longest promo buildup to a new wrestler?

[funk51]

i think the longest build up to a new wrestler ever was glacier it was monthes between the time they first mentioned him and when he actually showed up.  the wwe version would probably be kizarny they built him up and the clown only made one or two tv appearances.

[leonp1981]

Unless my memory is all skewed, didn't they build Jericho for quite a while when he debuted with the Y2J thing, and the countdown clock?

[The Showstoppa]

Glacier, no doubt.  and the promos were so vague and poorly done.  I remember me and my buddies wondering wtf they were talking about.

[Montague]

You mean you didn’t think this lived up to the hype?

It looked like this guy was maybe a little green to the wrestling biz.
I saw him “working” on Bossman’s right arm at least twice.
Everywhere in the world except for Mexico, pro-wrestlers work on the left side of their opponent’s body.
Maybe I’m wrong, but it doesn’t exactly appear as though Glacier learned his craft from the luchas.

I suspect that it was probably Bischoff’s hard-on for karate that led to the over-hype.

My own speculation is that Eric probably saw and liked the guy, who was already a martial artist.
The prospect of wrestling was discussed and agreed on.
They probably sent “Glacier” down to the Power Plant for pro-wrestling 101 to teach him the basics, thinking that’s all he’d need since he’d be relying more on his martial arts in the ring.

Give him some Samurai body armor, some theatrical snow machines, and a Mortal Kombat knock-off theme, and in only a few short months you have THIS:

A classic Goldberg squash match…
 

[Montague]

BTW - if anyone has the real story behind Glacier, feel free to post it.
I’m a bit curious now, myself.

With all of the autobio’s & shoot interviews, I’m sure someone’s had to have mentioned it somewhere.

[funk51]

BTW - if anyone has the real story behind Glacier, feel free to post it.
I’m a bit curious now, myself.

With all of the autobio’s & shoot interviews, I’m sure someone’s had to have mentioned it somewhere.

it was lame to how they used glacier to bring in ernest the cat miller, and how miller's career easily topped glacier. glacier was then given another lame gimmick as a coach before he was released.

[Montague]

Okay, I did a little bit of quick research…

Ray Lloyd, the man who played Glacier, was trained by Mr. Wrestling II, Fred Avery, Bob Armstrong, and the WCW Power Plant.

Glacier was openly modeled after Mortal Kombat character Sub-Zero.
Admittedly, his ring attire was a near-duplicate of the video game character's.

Glacier’s debut was stretched out because its original date was forced back.
The plan was for him to debut in July, ‘06, but that month’s PPV (BATB) saw the incredible impact of the NWO, which overshadowed everything in the industry.

A substantial amount of planning and money went into the Glacier character.
In a 2000 interview with the Hannibal Courier-Post, Lloyd revealed that production costs for his laser light/snow entrance amounted to nearly half a million dollars, while the costume, designed by Atlanta-based AFX Studios, cost $35,000.

In the end, the fans never took to him, and the whole thing fell in line with WCW’s exorbitant spending with nothing to show for it.

[leonp1981]

...the costume, designed by Atlanta-based AFX Studios, cost $35,000.

Mwahahahaha!  Friggin' hell, some people must have had 'MUG' written on their forehead.

 

[Montague]

Mwahahahaha!  Friggin' hell, some people must have had 'MUG' written on their forehead.

 

I wish they had called me first.
I'd have designed & built the damn thing for only $30,000.

Fools.

[njflex]

sid justice into to wwf ,i remember they just showed small clips on screen of sid smirking,flexing,and they said he's coming soon .

[Thin Lizzy]

Seems like we're all in agreement. When I saw the thread title, Glacier was the name that popped into my head.

The "new" Sting seemed like a never-ending build up, as well. Every week he was up the rafters dressed in black. After awhile no one cared.

[Montague]

They did wait a little too long with that.
Good example of "less is more."
Six months of silence & rafter-lurking probably would have been more effective than 18.

[The Showstoppa]

haha, Monty nailed the Glacier deal in his first post.

anybody with any wrestling foresight should have taken note of the change of attitude of the wcw fans during the nWo taking off and at the very least tweaked this gimmick.

On a related note, I preferred Kanyon as Mortis with that creepy manager.  Always thought they underused him at that time.

[njflex]

haha, Monty nailed the Glacier deal in his first post.

anybody with any wrestling foresight should have taken note of the change of attitude of the wcw fans during the nWo taking off and at the very least tweaked this gimmick.

