Bruce Prichard Reveals Who Cut The First Shoot Promo

Long-time pro wrestling fans typically know the backstage workings of companies like WWE and AEW, including when things stray from what was originally scripted to happen. These occurrences are known as "shoot" promos or fights, and their origin was discussed by Bruce Prichard on the latest "Something To Wrestle" podcast. In the late 70s and early 80s, the father of "Macho Man" Randy Savage and Lanny Poffo, Angelo Poffo, ran a wrestling promotion in Lexington, Kentucky known as International Championship Wrestling. 

When Savage showed up to work in Jerry Jarrett's Tennessee-based Continental Wrestling Association, he began delivering promos that, as Prichard puts it, left people "uneasy" due to the realistic subject matter in his promos.

"Well, look, in that territory, where the audience knew that there were two different television shows in the market and they would watch both of them if you were a big wrestling fan. That fact that 'Macho Man' Randy Savage is showing up on Memphis Tennessee television, man, that was big time because there was something inside of you that told you that he wasn't supposed to be there.

"There was that feeling of uneasiness that, 'Hey, this is different from everything else going on. This guy shouldn't be here right now.' And that was Randy being able to do what were probably the first iterations of the shoot promo where Randy would call out [Jerry] Lawler and Jarrett and things like that."

Jerry "The King" Lawler was the biggest star in the Memphis, Tennessee area during this time, so working with him brought Savage exposure he couldn't get back in Lexington. Lawler would also have feuds with other legends like Bruiser Brody, Rocky Johnson, Rick Rude, and Dutch Mantell during the peak run of his career.