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| In Which I Talk About Wrestling Gimmicks and Christmas |
It's that time of year, folks, where the weather gets cooler (if you're in the northern hemisphere...) and thoughts turn to Christmas (if you celebrate it). This is a time of year for family, festivities, and...
Professional Wrestling?
ECW's December to Dismember, WCCW's Star Wars cards, to WWE's Season's Beatings, wrestling has a long and rich history of shows on or near Christmas Day.
But what of wrestlers themselves? Surely there aren't a plethora of Christmas or Winter-related gimmicks?
Well... kind of. Almost every wrestler on earth between the 1980s and today seems to have played Santa Claus at least once, but... few have well and truly made it a "gimmick". And I refuse to discuss Xanta Claus.
So this month, I'd like to talk about a few wrestlers who've had winter and/or Christmas-themed gimmicks or personas!
Today's focus is on Glacier, from WCW (and now AEW!)
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| Doesn't he look frickin' rad?! |
Glacier, aka Raymond M Lloyd, was a martial artist who was hired by WCW to take advantage of the 1990s obsession with Mortal Kombat. Kind of obvious, yeah? I mean... you look at that photo and the similarity to SubZero is unmistakable.
But how was he in the ring?
Glacier was actually pretty alright!
Like a lot of guys with a martial arts background, he occasionally struggled to make his moves and strikes look "real" in the ring. The dude just didn't want to accidentally kill one of his opponents, and I can respect that. Also, it must've been tough to wrestle with a single contact lens in.
What Glacier is possibly best known for, however, is his insane entrance.
Lights, great music, and fake snow falling down gently into the arena all marked the coming of Glacier during his Blood Runs Cold era. WCW, to their credit, were 100% behind this man coming off as a total badass, spending nearly half a million dollars every time they used his full entrance! And on top of that insane number, that super awesome outfit he's wearing?
That cost them $35'000
You read that right.
And yes, you could probably get that from an internet propmaker today for under $1'000, depending on materials.
WCW was a madhouse. That's why people loved it!
So, yeah...
Glacier was pretty awesome, but unfortunately, his was a short-lived career in the land where The Big Boys Play (look at the adjective), and after the Blood Runs Cold gimmick died off, and his cool-looking opponents Mortis (aka Kanyon) and Wrath moved on, Glacier sold off his gimmick (in-character, which is very confusing and sounds stupid) to Kaz Hayashi and Ernest the Cat Miller.
An ignoble end to a really cool gimmick.
Yet... Glacier did not truly die!
Glacier has been seen on the Indie scene, at ROH shows, at AEW and AAA shows... even winning the NWA tag titles (pre-Billy Corgan)! So he's still around...
He just doesn't get a half-million dollar entrance and armor that could pay off my student loan debt...
That'll do it from me this week!
Go Enjoy Something!
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