On a related note, I preferred Kanyon as Mortis with that creepy manager.  Always thought they underused him at that time.

oh i remember glacier ,the opening entrance to the kicks and punches in the ring under the snow ,very dramatic,and then when house lites went on it was reduced to just a wrestler under gimmick.he was boring to watch.

[funk51]

Okay, I did a little bit of quick research…

Ray Lloyd, the man who played Glacier, was trained by Mr. Wrestling II, Fred Avery, Bob Armstrong, and the WCW Power Plant.

Glacier was openly modeled after Mortal Kombat character Sub-Zero.
Admittedly, his ring attire was a near-duplicate of the video game character's.

Glacier’s debut was stretched out because its original date was forced back.
The plan was for him to debut in July, ‘06, but that month’s PPV (BATB) saw the incredible impact of the NWO, which overshadowed everything in the industry.

A substantial amount of planning and money went into the Glacier character.
In a 2000 interview with the Hannibal Courier-Post, Lloyd revealed that production costs for his laser light/snow entrance amounted to nearly half a million dollars, while the costume, designed by Atlanta-based AFX Studios, cost $35,000.

In the end, the fans never took to him, and the whole thing fell in line with WCW’s exorbitant spending with nothing to show for it.

               it's like a bad movie they keep pushing back the release date and when it finally comes out everyone knows why glacier was wrestlings heaven's gate or waterworld.or that pirate movie with geena davis which predated the pirates of the carribean trilogy.

[funk51]

oh i remember glacier ,the opening entrance to the kicks and punches in the ring under the snow ,very dramatic,and then when house lites went on it was reduced to just a wrestler under gimmick.he was boring to watch.

   pretty much like the ultimate warrior his music came on a wild looking comic book character came running out like a maniac  ran around the ring shook the ropes and then it went downhill quickly after that.

[The Showstoppa]

oh i remember glacier ,the opening entrance to the kicks and punches in the ring under the snow ,very dramatic,and then when house lites went on it was reduced to just a wrestler under gimmick.he was boring to watch.

That was it.....we would laugh at how quiet it would be as soon as his music stopped.....until WCW started piping in cheers....

[Montague]

THIS was the greatest promo buildup to a debut:

[njflex]

   pretty much like the ultimate warrior his music came on a wild looking comic book character came running out like a maniac  ran around the ring shook the ropes and then it went downhill quickly after that.

big difference he looked huge and just needed to stomp,clothesline,press slam ,and win and caused crowd to "pop"from intro to final bell,left crowd wanting more,glacier sent people to the snack stand.

[LurkerNoMore]

Glacier was sent back to the Power Plant to help train potentials after his in ring career fizzled out.  And was soon released from that as well as they found him to be too bitter and jealous about training someone who might have a bigger impact than he ever would.

Before I moved from Atlanta, he was working as an assistant manager at the Power House gym in Alpharetta that his buddies Kenny Kaos and Robby Rage were trying to buy at the time.  (Which didn't happen because Robbie's drug use got out of control so fast)

[The Showstoppa]

Glacier was sent back to the Power Plant to help train potentials after his in ring career fizzled out.  And was soon released from that as well as they found him to be too bitter and jealous about training someone who might have a bigger impact than he ever would.

Before I moved from Atlanta, he was working as an assistant manager at the Power House gym in Alpharetta that his buddies Kenny Kaos and Robby Rage were trying to buy at the time.  (Which didn't happen because Robbie's drug use got out of control so fast)

Were Kenny and Robby a tagteam call High Voltage? Or something.  If so, those two were jacked and underused in WCW, I thought.

[Thin Lizzy]

Glacier was sent back to the Power Plant to help train potentials after his in ring career fizzled out.  And was soon released from that as well as they found him to be too bitter and jealous about training someone who might have a bigger impact than he ever would.

Before I moved from Atlanta, he was working as an assistant manager at the Power House gym in Alpharetta that his buddies Kenny Kaos and Robby Rage were trying to buy at the time.  (Which didn't happen because Robbie's drug use got out of control so fast)

These real life pro-wrestling stories are always so heartwarming.

[LurkerNoMore]

Were Kenny and Robby a tagteam call High Voltage? Or something.  If so, those two were jacked and underused in WCW, I thought.

Yeah.  They had mad potential.  But were never really given the push they deserved. Then Robbie's mental problems and drug issues started causing him to miss matches and they got scrapped.  Though Kenny stuck around a bit longer, but they never really did anything worthwhile with him.

[LurkerNoMore]

And that build up to Nash back when he was debuting as Oz was horrendously long and painful.