[3][5][2] In 1993, Ottman debuted as The Shockmaster in World Championship Wrestling and immediately fell over, losing his mask on live television while his teammates broke character and laughed.

This botch hurt his career, and is now generally regarded as the worst debut in wrestling history, but he was able to capitalize on its notoriety after his in-ring retirement.

Ottman made his first appearance in the WWF in June 1989 in a dark match under the ring name "Big Steel Man" with Slick as his manager.

[7] He debuted on WWF television on the January 27, 1990 episode of Superstars under the Tugboat Thomas moniker and defeated Iron Mike Sharpe.

Part of his gimmick included miming pulling the cord of an airhorn and making a "Toot-toot" noise, like a horn of a ship.

On the May 20 episode of Wrestling Challenge, Hulk Hogan made a promo explaining that he personally trained Tugboat and brought him to the WWF.

[10] In May 1991, Ottman teased a heel turn by eliminating Hulk Hogan in a battle royal on NBC's Saturday Night's Main Event XXIX.

He had signed with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and was to make his debut in a match alongside the fan favorite team of Sting, Dustin Rhodes and Davey Boy Smith in the upcoming eight-man WarGames match against the heel team composed of Sid Vicious, Big Van Vader, Kane and Kole at Fall Brawl.

With a new costume consisting of a Star Wars Stormtrooper helmet painted purple and covered in silver glitter, a pair of jeans and a large, black, puffy vest, Ottman attempted to make a dramatic entrance by crashing through the wall.

His face accidentally exposed, he scrambled to put the helmet back on as Vicious, restraining laughter, exclaimed "Oh, God!

Ottman donned the helmet and got back on his feet, shifting his weight and dusting his hands off in an attempt to shrug off the gaffe while Harlem Heat's Kole asked, "Who is this motherfucker?"

Ottman then began gesturing toward his would-be opponents several seconds before a menacing gravelly off-screen voice (provided by Ole Anderson, who could be heard laughing before speaking) started to threaten Sid and Vader.

Dusty Rhodes later claimed, on an episode of WWE 24/7's Legends of Wrestling show, the piece of lumber previously wasn't there during a successful practice run and it was later put there by David Crockett without informing Ottman.

WWE, on its official website, wrote, "There is a case to be made that The Shockmaster's debut at WCW Clash of the Champions XXIV is the greatest of all time – albeit for all the wrong reasons.

Despite generating no crowd reaction, WCW tried to continue with the angle, repackaging The Shockmaster character as a klutz in a series of pre-recorded promos (featuring Ottman in different attire, without a mask and using his own voice).

It was this version of the character that went on to appear as planned in the main event of Fall Brawl, teaming with Sting, Dustin Rhodes and Davey Boy Smith in the War Games match.

This version of the character remained reasonably popular with live crowds and continued to appear at the final three pay-per-view events of the year.

At Halloween Havoc he teamed up with Ice Train and Charlie Norris in a six man tag match against Harlem Heat (Kole and Kane) and The Equalizer.

However, he did make a brief appearance on the March 12, 1994 episode of WCW Saturday Night, when Mean Gene Okerlund visited the set of Hulk Hogan's TV series Thunder in Paradise.

During that segment, the WWE recreated the Shockmaster's stumbling through the wall, with Santino Marella portraying the character and Arn Anderson providing the voice.

[18] After leaving the WWF in August 1994, Ottman, still using the Typhoon name, began wrestling on the independent circuit in the East Coast.

Ottman was one of the participants in the 20-man Gimmick Battle Royal match at WrestleMania X-Seven as Tugboat, and was eliminated by his former partner, Earthquake.

On September 5, 2009, Ottman returned to the ring as Tugboat losing to Martin Nolte at DWA 10 years event in Uelzen, Germany.

On a two-part episode of the 1994 TV series Thunder in Paradise, Ottman played a palace guard named Yussef.