Road Trip After Hours w/ WWE Hall of Famer Teddy Long and Host Mac Davis
Fred Ottman Unmasked: From Tugboat to Shockmaster, Wrestling's Most Memorable Blunder!
Step into the ring with the unforgettable Fred Ottman, the face behind the masks of Tugboat, Typhoon, and the infamous Shockmaster. Our nostalgic trip takes a hilarious turn as Fred recounts the epic fail that turned into a wrestling legend, making the Shockmaster's debut one of the most talked-about moments in the sport's history. Not only do we get the inside scoop on that fateful night, but Fred also opens up about his time in the WWF, his evolution from a Hogan ally to a heel with the Natural Disasters, and how his career faux pas became a cherished piece of wrestling folklore, complete with its own line of memorabilia.
But the laughs don't stop there. Pull up a chair as we swap road tales that could only come from the world of professional wrestling, including a chance encounter with none other than Stephen King. You'll feel like you're riding shotgun on this wild journey through the intersection of pop culture and wrestling, all the way to our guest's current life in Centerville, Tennessee. So, lace up your boots and prepare to be entertained by the man who turned a stumble into an enduring legacy.
Step into the ring with the unforgettable Fred Ottman, the face behind the masks of Tugboat, Typhoon, and the infamous Shockmaster. Our nostalgic trip takes a hilarious turn as Fred recounts the epic fail that turned into a wrestling legend, making the Shockmaster's debut one of the most talked-about moments in the sport's history. Not only do we get the inside scoop on that fateful night, but Fred also opens up about his time in the WWF, his evolution from a Hogan ally to a heel with the Natural Disasters, and how his career faux pas became a cherished piece of wrestling folklore, complete with its own line of memorabilia.
But the laughs don't stop there. Pull up a chair as we swap road tales that could only come from the world of professional wrestling, including a chance encounter with none other than Stephen King. You'll feel like you're riding shotgun on this wild journey through the intersection of pop culture and wrestling, all the way to our guest's current life in Centerville, Tennessee. So, lace up your boots and prepare to be entertained by the man who turned a stumble into an enduring legacy.
The Shaq Factor. The Shaq Factor, fred, I still love you. I still love you. Hello again, everybody, and welcome to an all-new episode of Road Trip After Hours. I'm your host, mac Davis, along with my co-host, which is Mr WWE Hall of Famer, teddy Long. Hey, teddy, how you doing.
Speaker 2:I'm doing good, Mac. Good to see you today. You look real fresh, so have you had some rest?
Speaker 1:I've had some rest, and yeah, rest and a good meal, which is always important, speaking of which, we're going to talk about good meals in a minute, some lip-smacking good food that I see on a daily basis from our guest and his wife that we'll talk about in just a minute. We do have a special guest today, teddy. This is a guy that I grew up from, my days of growing up in wrestling. There were certain eras of people that I remember, and this guy falls right in there with all the stuff I grew up with in wrestling. He worked in the WWF from 1989 to 1993. He was known as the Big Steel man, hugboat Typhoon. He was also big friends with Hulk Hogan at one point, until he turned to become a heel as part of the natural disasters. We'll talk about that as well. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Mr Fred Ottman. Hey, fred, you got a guest, I see, hey how you doing.
Speaker 3:You see up there I'm just chatting around here with my pal. She's nosy hole. She wants to know what's going on.
Speaker 2:That's fantastic. That is absolutely great. I love that.
Speaker 3:That is great and she's just a watching too, you guys oh yeah, oh my god, you know I'm staying with bob cook staying with us now and uh, he was on the phone with uh doing one of these from with some people in ireland last night. And I was working out phone doing one of these with some people in Ireland last night and I was working out outside and I heard him and it sounded like there was a fight going on in here. He was so loud and I'm like, oh my God, but the cat runs the house. That's Mr Barbie there behind me, mr Barbie, mr.
Speaker 2:Barbie. Very good, well, make sure to tell.
