case there is one more run in their destiny. In either case, it’s not exactly the cream of the crop of cutting edge stars being featured.

Podcasts have, in many cases, overcome this stigma for more and more often featuring current or recent stars, but there remains that reluctance to truly tell all for fear of job security.

Enter CM Punk in the fall of 2014.

Punk visited then-real-life friend Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast, about ten months removed from walking out on WWE while still a fringe main event talent, and becoming one of the most talked about, controversial, and mysterious figures in world. This was his first real comment on the issue, and rather than a short, professional statement, it was Punk letting loose with a no-holds-barred, two-hour litany of complaints about how WWE had wronged him.

While opinions will vary on Punk and his stances—particularly relevant to the legal issues to follow this interview—the podcast was nonetheless a groundbreaking one. Punk pulled no punches in attacking WWE management, creative, medical personnel, and colleagues like Ryback, while also dropping fascinating nuggets like the original plans for The Shield and Punk’s involvement with them. There are few shoot works that hardcore fans truly need to experience, but particularly for the last five years, it’s hard to think of one more quintessential than this.

#4. Wrestling with Shadows

In an era when the Internet existed, but it had hardly exploded, particularly as a wrestling news platform, the Montreal Screwjob marked a full on watershed moment for how the shoot, worked, and speculative worlds of professional wrestling might intersect. In the absence of a single source anyone really trusted, we were left with what was clearly visible on screen and what Bret Hart and his camp gave us to make sense of the bizarre circumstance.

And we had Wrestling with Shadows.

This 1998 documentary followed the Hitman closely. How closely the documentary makers worked with Hart, in fact, introduced conspiracy theories that the whole Screwjob was a work, and the documentary a vehicle to get the story out. Things are more interesting at face value in this case, with a skilled and invested crew capturing a flashpoint in wrestling history that in so many ways shape the course of the Monday Night War, the Attitude Era, and so much of wrestling history to immediately follow.

#3. The Rise and Fall of ECW

The top three of this countdown are the rarefied air entries, each worthy of consideration for the top spot. Here we have what was quite arguably the first great WWE-produced documentary.

The Rise and Fall of ECW may well have been the first time WWE openly acknowledged the greatness of another wrestling promotion. Moreover, as an underdog that was never really a threat to WWE, and which had many of its key players on the WWE payroll, it was ripe for the documentary treatment. In making this DVD, WWE experimented with how it might put its expansive tape library to use, and in the warm reception it received—in terms of critical reviews and, more importantly, DVD sales—set forth a template for WWE’s DVD documentary business for years to follow, besides providing a foundation for the ECW One Night Stand reunion PPVs, and the eventual launch of WWE’s own ECW brand.

Opinions tend to vary about WWE’s version of history, and the quality of their documentary storytelling. It’s hard to argue against this one from 2004 as the most influential of these projects, and moreover the best shoot work WWE has ever solely produced.

#2. Have a Nice Day by Mick Foley

Nowadays, it’s not unusual at all for wrestlers—especially those in retirement or the twilight of their careers–to write a books chronicling their lives and their time in the business. These books are a lot of fun for wreslting junkies as the context of a book often permits more detailed storytelling than documentaries or podcasts. They can be particularly interesting when it’s a wrestler who isn’t affiliated with or trying to get back in the good graces of WWE, leaving things wide open for them to say what they will without concern for rubbing their employer the wrong way.

Mick Foley’s book wasn’t necessarily the first penned by a wrestler, but it was written by a popular star during a white hot period for wrestling, and became an unlikely smash success for Foley’s honesty, detail, wit, and unexpected talent as a writer. Based on the reception this book received from hardcore and casual fans alike, WWE started pushing books by many of its top stars. The book also gave way, however, to tremendous memoirs from the likes of people like Chris Jericho and Bret Hart that lent beautiful portraits of the wrestling word as they had experienced. The quality and commercial success of Foley’s book got the ball rolling in earnest for this entire sub-industry.

#1. Beyond the Mat

WWE has been in the documentary business for quite some time and a number of other wrestling enthusiasts and filmmakers have jumped on the bandwagon of chronicling the behind scenes world of wrestling. While it’s not my favorite, and it’s not without it’s imperfections, I would argue that no wrestling documentary is more important in terms of a wide viewership and its influence than Beyond the Mat.

Before wrestling documentaries had caught on, and before Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, Beyond the Mat captured an honest, gritty look at the hard lives wrestlers face, particularly after the bright lights have turned off for them, and their left with real lives to live, including family strife, substance abuse issues, and, most fundamentally, learning to live without the spotlight. While Mick Foley, as a subject, was still near his prime, Terry Funk and Jake Roberts captured the lows that follow a mainstream career.

In getting a theatrical release and earning positive reviews from critics—even those who weren’t fans—the film lent the general public a then-new perspective on what it really meant to have a life in wrestling. The film was profoundly influential to people’s understanding of the business, and influential in the slew of wrestling documentaries to follow.

What works would you add to the list? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Read more from Mike Chin at his website and follow him on Twitter @miketchin.