Dark Side of the Ring the Renegade/Rick Wilson Review
The latest #DarkSideOfTheRing episode features the controversial Renegade/Rick Wilson who had a small run in #WCW before fading into obscurity, leading eventually to his tragic demise. People who recall the Renegade will recall the embarrassing comparisons of him to the Ultimate Warrior, a cheap knock off where the message boards at the time disparagingly gave him the nickname the “Rent-a-gade.” His rise was about as fast as his fall as this segment would show.
The episode starts with some of his background where his ex-wife (Kimberly Morrison) discussed Rick Wilson’s upbringing. Rick’s mother had him at age 15 and apparently Rick had no idea whom his biological father was. In addition, Rick’s mother placed blame on Rick rather than herself for having him at a young age. One of Rick’s coaches in school would become a surrogate father for him while Rick struggled with his stepfather’s abuse at home. Rick’s ex-wife connects the poor home life and abuse to self-esteem issues as well as the desire to become a famous pro-wrestler. Despite Rick’s home life, Kimberly mentions frequently in this episode that for the most part Rick was a decent person and a hunk she fell in love with.
Before entering pro-wrestling, Rick worked at a strip club and they brought in his friend, Eric Henderson. I can’t tell if he owned the club or was just in charge of the show but he discovered Rick or Rio in the club. But the main point Eric makes for this section is the showmanship of Rick as well as the physical package that gave him a star-like quality at this club. Nonetheless, the job provided enough of an income for him to pursue his dreams of becoming a pro-wrestler where he would enter wrestling schools and do various independents.
As he worked wherever he could, Rick did not receive instant success but he would use the tassels that the Ultimate Warrior employed. At some point, the actual Ultimate Warrior showed up and complimented Rick with the old “imitation is the highest form of flattery” type of line. Apparently, that made some rounds where eventually Jimmy Hart learned about this guy and brought it up to Hulk Hogan, who was WCW’s top star in ’95 (for better or worse).
At this point, various people working for WCW at the time, including Eric Bischoff, a jobber called Joe Gomez, James Mitchell, etc. get into the picture to talk about the circumstances and connection of Rick, the Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan. While Eric Bischoff does try to give his side of the story (which is partly fabricated and tries to brush off any blame for decisions on his part for terrible creative), the big thing here is that in ’95 WCW was hurting badly because Hogan’s involvement turned the southern influenced WCW promotion into a worse version of the WWF’s cartoon world. Not only did WCW try to copy various ideas that the WWF had done in the past, they did so with the worst and horribly embarrassing execution that left many of their older fans alienated.
Sometime during that period, they saw Rick as a possible substitute for the real Ultimate Warrior (whom they would eventually get but in ’98 in a complete disaster of an angle). So they take this kid, dump paint on his face in addition to the Warrior-like getup he already was using on the indies and put him in a high position angle with Hulk Hogan as his mystery friend. However, everyone and their mom knew this guy was a fake. Maybe his actual wrestling skills was slightly better than the Ultimate Warrior but the snarls, body movements and physical charisma weren’t there. So the gimmick was basically DOA.
They brought in Arn Anderson because he had the unfortunate task of putting the Renegade over for the TV title. Everyone, including Arn, at the time knew that was Arn Anderson’s worst match, especially because it was an embarrassment on his legacy and showed the pervading influence Hogan had in WCW, despite how there was this massive growing resentment towards him being involved in anything there.
Beyond that they showed Paul Orndorff at the Bash at the Beach in ’95 facing the Renegade for the TV title. Interesting note from myself is that I was there at that show (unfortunately) and I can’t recall seeing it. But I think it probably was one of those things that just stunk the joint out. Then again that whole show was miserable from start to finish and an awful concept in a period where almost the entirety of ’95 was disaster after disaster. Renegade was just one of those consequences.
