1 00:00:09,190 --> 00:00:13,310 Jimmy Hart has programmed me to terminate on sight. 2 00:00:13,870 --> 00:00:17,970 Get ready to feel the power of the renegade! 3 00:00:20,130 --> 00:00:24,970 In the mid-90s, Rick Wilson dreamed of wrestling star. 4 00:00:25,310 --> 00:00:30,210 He put his heart and soul into everything he did. He wanted to be a 5 00:00:30,210 --> 00:00:31,210 wrestler so bad. 6 00:00:31,730 --> 00:00:35,130 Only to be offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. 7 00:00:36,650 --> 00:00:37,650 That's right! 8 00:00:37,770 --> 00:00:39,510 The Renegade, you idiot! 9 00:00:40,330 --> 00:00:45,930 What aspiring rapper would turn down the spot to be Hulk Hogan's wingman? 10 00:00:46,190 --> 00:00:50,250 That's the dream job. The mystery and intrigue that surround Renegade will add 11 00:00:50,250 --> 00:00:51,250 even more excitement. 12 00:00:51,630 --> 00:00:55,650 The shot at the spotlight quickly spirals into disaster. 13 00:00:57,480 --> 00:01:02,740 Rick Wilson retired because he resembled a really popular character from several 14 00:01:02,740 --> 00:01:03,740 years earlier. 15 00:01:03,900 --> 00:01:05,900 But did you look like that Ultimate Warrior guy? 16 00:01:06,160 --> 00:01:07,580 He said, yeah, that's the look they want. 17 00:01:07,800 --> 00:01:11,340 No matter how you dress this guy up, it falls to advertise. 18 00:01:11,780 --> 00:01:12,780 There was a ripoff. 19 00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:17,560 In Experienced in the Ring, the Renegade is rejected by fans. 20 00:01:19,220 --> 00:01:22,500 And eventually by the company that created him. 21 00:01:24,520 --> 00:01:28,480 Why would you humiliate the kid? You're the one that shot Gunner two at a time. 22 00:01:28,960 --> 00:01:31,960 God, that had to be devastating for him. 23 00:01:32,840 --> 00:01:37,460 Unable to escape the fallout, Wilson descends into self-destruction. 24 00:01:37,980 --> 00:01:42,320 There were two people in that house, and one of them did not leave that house. 25 00:01:43,240 --> 00:01:47,440 I can't tell you what demons he was carrying around. Obviously, he's a very 26 00:01:47,440 --> 00:01:48,440 disturbed young man. 27 00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:52,220 Few could have known how far the renegade would fall. 28 00:01:52,440 --> 00:01:55,400 Sitting on the outside looking in, thinking, oh, this guy sucks, he's a 29 00:01:55,400 --> 00:01:59,100 dick. Well, I was wrong. I didn't know what was going on. They put him in a 30 00:01:59,100 --> 00:02:01,780 tough spot, almost unwinnable spot. 31 00:02:02,040 --> 00:02:03,420 He was a human being. 32 00:02:03,620 --> 00:02:04,680 He had a heart. 33 00:02:05,100 --> 00:02:07,420 And I think Bethlehem just tore him up. 34 00:02:21,740 --> 00:02:27,100 In the summer of 1994, Ted Turner's World Championship Wrestling searches 35 00:02:27,100 --> 00:02:30,960 for a new identity in an increasingly competitive industry. 36 00:02:32,220 --> 00:02:33,220 Check it out! 37 00:02:33,640 --> 00:02:38,700 I think if you step back and you really looked at what was the WCW doing 38 00:02:38,700 --> 00:02:40,560 creatively. 39 00:02:41,320 --> 00:02:43,300 I've never seen two live bands come to wrestling, man. 40 00:02:43,920 --> 00:02:49,000 We were limping along, trying to be competitive with WWF, but I felt like if 41 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:50,960 we were really going to turn the corner, 42 00:02:51,760 --> 00:02:53,220 I had to shift the focus. 