shoot

A shoot in professional wrestling is any unplanned, unscripted or real-life occurrence within a wrestling event. The name does not originate from “shooting in” for a takedown, as in amateur wrestling, but rather, it is a carny term shortened from “straight shooting” which originally referred to a gun in a carnival target shooting game which did not have its sights fixed (terminology such as this reflecting the professional wrestling industry’s roots in traveling carnivals). This term has come to mean a legitimate attack or fight in professional wrestling and its meaning has broadened to include unscripted events in general. The opposite of a shoot is a work.