Retro Wednesday: The WCW Debut Of The Shockmaster

The stage is set shortly before Fall Brawl 1993 at Clash of the Champions. Two teams of eight are set to compete against each other for the sake of bragging rights and supremacy at the pay-per-view. The heel team lead by Sid Vicious, also including Vader and Harlem Heat, were all set and ready to go.

However, the babyface team lead by Sting, only comprised of Dustin Rhodes and Davey Boy Smith.

On an episode of Flair for the Gold, the mystery of the fourth member of their team reached its unveiling. The anticipation was at a fever pitch of who it was going to be, and Sting increased the level of excitement by his introduction.

All of a sudden, what had the chance to be so good, became so bad. Bad enough to be recognized as one of?if not the?most embarrassing moments in wrestling history.

Revealed as The Shockmaster, Fred Ottman, previously known in the WWE as Tugboat and Typhoon, immediately left an impression with the WCW audience as he barged through the propped wall.

Albeit a bad one.

As Dusty Rhodes explains on the above Legends of Wrestling show, then-WCW producer David Crockett must have missed the memo of the wall already being prepared for The Shockmaster to debut. Instead, Crockett arranged for a plank to be built on the bottom of the wall, which led to Ottman tripping over it, losing his helmet, and virtually sabotaging his WCW tenure.

Although the babyface team won the War Games match at Fall Brawl, The Shockmaster character never reached its desired potential, and Ottman was let go within one year of his debut.

And we complain about Sin Cara...

What a major embarrassing moment for Fred Ottman and WCW.

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