WMAC MASTERS
🐉⭐FROM UNIVERSAL STUDIOS FLORIDA⭐🐉
Most of you were probably fans of Mortal Kombat. MK’s cultural influence from video games, to music, and movies went far and beyond. Right around the same as the first Mortal Kombat film’s release in 1995 was a TV show called World Martial Arts Council: Masters.
The show was hosted by Bruce Lee’s daughter, Shannon Lee. There were some crossovers between the TV show and the MK franchise. Ho Sung Pak played Liu Kang in MK 1 and 2 (also played one of the villains in Drunken Master 2) while Hakim Alston “The Machine” played a fighting monk in the first Mortal Kombat film.
The show lasted only two seasons, 26 episodes in total. The cast of fighters had stats, attributes and signature moves which all aligned with the fighting games of that era. Each episode was pretty much all the same but also different.
There were these challenges were two fighters were pitted against each other in a domed cage where if one touched the cage, the other would score a point. During the match, these random ninjas would drop down from above wreaking a royal rumble like atmosphere. Usually in the second half of the show there would be these different settings, sometimes an urban setting with abandoned cars and alleyways, other times they’d be set in Edo period Japan. Sprinkled throughout series was a haphazardly written story sandwiched between skits of life lessons about being a good person which to be honest, we could use more of today.
Launching Friday July 29th 8:00 AM PST is the WMAC Masters t-shirt. The front features the show logo and the back has the seven pointed dragon star (the seven points represent: discipline, courage, forgiveness, compassion, honor, wisdom, loyalty and respect) and cast of characters along with stats and attributes. This show might not be as impactful as the Mortal Kombat franchise but was a part of a time in popular culture that will never be replicated again. Think about the video games, the movies, the music, the tv shows, the beginning of home access internet all happening in the mid 90s. This show also aired on the same network showing the freshly english dubbed Dragon Ball Z series. What a time to be alive.
