The Shockmaster!

Posted on by derryX

People who complain that wrestling was not entertaining in the 1990’s obviously weren’t watching the right stuff. I was a die hard WWF fan until The Outsiders took over WCW in 1996, but there was one WCW moment from circa 1993 that I wish I had seen live. Wrestling fans around the world refer to this incident as “The Shockmaster.”

In an effort to create a character with an enigma surrounding it, WCW decided to dress up WWF reject “Tugboat” in a garb with a silver painted stormtrooper helmet. His debut was supposed to be high impact. Basically, when announced, he was to break through a wall, hold the microphone up to his face, and his voice was supposed to be larger than life. Some of that acutally happened:

Basically, after tripping through the wall, nobody (fans included) could take the character seriously. It was one of those wrestling angles that was dead-on-arrival. The explanation I’ve heard is that after rehearsal, they added a horizontal board to the wall at approximately shin level. Either way, what’s done is done. And that is The Shockmaster.

WWF recently released The Shockmaster as a collectable action figure. I bought one as did my brother (#dompap). He opened his, and, well, re-enacted the event…

 
 
 
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9 thoughts on “The Shockmaster!”

  • Kevin Marshall

    C’MON, YOU WANT A PIECE OF ME?!

    What’s always been funnier to me than the tragic execution is the fact that they thought this guy was gonna get over anyway. It was a dude in a Storm Trooper helmet that looked like it was Bedazzled by a nine-year-old!


  • Jeff

    I was never a fan of Wrestling, but when Dom told me about this I was dying laughing. This is seriously fantastic.

    The fact they made an action figure makes it all the better.


  • Bill

    I was totally into “professional” wrestling… when I was 9.


  • Darth

    Personally – I think this was always a work. How could anyone in the wrestling world take a fat man wearing some weird fur thing and a glittery storm trooper helmet seriously??? That’s like taking Doink the Clown, The Brooklyn Brawler, or Dr. Issac Yankem seriously.

    Even if he didn’t fall . . . how could he be high impact? All he could ever be was a big joke. The fall just cemented that.

    I do find it funny that the action figure doesn’t come with an authentic silver storm trooper helmet. I’d love to see someone paint a toy storm trooper helmet from a Star Wars toy and put it on the Shockmaster’s head.


    • Kevin Marshall

      For one, if it was a work, it was a work that cost them a lot of serious money. Something like that they would MAYBE do as a rib on a match in the middle of the card or further down, but not for the main event of arguably their second biggest show of the year (behind Starrcade).

      As for how it was stupid even before the fall…well, yeah. Ole Anderson was an idiot and a terrible booker. You should see some of the other stuff from that period.


    • derryX

      I’m positive it wasn’t a work, because you can hear Bulldog break kayfaybe (which was still alive) by saying (twice) “He fell on his arse!!”


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