Speaker 1:Bob. I said hello too, because you know I see Bob from time to time. Tell him I said hello.
Speaker 2:Yeah, be sure to do that for me too, because me and Bob, we go way back to Florida days. Man, god, man, oh man. What a super nice guy man. So please tell him I said hello.
Speaker 3:Oh, I definitely will.
Speaker 1:Thank you, teddy, you know there's a lot of people who watch this who may not know Fred and you need to go back and look at some of the classic days of WWF to find out what Fred is capable of doing but a lot of you may know him but not realize you know him. You know, for a lot of our younger viewers. You may have seen this guy that wore a stormtrooper helmet with a lot of glitter on it falling through a wall in WCW. That was the shock master and I know Fred. You know this is something that I want to start with, because everybody knows the shock master. But at the time when that happened, it had to be to you like oh God, this is the worst thing that has ever happened. But now, all these years later, the shock master is so huge it's a cult following, oh yeah I have people want to take in.
Speaker 3:Uh, they get their pictures taken. He's right in the box behind me, matter of fact. But uh, yeah, they want to get their pictures, you know. But I'm like, uh, there's so many matches in the past it was horrific and I got more heat from the boys, you know, ribbing me all the time about it than anything else. If it was that kind of, if it was reality, it would have been about a case of beer to get back to Tampa from Daytona Beach. When it happened. You know it's live and I explained. I says it was live.
Speaker 3:There ain't no do-overs, there ain't no retakes. It wasn't like in the WWF days where Vince would come out screaming and yelling because he didn't like the way the match went and he put it to the fourth hour in a TV segment. You know what I'm saying. I want you guys to do that match over. You're going to wrestle again, you know, and it was a different time, different place, but you know I go. You know what.
Speaker 3:You know how many guys that I've seen that are top performers that have had shock master moments in their careers. I've watched one of the Von Erics go to make the hot tag, go to jump over the top rope, catch both of his toes on the top rope and fall flat on his face in the midst of making the hot tag. There's so many things. I talk to kids all the time that have seen it. If you haven't seen it, this is something you need to sit down with your dad and have him pull up on YouTube and you'll have a great laugh at my expense. But it's like that. Everybody has a shock master moment, as far as it could be at work, it could be at school, it could be with friends in their life. So I says, enjoy it at my expense and you'll put a smile on your face. But I've had two different figures, a couple of different figures and and other things that have come forth because of that.
Speaker 3:So you know, it was a good thing all the way around.
Speaker 1:Teddy, you were about to say something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and here's the thing I want to say Fred, I'm so glad you brought this up, because this is the whole thing that's ready on my mind. Those guys in WCW they missed the boat with that. If that would have happened in WWF or WWE at the time, vince would have taken that, even though that happened like it did happen. Vince would have taken that and he would have made that into a story. Vince would have taken that and, like, if Fred was the baby face, he'd have had Fred do something like hey, I know what happened. You guys set me up to try to make me look bad or something around them storyline. But Vince would have took it and used it. That's just how smart he was. Those guys just laughed it off like it was some big joke. They didn't think about that. There was money in it.
Speaker 3:I talked to Crockett at a signing in in carolina, yep, and he uh, and he was talking to me about that incident he goes. You know, they didn't know what to do with it. From the intro, you know, I'm saying they put that helmet on. I got that helmet about 30 minutes before I was supposed to do the gimmick and it was like you see outside the the eye holes because it looks like it's just plastered with glitter.
Speaker 3:Well, it is plastered with glitter. The thing is, they drilled eye holes, but the glitter was coming through the eye holes, yeah, and so you could barely see out of it with the holes that were in it. And then what they did is that. I don't know if, teddy, you remember Janie Ingalls. She was a secretary in your office there.
Speaker 2:Janie, yes, I remember Janie Ingalls. She was a secretary in the office there, janie, yes, I remember Janie.
