In honor of Halloween, allow me to present some of the scariest moments in wrestling history. No, not for the fans. While we may find them funny, promoters, bookers and others in the creative element have screamed in horror over certain, quite unintended events.
— Poor Fred Ottman. No matter what he had achieved before or what he achieved after as Tugboat and Typhoon, there is one moment frozen in time that he will always be remembered for: the Shockmasterâs ass-over-tea-kettle debut. In 1993, the Shockmaster busted on to the sceneâ¦literally. Poor Fred, replete with a silver-glitter Stormtrooper helmet was supposed to make an intimidating debut to frighten Sid Vicious. Well, if tripping, falling and losing your helmet are scare tactics, it fell short.
Not that Sid Vicious didnât have his share of f-ups. âYou are half the man I am and I have half the brain that you do,â was the insult he hurled at Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. The Outsiders could hardly contain themselves. Vicious just kept on a-yappinâ over his superiority. From that day on, the squirrels never looked upon him as their true ruler.
Remember Phantasio? Well, if you blinked during a certain episode of Raw in 1995, you would have missed him. His debut was his finale. Essentially, he was a magician who could turn a candle into a cane, make his hat explode, and pull a long silver streamer (attached to a mask) out of his mouth. A bit unsettling to see a wrestler vomit tinsel, but Jim Ross and Gorilla Monsoon did the best they could with it. What came next was sheer horror. He gave the mask and the spitty ribbon to a kid at ringside. Salivate over that souvenir.
One of the Great American Bashes featured NWA champ Ric Flair going up against Nikita Koloff for the strap. Flair put the âRussianâ in a suplex and they crashed to the mat. Things seemed ok, until something flopped out of Nikitaâs singlet. No, not a n*pple. No, not spare change. It was his, well, his, um, his DEAL. His thing. His Russian sickle. His borscht dispenser. Get the picture. The video folks didnât as it showed up on a commercially released VHS. âJohnny-on-the-Spotâ Tommy Young noticed the phallic fallacy and did the quick tuck. Now, THATâS a friend you can count on.
Happy Halloween to all!
