Dean Douglas: Class In Session

Old School wrestling fans might remember Dean Douglas by his more popular wrestling name Shane Douglas. But from 1995 through 1996, Dean Douglas was schooling wrestling fans and opponents with his arrogant demeanour and over-intellectual knowledge of the squared circle. 

Douglas was trained by Dominic DeNucci and made sporadic appearances in the WWF from as early as 1986 and then again from 1990-1991. His runs didn’t amount to much fanfare outside of a pretty nice stay in the 1991 Royal Rumble. Douglas had a look and a ton of athletic ability that he could showcase in his short stints. 

After stays in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Eastern Championship Wrestling soon to become Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) as “The Franchise,” Douglas made his way back to the WWF this time not as Shane Douglas, but as Dean Douglas. 

July 29, 1995, he was filming vignettes and critiquing wrestlers’ in-ring performances while using a chalkboard for perspective and annoying the fans and his peers as he dragged his nails down the board after said critique. Dean Douglas was an educated wrestler with multiple degrees and he would use those to break his opponents down for fans mentally and physically. 

Douglas often got short segments on TV with his “The Report Card” of matches and wrestlers. In general, looking back, these skits were absolutely amazingly annoying in building a heel character because Douglas would break everything down to get under the fans’ skin and also his future opponents. No one can question Douglas’ mic skills or be able to get a reaction from fans. (If you don’t believe me, look up his Eastern Championship Wrestling Speech when he wins the title and proceeds to throw it in the trash) 

At events, he could be spotted near the ringside area with his clipboard, scouting and taking notes of potential opponents and their abilities on the mat. His first primary target would be WWE Hall of Famer Razor Ramon. After Razor dropped his Summerslam IC Title match to Shawn Michaels, Douglas would give him a grade of “MF,” dubbing him a miserable failure with a smirk and devious laugh. 

This led to Douglas's re-debut in a WWF ring against one of Ramon’s allies, the 1-2-3 Kid. Douglas would win when Razor interfered and attacked the Dean of the ring. This would lead to Razor and Douglas meeting at In Your House 3. In a similar fashion, Douglas again would get the W as the 1-2-3 Kid would interfere and cost Ramon the match. There were obvious problems with the matches with Razor Ramon when watching them side by side with the Kid. 

Jim Cornette, on his show “Cornette Drive Thru,” talked about Douglas claiming Scott Hall would purposely sabotage their matches with lead ass and the stutter step. Both are designed to throw the pace of the match off and can expose chemistry in the ring. Cornette didn’t dispute Hall throwing off the pace or Douglas’ claims. 

Cornette even went as far as saying he would believe the claims because Shane was athletic and Hall was able to work with anybody. The two didn’t have chemistry, and the Kliq thing was aimed at burying Douglas because they didn’t want Dean Douglas in their house. 

Cornette even thought that Shane might have been rubbing people the wrong way because he thought he was better than he was because of outside influences like Paul E. Coming in from ECW, Douglas was the high bar, but in the WWF, he was just another wrestler on the ladder to the top. 

Douglas was headed to face the Intercontinental Champ Shawn Michaels at the In Your House 4 PPV, but Michaels had been attacked and sustained injuries in Syracuse, New York, causing him for forfeit the match. Douglas was dubbed the new IC Title holder, but this joy lasted less than 20 minutes as he was forced on the same nig to defend against his main rival, Razor Ramon and Douglas would drop the belt after one of the shortest title reigns ever in the WWF. 

In December, Douglas would face Razor again over the IC belt on Monday Night Raw and failed to regain the title. The last known televised match for the Dean was December 9th of 1995 against a jobber Tony Williams, which he would again be victorious. At In Your House 5, he was supposed to begin a feud with Ahmed Johnson. The storyline was Douglas’ back was in no condition to face Johnson, so he was replaced with Buddy Landel, and Johnson squashed Buddy in 42 seconds. 

Douglas’ injury was worse than expected, but according to several sources, this is where Douglas and Vince McMahon’s relationship completely soured. McMahon wanted Douglas to ignore the doctor’s advice, get back in the ring, and work through the pain. The severity of the muscle issue could have rendered Douglas paralyzed if he agitated it. Even though doctors told Vince this, he tried to intimidate Douglas into working, leading to Douglas leaving the WWF on January 1st. 

Douglas, in interviews and shoot videos after leaving the WWF, would call it “The worst six months of his career.” From being exploited because of his degrees to being forced to try and wrestle while injured, Douglas would tell interviewers that he regretted signing as soon as he signed with the WWF. 

Pay issues, character issues, nothing seemed to jive in the six months that Dean Douglas was in the WWF. The saddest thing about Douglas’ short run in the WWF is his stints in Extreme Championship Wrestling were nothing short of remarkable. Shane had the talent for the long run. He had excellent in-ring skills and mic work that sometimes was overlooked in the business. 

But instead of getting the outspoken Shane Douglas in the WWF in 1995. Vince and his creative team bastardized a once in a lifetime talent into a character that didn’t click with the wrestler or the wrestling fans at this time, despite Douglas’ extraordinary work. 

In an interview with Fightful.com and Sean Ross Sapp on January 21, 2018, Douglas said this about his WWF run, “So you won't hear me say much positive about my time there as Dean Douglas in the RAW days other than I enjoyed a lot of the guys I was on the road with like Dustin Rhodes and many others like Bret Hart, Curt Hennig, Undertaker and I enjoyed working around those guys and being around those guys."  

The character Dean Douglas might be considered a flop or “MF”, but one can’t overlook the rest of Shane Douglas’ history of over 38 plus years in the wrestling industry. You don’t become “The Franchise” grading others, when you set the bar that high elsewhere.