The Failed Debut Of WCW's Shockmaster Created One Of Wrestling's Funniest Moments

Across the many decades of wrestling's history, it's unlikely that any debut has ever gone more wrong than when The Shockmaster attempted to burst onto the scene in WCW back in 1993. In the lead up to that year's Fall Brawl pay-per-view, the trio of Davey Boy Smith, Dusty Rhodes, and Sting needed a fourth man to go against Harlem Heat, Sid Vicious, and Big Van Vader in the WarGames match, and Sting promised that their partner would shock the world. Little did anyone know that the shock would come for all the wrong reasons.

At the Clash of the Champions XXIV event on August 18, 1993, The Shockmaster was meant to power his way through a wall on the set of Ric Flair's "A Flair for the Gold" talk show segment, declaring himself as the partner of Sting, Rhodes, and Smith, before telling Sid that he had bitten off more than he could chew. While he did burst through the wall, he didn't make the cleanest of entrances. He fell over a piece of knee-high wood that had been placed behind the gimmicked wall to keep it together, falling flat on his face and causing his Stormtrooper helmet that had been hastily covered in purple glitter to roll across the floor.

The man with the unfortunate responsibility of playing The Shockmaster character was Fred Ottman, a WWE Hall of Famer who had previously played characters like Tugboat and Typhoon in the World Wrestling Federation, and to his credit, Ottman knew the show must go on. He grabbed his glittery helmet, put it back on, and finished the segment, with Ole Anderson providing the voice for the character. However, Anderson never saw the fall coming, and can be heard laughing before he starts his promo, while also trying not to crack throughout it. Even though everything that could go wrong did in fact go wrong, The Shockmaster debut has become one of the most beloved moments in wrestling history.

The reaction from those who were there on the set of "A Flair for the Gold" and backstage at WCW Clash of the Champions XXIV can be best described with two words: hysterical laughter. 

To go along with Ole Anderson trying his best to not laugh throughout the promo, Ole's brother Arn Anderson recalled Davey Boy Smith breaking on set by screaming "He busted his f****** a**!" Ric Flair actually knew something was likely to go wrong and was smart enough to sneak off camera before The Shockmaster arrived, stating on "The Joe Rogan Experience" how much he enjoyed seeing everything play out.

Dusty Rhodes wasn't by the side of his partners during the segment due to his backstage obligations, and that was probably for the best. During an appearance on "WWE Legends of Wrestling," Rhodes recalled laughing so much that people almost had to take him to the hospital because he couldn't function properly, and he was eventually taken into another room backstage just so he could try and calm down. What made it even funnier for Rhodes was that Fred Ottman was also his brother-in-law, meaning that when his family saw everything happen live, a young Cody Rhodes turned to the people he was watching the show with and said, "I think that was Uncle Fred!"

As for the man himself, Ottman is far from bitter about being made to look foolish on national television. He has since fully embraced how stupid The Shockmaster debut truly was, bringing the original helmet to conventions with him to allow fans to see it up close. Ottman has even started claiming that the helmet is possessed and dares fans to try it on, with the warning that they too could become as famous as The Shockmaster if they try and walk around in it because there are quite literally no eyeholes on the helmet. Fans have given Ottman Shockmaster collectables, fan made totems, and one fan even flew all the way from Japan to meet Ottman while dressed as The Shockmaster, complete with a knee-high level plank of wood being part of the costume.

While Ottman knew he messed up at the time, he has since come around on the idea that the funniest parts of movies are the outtakes, and if he has the greatest outtake in wrestling history, then that's alright with him.