“Glacier to me is many things.
Groundbreaking.
I think unique,
but in some ways,
probably, uh,
didn’t go as intended.”
“Glacier was a short lived WCW Superstar.”
“Who is Glacier?’
“Oh yeah, did he pass away?”
I remember sitting on the edge of the ring
saying, “I don’t know if I’m ever gonna
be good at this,
but I’ve just found
what makes me freaking come alive.
you know and I’ve gotta pursue this with everything I’ve got.”
What made Glacier this athlete
who
too many people regard as a joke
or
bad, like, what
made it not work?
Glacier was a mortal combat character
brought to life.
WCW was looking for
a more diverse
palette of characters
so there had to be someone who
was willing to take the risk and say, let’s see if this works.
We’ll dive all in.
And when the president of the company says, we’re gonna throw all this money into it,
I mean, who wouldn’t say yes to that?
Bischoff was a bit of a visionary there, he was just about 20 years too early.
It didn’t matter who was in that Glacier gimmick,
the fans wouldn’t have liked him
because of the build-up we had.
He also may have been the first victim of receiving a really huge hype, where maybe
creative in other things wasn’t uh, fully tee’d up for.
We put so much time, and money, into trying to make that character work, you know,
you have to do that if you really want to get a character over,
the bad news is, is that when,
when it slips and falls, it hits with a really big thud,
and sometimes that thud,
resonates
for a long long time.
I came back for one of my colleagues football games and I ran into one of my former coaches,
he said, “what are you doing these days?”
And I told him I was teaching school and I was stil…and I knew what I was excited to
say, I’m still pursuing professional wrestling, and it’s going pretty good right now.
And just this look on his face was, a look of like,
like, kinda shocked.
And he said,
“are you really still pursuing that,
crap?"
And I remember
it was like someone had punched me in the stomach.
To me it was like,
he didn’t believe that that was something I could be doing
or should be doing.
There was not one person in there that expected Glacier to come in, and then the music hit,
and everybody lost their mind.
I didn’t know what kind of crowd would be there,
I didn’t know if I would be received well,
I didn’t know if I would get laughed out of the place.
Over the 21 years I’ve been able do proudly to the gimmick and still
be Glacier,
the thousands upon thousands of people who have told me how much they enjoyed it,
that’s what I kind of hang my hat on.
“I can’t believe he’s still taking bumps, that blows me away.
A lot of the guys around here can’t even walk to sit down,
and he’s still taking bumps after all these years.”
I’ve been training a lot because I had hip replacement 2 years ago.
And now I’m at the point where I feel like, I can do,
with limitations I can do a lot in the ring now.
He’s still Glacier, he’s still amazing.
Most respectful,
and caring cats I’ve ever met.
He doesn’t forget the people that helped him get to this spot.
It’s the man and the character that means something to me.
The critics of the Glacier gimmick.
I get it to a certain degree, but the world is going to be full of people that tell you
what you can’t do.
You just gotta let those people not rent space in your head.
Because they will, if you let them.
Glacier, uh, is an outstanding human being, one of my dearest friends.
“It’s not about the paycheck, you know?
I don’t do it today for the money anyway.
I mean, I never did, but
it’s more about, getting out there,
getting back to the fans.
You know, at 53 years old I don't have to be doing this,
but, I love it, and
it’s just where my heart is.
You know, if you want to see what I can do,
tell me what I can’t do.
Cause life’s 10% of what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it.
You can always, always, always, control how you react to it.
There was not one single time that I remember, putting my feet on the pull, and saying, “oh
god I gotta go do this again today.”
And I wish every person could experience what that feels like.
Just them them know, you know what, I’m doing this because I love it.
It is something that,
I will never ever forget.
I’m sorry, I just, I never can tell it without tearing up, ‘cause man, it was just an awesome
‘cause man, it was just an awesome experience.