43 00:02:57,940 --> 00:03:02,600 I'm Eric Bischoff. In 1994, I was vice president of WCW. 44 00:03:05,860 --> 00:03:10,340 People on the outside of the business were very critical of me bringing in 45 00:03:10,340 --> 00:03:11,340 Hulk Hogan. 46 00:03:12,980 --> 00:03:16,260 Because they thought that Hulk Hogan's career was over, he's done, he's locked 47 00:03:16,260 --> 00:03:17,620 up, he left WWF. 48 00:03:18,120 --> 00:03:19,400 Well, that worked out pretty good. 49 00:03:26,179 --> 00:03:31,060 After the introduction of Hogan, all of the guys that you had grown up with in 50 00:03:31,060 --> 00:03:33,980 WWF were now starting to populate the WCW screen. 51 00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:38,880 It signed Randy Savage and your John Pences and Ed Leslie. 52 00:03:39,400 --> 00:03:43,760 Everything from Hulk Hogan's past is now WCW's future. 53 00:03:44,040 --> 00:03:46,280 Everything that was old is now new again, brother. 54 00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:50,980 And people were just naturally thinking, of course, the Ultimate Warrior would 55 00:03:50,980 --> 00:03:52,820 make his way over here as well. 56 00:03:56,620 --> 00:04:02,400 The Ultimate Warrior, for a period of time, was as popular a figure as the WWF 57 00:04:02,400 --> 00:04:08,940 had. He becomes this phenomenon, headlining WrestleMania 58 00:04:08,940 --> 00:04:09,940 VI. 59 00:04:11,140 --> 00:04:14,680 All the way up to becoming WWF champion. 60 00:04:16,160 --> 00:04:23,020 And then, almost as quickly as he 61 00:04:23,020 --> 00:04:25,660 rises to the top, he just disappeared. 62 00:04:27,310 --> 00:04:32,330 I think the best case scenario for WCW was to have Hulk Hogan, in theory, 63 00:04:32,450 --> 00:04:34,070 avenge that loss to the Ultimate Warrior. 64 00:04:35,370 --> 00:04:41,550 So, in 1995, WCW was going into a pay-per-view called Uncensored, 65 00:04:41,670 --> 00:04:45,830 and Hulk Hogan began teasing the Ultimate Surprise. 66 00:04:46,150 --> 00:04:50,710 See my Ultimate Surprise, brother! 67 00:04:51,340 --> 00:04:55,480 I'm the sinister minister, Father James Mitchell, and I worked with the renegade 68 00:04:55,480 --> 00:04:56,980 Rick Wilson in WCW. 69 00:04:58,740 --> 00:05:05,440 Hulk Hogan was filming vignette in a smoke-filled room, and there was this 70 00:05:05,440 --> 00:05:11,820 very familiar shadowy outline of a guy with the long Bon Jovi heavy metal hair. 71 00:05:12,960 --> 00:05:17,440 But right now I'm standing on the dark side, brothers, with the most powerful 72 00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:19,600 man I've ever met in my life. 73 00:05:20,170 --> 00:05:26,570 The idea was to keep this mystery of who is this person, but nudging you, hey, 74 00:05:26,850 --> 00:05:28,430 it's the ultimate warrior. 75 00:05:30,790 --> 00:05:32,770 That's what the audience was being told. 76 00:05:33,130 --> 00:05:37,150 The entire world was expecting the ultimate warrior. 77 00:05:39,270 --> 00:05:44,950 Music fires up, and out comes the renegade. 78 00:05:46,030 --> 00:05:49,470 All right, that music means it's time! 79 00:05:53,960 --> 00:05:59,960 Ta-da! It's Rick Wilson, who most fans had never heard of. Who is this 80 00:05:59,960 --> 00:06:00,960 renegade? 81 00:06:01,680 --> 00:06:06,560 First of all, it was bait-and-switch advertising, and the crowd immediately 82 00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:08,500 noticed something wasn't right. 83 00:06:12,940 --> 00:06:17,540 These are kind of far back. This was closer to the time that I first met him. 84 00:06:18,040 --> 00:06:19,220 It was beautiful. 