Ken Shamrock's Run with WWE
In 1988, a young Ken Shamrock would originally start training to become a professional wrestler under Buzz Sawyer before moving out to North Carolina for a more legitimate school run by Nelson Royal and Gene Anderson. Making his debut in North Carolina, he soon went to Japan and fought with the shoot-style promotion UWF. After that, he moved on to mixed martial arts, with mainstream fame and championships in UFC.
In February 1997, Ken Shamrock made the jump back to the profession he started with and made his debut in WWE.
WWE Debut
Shamrock made his debut in WWE as the special guest referee in the submission match between Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin at Wrestlemania 13.
Soon after that, Shamrock appeared more on television and started working matches against Vader before becoming involved in the battle against The Hart Foundation. At In Your House: Canadian Stampede, Shamrock teamed with fellow members of the WWE roster against The Hart Foundation in the Harts hometown. This led to his biggest match yet, facing The British Bulldog for the WWE European Championship but Shamrock would be disqualified in the match. Afterward, Shamrock went into what would become known as his ‘zone’. After being disqualified he choked out Bulldog and suplexed numerous referees.
Later that year, with Shamrock’s popularity on the rise, he faced Shawn Michaels at In Your House: Degeneration X for the WWE Championship. Shamrock won the match by Disqualification, but the championship never changed hands.
Becoming The King
Ken Shamrock went into 1998 as a growing babyface. The audience was starting to rally behind him and his feud with The Rock and the Nation of Domination brought out a new side of the former UFC Champion. Their feud would culminate at the biggest show of the year Wrestlemania 14. In their match, Shamrock defeated The Rock to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship, but Shamrock went into his ‘zone’ once again; not letting go of the Rock’s ankle. The decision was then reversed, and Shamrock was disqualified allowing The Rock to retain his championship.
Ken Shamrock would be a participant in the 1998 King of the Ring. After defeating Kama, Jeff Jarrett and Mark Henry on the road to the final, Shamrock had the opportunity to gain revenge against The Rock. Shamrock finally earned his victory over The Rock in the final to become the 1998 King of the Ring.
Ken Shamrock spoke about his storylines and angles whilst in WWE, singling out his feud with The Rock.
The only angle I ever really got into and finished was The Rock. But they didn’t — I don’t think they finished the angle out because my understanding was that The Rock was gonna end up dropping the title, I would get the I.C. Title because we had our match, then he would move up and then he would get the WWF Title, the Heavyweight Title and then I would move up and then there would be me, The Rock, Stone Cold, Shawn Michaels, it’d be a bunch of guys in there that would be literally fighting each other over this title. Unfortunately, I still to this day don’t know what happened but that’s when I really came to the decision that I needed to move on because I was getting beat constantly, for a while there and I thought, ‘Mhm, you know, I spent a lot of time building my name up in the world of fighting and if this keeps up with the way they’re going with me, I’m not gonna have that name anymore’ and so, I guess I was desperately trying to figure out ways to get out of my contract because I felt like my name that I had built up in sweat, blood and tears was being diminished that last couple months that I was there.”
As the King, he moved on to have a heated feud with another Nation of Domination rival in Owen Hart. During an interview on RAW, Owen Hart interrupted Shamrock and challenged him to a match as a previous winner of the King of the Ring. Triple H would then make an appearance and challenge both men to a match as the winner of the tournament a year previous, Shamrock picked up the victory on the evening but he and Hart were just getting started.
At Fully Loaded Owen Hart welcomed Shamrock into his family home, and more importantly into the legendary Hart Dungeon. UFC and MMA legend Dan Severn was the special guest referee for the Dungeon Match. Owen Hart picked up the win in the match when Hart used a dumbbell on Shamrock behind the back of Severn. A rematch between the two took place at Summerslam 1998 at Madison Square Garden. This time the match would take place in a type of match that suited Shamrock, a Lion’s Den match which was an octagon ring, like used in MMA. Ken Shamrock defeated Owen Hart to end their run together.
Ken Shamrock vs Owen Hart in a Lion’s Den Match at SummerSlam 98 [Pic: Ring The Damn Bell]
Corporation
After Triple H defeated The Rock at Summerslam to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship. Triple H suffered an injury to his knee which led to him having to vacate the championship. On RAW, a one-night tournament was held to determine a new champion. Ken Shamrock would taste WWE gold for the first time by winning the tournament. He would defeat Steve Blackman, Val Venis and X-Pac to win his second tournament of the year and win his first WWE Intercontinental Championship.
Shamrock would be unsuccessful in his third tournament of the year when he competed at Survivor Series, the Deadly Games tournament was scheduled to determine a new WWE Champion. Shamrock never held the WWE Championship in his time with the company, he has reflected on this in the past in an interview with WhatCulture.