Speaker 3:Her mama was, you know, back in the day with the funks and everything also, and they made her take her pantyhose off and she had dark pantyhose on and cut patches over them to glue over the eye holes, okay. So, to take a bad scenario into one that was worse, to keep the glitter out of my eyes, they put that patches on there, okay. And then Mike Graham was the one that gave me the cue, okay, and there was no way to microphone that thing, cause Lord knows I could do a promo. And he's like, uh, you know, they gave it to Oli, you know, and to do the voiceover.
Speaker 3:But I'm there at the wall and I'm six inches from the wall because you can't see, and Mike goes Fred, they didn't gimmick this wall, it was two by fours, okay, like studs in your house, every 12 to 14 inches. I broke five busting through the wall. But there was a board right below my knees okay, as an extra support board, because they had built the set for a flare, for the goal, for the, so that it was, you know, strong, and that because of the extra height. Yeah Well, I double axe handled the wall, snapped these boards, but I hit it so hard that I became a teeter-totter because I busted through the top. You know I can't see. You know, how do you see to tell? You know to bust what you bust first and the next thing you know, it's all history the top, the helmet, comes off like a champagne cork at new year's Eve. And there I am and all I'm thinking is like turn your face to hide your face, pull the helmet, grab up and start doing the gimmick and pantomiming.
Speaker 3:The whole deal and the looks on guys' faces and the under breath stuff that's being said. It's just priceless. It was priceless when I did finish the segment and I went to the back and I was just so pissed off about this whole deal. I'm like what a hell of a debut and it's an angle that they were going to do to go into the next pay-per-view, which was in New Orleans the two-ring cage match deal over there.
Speaker 3:And I'm like, oh, I'm like I, I was like this is such bullshit, you know. And uh, as I walk into the, the gorilla position, there's dusty with tears in his eyes, laughing so hard because of the thing. You know, I know that he felt sorry for me, but also just laughing his ass off. And any any other segment, I would have felt the same way, but I was like you know. In other words, just to fail as far as my heart goes, because I love this business and for something to happen like that and it's inevitable that these things happen, so there was no way to circumvent it or go around it. It's just another part of history in wrestling.
Speaker 1:I just love that that failed gimmick is still alive and well today. That's just to me, it's just. It was a godsend right there.
Speaker 2:Boom, well the good part about it is you know you didn't get hurt. That's number one. Okay, that's good, you didn't get hurt, you survived that. But, like I said, man Vince, you know he would have took that and turned that into something right there. And, like you know, like promo, like you come out, like you were just saying that Dusty came out, but it was the funniest thing. You could start going to the desk and the announcers start as they start talking to you. They're laughing, you know like, and you're just looking at them. You know what's the fun.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you, fred, after that happened and you got up and you went to the back I mean the moment you're going back there there's got to be a lot of people around in the back as you're coming through. Are they all falling down laughing, or are they?
Speaker 3:all just horrified. It was a hell of an ego booster. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:All that's good stuff right there. That is good to film all of them laughing. See, all that's good stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I enjoy you when I saw Haku recently with an episode on Shockmaster and. Haku got to see it for the first time. He had never seen that video. His reaction was priceless.
Speaker 3:His laugh was infectious, but it was nice. He goes. Oh, Fred, you know I love you. So he says, you effed up.
Speaker 1:You effed up During your time in WWE, before you even got over to become Shockmaster. You had several gimmicks that worked very well and were huge. You had the opportunity to work with Hulk Hogan. What was that like? Fred getting in the ring with Hulk Hogan.
