Typhoon

The Shockmaster

Big Man Steel

Tugboat Taylor

Tugboat Thomas

The Super Shockmaster

Typhoon made his first appearance in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in June 1989, in a dark match under the ring name **Big Man Steel** with Slick as his manager. He wrestled three more dark matches that summer, defeating Paul Roma and Boris Zhukov, and losing to Mr. Perfect. That September, his name was changed to **Tugboat Tyler**, then **Tugboat Thomas**, as he portrayed a fan favorite on house shows, defeating the likes of Barry Horowitz, The Brooklyn Brawler and Boris Zhukov. He debuted on WWF television on the January 27, 1990 episode of *Superstars* and defeated Iron Mike Sharpe. His ring name was soon shortened to **Tugboat**. His costume consisted of a red striped shirt, white pants, and a sailor's hat. 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, 1990 episode of *Wrestling Challenge*, Hulk Hogan made a promo explaining that he personally trained Tugboat and brought him to the WWF. Following Tugboat's win on that very same show, Hogan came out into the ring and raised his arm, showing his full support. Tugboat railed for fans to send encouraging letters to Hogan after Hogan was brutally attacked by Earthquake. Tugboat then aided Hulk Hogan in his feud with Earthquake and "Canada's Strongest Man" Dino Bravo. This coincided with a substantial push that saw Tugboat emerging victorious on television against numerous opponents. He made his pay-per-view debut at that November's Survivor Series, where he teamed with Hogan, The Big Boss Man and Hacksaw Jim Duggan to face the team of Earthquake, Dino Bravo, Haku and The Barbarian. Tugboat was eliminated when he and Earthquake fought to a double count-out, and Hogan went on to be the sole survivor. Tugboat was the first true test of The Undertaker, who defeated him in numerous matches between December 1990 and March 1991. Tugboat received a shot at Mr. Perfect's Intercontinental Championship on the May 5, 1991 episode of *Wrestling Challenge*, but was unsuccessful.

In May 1991, Tugboat teased a heel turn by attacking Hulk Hogan in a battle royal on *Saturday Night's Main Event XXIX*. He completed the turn on the June 15 episode of *WWF Superstars*. Tugboat and The Bushwhackers were facing The Nasty Boys and Earthquake in a six-man tag team match, when Tugboat attacked his teammates, allowing Earthquake to hit the *Earthquake Splash* on Bushwhacker Luke and pin him. On the June 17 episode of *Prime Time Wrestling*, Earthquake's manager, Jimmy Hart, reintroduced Tugboat as **Typhoon**, and he and Earthquake became known as The Natural Disasters. As part of the character change, Typhoon began wearing a red, white and black singlet with a tidal wave on the front and "Typhoon" in black letters under it (to match the design on Earthquake's wrestling gear, seismograph lines and "Earthquake" in red letters across the middle).

The Natural Disasters dumped Hart and turned into fan favorites in early 1992, feuding with Hart's new top team, Money Inc. ("Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase and Irwin R. Schyster). In July, the Natural Disasters defeated Money Inc. to win the WWF Tag Team Championship. They lost the titles to Money Inc. three months later. After Earthquake took a leave of absence from the WWF early in 1993, Typhoon wrestled in singles matches before leaving the company in early summer. He worked house shows against Terry Taylor in the spring. His final match saw him defeat The Predator in a house show match in Tampa, Florida on July 18.

After departing from the WWF, Typhoon 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.

On *A Flair for the Gold*, an interview segment hosted by Ric Flair, in front of a live audience at *Clash of the Champions XXIV*, Sting and Smith were confronted by Sid and Harlem Heat, demanding to know the identity of their new partner. Sting exclaimed, "All I have to say is, our partner is going to shock the world, because he is none other than **the Shockmaster**!" The camera then zoomed in on a section of the set where two torches set off a small pyrotechnics explosion in front of a sheetrock wall. With a new costume consisting of a Stormtrooper helmet painted purple and covered in silver glitter, a pair of jeans and a large, black, puffy vest, he attempted to make a dramatic entrance by crashing through the wall. While making his entrance, he tripped over a piece of lumber that was framing the set, causing him to fall forward through the wall with his helmet falling off and sliding across the floor. His face accidentally exposed, he scrambled to put the helmet back on. He 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. He then began gesturing toward his would-be opponents several seconds before a menacing gravelly off-screen voice started to threaten Sid and Vader. Sid Vicious reacted in rage to Shockmaster, and the broadcast focused on Vicious for the duration of the voiceover. The announcers said nothing as the segment ended.

WCW then tried to continue with the angle, repackaging The Shockmaster character as a klutz in a series of pre-recorded promos (featuring himself 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 WarGames match. His ring attire for his match was a plain white shirt, jeans and a white construction worker's helmet, very different to the character in its infamous debut. He entered last into the match and actually gained the victory for his team by forcing Kole to submit to a bear hug. This was the last major appearance of the character and it was abandoned soon afterwards.

WCW attempted to salvage the incident by introducing a new character called **The Super Shockmaster**. He left the company in January 1994.

He returned to the WWF as **Typhoon** in May 1994, taking the place of his former partner Earthquake in house show matches against Yokozuna after Earthquake left the WWF. Typhoon made his return to television on the June 25 episode of *Superstars* (taped May 25), defeating Quebecer Pierre. He then primarily lost matches to Yokozuna on television and at house shows before departing in August.

Typhoon 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 February 22, 2016, he returned as The Shockmaster for an episode of the WWE Network show, *The Edge and Christian Show That Totally Reeks of Awesomeness*. On the show, The Shockmaster was given the opportunity to redeem the famous debut incident by walking through the show's banner.