If there’s one factor that the now-defunct World Championship Wrestling was identified for within the Nineties, it was losing completely colossal quantities of billionaire Ted Turner’s money. You would say that the media mogul may afford it, however WCW’s spendthrift methods had been as a result of it was at all times one thing of a conceit venture: Turner made his title in cable tv and, whereas he valued the loyal viewers and promoting income of a WCW, his deadly flaw was being a wrestling fan.
Thus had been born the so-called Monday Night time Wars of the Nineties, the place WCW and Vince McMahon’s WWF (later WWE) went head-to-head: the distinction being that the WWF needed to wash its personal face financially, whereas Turner may (and did) bankroll WCW’s spending splurges. So one characteristic of the period was high-profile former WWF stars like Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage leaping ship for obscene quantities of cash. One other was chronically horrible artistic choices.
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WCW determined to spend a whole bunch of 1000’s on this gimmick, with Lloyd himself later admitting that the thought course of behind the character was little greater than “let’s capitalize off the recognition of Mortal Kombat.” First, it spent $35,000 having the legit prop home AFX Studios design a Sub-Zero-style costume; it then determined that wasn’t practically sufficient cash to waste and requested them to give you a spectacular ring entrance.
Glacier’s entrance really was particular: blue lasers lined the world, faux snow poured down from the ceiling, and blue lights illuminated him as he makes a present of taking off his costume. The associated fee? Lloyd later mentioned he was informed by WCW producer Keith Mitchell the total setup value $400,000, and each time it was deployed one other $10,000 in charges for the technicians who set it up.
Glacier was steadily launched to the WCW viewers in video vignettes that explicitly stole strains and imagery from the Mortal Kombat film. Glacier promo: “In every of us burns the fury of a warrior.” Mortal Kombat: “In every of us burns the soul of a warrior.” Burns. The character’s gimmick is ice. Anybody? By no means thoughts. Such promos had been the everyday means of introducing a brand new wrestler that the corporate thought may very well be a star, and Glacier’s ran from April 1996 till his debut in September that yr.
Maybe probably the most unbelievable highway not travelled on this weird story, nonetheless, entails the title. WCW knew what the gimmick was, they knew what they wished him to seem like, however they did not know what he can be referred to as. A listing of round 150 cold-themed names was made up, and one which got here underneath severe consideration was Stone Chilly.
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For the non-wrestling followers, the WWF’s ‘Stone Chilly’ Steve Austin was shortly going to develop into the largest wrestling star of the late Nineties, and a key difference-maker within the Monday Night time Wars. By all accounts he got here up with the title in 1996 after his spouse informed him to drink his tea earlier than it bought “stone chilly.” In a parallel universe, WCW would have already chosen that title for the ill-fated Glacier.
For his half, Bischoff wished the title Cryonic, which is one way or the other much more fucking silly than Glacier. Even WCW’s clueless creatives baulked at that, although they gave Bischoff the sop of Glacier’s ending transfer being the “cryonic kick.” Which is simply, like, a karate kick.
Glacier was imagined to make his debut in July 1996, however one other WCW gimmick kneecapped the character: Hulk Hogan’s notorious heel flip and the emergence of the NWO steady. For a time the NWO was WCW’s golden ticket, however it was additionally based mostly on the phantasm of authenticity and realism, with the likes of Hogan, Scott Corridor and Kevin Nash taking part in exaggerated variations of themselves: in such a context, the Glacier gimmick seemed as corny and cartoonish because it was.
The debut was pushed again, however WCW had already sunk a lot cash into Glacier that there was no query of an about-turn. As a substitute he made his debut on one in all WCW’s lesser reveals in opposition to a jobber referred to as The Gambler, earlier than starting a mid-card feud with Massive Bubba Rogers (best-known for his time within the WWF because the Massive Boss man).
Then somebody at Halfway seen.
“I’ll always remember it,” Lloyd would later recall, “‘Come to my workplace.’ It’s just like the principal calling you. I assumed I used to be in hassle! I walked into Bischoff’s workplace and was informed, ‘Halfway is threatening a lawsuit.’ I assumed my profession was over. and that it was good whereas it lasted.
“I requested him if we had been going to struggle it. I keep in mind [Bischoff] answering, ‘You recognize, there’s nothing I like higher than struggle, but when we struggle this, we’re going to lose and lose massive.'”
Effectively, a minimum of Bischoff was proper about that. Lloyd advised they modify the costume, and Bischoff shot again “I can’t afford one other thirty-five grand!” So Lloyd took the present costume again to AFX and had it altered to a legally distinct Sub-Zero.
After a mere 4 matches, Glacier’s look, entrance, and entrance music had been all modified. Unbelievably, WCW wasn’t executed, and determined the answer was to create a world-within-a-world of WCW characters who solely fought one another, with Glacier’s main feud being with… Mortis, a personality that’s mainly a legally distinct model of Mortal Kombat’s Reptile. Presumably Scorpion would’ve been too on-the-nose.
WCW started a daft feud that revolved round Mortis stealing Glacier’s helmet, which culminated in a match the place Glacier received in just below two minutes. The cash spent to get to a two-minute squash match was eye-watering, however perhaps what’s much more wonderful is that WCW persevered with the gimmick and stored throwing cash at one thing that was clearly by no means going to work.
Glacier would see out the rest of his WCW profession on the decrease midcard as a part of a small steady together with Mortis, Wrath, and Ernest ‘the Cat’ Miller (the latter included purely as a result of he additionally did martial arts strikes). His previous few months on the firm would see the Glacier gimmick lastly deserted, and Lloyd showing as some type of sports activities coach.
You would say that Glacier encapsulates every little thing that is nice and horrible about this period of wrestling. Proper in the course of its hottest-ever interval, when the NWO has upended the enterprise and WCW needs to be flying excessive, it is losing what should have amounted to over one million kilos on a Temu model of a Mortal Kombat character, and simply refusing to confess that it’s not working.
And whereas Glacier has to go down as a horrible gimmick, Ray Lloyd himself looks as if a stunning bloke and admirably phlegmatic about the entire thing. Only a few wrestlers on this period had artistic management, and this comes throughout as a Bischoff self-importance venture that bought out of hand. There’s an incredible documentary referred to as Past the Mat that reveals the WWF’s Vince McMahon talking to potential signing Darren Drozdov, and lighting up when he hears the poor man can vomit on cue. The gimmick McMahon got here up with for Drozdov was Puke, a wrestler who vomits on defeated foes.
So it probably may have been worse for Lloyd.
“Because of everybody who watched me carry out, whether or not you had been a fan or a critic,” mentioned Lloyd final yr. “I’ve discovered on this lengthy, nice profession that the key to success goes on the market and doing all of your greatest, and also you clearly can’t make everyone completely happy on a regular basis.
“For individuals who had been critics about my gimmick, nicely, god bless you for a minimum of watching it and having an trustworthy opinion. And those who had been followers of the gimmick, thanks as a result of it made my job value it each evening to go on the market and be cheered.”