Speaker 3:It was awesome, other than the fact I had to pee three to five times before I went out into the ring because I was so nervous. I'm working with the heavyweight champion of the world and I was a mark. And when I did go there I was like, have I put in enough time to be worthy? Because when I walked through the gates to my first black, dark match it was in Niagara Falls and I remember to this day I walked through a curtain because they didn't have dressing rooms Big, long curtain. When I walked through the curtain I seen every great champion and belt holder from every territory that there was. Vince stole them all. When he put that act together it was like the circus. The circus has come to town and claimed all the acts. There was nothing anywhere. You know all the talent from all those territories. You know all over the country and even overseas. He brought you know to to WWE, wwf at that time and you know. But it was a great honor to be there among them. But you know I was thinking in your head am I worthy enough to be here? It was my biggest thing. I'm going to work my butt off and do whatever I need to do, but I was very apprehensive when I first walked through and seen all the talent and everything and I've worked with, you know, I had the opportunity in the territory. That's why when I came into the wrestling business I started in Texas.
Speaker 3:I actually went to Atlanta first for a tryout and I was in the car with two veterans on either side of me. Psycho Negro was one, you know, and the Batman back in the day, tony Marino from the Carolinas. He was on the other side. We're out of the town 15 minutes and a guy named Ron Slinker is driving us in an Eldorado Cadillac. I'm in the backseat with a guy on each side, 15 minutes outside the thing there. This is my first time going anywhere. And we're going up to them to take a look at me and they're both snoring with their heads on my shoulders and I look up in the mirror. I'm like just, it was like surreal. And Slinker looks back. He goes well, kid, that's how you can tell a real veteran. They could sleep anywhere. And that was my introduction onto the road to going to the first territory. And then I went up there and there was great guys there. I was so green I didn't know what kayfabe was, you know. You know weren't you?
Speaker 1:uh, you're related somehow to dusty, Is that correct? He was my brother-in-law for my first marriage. Okay, yes.
Speaker 3:Uh, cody's my nephew and Dustin's my nephew. And sags, the nasty boys, is my other brother-in-law through marriage.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow, yeah, I did you said you had a lot of family there, yeah.
Speaker 1:Any crazy road stories that you can remember from your days in WWE?
Speaker 3:So many. You know a tame, there's just so many. If I ever wrote a book, we'd be behind the curtain and under the mat. You know, because all they want, you know, all fans want to know about is the dirt, you know, on the road and, as you guys know, there's plenty of dirt.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, there's stuff that you can't even talk about.
Speaker 3:Yeah, when I'm in the old wrestler's home, uh, one of these days, with the dementia, I'll be in the corner giggling and laughing, thinking about all those road stories. You one, me and quake were big, uh, stephen king fans. We were. We did a double shot, uh. We drove up to where his house is in new england the night before we okay uh, and stayed the hotel there. We had an afternoon show there and stephen king is a huge wrestling fan huge.
Speaker 3:So he usually comes to the shows and it was a spot show town and so we're there wrestling, we're looking at all that stuff. He never came. We wrestled in that, but we had to take it. We wanted, we had books for this one to get signed and all the whole deal, you know, and we didn't get that. So we go to his house. We found out from security. Well, he didn't come today because he's taking his kids to the ice skating rink. It was in the wintertime, it was like 25, 30 below zero. We're up there, snow up to our butts.
Speaker 3:And so we go to his house, which looks like it's one of his books, you know, like a barn, red, cemetery, victorian house on a big lot with wrought iron fence, like you'd find in the cemetery. And he's there and we're, we're there, we're taking pictures of stuff. There's three headed dragons on top of the gate going into the door to the house. There's spider webs out of iron and spiders on them and the whole nine yards. So we we're out there. Here's these two big buffaloes and we're taking pictures in sweatsuits and that stuff and the whole nine yards Across the streets, all these neighbors looking out their storm doors at these two big retards that are out there and they're like shaking their head and everything like that. And all of a sudden Quake yells to me look, look, look, he's coming, he's coming, look, look, look. And the house sat back off the road.
