The Dungeon of Doom Thread

[Ubermensch]

Who could ever forget these brooding figures?

Looking back I was always somewhat shocked at how long WCW allowed this stable to linger so long.

It was marginally interesting seeing the All-Star lineup of Hogan, Macho, and Sting feuding with these guys in 95. There were so many wrestlers that entered their fray to never be seen again.

At their highest point they had the Giant and the championship belt. The Giant was that unstoppable figure at the time. When the Giant turned on Sullivan was when you knew the heel stable dynamic had shifted.

It would have been good to see a few more NWO squash matches against the Dungeon of Doom just to further solidify them.

The Horsemen feud never really had a high point and was more about Benoit vs Sullivan with Mongo thrown in the mix. Flair never engaged the Dungeon of Doom.

I don't remember exactly when they disbanded I would guess the official time would be after Sullivan lost at Bash at the Beach, but they were really more of a remnant a very cartoonish gimmic at that point.

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

I try not to remember stuff like this.

Seriously, this was a nadir for WCW. The main event of Starrcade 1994 had to have been Hulk Hogan's wet dream. Hulk vs. his good ol buddy, ol pal, Brutha Brutii. How could anyone have thought that this was anything anyone wanted to watch at that time?

Sullivan, Tenta, Kamala...each taken in small doses were fine, but there wasn't much talent to be spoken of. But put them all together into a stable fighting Hogan, and it was a pure snorefest.

 

[Ubermensch]

I think WCW at least thought, they were really going to captivate the children audience with cartoonish villains against their All American hero.

 

[Fabulous Freebirds]

I try not to remember stuff like this.

Seriously, this was a nadir for WCW. The main event of Starrcade 1994 had to have been Hulk Hogan's wet dream. Hulk vs. his good ol buddy, ol pal, Brutha Brutii. How could anyone have thought that this was anything anyone wanted to watch at that time?

Sullivan, Tenta, Kamala...each taken in small doses were fine, but there wasn't much talent to be spoken of. But put them all together into a stable fighting Hogan, and it was a pure snorefest.

Joe makes a great point. Each of the guys in the group, by themselves were good, but when you bunch them all up together and create DOD, just looks cheesy.

 

[TheHitMark-SirJoseOle]

God, this was traumatizing as a kid to watch some of this stuff. Considering that this was between the Rock 'N' Wrestling and Attitude Eras, it was a stigma to be a wrestling fan. I'm not sure if anyone else in my age group experienced ridicule for being a wrestling fan during this time, but yeah, anyone who was anti-wrestling at the time had incredibly solid grounds to rip this stuff to shreds. The wrestling product in WCW was very half-assed. As staunch of a Hulk Hogan supporter as I was and am, Starrcade 1994 was not the main event it should have been. Back in the 80s, Beefcake was a great heel challenger for Hogan, despite them only having a handful of matches, it was a decent break from the Bundys and Studds during this time. But by 1994, this was a very nepotistic move on The Hulkster's part. I consider it nepotism considering how Hogan and Brutus are practically family members, I've seen this first hand myself when Hogan brought Beefcake with him to TNA shows, despite Beefcake not being a TNA member. All the power to Hogan for having a good friend in the business but I thought this undermined an event the magnitude of Starrcade. I'll need some verification on this but I think for quite sometime they were trying to woo Curt Hennig over to WCW and reveal him as the masked man that Bruti ended up being. Not sure if that's true, I also heard they wanted to do one more Flair-Hogan match at Starrcade. A shame that didn't happen.

Anyway, the Dungeon Of Doom ended up being borne out of all this nonsense within the next year and a half, and by god, my least favorite time in Hulk Hogan's career. No offense to Kevin Sullivan but the people he had as his supporting cast weren't enough to overly impress me. I still watched loyally but it was difficult to do so. Like it's been said there were some great roster members like Meng for instance, but the execution strayed very far from the concept.

To be honest, the wrestling product was a torturous viewing experience, to people who were casual fans that walked away from the product and non-fans, I mentioned that stigma that I had amongst my circle of classmates as a kid. Those who weren't consistent viewers like I was at the time just talked so much shit towards me.

