When Hulk Hogan signed with World Championship Wrestling in 1994, many fans rejoiced at the prospect of the dream match against reigning champion Ric Flair.
The real question, however, was who Hogan would face after his momentous feud with The Nature Boy. Aside from Big Van Vader, WCW lacked a heel who could pose a legitimate threat to the Hulkster.
To that end, Eric Bischoff and the booking committee began assembling a new faction of monsters for Hogan to conquer.
What they ended up creating was one of the most comical and convoluted storylines in the history of WCW. This is the story of The Dungeon of Doom.
The Dungeon of Doom – Kevin Sullivan’s Jealousy
Originally hailing from Boston, Kevin Sullivan had built his name on a historic 5-year run in the Florida territory as “The Prince of Darkness.”
Capitalizing on the “Satanic Panic” of the early 1980’s, Sullivan portrayed a cult leader, using his promos to put a spell over undercard misfits like “Maniac” Mark Lewin, Bob Roop, Luna Vachon, and even a young Jake Roberts.
From 1982-1987, The Army of Darkness ran roughshod over International Championship Wrestling in Massachusetts and Championship Wrestling from Florida.
He feuded with the likes of Austin Idol, Bruiser Brody, and Dusty Rhodes before joining Jim Crockett Promotions in 1987.
This spelled the end for The Army of Darkness, as JCW would lean on Sullivan’s amateur wrestling experience, pairing him with Mike Rotunda as The Varsity Club.
The duo winning the United States and World Tag Team Championships once each before departing to wrestle in Japan and ECW.
When Sullivan re-debuted for WCW in January 1994, along with a kayfabe brother, Dave Sullivan, formerly The Equalizer.
The character of Dave Sullivan was portrayed as simple-minded and dyslexic, often billed as Evad Sullivan, with older brother Kevin often coming to his defense.
They entered into a feud with Tag Team Champions The Nasty Boys after an angle where Knobbs and Sags subjected Dave to their bullying.
After The Nasty Boys injured Dave, Kevin teamed up with Cactus Jack to capture the Tag Team Championships. However, once they dropped the titles, Sullivan would have a brief feud with Cactus Jack ending in a Loser Leaves WCW match at Fall Brawl 1994.
Shortly thereafter, Dave Sullivan would return with an added twist. Formerly his older brother’s biggest supporter, Dave was now the world’s biggest Hulkamaniac. This irritated Kevin, who quickly developed an intense hatred for Hulk Hogan.
The Three Faces of Fear
Following a failed attempt to capture the Tag Team Championships from Pauls Orndorff & Roma, Kevin would turn on Dave, attacking him in a post-match angle on WCW Main Event.
The two Sullivans would engage in a brief feud over the rest of the summer of 1994. Meanwhile, Hulk Hogan’s feud with Ric Flair would take an unusual turn at Clash of The Champions XXVIII, when a masked man attacked Hogan’s knee with a metal pipe, forcing him to visit the hospital.
Hogan would return in time for the main event, backed by Jimmy Hart and Brother Bruti (the former Brutus Beefcake), only to lose by countout.
From August to October, The Hulkster would attempt to investigate the identity of his masked assailant, with that angle coming to a head at Halloween Havoc.
During the main event cage match between Hogan and Flair, the masked man appeared and revealed himself to be none other than Brother Bruti.
The former Mega-Maniac then joined forces with Sullivan and Avalanche (the former Earthquake) in a beatdown angle following Hogan’s successful title defense.
Kevin Sullivan, Avalanche, and newly-rechristened The Butcher, would feud with Hogan, Dave Sullivan, and Sting over the rest of 1994.
In a bizarre turn of events, The Butcher would challenge for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship in the main event of the 1994 Starrcade.
Hogan would retain the title by pinfall, however The Three Faces of Fear ganged up to attack him after the bell. It was then that “Macho Man” Randy Savage would debut in-arena for WCW.
Initially appearing to be a fourth Face of Fear, Savage would side with his former Mega Powers partner, fending off Sullivan, Avalanche, and The Butcher to close the show.
At Clash of The Champions XXX in January 1995, Hogan and Savage would team up to defeat Sullivan and The Butcher.
In the aftermath, Sullivan would turn on The Butcher, claiming his belief in Hulkamania had made him weak and dubbing him “The Man With No Name.”
This would become Ed Leslie’s gimmick for a number of months, complete with a blank lower third during his entrances.
The Three Faces of Fear then disbanded, as Avalanche began feuding with Sting and Hogan pivoted to a feud with Big Van Vader. However, this would not be the end for Hulk Hogan and Kevin Sullivan.