Speaker 3:So there's a suburban up under the carport that's at the house that started up and he's running down the ice filled sidewalk to the double gate to come out of this house and he's running down there. I'm like he's going to fall on his ass. I'm like we're going to be here at Stephen King's house filling out a report and he runs down there, mr King, mr King, mr King, on the sidewalk, and he gets to the gate about the same time the car is pulling out and I'm walking down the sidewalk and I get down there and sure enough it's stephen king and he's driving the suburban and across the whole dashboard is glued probably a hundred california raisin figurine on the dashboard and he's, you know, if you've seen his movie, he's a goof, you know. He does those cameos and he's. He comes out there and he's just excited to see us. He knew who we were as we were to see him, you know, and we got some photo ops and stuff with him and everything. But it's, you know, one of the tamest stories I can tell you.
Speaker 1:That's pretty good. I didn't know Stephen King was a wrestling fan. That's something I just learned.
Speaker 3:His book Need things he talks about. Chief jay strong mentions chief jay strongbow in there. You know, I mean you know it's just like the guy with bundy's uh, married with children. You know he was a a huge wrestling fan, that's why they're called the bundys, after bundy and bundy did a cameo with a couple one of the other guys in it I remember that, I remember that cameo the next door neighbors of the roads family, after you know dusty roads I don't know why I never put that together.
Speaker 1:But you know, let me ask you something for it. I can. We could talk all day, and I mean today I just know how no, no, no, no. It's a good thing, it's a good thing, I like hearing the old road stories. But uh, I know you're in tennessee. Now you've moved to tennessee. What part of tennessee are you in now?
Speaker 3:I'm in a little town called centerville, tennessee. It's about I'm an hour and 15 minutes from national international airport and, um, it's I'm surrounded by dixon, columbia and all these. But you know, I remember I worked this territory. They used to run the national guard armory here. Uh, lawler did back in the day, him and jared, yep, but um, I moved. We bought a house about almost five years ago up here and my wife was still working in st petersburg and not doing what she does and uh, so we decided to move. I said something happens to me, what are you going to do? Because we already had a. We were going to retire to panama city, florida, and I was like she goes. Well, I moved home with the you know cause, the kids, grandkids and her family, and I'm like why wait? You know, let's do it. Same thing Ricky Steamboat did. He removed always been on the beach his whole life, you know. And uh, so that was kind of cool.
Speaker 1:I never thought that I know and your wife. By the way, I hope it's okay to say her name, but sheila, who I've known for years as well uh, sheila is a sweetheart, but she also has a passion for cooking, and you combined her passion for cooking to give her something to do, it seems like, so she can feed and let other people taste that food. Tell us about you got a brand-new restaurant now.
Speaker 3:It's called Bubba's Film Station Cafe. I wrestled here as Big Bubba back in the day. Bubba's Film Station Cafe was an early 1960s film station that we converted over the course of a year to a little restaurant. It's an eclectic bunch of all different weird, different weird things. People come in, they go. We, we didn't know it would be this big inside.
Speaker 3:You know there's people there that got their cars worked on, a guy here that drives one of the wreckers. He helped when he was 12, helped lay the block for the foundation, this building. Uh, we um I have a 1958, uh fire truck that sits on the property. I got a tractor. We've got a 53 Chevrolet tow truck that I had a guy paint like tow mater out of cars and people do photo ops with them and all kind of stuff and we have fun with it.
Speaker 3:I've always been a car guy. I love old cars and hot rods and I have a lot of patrons. Here in Tennessee is like many other parts of the country where you know guys are into old cars and stuff. They drive up, you know, in these just cool, cool rides and I'll post pictures of them occasionally and stuff like that. We're just getting started with doing all the stuff on the Internet and that with our Facebook page and everything but it it's a meet and three kind of place. It's not like you know, anybody's been from the country or been around the country. You know, we got sweet tea, we got sweet tea and we have all homemade desserts banana pudding with cow slobbers on it. I had a lady ask what's cow slobbers? That says meringue, that Not whipped cream, that she puts on her banana foot. It's all old school. I had pinto beans and cornbread today, along with steak and gravy, green beans, mashed potatoes.
