Tugboat On His Run As Hulk Hogan's "Cheerleader", The Greatest Moment Of His Wrestling Career
Fred Ottman had a 90s run in WWF and WCW as many characters, most infamously The Shockmaster. But his breakthrough came as Tugboat in the early 90s in WWF as he was one of Hulk Hogan's closest ally against the heels at the time.
Ottman talked about his run as Hogan's "cheerleader" during an interview with Wrestling Inc.'s Andy Malnoske.
"Oh, it was fantastic. I came into the business and they put me in there as Tugboat and at one point I was Hulk Hogan's cheerleader," recalled Ottman. "When Earthquake hurt him and put him out, it was just a surreal character. It was a great time.
"I was a wrestling fan before I became a wrestler. Then I became a wrestler and I'm still a wrestling fan today. There's a lot of new, young talent and new, different companies. There's a lot of different styles that people can watch today. It's tremendous."
In addition to the major promotions, Ottman also wrestled in Japan and for various indie companies. He was asked that the greatest moment of his wrestling career was.
"When I finally made it to the WWF. It was somewhere where I always wanted to be when I got started wrestling. A gentleman by the name of The Great Malenko trained me and I watched him as a kid. When I went to the WWF, I walked through the curtains and my first tryout match was in Niagara Falls. Every champion from every part of the world that I watched wrestle was there. I got so nervous that I almost pulled the curtains out coming through the first time. I almost had a Shockmaster moment in my inception into the WWF," said Ottman.
Ottman also cited visiting over 40 countries as a highlight of his career and doing conventions like this is also something he cherishes in his post-wrestling career.
Ottman's full interview with Wrestling Inc. aired as part of today's episode of our new podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the debut episode as soon as it's released: https://apple.co/2NQnHuC. The full interview can be heard via the embedded audio player below: