Look—it is easy to dunk on WCW. Inactive since 2001, its many, many mistakes have fueled a cottage industry of books, podcasts, YouTube videos, and other forms of monetized snark. Glacier, otherwise known as Ray Lloyd, is frequently a target of said snark, as his gimmick and the microuniverse WCW built around it—”Blood Runs Cold”—should have began and concluded its life on the page. Glacier was what happens when you ask an adult to remember the karate movie they took their kid to a year ago, if that karate movie was Mortal Kombat, and the only thing he remembered was the dude who got a gigantic icicle hurled through his abdomen. Sometimes that’s all you need to make something really, truly beautiful.
69
WCW Legend Glacier
Pros
- Better entrance than The Undertaker.
- Better outfit than The Undertaker.
- Seriously, thinking about it, there are not many people who experienced Glacier’s full-blown Blood Runs Cold entrance, with the snow and the lights and the fog. I went to three WCW shows in the 90s and never saw it. I am *jealous* of people who saw Glacier’s intro in all of its goofy glory.
- “Cryonic kick” is an absolutely badass name for a kick to the head, like losing to Glacier was gonna put you in the same vault as Walt Disney.
- Once, Goldberg did a backflip over a Glacier leg sweep. Pretty dope.
- Glacier really makes people who say stuff like “wrestling was more popular when you could believe it was real” look like tools because he was beefing over mystical helmets and shit while Steve Austin was the most popular wrestler in the world.
Cons
- Glacier was not a very good wrestler.
- Glacier’s not being a very good wrestler was pointed out every single time he wrestled by commentary, who pinned it on karate not being as complete a fighting art as wrestling, which is ridiculous.
- “What if a cop cosplayed Sub-Zero?” isn’t a question I held up to the universe, but Glacier answered regardless.
- Fans in 1997/1998 had no idea that Glacier would one day be regarded with very legitimate appreciation by me and treated him like a joke. I’m jealous of chuds.