85 00:06:20,620 --> 00:06:24,760 My name is Kimberly Morrison, and I was once married to the man you know as 86 00:06:24,760 --> 00:06:31,060 Renegade. From the day I met Ricky, he wanted to be a wrestler and famous and 87 00:06:31,060 --> 00:06:32,060 well-known. 88 00:06:33,880 --> 00:06:36,180 I don't know if it came from his childhood. 89 00:06:36,820 --> 00:06:42,180 Maybe there's some deep-down issue that you want to be paid attention to and 90 00:06:42,180 --> 00:06:43,180 validated. 91 00:06:43,600 --> 00:06:46,160 But I think he may have felt unwanted. 92 00:06:49,490 --> 00:06:52,210 Ricky's mom had him at 15 or 16. 93 00:06:52,530 --> 00:06:58,050 He felt as though she blamed him for having him at such a young age. 94 00:06:58,970 --> 00:07:02,110 He was unsure about who his biological father was. 95 00:07:02,370 --> 00:07:07,610 He was told that it was a professional golfer. He never knew for sure. 96 00:07:09,050 --> 00:07:12,130 Coach West was the coach at his high school. 97 00:07:13,030 --> 00:07:15,410 He was a father figure to him. 98 00:07:43,370 --> 00:07:48,350 I think after somebody goes through any kind of violence in the home, their 99 00:07:48,350 --> 00:07:49,350 brain changes. 100 00:07:51,210 --> 00:07:57,870 He was dirt at home, and that probably added to Ricky 101 00:07:57,870 --> 00:08:02,130 wanting to be big, be tall, be somebody, be important. 102 00:08:02,750 --> 00:08:08,050 My name is Eric Henderson, the man you know as Renegade, the wrestler, I knew 103 00:08:08,050 --> 00:08:09,370 as Rio, the dancer. 104 00:08:11,150 --> 00:08:12,530 He worked out. 105 00:08:13,070 --> 00:08:17,710 Drew his hair out, and he became special. He became Rio. 106 00:08:21,070 --> 00:08:26,510 Back in the 80s, I had a dance group that was working at Club La Vila in 107 00:08:26,510 --> 00:08:30,150 Panama City Beach, and we came up with the name Ultimate Fantasy. 108 00:08:32,929 --> 00:08:35,429 We didn't do the standard stripping. 109 00:08:35,770 --> 00:08:39,590 Everything had to be choreographed, all of us in tuxedos. 110 00:08:39,809 --> 00:08:42,390 We wanted to give the women a burlesque. 111 00:08:42,679 --> 00:08:43,679 Classy show. 112 00:08:44,580 --> 00:08:47,940 One afternoon, out on the beach was this huge guy. 113 00:08:48,380 --> 00:08:52,720 Six, five, long hair, and his body was just so tight. 114 00:08:53,180 --> 00:08:55,540 I said to myself, I gotta have that guy. 115 00:08:56,900 --> 00:09:01,020 All right, ladies, one more time. Six foot four and hung to the floor. 116 00:09:01,260 --> 00:09:03,040 Let it rock for Rio. 117 00:09:06,460 --> 00:09:08,760 Rio loved being a shonen. 118 00:09:09,520 --> 00:09:11,900 He would do a warrior routine. 119 00:09:12,520 --> 00:09:17,400 And he had this big fur cape, big, huge sword. And he'd go, here I am, rock you 120 00:09:17,400 --> 00:09:19,540 like a hurricane. And the place would erupt. 121 00:09:23,400 --> 00:09:24,700 He was very sexy. 122 00:09:24,960 --> 00:09:29,960 He was a very sexy. Now, I used to laugh and say he wasn't sexy at home. 123 00:09:30,320 --> 00:09:31,440 That's one thing he was. 124 00:09:31,680 --> 00:09:35,160 He was a totally different person at home. 125 00:09:36,720 --> 00:09:39,700 He was a polite southern gentleman. 126 00:09:40,320 --> 00:09:41,480 He was very thoughtful. 127 00:09:42,060 --> 00:09:44,840 And we got married on June 2nd, 1992. 128 00:09:46,120 --> 00:09:48,400 But he had a lot of trust issues. 129 00:09:48,680 --> 00:09:52,240 I think he really had that abandonment wound in him. 130 00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:59,720 I was placed to come home to while he was going on tour with Ultimate Fantasy. 