while the clip loads, let’s take a behind-the-scenes look at how this notorious incident came to be.

the scene: world championship wrestling, 1993. the executives are trying to come up with new ideas for the wcw television show.

producer: we are stuck in second place! no matter what we do, we can’t beat the wwf!

writer: well sir, in a few weeks, we are having a pay-per-view event, and the main event is going to be a “wargames” match. two rings. 8 wrestlers. surrounded by a giant, steel cage. its always been our most successful event. plus, the match is going to have world champion vader, sid vicious, and the tag team of harlem heat, our four best bad guys, fighting against the british bulldog, dustin rhodes, and sting, who has always been our most popular wrestler.

producer: wait a minute, that’s only three good guys.

writer: right. i’ve been thinking. we have all of our most successful wrestlers fighting in our most successful match of the year. we literally have all our eggs in one basket. what we need to do is sabotage it all with an idea that’s totally fucking ludicrous!

producer: hmmm, sounds interesting. continue!

writer: we just signed tugboat away from the wwf.

producer: isn’t tugboat fat, old, and slow? and not a good wrestler?

writer: yeah, and we signed him for a lot of money. we’re adding him to sting’s team.

producer: that idea doesn’t sound too bad.

writer: it gets worse. he’s going wear a mask-

producer: masks are cool; kids like masks.

writer: did i say mask? i meant an old star wars storm-trooper helmet. i just found it lying around in a closet, so i covered it in glitter, for no reason. and we’re going to name him the shockmaster.

producer: what’s a shockmaster?

writer: i don’t know.

producer: a fat, slow wrestler wearing a crappy costume, with a name that makes no sense, and we’re forcing all our main-eventers to wrestle with him. this is how we’ll finally beat the wwf! let’s put him on tonight’s show!

writer: do you think that’s a good idea?

producer: of course! it’s going to be a live broadcast! what’s the worst that can happen?

…………………………

and that’s the story of the shockmaster: the worst thing to ever happen in professional wrestling (think about that for a second - the absolute worst).

to be fair, one good thing did come from all of it: getting to watch ric flair’s talk show. he should take over “the tonight show” when leno retires! you know you would watch it.