Video: The Glorious Debut of the Shockmaster

And now, the Shockmaster. I’m going to go on a limb and guess that you’ve seen this a time or two before. It’s the most infamous wrestling botch of all time and there’s just no way to not laugh at it all over again. As we approach the anniversary of the event, WWE has put the whole thing on their YouTube channel.

I don’t think this one needs much of an explanation so here you are.

The unforgettable debut of The Shockmaster

For those of you who have somehow avoided this story over the years, the basic idea is that Sting needed a partner for the upcoming WarGames match so he brought in someone called the Shockmaster. For reasons that are still not entirely clear, this would be former WWF star Tugboat in a glittery silver Star Wars style Stormtrooper helmet. As he came out though, Shockmaster tripped and fell, sending the helmet flying off on LIVE TELEVISION. Everyone else in the skit breaks up laughing while Shockmaster acts like nothing happens because his promo was being done by someone else and might have been pre-recorded.

The incident has become a long running joke in wrestling and is widely considered one of the best illustrations of WCW’s ineptness in a nutshell. However, the man who plays Shockmaster (Fred Ottman) has since grown to accept it a bit better, even appearing in a video like this one:

Shocked by The Shockmaster!

Opinion: I don’t think there’s anything I can say about this that hasn’t already been said. Most fans who are above a certain age have seen this, if nothing else in one of the many documentaries that WWE has created about how inept WCW really was at times. This is one of those incidents where I can’t actually wrap my head around the fact that it happened but there it is, in all its glory. I still don’t eve know what WCW was going for. It’s Tugboat in a Star Wars helmet under the name the Shockmaster. How far was this supposed to go?

What is your favorite wrestling blooper of all time? Is this the worst debut ever? Let us know in the comments below.