“Well, I thought I did enough. I mean, I came from the MMA world where it was about getting out there and winning, and then to be able to take to pro wrestling, no one had been able to do that and I did it. And, then being able to do that and other things that they asked me to do and then not being able to get that shot, it was disappointing. It got to a point where not only was I getting a shot, but they started beating me and I was starting to go backwards. That is when I had enough and thought that I had worked way too long to become a champion”
But soon after Mr. McMahon approached the World Most Dangerous Man to join his family, The Corporation. On joining Shamrock teamed with The Big Bossman and won the WWE Tag Team Championships from The New Age Outlaws to become a double champion. Both Shamrock and Bossman held on to the titles until February where they lost the championships to Jeff Jarrett and Owen Hart.
During his run as a tag team champion, the rivalry between him he and Billy Gunn intensified. Shamrock successfully defeated Billy Gunn at the 1999 Royal Rumble. After this event, we were introduced to Shamrock’s sister, Ryan. The introduction of Ryan would create problems for her brother. Whilst still having problems with Gunn, Val Venis screened his new film called ‘Saving Ryan’s privates’. Irate, Shamrock attacked Venis leading to a match between the two at St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Billy Gunn stood in as guest referee for the match and ended up doing a fast count, which crowned Val Venis as the new Intercontinental Championship.
Dumped by Val Venis, Ryan Shamrock would align herself with Goldust. On the road to Wrestlemania, Road Dogg pinned Val Venis to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship in a weird role reversal between the Outlaws. At Wrestlemania XV, Shamrock and Val Venis brawled on the outside and up to the entranceway leading to them being counted out in a four-way elimination match for the WWE Intercontinental title.
After Wrestlemania, Ken Shamrock had the opportunity to work with The Undertaker. At this point in time, The Undertaker has become the leader of a cult called Ministry of Darkness. One of his actions saw him abduct Shamrock’s sister, leading to Shamrock swearing revenge on the Deadman by breaking his ankle. At Backlash, both would square off with The Undertaker picking up a victory.
The Undertaker’s Ministry of Darkness and The Corporation announced that they had been working all this time in an effort to screw Stone Cold Steve Austin. Shamrock was irate with his sister being a pawn in the whole scheme. He set his sights on hurting Vince and Shane McMahon, but Steve Blackman started to attack Shamrock. Trying to defend his King of the Ring crown; Steve Blackman brutally attacked him with a kendo stick, leaving Billy Gunn being able to pick up a win over Ken.
Steve Blackman, a mixed martial arts specialist also faced Ken Shamrock in an Iron Circle match at Fully Loaded, where they fought in the parking lot surrounded by cars. At Summerslam, we would see another Lion’s Den Match, this time with added weapons.
Leaving WWE
His match against Steve Blackman at Summerslam would be Shamrock’s last pay-per-view appearance. He would start a feud with debuting superstar Chris Jericho only to leave WWE not long after once his WWE contract expired. Ken Shamrock discusses his decision to leave WWE:
“I think there was a lot of insecurity on my end when they did the thing with Bret Hart and then the thing with Owen and then they did the little skit thing with the Road Warriors where he fell off the big screen and then we saw a body fall behind it. “It just felt like it was hurting, to see a guy that you knew you worked with, was down in Calgary with him and he falls from the rafters. They did the screwjob with Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, then they do a little skit where the Road Warriors, I think it was Hawk, fell off the screen and you see a body hit the ground. Everything that I was taught going into the WWF was that you had to trust people and that when you went into the ring, the guy across from you, you had to trust he would do his job and you were going to do yours, the announcers were going to do their jobs and so on. It just felt like it came apart.”
I felt like my trust and the security I felt I had was just disappearing. It felt like there was no foundation there for me. I’m not saying this is true, I’m saying this is what I was feeling. I was going to be destroyed, I was going to get ruined and what if something happened to me in the ring because somebody wanted to do something. Doors were now open to do that and it was just a lot of un-trust on my part. Not to say any one person did anything to build that, I think it was just a culmination of a bunch of things that had happened that made me feel like I wasn’t wanted anymore.”
Ken Shamrock only appeared on WWE television for two and a half years but anyone who watched the Attitude Era would remember The World’s Most Dangerous Man. His character, from entering ‘the zone’ has never been forgotten and was one of the most popular characters at the time. Back in 1997, he was on the cusp of winning the WWE Championship only to be in the shadow of the Montreal Screwjob and the rise of Stone Cold Steve Austin. One can only imagine what Shamrock could have achieved if the timing was different.