10 Times WWE Worked Their Audience Into A Shoot
Real-life outrage drawn from a "fake," choreographed artform.
Working the audience has always been professional wrestling's main goal. Kayfabe's death (and its corpse's recent floggings at the hands of social media and the internet) have made this increasingly difficult, but the line between fantasy and reality is still there, even if it's more blurred now than ever before.
As fans, we're supposed to be worked by the company. It means we're invested in the stories and characters that have been presented to us, and are reacting accordingly, much like any other form of fiction.
This is increasingly rare in the modern era, however. It's extremely difficult to work an audience that knows the business' every secret. Crowds aren't going to react the way the bookers want a lot of the time: they'll cheer and boo at their own discretion, and sometimes, that means working themselves into a shoot.
The phrase came from this legendary Hulk Hogan tweet. It means becoming so wrapped up in a storyline that you believe what is being presented to you is legitimate, creating "real" heat for a "fake" sport. It's becoming WWE's "go to" method of keeping their fans guessing, but the examples stretch back decades...
10. John Cena Eviscerates Roman Reigns (Raw - August 2017)
John Cena and Roman Reigns engaged in an in-ring contract signing on the 28 August 2017 episode of Monday Night Raw. Such things invariably end in shenanigans in WWE, but while the duo didn't come to blows, they turned the company's most mundane, predictable segment format into the year's best promo battle.
Reigns threw plenty of kayfabe-busting barbs at Cena, but he was utterly destroyed by his more experienced opponent. 'The Face That Runs The Place' called his foe a "cheap-ass, corporately created John Cena bootleg," savaged his lack of microphone skills, then stated that the only reason he was still around was because Roman "can't do [his] job."
It was a brutal takedown of WWE's most divisive wrestler, and Cena's lines echoed the audiences' biggest complaints against Reigns, leading to the assumption that John was shooting on 'The Guy.'
The perception was that Cena had gone rogue with his promo, and swathes of fans bought into the idea, praising a guy they'd spent years booing for eviscerating their new hate figure. Unfortunately, the illusion was shattered the very next day, when the Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer confirmed the segment was 100% scripted.