Glacier tells the Story Behind the Gimmick, WCW Politics, & much more!

Submitted By James Walsh on 07/10/09

Show: The Interactive Interview courtesy of www.WrestlingEpicenter.com Guest: "Glacier" Ray Lloyd Date: 7/9/09 Your Hosts: Patrick Kelley, James Walsh, & Nick Noel Contributors: Erik Clancy, Ben Benya, & Andres The former WCW superstar that was behind the Blood Runs Cold commercials almost took as long to get on the air as the Blood Runs Cold commercials did to produce Glacier... That was due to bad planning on our part, though! Regardless, we got him and what a great guy he was and a fun interview it produced! The man behind one of the most extravagant entrances ever in wrestling history gave us the back story of the Glacier gimmick, his years of experience before Glacier, his thoughts on the ending of the gimmick, and his surprising views on the WWE. This one packs a punch in a fun and light hearted way! Don't miss this one! It is a hum-dinger! GLACIER - Glacier joins the program and immediately lets us know on what he's been up to lately. He just moved from Orlando to Atlanta and is pursuing an acting career and occasionally still wrestles. When he wrestles, he tries to use Glacier, but other times he goes under the name "Sugar Ray Lloyd" which he used in his initial run prior to his WCW days. Tommy Rich gave him the name. He admits the name wouldn't have been his first choice, but he didn't have any ideas so he went with it. - When he first started in wrestling, he worked with Fred Avery as part of a tag team called The Blazers (which was the name of his mascot for his College Football Team) That was where he met Tommy Rich and they get along very well. Friends in the business still refer to him as Sugar Ray Lloyd. - In WCW, he talks about the campaign for his debut as Glacier. He admits liking the character and says when people mention "Glacier", its one of those names that people feel like they should remember. When coming up with the name, he wanted a single name like Sting, and eventually came up with Glacier. His debut took a long time to happen, and he doesn't really know why it took so long. He got a break with Eric Bischoff through Diamond Dallas Page and Bischoff hired him and seemed to get behind the gimmick. He remembers taping the vignettes mostly in one session, and not knowing they were going to air it right away. He figured that he'd just do what he was told, but admits that he wanted to get out there sooner. - He says that the nWo was both a blessing and a curse because once it took off, the WCW built up big, but everything else had to take a backseat. However, he is proud of his work during that time and is proud that he got to work for a show that had the most loaded roster wrestling had to offer at the time. He was honored to work with alot of the guys that he did like Luger, Savage, Malenko, Sting, & Meng. - James brings up that the original Glacier vignettes and how some fans thought it might be Bret Hart making his debut, and asks if there was trouble living up to the expectations. Glacier says that it was a concern. He says that Arn Anderson, who took him under his wing, told him that his Glacier entrance was so good, that it was impossible for his match to live up to it. So he feels there might have been a disappointment, but he also felt like he managed to get over with the fans and earned their respect. He says the entire time he was there, he never got booed, and also feels that he felt that he had very few bad matches. - He didn't mind being based off of a Mortal Kombat character. The video game was a big deal and apparently Turner's company had a hand in making the movie, so it was something that was based on something popular. He really liked working the gimmick & loved working with the guys that he did like Mortis & Wrath. - The formula for Glacier was later applied to Goldberg with great success. When asked if there were plans of putting them together either in a feud or as partners, he says that there weren't really plans for that. He says that basically the plan was to let Goldberg grow because of how over he was getting. He says that in the Power Plant, Goldberg worked very hard and the few times they did wrestle, Goldberg listened to him and got better each time. He tells a funny story about how they originally didn't want to call him Bill Goldberg. - When talking about wrestling names, Glacier says that WCW creative handed him a list of all the names they considered using and one of the final few names was "Stone Cold" Glacier then jokes that the right guy definitely got the right name. - Eric Bischoff has an interest in Karate and when asked if that may have been why he pushed for Glacier, he says that was definitely a motivation for the creation of the character, and he wanted to make sure Glacier could actually do the stuff well. And after a while, he felt like he was able to work with the gimmick and make it so that the character was just himself with the volume turned up. - The thing that everybody seems to remember about the character is the extravagant entrance. He was told by Keith Mitchell that it cost about half a million dollars. Later, the story about the cost of the entrance seemed to take on a life of its own, and he still doesn't know for sure how much it cost, but trusts Keith's estimate. - When talking about his feud with Mortis (Chris Kanyon) Glacier puts him over as a very talented worker and says that he never had a better chemistry with anybody else. When asked about Kanyon coming out of the closet, he says that he wasn't really surprised when he heard it and it doesn't bother him at all. He is still friends with Kanyon. - The interview then shifts to his work in UWFI which seemed to be like a mix between being a shoot & a work. He says that the finish was worked, but the rest was pretty much a shoot with real shots being made, and if you got knocked out, it was over. He says that he was never knocked out. For him the greatest thing that came out of it was that he got to be coached & become friends with Lou Thesz which he calls his greatest accomplishment in wrestling & something he is most proud of. He says its a disappointment when young wrestlers don't know who he was. He talks about going to a restaurant in Japan with him and they gave him a standing ovation. - When talking more about Lou Thesz, he says that when he first met him, he took him down to the mat and stretched him pretty easily. He also credits Lou to talking him into agreeing to doing the Glacier gimmick. - He is working on an acting career now and he has worked on USA's show "Burn Notice" He has also signed on to do a film called "River of Darkness" which also stars Kurt Angle. He also auditioned for a role on Lifetime's show "Army Wives" He enjoyed his time in wrestling, but wants to make sure that he can survive on his own. - The Greastest Superstars of the 90s DVD took a shot at Glacier, citing it as a bad character grouped in with characters like Shockmaster. He says that "you can't please everybody" and he is going to get residuals from the footage anyway. He says that everybody has their critics, but he cares more about the compliments he gets from guys who said they enjoyed the gimmick as a kid. - He was offered a job with the WWE, but opted to work for Dusty Rhodes in Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling and had a lot of fun working with his idol in that promotion. - He lived in Orlando & is friends with Keith Mitchell who does production for TNA Wrestling. When asked if he'd ever go there, he says that he worked as a talent agent when Dusty had the book. He learned alot while doing that, and he's good friends with Jeff, but admits that neither party is overly interested in striking a deal at the moment. He has great friends there & had some good experiences there. - Glacier then puts over Scott Hudson as a great commentator & announcer, and that he is one of the best. He also talks about doing a golf tournament with Larry Z who he is also good friends with. - Glacier is now part of Wrestlebookings.com and that is plugged in the interview. - When asked about the WWE's new WCW DVD coming out soon, he doesn't expect it to be respectful of WCW. Word Associations Eric Bischoff = "Oppotunist...what built him up was the same source for his demise...he gave me a chance to perform on the biggest stage of the world and I'll always thank him ofr that" Kaz Hayashi = "Unbelievably entertaining young man to be around" and then Glacier tells a funny story of how they did the angle where Kaz bought the Glacier armor and he joked that he sold it in Japan. Hulk Hogan = "Personally I never had a problem with him...I was never close to him" and he admits now that the focus on him was part of what hurt WCW, but it was a great experience to be working with him as well. - On a final note, he thanks his fans, then references a Brian Clark shoot where he says that Glacier was too nice for his own good, but he appreciates being remembered as being a nice guy. :: GO BACK TO THE HOME PAGE :: DISCUSS THIS POST ON THE FORUMS! :: BUY WRESTLING DVD'S THROUGH OUR STORE! Home | News | Editorials | Interviews | Forums | Chat Room | Store | Divas | PPV Results | TV Results | Shows | Links | Metal Epicenter | Contact Us/Staff