12 Hilarious WWE Backstage Skits You Probably Don't Remember
11. The Shockmaster Redux
On August 31st 2009, the late, great Dusty Rhodes played guest host of the show, ostensibly just to hawk copies of the new WCW greatest hits DVD that was doing the rounds.
Most of the American Dream’s time on the show was spent in backstage skits with the worst version of D-Generation X, comprising a Shawn Michaels gently coasting downhill towards retirement and a Triple H more concerned with transitioning into a back office role than he was shoring up his legacy as an onscreen character.
The two men were so lazy at this point in their careers that they took part in all these segments with Dusty despite being in an ongoing feud with his son Cody, who was working with Ted DiBiase Jr in the Legacy stable. They couldn’t avoid mentioning it… so they made a joke out of it instead. Talk about not taking their opponents seriously.
Here, the three men gently lampoon the infamous Shockmaster debacle from WCW’s glory days...
Of course, many if not most of the casual fans watching the show in 2009 wouldn’t have had any idea what the whole Shockmaster thing was to begin with, never mind what had made the incident so amusing… so when Santino Marella in a fatsuit and wig came crashing through the wall recreating it, there would have been a whole host of nonplussed WWE fans at home and in the arena watching it all happen.
Still, for the rest of us - ie, the kind of people who spent their time writing or reading articles like this - there’s significant comedy value in revisiting it, especially with little touches like the nod to Ole Anderson’s original Shockmaster voice (here, the camera pans to the side to see Arn Anderson surreptitiously intoning into a microphone, who literally runs away as soon as he sees he’s been rumbled).
In typical WWE style, it’s a little bit meaner than you’d think. Fred Ottman - the former Tugboat and Typhoon in the WWF - played the original Shockmaster in WCW. Not only was the fiasco all Rhodes’ idea, but Ottman was his brother-in-law. The guy they were all mocking for being fat and clumsy was Cody Rhodes’ uncle.