FRED OTTMAN The Official Website!
BIOGRAPHY PART 6
SHOCKING THE WORLD
You’ve heard a lot about the launch of The Shockmaster in WCW. Well, this is the real story.
The Shockmaster was to be the mystery partner was at an upcoming WCW Fall Brawl: War Games in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was a 8-man match with 2 rings encased with a steel cage.
My first – and infamous – first appearance as The Shockmaster was shot during WCW Clash of the Champions XXIV on August 18, 1993. CLICK HERE to see it. Ric Flair hosted a segment called A Flair for the Gold. They had built a set with walls that had 2x4’s (14” apart) and 5/8” thick sheet rock, like the walls in your house.
On the segment were Ric Flair (the moderator), his maid Fifi (his future wife Wendy Barlow), Sting, Davey Boy Smith, Sid Vicious and Harlem Heat.
A half hour before we were gonna film this, Dusty Rhodes gave me this Storm Trooper helmet covered with glitter. I sparkled under the lights! He goes: “Baby, baby… this is what you're gonna wear to hide who you are”, because I was kind of fresh off tv. And I'm like, yeah … Dusty said: “Try it on.”
When they put it on my head, they wanted to make sure it was okay. But the glitter was going through the little eye holes that were in the front of the helmet, and they were afraid of it getting into my eyes, which would've been a bad thing... Janie Engle was the secretary for TBS and for Dusty. She had been in the business forever. They had her pull off her dark nude pantyhose, cut patches out of them and glued them inside over my eye holes. So out of not being able to hardly see, I went to seeing nothing! And then there was no way to microphone this mask… Ole Anderson was gonna do the voiceover (yes that's legit.) Mike Graham was next to where I was gonna bust through the wall and he had the capabilities of communicating with production to give me the cue when the time was right to bust through the wall.
Well… I'm there behind the wall. Mike says: “Fred, they didn't gimmick this wall.” They didn't score the sheet rock, so it would break easy. They didn’t saw a little bit through the boards, so they would pop loose. (Note that I broke five boards when I busted through the wall.)
But on top of that, because the wall was about 13 or 14 feet tall on the set, they added a support board right below where my kneecap are so it wouldn't be wiggly waggly and to prevent the whole wall from coming down when I came… which would've been a more shocking than the actual Shockmaster moment!
So to come back to Mike Graham’s comment about the wall not being rigged, I said: “Brother, you know I bench over 600 pounds and squat over 800 to 900 pounds. I've accidentally bumped holes in the wall at my mom's house where she get after me with a broom… He said “Be careful!”
He gives me the cue. Boom! I double ax handle the wall. I hit it as hard as I could, but with the momentum and my weight, along with the fact that the bottom of the wall wasn't broken out, I became a teeter-totter, like on a kid's playground! And I went “boom” and through the wall ! The pyrotechnics were going off and the helmet pops off like a champagne cork! I’m face down on the ground, grabbing for the helmet and turning my face to the wall to try to hide who I was… CLICK HERE to see the video of this part of the segment…
I put the helmet back on … I jump up… and start pantomiming as Oly is doing the voiceover work: “They call me… The Shockmaster!”. In the meanwhile, everybody’s trying not to laugh. Davey Boy fell on his arse…! Flair has eyes as big as Moon Pies…! Syd is in shock… all of 'em are in shock! Harlem Heat: those two brothers are looking at each other… and the whole and the rest is history!
When we finished everything, I went out the back and Dusty is actually laughing so hard that tears are coming down his face! And I I'm like: “Oh funny, huh? You’re the one that made me do this!”
If I was a drinking guy, it would've been a case of beer going home back to Tampa that night. But the rest is history! My nephew Cody was watching on the couch and said: “That looks like Uncle Fred, Daddy!” That name would later be tagged to a modified version of The Shockmaster gimmick.
Jim Crockett Jr told me: “You know, they didn't know what to do with this gimmick...” I said: “I guess I could see that…” Although not my finest moment, I own it. I tell people all the time - I particularly tell little kids that are seven, eight years old when they see The Shockmaster helmet sitting on the table (I got the original) - when they're having a bad day, to watch this video! Millions of people have watched it…! I tell them: “You'll have a better day at my expense!” and they start giggling. I say: “See there… let me tell you, everybody, no matter if they're a big person or a little person, can have a Shockmaster day!” It could happen at school, it could happen at work, it could happen in just regular old life. You know what? You just gotta acknowledge it and go with it.
It's the biggest part. It's done very, very well for me in the end… There are action figures out there capturing the moment. I love to talk about it! And people are more impressed than anything by the fact that I talk about it. I still get ribbed by the boys over that, though - that was the biggest thing through the years – “Here comes The Shockmaster” they say!
I had fun with it, and I still do. It was only bad when it happened because being a wrestling fan, I always wanna do my best work and present yourself in the best way, you know? But that's what happens. It's life. There's are a lot of guys out there and the best of the best of them have had Shockmaster moments on tv… just like the Brockmaster! (Brock Lesnar – November 2025)
When the dust had cleared, they started being able to think again about what they would do with The Shockmaster. But something you need to know: the original idea for The Shockmaster, was for him to be a comic book-style character. They had a costume done for the whole concept.
Well that wouldn’t work anymore, at least not for now. The offshoot of The Shockmaster became an un-masked clumsy personna. I remember getting interviewed and shoving hamburgers in my face and just playing the character as a clumsy and stumbling guy. You know… lovable, goofy, but can still be a badass - not necessarily a mean guy, but someone who takes care of business. A very young Cody Rhodes at that time, and all the kids - him and his friends from the neighborhood and his sister - they're watching wrestling on tv and all of a sudden they saw me and Cody goes: “That looks like Uncle Fred!” And the rest is history. I still got people that send messages and stuff on social media: “Hey, Uncle Fred!” or refer to me as Uncle Fred, which is cool. It's a neat deal. It was part of my career. It's a cute thing.
Oh, and who would've guessed that success that Cody has? Dustin was incredible, but who would've guessed that Cody would've come into his own and bloom to be the superstar that he is today? I mean, he was a great amateur wrestler in high school in Georgia high school. Imagine… great genes - both of them.
The character later morphed into the Super Shockmaster. I was under a face mask, with long tights and a tank top- it was a one piece, kind of like the Glacier character. They did all the vignettes and promo stuff for The Super Shockmaster before Glacier actually came bolting into the picture. But that didn’t last very long and I left WCW.