The Dungeon of Doom

History

The Dungeon of Doom was created as a stable of wrestlers born from WCW lead producer Kevin Sullivan's (kayfabe) hatred of Hulk Hogan and was dedicated to ridding WCW of Hulkamania. The stable was a direct continuation of Sullivan's previous stable The Three Faces of Fear which had a similar goal. The actual goal was the opposite. Sullivan stated in 2016, "It was a means to an end. I knew Hogan was being booed. I knew when I saw The nWo, it was the best chance anybody had to turn Hogan. I said, "You gotta trust me." And he did. I [agree with] Satchel Paige. "Don't look back. Something may be gaining on you." You can't change the past. The end justified the means, so in that way, it worked."

After Sullivan defeated The Man with No Name at Slamboree in 1995, The Master told Sullivan he was "The Taskmaster" of the Dungeon of Doom and that the task was to destroy Hulkamania. The group initially consisted of people with rather bizarre and “horrifying” gimmicks such as The Shark (who had teamed with Sullivan before as "Avalanche"), Kamala “The Ugandan Giant”, The Zodiac (who had also teamed with Sullivan before as "The Butcher"), Meng (who was Col. Robert Parker's bodyguard), and Big Van Vader who also sought to destroy Hulkamania and began his “Road Kill Tour” which consisted of a series of squash matches that would lead to his destruction of Hogan. The group was quickly joined by The Giant, who, in storyline, claimed to be the son of André the Giant and was out for revenge on Hogan for defeating his father.

Fighting Hulkamania

The feud between the Dungeon of Doom and Hogan and his friends led to a WarGames match at Fall Brawl where Hogan, Randy Savage, Lex Luger and Sting took on Kamala, The Zodiac, The Shark, and Meng inside the double ring cage. Hogan's team won, which per stipulation enabled Hogan to get 5 minutes with Sullivan inside the cage. Before the 5 minutes were up, however, the Giant made his way into the cage and attacked Hogan, (kayfabe) twisting his neck violently as to break it.

After the attack on Hogan, plans were set for a world title match at the Halloween Havoc. Hogan and the Giant decided that before they got in the ring and wrestled they would face off in a Sumo Monster truck competition on the roof of the Cobo Hall. Hogan won the Sumo match and then the two started fighting on the roof, resulting in the Giant falling off the roof and into the Detroit River. When it was time for the main event the Giant strolled down the aisle with Kevin Sullivan behind him, with no explanation given as to how he could still be alive. The Giant won the match by disqualification when Hogan's manager Jimmy Hart hit the referee with his megaphone. The next night, Hart revealed that he put a clause in the contract that stated that the championship could change hands on a disqualification, thus making the Giant the new champion and Hart the manager of the Dungeon of Doom.

Due to the unconventional nature of The Giant's title victory, the World Title was vacated and a new champion to be crowned in a Three Ring, 60 man battle royal at an event called World War III. The Hulk Hogan / Dungeon of Doom feud was the focus of the Battle Royal but it would be Randy Savage who won the title, last eliminating Dungeon member One Man Gang. The feud between Hogan and the Dungeon of Doom simmered along from World War 3 until SuperBrawl VI. During this time period, the Dungeon had been joined by Loch Ness, the Yeti, Hugh Morrus, Big Bubba Rogers, and One Man Gang. At SuperBrawl VI, Hogan defeated The Giant inside a steel cage to end their feud.

The Dungeon slowly fades

At some point during the spring of 1996, Hogan revealed that the man known as "The Zodiac" was actually a spy sent to join the group by Hogan; his old friend had been spying for Hulk the whole time. The revelation transformed the Zodiac into the Booty Man, an ally of Hogan and Randy Savage as they faced the Alliance to End Hulkamania (which consisted of several Dungeon members as well as Ric Flair and Arn Anderson). At this point the "Alliance" became the focal point while the Dungeon of Doom itself became less prominent. Hogan and Savage defeated the Alliance to End Hulkamania at Uncensored inside the Tower of Doom Steel Cage. After the loss, the Dungeon members returned to the group and started to feud with people other than Hogan and his friends. The feud between the Dungeon and Four Horsemen, along with The Giant and Big Bubba's defection to the nWo, would ultimately lead to the collapse of the Dungeon. Chris Benoit defeated Sullivan in a Retirement Match at Bash at the Beach 1997 after Jacqueline turned on Sullivan and hit him over the head with a chair, leading to Benoit scoring the pinfall. Jimmy Hart would continue to manage the Faces of Fear, Meng and the Barbarian, for several months until the team was broken up in 1998.

Aftermath

In late 1998, Jimmy Hart reunited Meng, Barbarian and Hugh Morrus to form a new version of his old Continental Wrestling Association stable The First Family. Barbarian would inexplicably turn on Meng during a match in a WCW World Tag Team Championship tournament match on the February 11, 1999 episode of WCW Thunder.

Kevin Sullivan established a new version of the Dungeon of Doom in the New York City-based independent USA Pro Wrestling promotion in 2002. This version consisted of Gangrel, Luna Vachon, The Wall, Psycho Sam Dudley and "Hardrock" Ken Sweeney.

Members

Championships and accomplishments