131 00:09:59,840 --> 00:10:02,920 He got a journal and started writing to me. 132 00:10:04,100 --> 00:10:08,800 Hey Kim, wish I was with you. I can't believe how much I care about you. It 133 00:10:08,800 --> 00:10:09,800 really scares me. 134 00:10:10,760 --> 00:10:15,820 I'm hungry for my destiny, and I'm going to make it happen. I hope you agree and 135 00:10:15,820 --> 00:10:17,060 want to stick it out with me. 136 00:10:18,860 --> 00:10:23,800 Dancing was just something that provided him an income to allow him to pay for 137 00:10:23,800 --> 00:10:28,160 wrestling school, and he would do anything to get into that world. 138 00:10:29,460 --> 00:10:33,680 Stepping into the ring, Wilson's ambition doesn't lead to instant 139 00:10:33,680 --> 00:10:34,680 success. 140 00:10:35,460 --> 00:10:39,060 We trained at Oates Gym in Columbus. 141 00:10:39,660 --> 00:10:41,300 Killer Kowalski's gym in Boston. 142 00:10:42,220 --> 00:10:47,520 Financially, it was tough on him. We used to go to some shows. We'd drive two 143 00:10:47,520 --> 00:10:49,920 hours, and he was going to get $100. 144 00:10:52,320 --> 00:10:54,640 Then he went to Japan. 145 00:10:56,380 --> 00:11:01,600 He went anywhere to do anything, just waiting on that big break. 146 00:11:02,540 --> 00:11:05,520 And I think he got disappointed so many times. 147 00:11:08,430 --> 00:11:10,850 His wrestling character was real Lord of the Jungle. 148 00:11:11,190 --> 00:11:14,190 He would come out kind of screaming like the ultimate warrior. 149 00:11:15,390 --> 00:11:19,650 He didn't have any makeup on his face, but he had the strings around his arms. 150 00:11:20,250 --> 00:11:22,570 He would get little digs about that. 151 00:11:22,990 --> 00:11:24,430 A wannabe warrior. 152 00:11:25,470 --> 00:11:26,710 And that bothered me. 153 00:11:29,330 --> 00:11:36,270 But one time, I saw him wrestle where the ultimate warrior was there. 154 00:11:49,930 --> 00:11:52,930 Rio was very excited about it. 155 00:11:53,130 --> 00:11:54,770 It was a pretty big deal. 156 00:11:57,270 --> 00:12:03,890 Word of Wilson's resemblance to the ultimate warrior reaches Hulk Hogan's on 157 00:12:03,890 --> 00:12:05,650 -screen manager, Jimmy Hart. 158 00:12:06,860 --> 00:12:08,300 who sees an opportunity. 159 00:12:09,880 --> 00:12:13,260 Oftentimes, people that are in the creative side of the business will go 160 00:12:13,260 --> 00:12:17,340 back to formulas or characters that have worked for them in the past. 161 00:12:18,340 --> 00:12:22,380 I knew that Hulk and a couple of the other key talents were interested in 162 00:12:22,380 --> 00:12:24,800 having Warrior because there's more storyline potential. 163 00:12:25,120 --> 00:12:30,160 But Warrior had a lawsuit going on with WWF. There was no way of knowing how 164 00:12:30,160 --> 00:12:31,160 that was going to turn out. 165 00:12:33,359 --> 00:12:36,920 Jimmy Hart said that they wanted Ricky to come in and they were flying him to 166 00:12:36,920 --> 00:12:37,920 Tampa. 167 00:12:39,040 --> 00:12:43,400 He was so excited that he was chummy with all these Hulk Hogan and all the 168 00:12:43,400 --> 00:12:45,020 other wrestlers. They were his heroes. 169 00:12:46,420 --> 00:12:50,180 I think Jimmy saw Rick's hair in the way he carried himself. 170 00:12:51,360 --> 00:12:55,460 And I think Jimmy, with a lot of support from Hulk, thought, wow, what if we kind 171 00:12:55,460 --> 00:13:01,280 of turned him into a Ultimate Warrior clone and recreate some of that magic? 172 00:13:02,450 --> 00:13:07,670 I've always believed that you should never steal somebody's gimmick. You will 173 00:13:07,670 --> 00:13:09,530 be perceived as a knockoff. 