If you were also a WWF fan, like myself, it was no better. Characters like Mantaur, TL Hopper, Duke Droese were tough to watch as well. The Undertaker Vs Undertaker angle though was enjoyable but I am such a Taker mark that I like practically any aspect of his career. Had anyone else been in such an angle, I'd probably have turned my nose up at it. Bret Hart, Razor Ramon, Shawn Michaels and Diesel also kept me watcing WWF too. For what some people say, The New Generation had some great stars to keep me entertained, and to be honest I enjoy it more than most of the Attitude Era.

But by God, I don't think The Dungeon Of Doom was the worst, but man it was barely any better than some of WCW's pre-Hogan creations like The Ding Dongs and Arachnaman. In all, a great thread and an enjoyable discussion. Looking forward to other posters' thoughts.

 

[Ubermensch]

Surprised this isn't a sticky. The dungeon of doom is equally as pivotal, if not more so, than the Montreal screw job or invasion angle

I think I may have been in the second grade during the dungeon of dooms hiatus. So back then I think it was cool seeing Sting brawl on those dastardly villains.

There just wasn't much potential for the dungeon of doom. I remember the Yetti coming down and dry humping hogan and savage with the giant.

Sullivan simply wasn't an athletic looking guy and it was hard imagining him against hogan. The high point for them was bringing the giant in.

It would have been interesting if vader would have stayed around. I think Vader in the dungeon of doom vs hogan would have been legit.

 

[MINISTRYrising]

The Most comical and Ridiculous Stable WCW ever came up with and lasted far too long in my opinion.The thing is, If WCW had not used a group of missfits like kamala, the Yeti, The Zodiac and countless others and instead gone with Vader, the Faces of Fear, Hugh Morris and the The Giant with Kevin Sullivan as the leader then The Dungeon of doom could of actully been quite good and not remembered as one of the worst Stables in the history of wrestling.

 

[Ubermensch]

You're right it would have been far more effective. The Dungeon of Doom during it's brief tenure as a main event stable was far too comical. Kamala, Zodiac, and Shark should have never been brought in. Luger never had the personality or in ring skills to be a good heel, and his role as a tweener at the time just never worked. Vader, The Giant, Sullivan, and Meng would have played out well. The Dungeon had too many cartoon wrestlers, and then ones that were a joke and you saw only a handful of times like the yetti, maxx muscle, and loch ness.

 

[justtxyank]

You're right it would have been far more effective. The Dungeon of Doom during it's brief tenure as a main event stable was far too comical. Kamala, Zodiac, and Shark should have never been brought in. Luger never had the personality or in ring skills to be a good heel, and his role as a tweener at the time just never worked. Vader, The Giant, Sullivan, and Meng would have played out well. The Dungeon had too many cartoon wrestlers, and then ones that were a joke and you saw only a handful of times like the yetti, maxx muscle, and loch ness.

I know it doesn't make sense, but Sullivan has said they were trying to be cheesy. It was supposed to be over the top. The videos they filmed were ridiculous. But, is the Dungeon of Doom all that much more ridiculous than a wrestling alligator hunter, taxman, repo man, chicken, etc.?

The WWF had turned wrestling into a cartoon joke in the early 90s and WCW had struggled to compete with them while being presented as the somewhat realistic product. So, they tried to become the WWF.

I don't think there was any problem with Tenta, Kamala or Zodiac individually, it's the way they were ridiculously presented that made them hard to take seriously. Well, Tenta as the Shark is pretty stupid, but Kamala and Zodiac could have been fine in mid 90s wrestling if they were presented seriously. Kamala has been a success everywhere he's ever been until that stupid run.

Now, the one thing I have to pick at you about is the Luger comment. Never the personality or the skills to be a heel? Did you only only watch his career from WWF through January 1996? Luger was a GREAT heel and did a lot of great ring work for the NWA in the early 90s and later in WCW. Luger's career is tainted by the fact that he mailed it in with the WWF and then was terrible in the late 90s after he came back from injury in 99.

 

[Ubermensch]

I still disagree. I have seen Luger's early matches with Flair, and when he was in the Horsemen. I am not saying he was bad. But Heels have the responsibility of filling the bulk of the wrestling match with their moveset, Luger was not good at this. His injury had no effect on his mic skills and he has never been a great promo guy. Again, Luger was GOOD, but he has never been GREAT.