It’s safe to say that every wrestling fan has that character that they are really excited about seeing and upon their debut they are greatly disappointed with the outcome.
I have my fair share of them but the first one that jumps to mind is the character that WCW created in the middle of 1996. For several months there were hype videos promoting the debut of “Blood Runs Cold” which ended up being Glacier.
For the record, the vignettes never actually showed a man so I had no idea what he looked like, but the vignettes continually airing on all WCW programming got me interested in what all the hype was about. Cut me some slack, the promotional tool worked on a then 7-year old kid.
When you consider all the hype that Glacier was given, he essentially accomplished nothing. Sure, he had a pretty long undefeated streak but that was mainly against Mortis and Wrath during the 1996/1997 span. He never held a championship and aside from a squash against Goldberg he was never involved in any high profile matches with top talent in the company.
Looking back at any kind of Glacier match I find myself yawning at the action. The best thing about the character is his entrance. Some people hate entrance, but it was kind of neat, I thought.
I had actually put on a WCW Nitro from 2001 the other day and noticed that they were teasing a Glacier return. WCW never seemed to understand when something simply work out.
What are your memories of Glacier? Did you enjoy the character at all?
Thanks for reading!
Hewas booked on one of our shows in Georgia back in 2012. I was in the mid-card and he was after intermission. I had the chance to walk up and talk to him after the show was over and we were packing to leave. One of the nicest people I have ever met in the business.
Yeah I think I remember the ads. Mortal Kombat Sub-Zero ripoff? I was totally psyched for him and then he sank without trace. Shame. Yet another “what if” story. Those ads built up a really good momentum with fans like us….surely somebody could have worked out a way to capitalize on that, even if it turned out the guy’s skills were non-existent. Every federation has done big stories and big pushes with guys of his (lack of) caliber. I believe it’s called making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear….
I enjoyed him. I see why some didn’t. I was just a sucker for anything WCW did at the time. I guess I also wasn’t expecting a huge amount from him. His vignettes were cool to me at the time but I never thought he was going to challenge Hulk Hogan. When he never rose above midcard it didn’t matter to me. He was fun and silly and a good enough wrestler. I always marked out for the Cryonic Kick. What more can you ask for?
Hardcore Hak on the other hand had me SUPER disappointed. When he debuted I didn’t have access to ECW programming. I had heard that the Sandman was coming to WCW and had no clue what this guy looked like or what he was all about. I just knew that he was big in ECW and he was coming to WCW. You may remember that at this same time there were some vignettes with some mysterious laughter. I KNEW that these were signalling Sandman’s WCW debut. Turns out they were signalling Chucky’s appearing on WCW in promotion of the latest Child’s Play movie. Then Hak finally debuted and was a disappointment to say the least. I have grown to enjoy Sandman but he wasn’t Sandman in WCW, that’s for sure.