Shoot Videos

There really is nothing else out there quite like Professional Wrestling. I guess that's a major part of the allure, at least for me. Not only is it one of, if not the, most physically demanding thing you can do (keeping in mind that these guys go four days a week with no off-season, and an insane traveling schedule...), but Pro Wrestling can be one of the greatest mysteries of all time.

It's the question of what's real, what's staged, what's planned, and what's fake that really draws me in. There's something so fascinating about seeing someone get in the ring and say things that have the entire arena booing him relentlessly, and then seeing him being interviewed and coming off as the nicest guy you'd ever want to meet. When really, it's the exact same thing you'd expect to see if you interviewed Anthony Hopkins. Probably a really nice guy. Probably not going to cut your face off and eat the brains out of your head.

But it goes even deeper still. More and more these day I'm seeing young wrestlers show up on YouTube giving candid interviews, and acting completely out of character. And it's cool, but at the end of the day they're still employed by the WWE, and they are absolutely censoring themselves. So really, as baffling as it may sound, Pro Wrestlers walk around with three different personas; The one they portray on TV, the one that gives interviews but is still not being entirely honest about their company, and then, finally, they've got their 100% honest persona. And that's what you get when you watch a shoot interview.

Companies that produce shoot interviews will usually approach big name wrestlers when they've freshly left the WWE. Hearing some of the stuff that goes on backstage, or finally finding out what went wrong in that match you watched five years ago, is one of the biggest payoffs to being a Pro Wrestling fan.

One of my favorite shoot interviews is Ken Anderson's, who really got screwed over during his time in the WWE. Here's a small clip, to give you an idea of what a shoot interview is like, and how interesting they can really be: