#138 – Glacier v The Gambler, September 7, 1996
Somehow it took Dre and the Black Cat over five years to discuss one of the most bizarre, yet fascinating gimmicks of the late 1990s – BLOOD RUNS COLD and the debut of Glacier against the Gambler on WCW WorldWide. Please support the Old School Wrestling Podcast by visiting oldschoolwrestlingpodcast.com where you can find links to all of our great products. We now offer all of our box sets and bonus episodes from all three seasons on our premium digital download site. We’ll see you…..at the matches!
Hey Guys,
Still listening to the episode where you discuss the greatest start/stop storyline of all time, Glacier/Blood Runs Cold. I had to pause briefly to drop this note to you guys. I don’t know if any of you or any of the other listeners of the show ever had the opportunity to see Glacier do whatever the hell it was he was supposed to be doing live, I can sadly say I was one of those unfortunate souls. I can proudly say, however, that I may have contributed a small part to the eventual phasing out of the character.
It was the spring of 1997, a magical time where a 56k dialup connection could mean you could access a wealth of information in a matter of hours provided somebody didn’t try to call your number while you were online. WCW Monday Nitro was eminating live from the Saginaw Civic Center in Saginaw, Michigan; a town whose appearance resembles the smell of a Long John Silvers.
Anyway, my grandfather and I got two tickets to the Nitro taping and all seems to be going well until the blue lights come on and the fake snow start coming down from the ceiling. Son of a bitch, it’s Glacier. Being a town that liked it’s wrestling, the people in the arena weren’t in the mood for Glacier’s tired old bullshit. He goes through whatever “paint the fence” nonsense that Mr. Myagi taught him before the All-Valley Karate Tournament and the lights come on.
The bell rings and in the arena, the loudest “Glacier Sucks” chant breaks out. It goes on for the entire match. If you watch the broadcast you can hear it for a few seconds and then the crowd noise goes dead silent. The only way they could keep the chant from not being audible on television was for them to rip the microphones out of the wall.
Looking back on it, I can’t say I take complete and total pride on what we did in the arena that night because it did after all eventually lead to Coach Buzz Stern.
Y’all talk like all I do is correct you! I was about to chastise myself–I was not aware of Ray Lloyd’s background. When he finally debuted after all those vignettes, I was thinking “all we get is SUGAR RAY LLOYD?”
BTW, the ninja that was with Larry Zbyszko in the AWA was named Go.
You’re welcome.
Hey guys,
still listening to the podcast, but i had to stop and tell you about my recent encounter with “the living legend” Larry Zbyszko. Over the thanksgiving holiday i attended Wrestlecade in Winston-Salem NC, a fan fest and wrestling card featuring TONS of old school wrestlers. The tickets that my friends and i purchased got us a free photo op with Queen Debra, Dr Tom Prichard, D-Lo Brown (who no-showed the event) and the man himself, Larry Zbyszko. As we stood in line for our photo op someone handed Larry a set nun-chucks to have him autograph them when someone suddenly yelled out “work the chucks Legend!”, and of coarse he did. This was “old man karate” at it’s best! My friends and I backed way up, afraid that Larry Legend would take our heads off. He didn’t work the chucks long until he realized that he may be a danger to himself and others, stopped and said “it’s been years since I’ve done that”. He signed the chucks, gave them back to the guy, then gave us our photo op. He was a super nice guy, cracking jokes and being friendly, but moments earlier he could have killed us all!
D’Lo left me in the cab, so he felt it would be unfair to everyone at the event to show up in his Aces and Eights gear.
I did not like Glacier at all. But I LOVED Mortis and James Vandenberg. The only Glacier segment I enjoyed occurred on an episode of Thunder that I actually was at live.
In a bunch of backstage segments, Glacier was selling his (what I now know to be worth 10’s of thousands of dollars) worth of ring gear to Sonny Onoo, Kaz Hayashi, and Ernest The Cat Miller. Kaz Hayashi bought most of the outfit, but for some reason The Cat bought the weird contact lens dealy. Hayashi then came out for a random tag team match dressed in Glacier’s gear. A win-win for all involved I think.
I actually don’t recall if the Akeem bumper had been used before, but obviously I enjoyed it TREMENDOUSLY this time around.
A Christmas episode that starts with Glacier and ends with a visit into the sordid world of 1970s unregulated wrestling mag adult-child pen palling.Did Vince Russo book this episode?
Great episode about Glacier. I was genuinely confused when this angle began. It felt more like early 90’s WWF cartoon fun when it was obvious that wrestling was trying to be more serious. I want to bring to your attention late September 1987 videos of Memphis Wrestling on Youtube (from posters Veritychandler or Traderjack641) there is some excellent footage of a pre-Tugboat gimmick called Superstar Bubba which includes some bad breakdancing. The last time I suggested something it was that Jimmy Valiant TV title video. I think a review of this era of Memphis would be excellent.
Have a great day and I can’t wait til your next podcast ep. is available. Thanks.
Great episode as ever guys! I never had heard of Glacier since my exposure was pretty limited to WCW at the time but now I love to revisit this 1990’s rassling via DVD and your podcast!
Those Mortal Kombat WCW-inspired antics are just glorious. It’s both perfectly-fitting and outrageously ridiculous to have characters from a colorful TV/arena sport pitting each other in combat matches apes on a hugely popular trend of action arcades games pitting equally colorful characters against each other in a martial art tournament. I always liked those Street Fighter-type games with lots of wacky fighter with assorted moves – it’s really a pretty close appeal to that of pro-wrestling.
1996 just seems like a tad late to jump in the game for the wrestling world – Mortal Kombat was realized in 1992, the first movie in 1995. Not too bad, but such antics would have been way more comfy around pre NWO WWF than post-NWO WCW as you guys said! Still a fascinating page in the big book of pro-wrestling more eclectic gimmick.
Being there, how about a quick 1-2-3 of gimmick that missed their mark to be up-to-date?
Else, I have a question for the Macho Claus. When he come to my place, would he prefer milk and cookie or a beer and Slim Jim?
Old Man Karate!
Ah yes, it’s the mid-80s, Karate Kid was huge, the fascination with ninjas and their ‘mystical abilities’, and I remember distinctly mulleted, mustached men in sweatpants and muscle shirts thumbing through Black Belt magazine at the corner store. Speaking knowingly about where all your ‘pressure points’ are and retelling the story of how their friend knew this guy who knew karate who beat up a dozen bikers in a bar. Classic!
I met Glacier at a Nitro show in Georgia back in late 1996, shortly after he made his debut. Me and my cousins went up to him as he was headed to his car after the show and asked for a photo. We had on nWo shirts and he looked at us and said, “man.. I don’t know if I can take a photo with you guys supporting the nWo like that..”. I told him to knock it off, and we laughed it off. Looking back, he was “keeping kayfabe”! He was a really nice guy.
I’ve just watched this match and my god, Glacier is awful! He was so slow and sloppy. Why on earth did WCW think he’d get over? He thinks he’s Ricky Steamboat, but was more like Ricky Gervais (I can’t think of any other Ricky).
I remember going to Epcot in the mid 90’s, on a trip to the US, and all I remember was visiting the Welsh shop and getting my photo with the Welsh flag (I’m from Wales), so that was the only highlight, or that’s all I can remember. Universal Studies was amazing though 😀
Just thought you’d like to see a link to some proper old man karate (apologise if this doesn’t work in the US):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N2BBD94faU
It’s from an English sitcom from the 60’s called Steptoe and Son (which, I think inspired the US sitcom Sanford and Son)