Shiloh Hill’s viral “Shoeman” videos ended up becoming much bigger than anyone expected—including WWE. According to the NXT star, what started as a social media story eventually led to police contacting WWE, hundreds of concerned calls, and even forced him to move after his home address was leaked online.
Speaking on Busted Open After Dark, Hill reflected on the storytelling approach he’s taken on social media. While he enjoys creating episodic stories, he admitted the “Shoeman” series was one experience he wouldn’t want to relive.
“Yeah, yeah, I do. Some of them, I will say I don’t like being a part of. Like you mentioned the shoes one, that was not a fun one to be a part of and have to go through on my social media. But it would be a lot less fun to go through it without all the people, like, by my side. Like, it’d be a lot scarier to go through it alone. So it is nice to have people along there.”
Hill then revealed that many people believed the videos were an official WWE storyline. That assumption became so widespread that concerned viewers began contacting law enforcement, who in turn reached out to WWE.
“Oh yeah. No, it was crazy. I mean, I had—I don’t know if people know this—a lot of people think that… so, at the time, a lot of people thought that that was, like, a thing I was doing for WWE.”
“And funny enough, the police contacted WWE and they were like, ‘Hey, we know you’re probably aware of this and it’s probably, like, something for wrestling. We just wanted to make sure that you’re aware.’”
The call apparently caught WWE completely off guard because the company had nothing to do with the videos. Hill said the person speaking with police didn’t even know what they were referring to before confirming it wasn’t part of WWE programming.
“And the person who was on the phone with the police at that time was like, ‘What?’ and had no idea what they were talking about.”
“And they were like, ‘No, this is not for WWE,’ because it wasn’t for WWE at all.”
“And then they had to reach out to me and, like, make sure I was okay.”
The series quickly exploded online, and according to Hill, the scale of the response became overwhelming. He said the videos reached hundreds of millions of views, prompting worried viewers from around the world to contact both the Orlando Police Department and WWE.
“And it’s something that apparently they were getting, like, hundreds of calls a day because that Shoeman series, within the first three months, I believe it did 500 million views.”
“So it had a tremendous amount of viewership throughout the entire world. So there was all these people watching who were really concerned for me, and they were calling the Orlando police just to make sure that the Orlando police were aware.”
“And then they were contacting WWE to make sure that I was okay. And eventually we got it, like, sorted out. Um, and now I feel a lot more comfortable about it.”
The attention also had a real-life downside. Hill revealed that during everything surrounding the series, his personal information ended up being leaked online, forcing him to leave his home.
“But that was also part of the reason why I had to move houses, was because I got, in the process of that, I got doxxed and my real address got leaked onto the dark web.”
“And I had to move because I was like, ‘Well, this is really not good.’”
Hill ended the story on a lighter note after Bully Ray joked about his living situation, revealing that moving into a trailer park actually felt like an upgrade from where he’d been living before.
“No. At that point I was—I had that—I went from a very cheap apartment complex to the trailer park, which was honestly, I would say, an upgrade.”
Hill’s “Shoeman” videos may have started as creative storytelling, but they quickly spilled into the real world in ways nobody expected. From police contacting WWE to having his address leaked online, the viral series turned into something far more serious than just another social media angle.
What do you think of Shiloh Hill’s “Shoeman” story and everything that came with it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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