10 Great Wrestling Careers Ruined By Bad Gimmick Changes
3. Typhoon Becoming The Shockmaster
You can’t have a discussion about bad wrestling gimmicks without mentioning The Shockmaster’s name. Fred Ottman was a popular tag wrestler when he signed with WCW in 1993, and had a WWE Tag Team Championship reign as The Natural Disasters’ Typhoon. He was never going to be a main eventer, but Typhoon was a valued member of the WWE roster, and well-respected among fans and peers alike.
Until The Shockmaster happened.
The sight of Ottman’s glittery Stormtrooper helmet rolling away after he’d tumbled through a set wall has become one of the most infamous in wrestling history. Nobody could quite believe what they’d seen, and as Davey Boy Smith loudly proclaimed “he fell flat on his arse!” the gimmick became an immediate flop. From the hideous attire to the over-the-top, gravelly voice, everything about The Shockmaster was ridiculous, and Ottman never recovered.
WCW persisted with the gimmick as a putz-like character, but nobody could ever get over the hilarity of his debut. Ottman returned to WWE for a brief run in 1994, but he struggled for regular work at a mainstream level thereafter. The one saving grace is that The Shockmaster still makes Ottman money, and he still carries the helmet around at fan conventions, but we’re sure he’d rather have avoided the situation altogether.