Forgotten Failures: The Strange Story of WMAC Masters
What happens when you combine Mortal Kombat, Power Rangers, real martial arts champions, video game health bars, and a giant mystical throwing star?
You get WMAC Masters—one of the strangest and most ambitious kids’ TV shows of the 1990s.
For just two seasons, WMAC Masters blended real martial artists with scripted rivalries, superhero personas, tournament brackets, and serialized storytelling years before esports and modern combat sports embraced many of those same ideas. It featured performers from the original Mortal Kombat games and movies, was filmed at Universal Studios Florida, and somehow turned a martial arts competition into a Saturday morning fantasy epic.
So why did it disappear after only 26 episodes?
In this episode of Forgotten Failures, we’re diving into the bizarre rise and fall of WMAC Masters—from its surprising Mortal Kombat connections and multimillion-dollar production budget to its unfinished cliffhanger ending, changing television landscape, troubled toy partnership, and the unexpected role 4Kids Productions and Pokémon would play in its fate.
Whether you watched every episode or completely forgot this show ever existed, this is the incredible story behind one of the weirdest television experiments of the ’90s.
If you enjoy nostalgic deep dives into forgotten TV shows, movies, and pop culture from the ’80s, ’90s, and early 2000s, be sure to subscribe for more episodes of Dial-Up Days and Forgotten Failures.
@Disavowedagent47
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
loved this show start to finish
@MrCrist419
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
Loved this as a kid dudes double kick to the head lives rent free still
@quinkelly1441
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
I have like 5 of the action figures
@TheGuidedGenius
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
This is like a living fever dream
@moogleborgofsanjose
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
One of my absolute favorites when I was younger, especially since my Mortal Kombat main was Liu Kang and Ho Sung Pak was my favorite fighter in WMAC Masters. I personally wished that Shannon Lee still hosted the series. And i'm curious about the arcade related video because fighting games are one of my favorites to play when it comes to video games!
@jo100
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
I Was 13 Years Old In 1995
@joshuahayes2160
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
6:48 that isn’t Ho Sung Pak in the game footage, by the way. Ho Sung Pak portrayed Liu Kang in MK 1 & 2, but not 3 (the in-game footage displayed here).
@princeekeson12
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
This was the lovechild of pro wrestling and Mortal Kombat so it definitely had my attention.
@seatspud
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
I like to think the Jukido storyline was initially made to compete with what was going on in pro wrestling, mainly WCW's nWo and possibly WWF's Attitude Era factions. That Tsunami Face/Heel turn was, and is still, a shocking swerve!
Also, after both Battle Dome and WMAC Masters, can RollerGames and/or Roller Jam be next?
@madcow4863
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
I never forgot this
@whyjnot420
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
I haven't thought about this show in 30 years.
@DeviousRage28
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
This show was highly underrated but ooooh so entertaining.
@KrunchyTonez617
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
I was 11 when this show was on. I used to watch it every time it came on TV. The only 2 things I remember is…1..yea dragon star was def foam lmao..and every episode started with something like "and here is your host…Bruce Lee's daughter..Shannon Lee" like that is what gave it credibility lmao
@batangbatugan
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
I feel ike I've been living under a rock. I have never heard of this! It's kinda like American Gladiators meets Mortal Kombat.
@joelplatt3592
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
Never heard of this one. Great vid! 👍👍💯
@Zerogata
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
I used to love this show!! It came on right after the Mega Man cartoon and kept me hooked.
@markusfury7420
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
Fun fact: Rob Brown, who played Rip in SEAL Team is on this cast.
@chazrooks4681
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
Samurai Pizza Cats
@ColorsBright
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
Oh Shyt!!! This show… Yeah I watched this!
@nickk7425
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
I remember as kid seeing an ad for WMAC Masters and thinking it would kind of be like pro wrestling except with Martial arts instead of wrestling, but when i watched it, it ended being more like a TV show with cheesy sets and bad acting…
@D3solatIon1
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
Season 2 sounds more like Lucha Underground
@SmokeyChipOatley
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
Thank you so much for doing an episode on WMAC Masters!
I used to LOVE this show as a kid. If I remember correctly it used to come on after wrestling on Saturday or Sunday mornings. It was great!
@rimjobledouche5201
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
I fucking loved this show.
It was like the love child of Mortal Kombat and Power Rangers by way of UFC.
It was as unabashedly cheesy and corny as it was cool as hell.
@robkrol2137
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
4Kids is one of those weird companies that has some oddly baffling choices. Like, their TMNT Reboot in 2003 was legitimately really good, being closer in tone to the Comics than the 87 Show, and they were responsible for bringing the Pokemon Anime to the US. On the other hand, they still cut Laboon out of their One Piece localization, utterly destroying any hope of localizing things down the road due to the whole Chekov's Gun thing that Laboon had going on.
I have. . .mixed feelings about the studio. . .
@nucleartestrabbit
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
What a blast from the past. Yeah we knew it was fake and it was kind of lame but it was actually pretty intertaining.
@wilkamania
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
I watched the hell out of this show. I remember when Wizard was revealed to be Jukido, and losing it lol.
Funny, many years later, Star Warrior ended up being an Executive at my company. Everyone knew him as Donatello from TMNT, but I knew it was star warrior right away.
@danielpalmersheim4252
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
Was season 2 written by vince russo?
@RadicalTrivia
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
I would watch any number of seasons of this show, I loved it as a kid. <3
@cornb1982
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
A Failure……. !!! THIS WAS ONE OF MY FAVORITE SHOWS 😍
@theHalken
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
Toy partners can be a strange partnership. You want a big company that will have access to a lot of shelf space, but you also don't want to be their third, fourth biggest seller so they give up your shelf space to the top seller….
@leroyjenkinsss1767
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
this show was the absolute shit if you were a boy in the 90s. my favorite guys were the machine and tsunami
@fejeran
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
@5:35 shoutout Professor Dan Inosanto…
@kingofarkansas2710
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
Why did you make me remember this I was hoping it was all just a bad dream like Tattooed Teenage alien fighters from Beverly Hills oh wait that was real too someone please make it stop…🤣🤣🤣
@alicelookingthroughtheglas2933
July 15, 2026 at 10:02 am
14:10 I was totally on board! And it was in fact, freaking awesome.