Speaker 1:Teddy, you got to see this food, brother. They post this food and I sent a friend a message the other day. I said you got to tell her to stop. I'm on a diet and this is killing me. It's good you don't quit dying to eat. I've tried to lose a little bit of weight before I get into St Louis.
Speaker 3:Oh my Lord, it's a food that's good for the soul. That's all I can tell you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what it reminds me of, and I can't think of anybody who lives in that area. If you're not going to Bubba's Filling Station and getting some of that great food from Sheila, you're missing out. And you've only been open. How long have you actually been open now? About a month.
Speaker 3:Well, what happened was we were open three days and while she was working she had like a TIA, a mini stroke.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I rushed her to the hospital in my car to Dixon, tennessee, to the hospital and everything. She went through that and she was out of the picture. We were shut down for about 14 to 16 days. Yeah, and it was one of those, you know. But you know my honey comes first. Yes, you know, I'm sorry. You know that feisty little girl she's, she's first and foremost and then we. She says I want to get everything, stay open up and everything like that. And I got a couple of friends that'll be coming up from down in St Petersburg. It's going to come up here and stay with us and help her now because that was the main, main deal. But we were, you know, we had to cut back our hours. We're open Monday through Thursday till five in the afternoon. We've opened up at 11. We don't do breakfast and because she's there at 5 am and she's, you know, smoking, you know butts and cooking, you know, and doing prep and all that stuff and cooking desserts and you know, the whole nine yards. Everything is fresh.
Speaker 1:That's what I love about it. That's why I caught my eye. Everything looks so good and you could tell that it was made, because I know Sheila. I just knew that you can look at the food and go that's this kind of stuff that I grew up with. This is real food. This isn't instant stuff being thrown in a pan. This is homemade good food and nothing's fried.
Speaker 3:There ain't nothing fried under that roof. We got a big grill outside. Our burgers are half pound and pound burgers. We got the Bubba Burger and he's a pound. Two big patties and 80-20 ground beef. And what do you want on it is what you can get on it. It's good.
Speaker 1:As far as that goes, everything is wholesome and good Again, fred, thank you so much for being with us. Teddy, you got anything you want to hop in here and ask before we have to go? I'm sorry, I've been kind of just going at it.
Speaker 2:Well, that's okay, man, that's all right, man. I think we had a great conversation with Fred. I'm just glad to know about the restaurant and I'm glad we was able to promote that for him. Let people know what he's got going on and I promise you, if I get any bookings near that way, I'm going to give you a call so I can get back.
Speaker 3:You're always welcome, Teddy, You're always welcome. Are you going to be in St Louis too?
Speaker 2:Yes, sir, I'm looking forward to seeing you there, awesome awesome, awesome.
Speaker 1:As a matter of fact, for those who are watching, all three of us will be sitting in St Louis again this year for the second FanFest FanFest 2 in St Louis, part of the SICW organization. You can get your tickets, as a matter of fact, by going to SICWorg. It starts on Friday night with Bill Apter's one-man show, then the next day is the FanFest, the Hall of Fame and, of course, wrestling that Night. So it's going to be a fantastic event and, fred, you were there with us last year. I'm going to close out the show with that little bit that we did a year ago when we were up there, when he interrupted one of our games.
Speaker 3:You had that Shockmaster moment that.
Speaker 1:Shockmaster moment. Yeah, alright, teddy, this game is called Jingo. Now the option to the game is to move over the little blocks without knocking it open. If you knock it over, you lose. Alright, alright, now take the worker.
Speaker 3:You lose, I'll buy you a steak dinner.
Speaker 1:If I win, you buy me a steak dinner. Fair enough, alright, it's easy.
Speaker 3:It's easy.
Speaker 2:Sounds a little shady, but alright.
Speaker 1:You start out by just pushing one of these out here. Let's see if I can find one. Right, nice, almost out. There we go. Oh oops, I told you Not again.
Speaker 2:Hey, you owe me dinner. We'll see you next time.