Enter The Dungeon
At Slamboree ’95: A Legends’ Reunion, Kevin Sullivan defeated The Man With No Name in a rematch from their May 13th outing on WCW WorldWide.
Following the match, a shadowy figure appeared on the entranceway screens, telling Sullivan that he wished to speak with him about Hulkamania.
Sullivan then exited the arena through the crowd. Over the following weeks, WCW would air vignettes of Kevin Sullivan and a character called The Master, played by King Curtis Iaukea, on a set resembling something out of Legends of The Hidden Temple. In this cobweb-strewn cavern,
The Master commanded Sullivan to lead a gathering of “warriors from the four continents and seven seas” in a quest to destroy Hulk Hogan. Through these cheesy, over-acted vignettes, The Master would introduce the members of The Dungeon of Doom.
First was “The Ugandan Giant” Kamala, representing the continent of Africa. Kamala had a history with Hulk Hogan, unsuccessfully challenging for the WWF Championship a number of times from 1984-1987.
The following week, The Master introduced John Tenta as “The Shark” representing, of all places, Australia. Next to join was Ed Leslie in face paint as The Man From The Zodiac, often shortened to just Zodiac.
Exactly which continent The Zodiac was supposed to represent was never made clear. In the vignette that followed, Hulk Hogan was seemingly teleported into The Dungeon set, where he met with Sullivan and The Master, who would introduce the newest addition, The Giant.
While Paul Wight made his on-screen debut with WCW at Slamboree ’95, he wouldn’t make his in-ring debut until that year’s Halloween Havoc.
The Dungeon of Doom briefly courted Vader over to their side, however a confrontation with The Giant and a loss to Hogan at Bash at The Beach scuppered those plans.
These five men, six counting The Master, would serve as the core of The Dungeon of Doom. However, many more would follow.
Hulkamania Clashes With The Dungeon
Hulk Hogan didn’t stand idly by as The Master and Sullivan plotted his downfall. While the vignettes were airing, Hogan would face members of The Dungeon of Doom, along with his allies Randy Savage and Sting.
However, the yearly War Games match at Fall Brawl is a 4-on-4 match, and with Dave Sullivan out of the company, Hogan’s squad was short one man.
Initially, the plan was to have Vader tease a face turn and join the team, but WCW fired Vader following a backstage fight with Paul Orndorff.
At Sting’s behest, The Hulkster and The Macho Man reluctantly agreed to recruit Sting’s former tag team partner Lex Luger onto the squad.
Meanwhile, on Sullivan’s side, The Master re-introduced Meng (the former Haku), representing the continent of Asia.
In the announcement vignette, The Master claimed that Meng was a cannibal who had trained in the martial arts in Tokyo, Manchuria, and Mongolia.
Meng entered the set wearing a strange boar-like mask before The Master produced a small wooden box, which he claimed contained “the ultimate weapon.”
Opening the box, The Master revealed a golden spike, which he claimed Sullivan stole from the roof of a temple in Kathmandu.
Affixing the spike to Meng’s thumb, The Master and Kevin Sullivan taunted Hulk Hogan, saying ‘the balance of power has tipped’ before the whole group cackled madly in unison.
And so the match was set: Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Sting, and Lex Luger would face Kamala, Meng, The Zodiac, and The Shark, with “Taskmaster” Kevin Sullivan serving as manager.
However, just before the PPV, WCW added one further stipulation. Since Sullivan had most of the heat, and since he wouldn’t be participating in the WarGames match, if Hogan’s team won the match, Hogan himself would get 5 minutes alone in the cage with Sullivan.
Unsurprisingly, the babyfaces won the day, however, when Sullivan entered the cage to receive his comeuppance, The Giant intervened, making his first in-ring appearance.
Pulling Hogan away from Sullivan, The Giant would twist and (kayfabe) break Hogan’s neck, setting up The Giant’s first match at Halloween Havoc the next month.
The Infamous Halloween Havoc 1995 Main Event
Paul Wight’s in-ring debut at Halloween Havoc was a much ballyhooed affair. To put it into perspective, The Giant made his on-screen debut for WCW at Slamboree ’95 in May.
A total of 161 days passed between the first time audiences laid eyes on The Giant and the first time he’d work a match.
That’s almost half a year, and would surpass half a year if you counted the first time The Master prophesied the coming of a giant.
In the time that intervened, WCW built on the story by revealing that their newest monster was the kayfabe son of Andre the Giant, who had passed away 2 years prior.
Furthermore, The Giant had joined The Dungeon of Doom to avenge his deceased father’s loss at WrestleMania III.
