The number one position on our list goes to probably the first ever televised worked shoot, the fantastic angle that Jerry Lawler worked with comedian and actor Andy Kaufman. Many referred to the late Kaufman as a genius. He had a singular, artistic approach to comedy, crafting performance rather than a selection of skits and gags. When he became interested in the art and the craft of professional wrestling as an outlet for his own performance, it was very much a match made in heaven. Kaufman began by wrestling women, and referring to himself as The Inter-Gender Champion, offering a $1,000 prize to any woman who could pin him, and playing up an obnoxious heel persona based on the real life wrestlers hed studied. A friend introduced him to Lawler, and the two began working together. These were the days before the business had been exposed to the world, when kayfabe reigned supreme and the territories were still vital. Kaufman would play the out-of-town heel in every ring in the Memphis area, taunting the local babyface and his hometown crowd until Lawler would arrive to chase him off. Other heels would join Kaufman in his corner to stack the odds against fan favourite Lawler. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmHCx8lCl8Y When they appeared on Letterman together, Kaufman wore a neck brace thanks to a brace of piledrivers Lawler had inflicted upon him five months earlier in true heel fashion, playing up the injury hed sustained long after it should have healed. Cowboy Bob Orton would have been proud. Kaufman played a version of himself, saying that hed only been playing the role of bad guy wrestler as a performance in the matches, and that he hadnt deserved to be hurt in this way that Lawler had taken the whole thing far too seriously. Lawler, in turn, sold the proud athlete whod been forced to defend his honour. The appearance culminated in Lawler slapping Kaufman out of his chair, and prompting a huge, profanity-laced tirade from the injured heel, to gasps from the audience. It was genius. Do you have a favourite example of a worked shoot you want to remind us of? Tell us all about it in the comments
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
