Bill Apter Suspects The Shockmaster Botch was a Work

[eDemento2099]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmqJX_biOq8

If the Shockmaster's bothched debut was a work, was it intended to be as hilarious as it turned out to be? As mentioned in the video, someone could (barely) be heard exclaiming "He fell on his ass!" during the botch. I can't imagine WCW encouraging wrestlers to use that kind of language, especially prior to the Monday Night Wars and the Attitude Era.

[________ has left the building]

Bill Apter turned into Alex Jones. His legacy went from being in charge of some of the best and influential wrestling magazines in the world to conspiracy nutjob.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

This idiot said with a straight face that hit men murdered Benoit and his family...f*** him.

Yeah Bill, Fred Ottman planned the whole time to fall so he could lose a main event spot and then get turned into a job guy. f*** you Apter.

[Baldobomb-22-OH-MAN!!!]

the Shockmaster debut is the pro wrestling equivalent of The Room. you can't do something that bad on purpose.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

To be fair to Apter, if anyone was stupid enough to make it a work, it was WCW.

[Rave]

Sabotage of a stupid-sounding gimmick, maybe, but full-on work? Nope.

[wankah]

Kendrick, Apter, Ventura, X-Pac(am I missing someone?) in a 5hr special conspiracy theory chat. Someone make it happen.

[The 1Watcher Experience]

He's clearly living in that "Everything is a work" wrestling bubble. First the Benoit thing and now this. Yeesh.

[Father Dougal McGuire]

I am not going to defend Apter in his Benoit or later accusations, but I do have two points that might explain his points on this.

1. Wrestlers fall down a lot in their matches. How was The Shockmaster going to keep his helmet on in a real match when he slips and falls on a promo?

2.The Stormtrooper Mask. I know that copyright was not as highly defended as it is nowdays, but a mask from Star Wars, one of the most iconic movies of all, times was not going to go by without a lawsuit or two. Wasn't this around the time WCW got in hot water with a Spiderman ripoff and a Beatlejuice ripoff. Nevermind I strike my last point.

[eDemento2099]

May 26, 2017 5:41:07 GMT -5 OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 said:

This idiot said with a straight face that hit men murdered Benoit and his family...f*** him.

Yeah Bill, Fred Ottman planned the whole time to fall so he could lose a main event spot and then get turned into a job guy. f*** you Apter.

If it was a work, Fred Ottman likely had little say in how the debut was booked.

[Ultimo Gallos]

May 26, 2017 5:49:13 GMT -5 wankah said:

Kendrick, Apter, Ventura, X-Pac(am I missing someone?) in a 5hr special conspiracy theory chat. Someone make it happen.

You also need Billy Jack Haynes.

[Spider2024]

May 26, 2017 6:15:12 GMT -5 Father Dougal McGuire said:

I am not going to defend Apter in his Benoit or later accusations, but I do have two points that might explain his points on this.

1. Wrestlers fall down a lot in their matches. How was The Shockmaster going to keep his helmet on in a real match when he slips and falls on a promo?

2.The Stormtrooper Mask. I know that copyright was not as highly defended as it is nowdays, but a mask from Star Wars, one of the most iconic movies of all, times was not going to go by without a lawsuit or two. Wasn't this around the time WCW got in hot water with a Spiderman ripoff and a Beatlejuice ripoff. Nevermind I strike my last point.

Yeah, I've always wondered this.

[Thunderbolt]

I'm pretty sure Bulldog let out a "he fell on his f***ing arse!", which says to me it was a shoot. Or they were "working the boys" and didn't let them in on the falling down part but...I say it was a real botch.

[Futureraven: Beelzebruv]

May 26, 2017 6:51:55 GMT -5 Spider2024 said:

May 26, 2017 6:15:12 GMT -5 Father Dougal McGuire said:

I am not going to defend Apter in his Benoit or later accusations, but I do have two points that might explain his points on this.

1. Wrestlers fall down a lot in their matches. How was The Shockmaster going to keep his helmet on in a real match when he slips and falls on a promo?

2.The Stormtrooper Mask. I know that copyright was not as highly defended as it is nowdays, but a mask from Star Wars, one of the most iconic movies of all, times was not going to go by without a lawsuit or two. Wasn't this around the time WCW got in hot water with a Spiderman ripoff and a Beatlejuice ripoff. Nevermind I strike my last point.