Over the weeks, The Giant would torment Hulk Hogan going so far as to run over one of Hogan’s beloved motorcycles with a monster truck. It was this act that would introduce one of the strangest concepts WCW ever incorporated: A Monster Truck Sumo Match.
That’s right, prior to their main event clash for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, Hulk Hogan and The Giant would battle it out with monster trucks.
Allegedly taking place on the rooftop of Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, The Hulkster and The Giant would hop into appropriately themed monster trucks and try to motor each other out of a ring marked by traffic cones and road flares.
The match took up 5 whole minutes, with the commentary team offering precious little insight, as the rules and scoring system were never explained.
The match ended with Hogan’s truck pushing The Giant’s out of the ring. Following his loss, The Giant exited his skeletal machine to take out his frustration on his opponent.
During the ensuing scuffle, The Giant attempted to chokeslam Hogan off the arena roof. However, Hogan managed to wrestle out of the chokehold, accidentally pushing The Giant over the ledge in the process.
The commentary team was aghast, assuring viewers that there was no way he could have survived the fall. The show continues, however, despite the manslaughter that just took place. What would happen in the Main Event?
Well, despite having fallen off the roof of an arena big enough to host an NHL franchise, The Giant did indeed make his entrance for the title bout.
The match went on for just shy of 15 minutes, ending when Hogan’s manager Jimmy Hart clocked him with the Big Gold Belt, resulting in a disqualification.
With that act, however, Jimmy Hart had traded sides to the Dungeon of Doom. Following the DQ finish, Hart and The Giant would be joined in-ring by Ron Reis in mummy wraps as “The Yeti” (I don’t understand it either), who got in on the post-match beatdown, along with Lex Luger, who was flirting with a heel turn. Still following after all that?
The following night on WCW Nitro, The Giant came out with the Big Gold Belt, despite the title not changing hands on a disqualification.
Addressing the situation, Jimmy Hart revealed that he had meddled with the match contract, adding a stipulation whereby Hogan actually would lose the title on a DQ.
The following week, WCW Commissioner J.J. Dillon would strip The Giant of the title and announce the inaugural World War 3 Battle Royal to determine a new champion.
World War 3 and Further Expansion
The World War 3 Battle Royal was WCW’s attempt at aping the WWF’s Royal Rumble. While the competition’s yearly over-the-top battle royal featured 30 competitors and one ring, WCW’s would double the pool of competitors to 60 and take place in 3 rings.
Unlike Fall Brawl, where the two rings used in the WarGames match were considered fair game, all matches taking place on the WW3 undercard only used the ring nearest the hard camera.
The feud between Hogan et al and The DoD took center stage during the main event, with Hogan, Luger, and Sting working together to dump the 400-lb Giant over the top rope.
However, The Giant would take his revenge by dragging Hogan out under the bottom rope while referee Randy Anderson watched The Macho Man eliminate the One Man Gang.
Following Gang’s elimination, Anderson turned around to see Hogan on the floor, and accordingly awarded the match and the WCW championship to Savage.
The Giant then took the fight to Macho Man as Sting and Hogan tried to fend him off with a steel chair, an act which would lead WCW to suspend Hogan in kayfabe, meaning the company’s biggest star would be absent from Starrcade in December.
It was around this time that The Zodiac would begin trying to insert himself into the feud between Hulk Hogan and The Giant.
In segments where The Giant would otherwise terrorize Hogan, The Zodiac would distract him, allowing the Hulkster to scarper away unscathed.
In the Spring of 1996, The Zodiac would reveal himself to be a mole, sent by Hogan to spy on the dastardly Kevin Sullivan.
Following that revelation, Ed Leslie would debut his new gimmick, The Booty Man, a dancing fool obsessed with his own derriere. The Booty Man would team with Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage to continue feuding with the Dungeon of Doom.
Meanwhile, The Dungeon of Doom expanded their roster, gaining a frankly absurd number of new members, including Big Bubba Rogers (the former Big Boss Man), The Barbarian, a debuting Hugh Morrus, and most surprisingly, British wrestling legend Giant Haystacks.
For some absurd reason, WCW refused to acknowledge his legacy, opting to bill him as Loch Ness. During this time, Meng and The Barbarian would become the Dungeon of Doom’s representatives in the tag team division, reviving the Faces of Fear moniker.
The Alliance to End Hulkamania
While ostensibly still plotting the downfall of Hulkamania, The Dungeon of Doom would briefly pivot to a feud with Ric Flair and the recently-reformed Four Horsemen, following some disparaging comments from the latter.
“Taskmaster” Kevin Sullivan would develop a specific distaste for Brian Pillman, eventually driving him out of WCW at Superbrawl VI.
