Today’s guest is perhaps the subject of one of the most memorable and anticipated debuts in pro wrestling history. In 1996 Ray Lloyd was the focus of seemingly an endless amount of vignettes that led to WCW’s most original television pitch for a debuting superstar and today we welcome that star as Glacier joins The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling. With blood that runs cold and the first undefeated streak of the Monday Night War, Glacier proved that the creative machine inside WCW knew that capitalizing on a popular video game style could be the way to launch a brand new competitor. Glacier’s run may be looked back upon with jeers and second guessing but it is truly the man behind Glacier, Ray Lloyd that is the real story.
Full Episode Download Link: http://tmptow.podomatic.com/entry/2015-08-12T21_00_00-07_00
Glacier on Creative Plans & WCW Politics Getting In The Way of His Push: https://youtu.be/MiBAWL7Mtks
Who made the initial introduction to Eric Bischoff:
Dallas (Page) and I had become good friends. We would work out together at Main Event which was a gym that everybody was working out at then. I had mentioned that I was going to start using martial arts in ring and he mentioned that (Eric) was into all of that stuff. So we scheduled a meeting and in January I had literally a three hour meeting with him and he grilled me up and down. At the end of that conversation he said I want to sign you to a contract and he asked if I was wrestling on the Independent scene and I had been wrestling there a lot. I remember him saying to cancel all my bookings on the Independent scene and totally disappear and I remember saying I can do that and just totally disappear.
The work that went into creating the gimmick and the characters:
I got to know (Chris) Kanyon, Bryan Clarke and I were already friends and I got to know Ernest (Miller) and we quickly all kind of gelled together as a unit. Chris and I became very good friends all the way up until he passed away. For Chris and I this was it, we may only get this one shot so we didn’t take it lightly at all and Page was assigned to oversee it all. We were at the Power Plant everyday, all day and then we would all meet up and watch the videos of the day and then be back at the Power Plant the next day and did that for months before we ever went on TV. We put a lot of hard work into that, just figuring out who the gimmicks were. Eric’s whole thing was it’s like a video game come to life but said I want you guys to play it very serious. At the end of the day did it become exactly what I thought it could be, no. But it was an unbelievable opportunity to break new ground in wrestling, the Glacier entrance broke new ground in wrestling, I was the first guy to wrestle with a colored contact and I was definitely the first guy to have arena snow when I came out.
The money spent by WCW to bring Glacier to life:
I tell people all the time, that armor all together weighs over twenty pounds. For an entrance it’s no big deal but for a three hour appearence it’s a big deal to wear it. I actually became friends with the head of AFX Studios, he was a young and upcoming artist and really creative, I introduced him to Eric and they decided to go with him for the persona’s of all four of the gimmicks and they spent a lot of money. I can confirm that I saw all the invoices he submitted to WCW and it was around $35,000 for the creation of the Glacier “look”. Keith Mitchell has looked me right in the eye and said that my entrance was close to $400,000 and almost $10,000 every time I came on TV. I’m glad I didn’t know all of that back then.
The impact made by Glacier and how has the WWE Network helped his legacy:
The costume, when I do appearances was built to be durable. Almost twenty years later I still have the full costume and when WCW folded they never asked for it back. I have one of the original masks that I got back then, one of the three I had originally got. Thank GOD I still look somewhat like I did on TV back in the day and am not the three-hundred pound Glacier. With the WWE Network and them replaying some of our stuff it’s a huge thrill for me now to be able to go out and make appearances and still be Glacier because a lot of wrestlers never get that opportunity, there gimmick comes and goes and is forgotten. I am so fortunate that people remembered it and still appreciate it.
Glacier also discusses his feuds with Mortis and Wrath, facing Bill Goldberg, WCW being very political, mass chaos backstage, turning heel, Vince Russo, training wrestlers today and embracing the gimmick
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Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
