It w
as 1995 when I first took notice of Kevin Sullivan. The guy had been in wrestling 25 years by that point and had racked up belts throughout the NWA. By 1995, he had just returned WCW several months earlier and while he was involved in storylines, he wasn’t a regular threat to the singles titles. What caught me about Kevin Sullivan was his evil but overproduced and hokey Taskmaster gimmick in the Dungeon of Doom.
Kevin Sullivan’s Second WCW Run As The Taskmaster
The Taskmaster gimmick was essentially this guy who originally came to WCW to protect his younger brother from the Nasty Boys. Instead of being a regular team with Dave Sullivan, he teamed up with Cactus Jack in a really good team. Sullivan was a good brawler who used to be near-excellent and Cactus Jack was a near-excellent brawler and only getting better.
It was almost a perfect fit. Sullivan wasn’t in his dark side gimmick which would’ve complimented Cactus Jack’s risk-taking wild man gimmick. This period of Sullivan wasn’t where I came in at, I began watching wrestling later in 1995 when he became the foundation for The Dungeon of Doom.
What Worked With the Dungeon of Doom
The new faction was basically a reboot of The Three Faces of Fear from a year earlier. Now doing double duty as a manager and wrestler, he recruited former Faces members Avalanche and Brother Bruti—or Shark and Zodiac—and was making another push towards wrecking Hulk Hogan’s career.
No, they wanted to end his career. Oh, they wanted to end Hulkamania as well. This was 1995, too late for that, Sully but I’ll let you be great. So, The Taskmaster led this crew of misfit, over-the-top characters who would’ve been at home in WWE to target the Hulkster.
The thing that worked the most with the Dungeon of Doom was Sullivan’s involvement. He was in his late-40s and had a ton of experience. So did most of the Dungeon but Sully could still give you a good brawl—which Hogan could do as well. We’re talking about 1995 Dungeon, once Vader joined you got two good hands in-ring that could deliver on a memorable clash.
Another thing that worked was the vignettes involving Hulk Hogan in the Land of Yin and Yang, the home base of the Dungeon of Doom. This makes me wonder why WCW never ran shows there. I’m sure The Master would’ve OK’d it. The debut of The Giant as a member after Vader failed to take Hogan out and the battle between The Giant and Vader was also good.
However, the ultimate goal of the Dungeon—to salvage Hogan—worked. While the feud against Hogan was decent at best, putting him on the path to turn heel, join the nWo, and ride with being booed worked.
What Failed With the Dungeon of Doom
The same thing as the new World order: too many people. They had two managers and at any given time they had five members. It’s a solid maximum but then other people just kind of joined and left. Then someone else would show up. Why are they in the Dungeon of Doom? For most of its run, the faction was literally Kevin Sullivan as Rita Repulsa making monsters to go fight the Power Rangers.
Oh yeah, and the Yeti—excuse me: Yetay. That was a gimmick Reese didn’t need. “Here’s a 7-foot wrestling zombie. Oh, now he’s a ninja. The Super Giant Ninja! That mummy costume was trash.” A 7-foot ninja? This costume is better?! WCW had three giants at once and one of them have to be a ninja?!! OK, I guess.
What a vicious hug that is. I don’t know what the hell that was supposed to do to Hogan. Squash him more? So WCW, you summoned a mummy to assist a big, naval destroyer-built Giant—Andre the Giant’s son and gift to the world—in crushing Hulk Hogan? Top notch.
If the group retained a core group and “vanquished” members who failed this could’ve worked. Also, the gear and costume choices were…oof. I loved the original idea of Sullivan having to go deeper into the dark side in an attempt to destroy Hulk Hogan.
It begs the question of “What’s next?” once that’s achieved. I mean The Giant had already taken the World title twice as a member. I’ve watched Kevin Sullivan lead a dominion of the damned into battle when I went back to check out the Florida territory. The Army of Darkness this was not.
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