Also that night, Hulk Hogan would face The Giant in a steel cage match, escaping the cage to secure victory. During this time, Ric Flair was feuding with Randy Savage over the World Heavyweight Championship, while Savage occasionally assisted Hogan in his battles with The Giant.
Therefore, it seemed only fitting that The Horsemen should join forces with The Dungeon of Doom, with the intent to squash their mutual foes Hogan and Savage.
This new united faction, The Alliance to End Hulkamania would balloon even further in numbers, adding two new members Z-Gangsta and The Ultimate Solution.
Z-Gangsta was portrayed by Tiny Lister, the man who played the villainous Zeus in Hogan’s 1989 flop “No Holds Barred,” further hammering home the attempt to recapture Hogan’s 1980’s glory days.
The Ultimate Solution was portrayed by stuntman Robert “Jeep” Swenson, who didn’t have much of a gimmick apart from being absurdly muscular.
He was originally to be called “The Final Solution” but WCW discovered that was the name Hitler chose for his plan to eliminate undesirables in Nazi Germany, and subsequently changed it.
This new united heel faction would challenge Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage in the infamous Doomsday Cage Match at Uncensored in 1996.
The Doomsday Cage Match was one of many attempts at a triple-decker cage match, with Hogan and Savage beginning in the uppermost cage.
There, they would do battle with Flair and Arn Anderson while attempting to get into the middle cage. However, the way the triple cage was constructed meant the cage floor was too flimsy for anyone to take bumps on it, and the competitors resorted to brawling.
Hogan and Savage eventually threw some pocket sand into the eyes of Flair and Anderson, allowing them down to the center cage. There, they would have to deal with Lex Luger, Kevin Sullivan, Meng, and The Barbarian.
More brawling ensued, as they feared the cage floor might give way if they took bumps. Interestingly, the center cage was divided by a wall with a door, which Hogan would close, isolating the Faces of Fear while he and Savage fought of Luger and Sullivan.
Hogan and Sullivan would then exit the center cage to fight on the scaffolding surrounding the cage, skipping the bottom cage entirely to fight on the floor before making their way to the ring.
The Ultimate Solution and Z-Gangsta would make their way to the ring, dragging Hogan and Savage back to the Doomsday Cage, where the heroes would do battle with all of the heels at once.
The match ends following an awkward accident where hesitant heel Lex Luger struck Flair with a loaded glove, allowing Savage to pin him for the win, before the heroes exit the cage and stand tall.
The Dungeon Implodes
After The Alliance to End Hulkamania failed in their one and only objective, The Dungeon of Doom would re-ignite their feud with The Four Horsemen as Hogan took some time away from the ring.
During this time, Kevin Sullivan would focus his ire on Horseman Chris Benoit, while The Giant would defend his WCW Championship against the likes of Lex Luger and Sting.
The Shark broke away from the group, reverted to his real name John Tenta, and took up a feud with Dungeon member Big Bubba Rogers before Rogers would also break away from the group.
Meng and The Barbarian would also distance themselves from The Dungeon as they opted to pursue the WCW Tag Team Championships.
However, the biggest problem for The Dungeon of Doom was yet to come. 1995-1996 was a difficult period for the wrestling industry, as the stars of yesteryear like Hogan, Savage, and Flair began to show their age.
WCW had brought together the faction as a series of dragons for Hulkamania to run wild over just as he had done in the 80’s for the WWF.
Despite the numbers they had drawn in the prior decade, fans were yearning for something new, as demonstrated by the WWF’s New Generation making stars of wrestlers like Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. Something had to give.
In the summer of 1996, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash began appearing on WCW television, acting like an invading force.
Their frequent intrusions on WCW programming eventually led to the “Hostile Takeover” match at Bash at The Beach, where Hulk Hogan would reveal himself as the third man, drop the leg on Randy Savage, and turn heel.
The formation of the nWo shook the foundations of the wrestling world, and nothing would ever be the same. Despite this fresh, new, edgy angle that blurred the lines between storyline and reality, the cartoonish Dungeon of Doom would press on, introducing members like Maxx Muscle and Braun the Leprechaun.
When that didn’t work, they ditched manager Jimmy Hart and attempted to re-brand as something more akin to a street gang.
Despite bringing on Konnan and Jacqueline in a desperate bid to gain “street cred”, they could never equal the legitimacy of the New World Order, and by the spring of 1997, the group would disband.
The final nail in the coffin came at Bash at The Beach 1997, where Chris Benoit would defeat Kevin Sullivan in a retirement match.
Sullivan would take on a role in the WCW booking committee, holding a number of backstage roles before WCW closed its doors in 2001.
