Lost Classics: The Warrior King (a.k.a Street Fighter vs Mortal Kombat vs Wing Commander vs Savage Dragon))

Seeing as how the cast of Street Fighter will go head to head against the cast of Tekken in a month, this week’s lost classics takes a look at another crossover, similar to the GiJoe/Mortal Kombat “crossover” from 2 weeks ago. This time, not only does Street Fighter meet Mortal Kombat, but it also crosses over with Wing Commander and Savage Dragon. No, Savage Dragon didn’t take on Shang Tsung not did Ryu and Sub Zero take on the Kilarthi. Instead, this was a rather subtle crossover involving a mysterious character that showed up throughout TV adaptations all 4 franchises. What? You thought this was a video game? If only it could be.

Here is a little background information on this pseudo-crossover. In the mid 90s, The U.S.A Network formed its own cartoon ‘action block’ in an attempt to compete with Fox and ABC. Among its shows were Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, both of which served as follow-ups to their respective movies. These two were also joined by shows based on Eric Larson’s Savage Dragon comic and the Wing Commander PC game. Thankfully the Street Fighter cartoon was better than the movie, as the characters were truer to their video game counterparts and there was no Jean Claude Van Dammne to be found. Season 2 of the show even included characters from Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Final Fight, acknowledging their shared universe. Although Mortal Kombat’s show was a bit bland, it also remained somewhat true to its digital counterpart, although there was obviously none of the blood and gore that the series was known for. Once again, 90s marketing at its finest: A Saturday Morning kid’s show based upon a game rated 17 and up. In all fairness though, the Mortal Kombat wasn’t alone. The Savage Dragon cartoon was based upon a comic that featured, among other things, an electricity generating female character powering up her hairdryer by plugging it into her….unmentionables.

Anyway, in 1996, there was a crossover plot thread between the shows, a mysterious He-man like warrior known as The Warrior King. In Street Fighter, we would learn his origin – his world was under siege after his orb went missing. The orb contained the power to control the elements. Of course this orb lands in the hands of M.Bison, and he teams up with Chun Li in order to get it back. The two become smitten with each other. Unfortunately the two separate after the orb is knocked into a portal.

The orb next shows up on Savage Dragon where it lands into the hands of a bum. The Warrior King arrives soon after and clashes with Savage Dragon. The orb lands in the hands of The Fiend, and the Warrior king uses his staff to track it. Unfortunately, the orb is once again sent into another dimension – the Mortal Kombat Universe, just in time for that week’s episode. Of course the real story is the resurrection of Shang Tsung, which is a follow up to the events of the first movie. Shao Khan is pissed off at him as his defeat in the Mortal Kombat tournament cost Shao Khan severely. Thankfully, Tsung is given another chance, as well as the orb. It is used to wreak havoc on Liu Kang and company. Eventually the good guys win, and Raiden opens a portal into space, sending the orb through. However, we notice a shadowy figure follow through. At first one would think it’s either Shao Khan or the debut of Noob Saibot, but the tell tale headgear tells the real story.

Finally, the Warrior King shows up in Wing Commander, several years into the future. He shows up cryogenically frozen, drifting through space. He is revived by the Wing Commander crew, and quickly turns on them. Seems that the orb fell onto a planet known as Oasis, where it transformed the desert world into a tropical paradise. However the Kilarthi are also after the orb, and the Warrior King fights them off. However, the Warrior King decides to leave the orb on Oasis, as his world had already been destroyed. After taking a spaceship, he sets off on his own never to be seen again.

Basically U.S.A did this crossover without any promotion beforehand, and no writer or creative team has taken any credit for its creation. Even more strange, there is very little information about the Warrior King on the internet, hence why there aren’t any pictures in this article beside my artistic masterpieces. Heck, when I was doing research for this article, all the information I could find came from here. As the writer of the article pointed out, the shows were shown out of order that day so that the storyline could make sense. It was something very mysterious, and at the same time, incredibly cool. It’s a shame few other shows took chances like this.