Greatest Videos Eeeeeever: The Shockmaster Debuts!

From Hogan’s shocking appearence as the Outsider’s 3rd man at Bash at the Beach 96 to Jericho’s highly anticipated WWE debut, cryptic promos and mystery partners have led to some of wrestling’s most memorable moments. While the culmination of the 2.21.11 storyline won’t be remembered as fondly as the aforementioned events, it surely won’t be viewed as disastrous as The Shockmaster’s debut. That brings us to this week’s edition of Greatest Video Eeeeeever…

Video Title: “The greatest moment in WCW history”
Views: 728
Uploaded by RyCASTLE

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf9FVoozgBA]

The Story

In 1993, Sting was putting together a four man team to battle Sid Vicious, Big Van Vader and Harlem Heat at WCW’s first annual Fall Brawl: War Games. A War Games match begins with one wrestler from each team in the extra large steel cage featuring two rings. Every 2 minutes, the teams would alternate adding a man to the cage. Because of this format, one team would gain a one man advantage every four minutes until it was finally even at 4 on 4.

With Dustin Rhodes and Davey Boy Smith already in his corner, Sting revealed the mystery member of his team during an interview on ‘A Flair for Gold’. Knowing that size matters in matches like this, Sting introduced the world to The Shockmaster! Weighing in at his 380 lbs, the Shockmaster was supposed to smash through the set in an effort to display his awesome power. Instead he tripped and fell through the wall. Shockmaster wore a helmet to further hide his identity and it came flying off as he crashed to the floor. To make matters worse, the helmet was nothing more than bedazzled Stormtrooper head gear.

The Shockmaster got his helmet back on quickly and made it to his feet but he never recovered. The massive man awkwardly stood there making exaggerated hand motions. When he finally started speaking it was painfully obvious that the promo was being cut by someone else with a microphone off camera (Voiced by Ole Anderson). Shockmaster shook his head in an effort to sell the illusion that he was talking but it looked like an English-dubbed, Japanese monster movie.

Conclusion

The reveal of The Shockmaster was an absolute mess but it’s definitely the _______ moment in WCW history. Whether you fill in that blank with ‘worst’, ‘funniest’ or ‘saddest’, a case can be made for each. The disastrous moment is so iconic, it was recreated by DX on a 2009 edition of Raw. The DX-Shockmaster spoof was made all the more memorable by the fact that Dusty Rhodes, father of Shockmaster’s Team Sting partner Dustin, was present and the Shockmaster’s off camera voice was performed by Ole Anderson’s faux-brother and former partner Arn Anderson.

2 ½ out of 5 Harlem Heat
(The half including Booker T and omitting Stevie Ray…naturally)