Glacier Opens Up About His Relationship With The Rhodes Family, Comments On AEW Status

Former WCW wrestler Glacier, real name Ray Lloyd, was one of the surprise faces to appear at All In and that was due to his friendship with the Rhodes Family. Glacier is close with Cody and considered Dusty his mentor from the time they worked together in WCW.

Glacier discussed how he landed a job at WCW where he and Dusty became friends when he spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast.

"Dallas [DDP] went to bat for me with Eric Bischoff back in the day and that got the ball rolling for the whole Glacier thing. But one of my favorite sayings is, 'It's not what you know. It's not who you know. It's who's willing to say they know you.' It's who is willing to put their name and reputation on the line for you," said Glacier.

"What Dallas did for me was go out on a limb with Bischoff for me."

Glacier said that when he was first in WCW, he didn't get to know Dusty well because he was intimidated since The Dream was his childhood hero. It wasn't until after the Glacier gimmick that he finally got to know him better.

"I broke away from Glacier and did the Coach Buzz Stern gimmick and [Dusty] was in charge of shooting and producing all the videos for it. That's when I started to really get to know him but not really on the level I wanted to because I was still a little in awe of him," admitted Glacier.

"In 2000 when he left WCW and started his own company with Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling, he was asking around and wanted to bring on someone to become his right-hand guy. Someone to oversee the locker room when he ran shows and to run his wrestling school. I was still under contract with WCW but he went to Dallas and once again Dallas recommended me."

He then talked about Dusty going to Bischoff and working it out so that he could work for both promotions and that's when his mentorship began.

"Eric said, 'As long as it doesn't interfere with us [WCW], in his spare time he can do whatever he wants.' That's what we did at the beginning ? in my spare time I was being mentored with Dusty," said Glacier. "But that's how it all got started."

As for his relationship with Cody, Glacier has known him since he was a kid and they had mutual connections through the high school Cody attended.

"I've known Cody since he was a teenager. A lot of people know Cody as an amateur athlete who was a great high school wrestler and state champion. He went to Lassiter High School which is the same area where I lived and I actually used to be a school teacher at a time," revealed Glacier. "Once WCW got bought out, I turned down an opportunity for WWE which was a modest offer, but I turned it down because one of my best buddies who was a wrestling coach offered me a position to come back teaching at the high school.

"Through that, I got to know Cody more and my other best buddy was Cody's freshman football coach. And he was wrestling for Turnbuckle so all of our worlds kinda came together. So I've seen Cody grow up from a 15 year old kid to the professional he is today."

Glacier then talked about how honored he was to be a part of All In and how Cody told him Dusty considered him to be one of his five closest friends. Glacier ended up moving to Atlanta and opening his own school which Cody and Brandi will come in still and train.

"The Nightmare Family kinda comes back together here in Atlanta and I'm so happy for them," said Glacier. "I was over at the house this past Sunday and Brandi has a great YouTube show called 'A Shot of Brandi' that I was a guest on. I told her I don't know much about cooking, but my specialty is eating so if you cook it, I'll eat it.

"People ask me all the time about my future with AEW and right now nothing's official, I'm just here to support Cody and Brandi and AEW. I think they're gonna do some great things and I'm not just saying that. I've been around this business for 32 years and have seen a lot come and go, and I see them breaking new ground. I see them connecting with fans in a way that has never been done before and I think that's their secret weapon ? the way they are approaching their connection with the fans."

Glacier was part of the Casino Battle Royal at Double or Nothing and he never imagined that he would be on that stage again.

"I never ever thought that at 55 years old I would ever enter the MGM Grand again much less perform in front of a sold-out crowd," stated Glacier. "Cody called me up and it wasn't even a question. He says, 'I need you in the Battle Royal. You're gonna be in the Battle Royal, aren't you?'

"So I sincerely thank Cody from the bottom of my heart because he didn't have to do that."

He then added that Cody knew that there were a lot of guys in that match that had never worked in front of that many people. So he, Dreamer and a few others were sent out there to help keep calm and keep the match moving.

"AEW's future is extremely bright. They've got a huge challenge ahead of them doing weekly TV?So I'm anxious to see how they approach this and if they try to do things differently or try methods used in the past," stated Glacier.

"I think AEW is getting really to do some really exciting things and it's great for the professional wrestling industry as a whole. It's great for the fans and the wrestlers. Like Tony Khan said, he just wants to put great wrestling out there. He's not trying to put anybody out of business or compete with guys. He just wants to give the fans more wrestling to watch and that's what's great about it."

Outside of wrestling, Glacier also recently participated in a comedy event where he told stories from his career in wrestling. He compared being on a comedy stage to being in a wrestling ring.

"It's a whole less lot painful being on that stage telling stories than being thrown around in a ring [laughs]. But ironically, and I talked to Raven about this a few days ago, even though I'm very comfortable going out there in front of a wrestling crowd?at the Jailhouse Brewery I was kinda nervous. It was stepping outside of my comfort zone and doing something I normally don't do. And I think we all like to think that we tell great stories, I was quick to the punch [laughs] and thank God I told them pretty good and I got a couple of good reactions," said Glacier.

He was then asked about what stories fans want to hear about the most.

"No one ever seems to get tired of hearing Dusty Rhodes stories because he was such a larger than life character," Glacier said before noting that along with Dusty, DDP is also a mentor to him and he was going to meet him after this interview.

"Dusty was a mentor to both me and Dallas and a lot of people. There's always stories I tell about how great Dusty was as a performer, but also a sentimental, kind, good ol' soul. I got to know the person Dusty Rhodes and people always like to hear stories about the guy behind the brand of Dusty Rhodes.

"I love sharing stories about that because he meant to much to be as a person and a mentor. I'm so thankful I got to know the person and I really enjoy sharing those stories.

Glacier recently participated in the comedy event Tall Tales from the historic old city jail of Hampton, Ga., now known as Jailhouse Brewing Company. The event helped to raise awareness for Operation Lunchbox's mission to feed hungry students in the local community. More information about Tall Tales and their upcoming shows please visit Facebook.com/TallTalesPod.

Glacier's full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of a recent episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post. In it Glacier discusses his relationship with the Rhodes Family, his AEW status, nearly joining WWE in 2000, his role in AEW's Casino Battle Royal, Operation Lunchbox and more.

You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.