Yeah, I've always wondered this.

Also the rest of the outfit, a crappy black cloak, jeans and cowboy boots.

Even if he doesn't fall, he looks like a complete idiot and it figuratively still falls on it's face.

[lizzurd]

I'd like to know how The Shockmaster went from an Intergalactic Space Warrior to wrestling in one of the worst war games matches of all time dressed up like a construction worker.

May 26, 2017 5:41:07 GMT -5 OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 said:

This idiot said with a straight face that hit men murdered Benoit and his family.

Did he say who he thinks took out the hit?

[Blindkarevik]

Let's say Shockmaster exploded from the wall perfectly, he stepped through and landed on his feet. He then proceeded to pantomine Ole Anderson's promo as scripted. Sid and Harlem Heat acted surprised and angry, Sting, Bulldog and Shockmaster ended the segment with their arms held high and the commentators hyping up the match.

Even then... here's a dude who doesn't look intimidating at all, wearing a glittery Stormtrooper mask and a fur coat. Realistically, the fall is the only thing that SAVED the gimmick in history. With the fall, we look back at it and say, "OH that adorable Tugboat... falling down. Buck up, little trooper, we laugh but we love." But if everything went on as planned, we'd still be like, "Who the hell thought that was a good idea? He looked absolutely stupid, he wasn't intimidating, and him pinning Sid clean was just a stupid move. It was Big Josh levels of WCW crap."

Nothing would have saved that gimmick from being Wrestlecrap, just the fact he fell down makes history a bit kinder to him because it saved us months of WCW trying to put him over as a legit threat we nobody had time to hate him... just feel sorry for the hand he was dealt.

[SmashTV]

May 26, 2017 5:33:51 GMT -5 ________ has left the building said:

Bill Apter turned into Alex Jones. His legacy went from being in charge of some of the best and influential wrestling magazines in the world to conspiracy nutjob.

The shattering of kayfabe has obviously affected Apter more than we feared.

[________ has left the building]

May 26, 2017 8:01:10 GMT -5 SmashTV said:

May 26, 2017 5:33:51 GMT -5 ________ has left the building said:

Bill Apter turned into Alex Jones. His legacy went from being in charge of some of the best and influential wrestling magazines in the world to conspiracy nutjob.

The shattering of kayfabe has obviously affected Apter more than we feared.

I blame WOW Magazine for current Bill Apter. Kayfabe was keeping him sane and going from that to "A magazine for the smart fans" distort his connection to reality.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

May 26, 2017 7:33:40 GMT -5 lizzurd said:

I'd like to know how The Shockmaster went from an Intergalactic Space Warrior to wrestling in one of the worst war games matches of all time dressed up like a construction worker.

May 26, 2017 5:41:07 GMT -5 OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 said:

This idiot said with a straight face that hit men murdered Benoit and his family.

Did he say who he thinks took out the hit?

The moron speculated that Benoit had problems with the mob if I'm not mistaken.

The thing that I will never forgive Apter about is that after his appearance in Talk is Jericho, Nancy Benoit's sister had to appear in the following episode and said that Apter was crazy and had to tell the story about the facts and what really happened.

[Deleted]

If the Shockmaster was a work would that make it one of the most brilliant angles of all time? Meta "so bad it's good" kind of stuff is all the rage now, this would be so ahead of its time if this was the plan all along, it's going to be talked about for as long as wrestling exists.

May 26, 2017 6:15:12 GMT -5 Father Dougal McGuire said:

1. Wrestlers fall down a lot in their matches. How was The Shockmaster going to keep his helmet on in a real match when he slips and falls on a promo?

This is a good point, but then again if you're already the kind of guy that thinks putting a guy in a glittery starship trooper helmet and a cape is a cool thing to do then you're probably haven't even thought about practical stuff like this. In theory the Shockmaster could have just been a bullshit superhero where he just delivers punches and everyone's scared of him, even though it looks like he didn't even have to take a bump for his mask to fall off. If the Shockmaster didn't fall through the wall, it seems like a similar embarrassment was inevitable.