Talk about it here.

Tony Schiavone interviews a clumsy Shockmaster at a local restaurant. He spills his water on Schiavone at the end of the interview. Nice attempt by Dusty to salvage the gimmick. I guess they didn't have a choice.

I never saw the water spill coming at the end.

This is some pretty funny damage control here. And frankly, a stumbling fat guy gimmick suits Ottman better than some mysterious Stormtrooper.

Shockmaster is now a big goof and a klutz. Talking a bunch of nonsense and spilling a drink over Tony. Not the greatest hype for a guy in a WarGames but they probably did not have much choice after the Clash events.

This really kind of makes Sting & Davey Boy look like morons, but as others have said, WCW had no choice. Shockmaster couldn't find the door, so he made his own door. They're trying to reinvent him as sort of an overgrown manchild, which isn't any kind of an improvement but isn't really any worse, either.

I guess they had no choice but damn if Shockmaster isn't already comedy fodder even before the big match. That kind of makes the finish they end up going with more perplexing.

This goofball won WarGames? He's half a step above Norman the Lunatic, if even that.

 

Yes, WCW had a choice. They could have sent Ottman packing back to Vince and found someone else to play the Shockmaster gimmick as they intended it to be played. Unfortunately, he's also the booker's brother-in-law, so that wasn't an option, I guess. Given that, I guess they did the best they could. The shame of it is, Ottman knows how to play a fearsome big guy; he was great as Typhoon, and if it hadn't been for his unfortunate stumble at the Clash he'd have made a fine Shockmaster in the original gimmick. On little things are wrestling careers made and ruined.

 

I love Tony's wry reaction when Ottman spills the water on him. It fits the situation and character perfectly, almost like Tony was expecting something like that to happen at some point. It played much better than outrage or disgust would have,