Fred Ottman

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fred Ottman


Statistics
Ring name(s)	Big Bubba Big Steel Man The Shockmaster Tugboat Tugboat Thomas Typhoon U.S. Steel
Billed height	6 ft 3 in (191 cm)
Billed weight	384 lb (174 kg)
Born	August 10, 1956 Norfolk, Virginia
Resides	Tampa, Florida
Debut	1984

Fred Ottman (Born August 10, 1956 in Norfolk, Virginia) is an American professional wrestler best known for his stints in both the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling.

1 Career
2 Managers
3 Championships and accomplishments
4 External links

Ottman made his pro debut in 1984, soon settling into the Memphis territory, where he made his first big impact as Big Bubba the Belt Collector (not to be confused with Big Bubba Rogers, AKA Ray Traylor) in a feud with Jerry Lawler. After leaving Memphis, he headed to Texas All Star Wrestling where he feuded with Al Madril,Mike Golden,Jonathan Boyd among others and was champion then headed from there back to Memphis as a heel then to Florida Championship Wrestling and became U.S. Steel (later changed to Big Steel Man when the real U.S. Steel Corporation threatened legal action) and feuded with Dusty and Dustin Rhodes.

Ottman later wrestled with the WWF as Tugboat Thomas (later Tugboat), where his character developed a close friendship with Hulk Hogan, and assisted Hogan in his feud with Earthquake. Although his place in Hogan's corner for the match would be taken by The Big Bossman after Tugboat was attacked by Earthquake prior to the match, he would later appear on the same team as both Hogan and Bossman at the 1990 Survivor Series. He would later become Typhoon, after he attacked The Bushwhackers during a six-man tag team match. As Typhoon, he and Earthquake entered the tag team ranks as The Natural Disasters. They would hold the WWF Tag Team Title in 1992.

The Shockmaster incident was one of the funniest moments in pro wrestling. In 1993, WCW had signed Ottman from the WWF, and he was to make his debut in a match alongside three very popular WCW stars: Sting, Dustin Rhodes, and Davey Boy Smith. He would be their mystery partner in the upcoming eight-man tag match against the heel team, Sid Vicious, Big Van Vader, and Harlem Heat (comprised of brothers Kole and Kane) at Fall Brawl.

When Sting and Smith were about to unveil their mystery partner, they did so during a live interview in front of the WCW audience together with Sid and Harlem Heat. Sting would say, "All I have to say is... our partner is going to shock the world because he is none other than... The Shockmaster!" The camera zoomed in on a particular section of the set where two torches set off a small pyrotechnics explosion in front of a sheetrock wall. The Shockmaster was supposed to make his entrance by crashing through that wall in his new attire, consisting of a Star Wars Stormtrooper helmet painted silver and covered in glitter, a pair of jeans and a long black vest.

Fred Ottman as The Shockmaster

As the camera was in for a close up, the upper part of his body broke through the wall, but the rest of his body did not, causing Ottman to fall through the rest of the wall. When he hit the floor, his helmet rolled off long enough for audiences to see who it was before he managed to put it back on. Even the announcers were speechless. The Shockmaster resumed his entrance as if nothing had happened, and he continued walking up to Sid and Harlem Heat.

The interview ended with Shockmaster verbally threatening the four heels with, "They call me The Shockmaster. You've ruled the world long enough, Sid Vicious. Get ready! Come on, you want a piece of me?" The heels were clearly trying to stop themselves from laughing while he delivered his threat. The Shockmaster's voice was a prerecorded tape that was provided by Ole Anderson. Anderson used the same voice effects as he did for another infamous WCW storyline, the Black Scorpion.

Later, WCW attempted to salvage the incident by introducing a new character called the "Super Shockmaster." This was intended to be the Shockmaster's nephew, who would then refer to the Shockmaster as "Uncle Fred." After that point, the Shockmaster was portrayed as a klutz until the character was eventually abandoned.

A year after the Shockmaster incident, Ottman returned to the WWF, reprising his Typhoon character. He had little success, and by the end of the summer, he left the company again.

In 2000, he appeared in the short-lived WXO promotion. Ottman returned to the WWF in 2001 (as Tugboat) for the gimmick battle royal at WrestleMania X-Seven.