Glacier on the Original Idea for His WCW Character, Childhood Hero Dusty Rhodes, Stardust

– Former WCW star Glacier recently spoke with AL.com to promote his match at an Alabama Wrestling Federation charity show tonight. Glacier had hip replacement surgery nine months ago and took a year off from the ring. This is one of his first events since being cleared to wrestle. The full interview is at this link. Below are highlights:

His childhood hero Dusty Rhodes:

He was such a driving force in my life. I got married in 2003 and he was a groomsman in my wedding, which was a huge honor. Dusty was one of those guys you just knew who had a magnetic personality. He was a great guy and he was Dusty Rhodes all the time. Sometimes the volume was turned up, sometimes it was turned down. He could be an ornery old Texan, too. I went to his memorial service in Tampa. It was sad. We lost one of the greatest ever. But it wasn’t just a sad occasion, it was a celebration of his life. That is the memory he wants to leave this world with … how much I entertained you and made you laugh. If you look at Dusty, you felt he was immortal. Him and (Rowdy Roddy) Piper both. I don’t know if it’s fully sunk in with me. I still have his name in my cell phone.

Cody Rhodes, who attended the high school Glacier taught PE & health at, and his Stardust gimmick:

A lot of people don’t like it for some reason. I like it because I know Cody and he’s an extremely creative person. I think he’ll have a great career as a motivational speaker once his wrestling days are over. He’s a talented individual and has the charisma of his (father) Dusty, but he channels it differently. He’s having fun and finding a way to stay employed.

The build to his WCW debut in 1996:

The nWo was the biggest thing to hit wrestling at the time and nothing could compete with that. Everything in WCW took a back seat to that including me, Eddie Guerrero, and Rey Mysterio Jr. Eric Bischoff (then, the WCW president) told us he wanted a video game (character) come to life and to have it played very straight. He said, ‘I don’t want people to laugh at it.’ Yes, its costumes and laser lights, but he said that ‘I want you to be the first heavyweight to move like cruiserweights.’ Now if you watch wrestling, all the heavyweights move like cruiserweights. I take pride in that. For the most part, the fans gravitated toward it well. I don’t blame mismanagement on the whole thing. It could’ve maybe been managed a little better but, overall, I have very few regrets. Almost 20 years later, we are still talking about it. I must’ve done something right.

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