They did show DDP beating the Renegade for the TV title and I think by that point, the gimmick ran its course. In looking at the following PPVs, Renegade got one more PPV match at the following Halloween Havoc ’95 where Orndorff got his win back in squashing the Renegade. Then the Renegade wouldn’t come near a PPV until Hog Wild in ’96 but was in a dark match and was beaten by DDP. Either way, his career in WCW was done the moment he lost the TV title. But he would get buried by the guy who found him, Jimmy Hart when they splashed water over his face, remove the face paint and Hart would call him a nobody and even used his real name.
Although he got buried there, Renegade continued using his nickname and would team with Joe Gomez. Joe Gomez resembled this Fabio type of character but neither were really good nor experienced. Also, Gomez admitted here that neither put in that much effort into their actual craft to improve. I do remember both guys sometime in ’96 but their matches weren’t memorable in themselves as WCW had both the cruiserweight division that was taking off and the NWO vs WCW angle that was hot. Anyone not involved in either side were pretty much just extras filling up space during those long Nitros.
Getting back to the show, they did bring up the real Ultimate Warrior’s disastrous appearance in WCW. With the real Ultimate Warrior though, the Renegade was used as a stunt double/bodyguard apparently. That’s something I had no idea about. With the real Ultimate Warrior though, the Renegade had almost no place in WCW. Hogan would eventually get his “win” back from his Wrestlemania 6 loss and satisfy his overbearing ego, WCW would suffer more financial losses since the Ultimate Warrior only excited the crowd the second he physically appeared (then immediately lost them once he started talking nonsense without Vince McMahon producing him) and the angle was almost dead the instant it started.
Eventually, the Renegade would get let go and get into horse shoeing of all professions. Gomez mentioned that it sounded like a good deal for him because Rick had started living the wrestling/rock ‘n roll lifestyle in doing alcohol/drugs. So having a stable, niche job in the country sounded ideal for Rick to get his head straight. Apparently, he was still confused as he met back up with his stripper days friend, doing massive alcohol, meeting a new girlfriend from a different “club” and just having problems trying to resolve his demons. Kimberly and he attempted to reconcile but around that period is when he pulled the gun on himself.
Kimberly read the deposition/report where it mentioned how the stripper girlfriend and Rick got into an argument and Rick started abusing her. Apparently, he was heavily under the influence and she went to pull a gun on him but he took it away from her and shot himself in the mouth. I don’t remember the details at the time when I read about it but it almost didn’t seem all that shocking considering the general circumstances surrounding the guy as the quick rise to fame along with the accompanying humiliation probably put a massive damper on his self-esteem. They talk a bit about his depression as we heard about his past home life so the accumulated pressures and sense of missing fulfillment aggrandized everything into that moment.
They did use Marty Jannetty here as one of the talking heads as apparently he encountered Rick in Rick’s early career. But the key point that Marty makes is about handling failure. I think Rick didn’t know how to handle the drastic fall because of his recurring disappointments in his life. I’m certain that a huge part was his upbringing where his mother instilled a sense of guilt and failure. Some people in recent years describe that sort of behavior as being self sabotaging.
The sad thing is that I think he probably could’ve been better as a pro-wrestler than the real Ultimate Warrior. Certainly, his willingness to go to wrestling schools and do anything to get into the business shows that he had the right attitude initially. Unfortunately, he probably had no real mentors nor someone to take him under their wing to guide him properly, especially once he got that spotlight that alienated him.
One of the interesting comments James Mitchell makes in the episode is about the pro-wrestlers themselves being like high school girls with their pettiness and drama. I think in an industry where you have a bunch of prima donnas who are infatuated with themselves and bitterly guard their spots and sabotage others, it makes someone who lacks the mental sturdiness more vulnerable.
However, the one common thread about those who actually knew Rick was that he seemed to be a genuine person especially in comparison to the Ultimate Warrior. The substance abuse and rise to fame probably changed him. I would say if he rejected the offer to be Hogan’s sidekick and put a few more years on the independent circuit at the time and/or continued to improve, he could’ve done okay for himself. Physically, he looked good but the mental game wasn’t there. So it’s hard to say how that one change in course would’ve done for the guy.