174 00:13:10,390 --> 00:13:14,790 I think Rick Wilson would have played any character that they offered to him. 175 00:13:14,870 --> 00:13:18,330 It sure beats The Alternative, which is just continuing to work independence. 176 00:13:18,710 --> 00:13:22,570 And you're going to take a gamble. Like, maybe this thing will take off. 177 00:13:23,260 --> 00:13:27,800 In just a little while, brother, I'm going to let the whole world know 178 00:13:27,800 --> 00:13:32,500 exactly what Hulk Hogan's ultimate surprise is, brother. 179 00:13:34,280 --> 00:13:37,000 He was like, it's happening. It's happening right now. 180 00:13:41,220 --> 00:13:44,180 The audience liked the debut, and Rick was excited. 181 00:13:45,560 --> 00:13:46,940 He's not watching! 182 00:13:47,640 --> 00:13:52,440 Hi, I'm Joe Gomez, and I tag with Rick Wilson, the Renegade. 183 00:13:53,040 --> 00:13:56,800 He had the big hair, and he came out acting really fired up. 184 00:13:57,580 --> 00:14:01,180 Face paint was half a bright color, like Warrior did. 185 00:14:01,540 --> 00:14:04,220 A man's name is Renegade. What powerhouse he is! 186 00:14:04,560 --> 00:14:05,800 Fans bought into it. 187 00:14:06,800 --> 00:14:11,180 It's not surprising that Rick Wilson was picked out of a lineup to play this 188 00:14:11,180 --> 00:14:12,180 character. 189 00:14:15,180 --> 00:14:21,900 But at the end of the day, this was, in many ways, The bargain bin version of 190 00:14:21,900 --> 00:14:23,880 The Ultimate Warrior coming to WCW. 191 00:14:24,720 --> 00:14:27,000 And it was only downhill after that. 192 00:14:27,820 --> 00:14:34,360 Imagine you've been brought in as Hulk Hogan's best friend. It's your life 193 00:14:34,360 --> 00:14:36,200 dream. It's what you've always wanted to do. 194 00:14:36,860 --> 00:14:38,280 That's a great spot. 195 00:14:38,580 --> 00:14:44,180 But how many people would have the wisdom to realize they weren't ready for 196 00:14:44,180 --> 00:14:45,180 that spot? 197 00:14:45,870 --> 00:14:50,530 What you gonna do when Hogan and the Ultimate Surprise destroy you? 198 00:14:58,630 --> 00:15:03,170 After his debut, the Renegade's dream of stardom becomes real. 199 00:15:04,410 --> 00:15:11,350 If you're up there with Hulk Hogan, you made it. 200 00:15:12,190 --> 00:15:14,230 Everybody wants to know all about the Renegade! 201 00:15:14,670 --> 00:15:19,330 To be respected and international, that's exactly what he wanted. 202 00:15:19,610 --> 00:15:22,130 With the mysterious Renegade in their corner. 203 00:15:22,430 --> 00:15:26,230 I was happy as hell for him, you know. I was like, good for you, man. 204 00:15:28,750 --> 00:15:33,810 I'm Marty Zanetti, formerly of the Rockers. I met Renegade when he first 205 00:15:33,810 --> 00:15:34,850 was getting into wrestling. 206 00:15:36,750 --> 00:15:43,310 All of a sudden, he's buddying up with Hogan. He's the top dog. 207 00:15:44,590 --> 00:15:48,270 If it was me and them only just started, I'd be scared to death. 208 00:15:49,090 --> 00:15:53,730 At the same time, the comfort in it would be, I'm protected. 209 00:15:54,470 --> 00:15:55,610 Can't nobody touch me. 210 00:15:57,290 --> 00:16:00,670 But everybody else in the dressing room is going to be sitting there tapping 211 00:16:00,670 --> 00:16:03,670 their fingers like, I've been here the whole day, wow, and I didn't get a 212 00:16:03,670 --> 00:16:04,670 chance like this. 213 00:16:04,790 --> 00:16:06,670 So there's going to be a lot of jealousy. 214 00:16:08,950 --> 00:16:11,990 Pro wrestlers are like a bunch of teenage girls. 215 00:16:12,670 --> 00:16:13,810 Very catty. 216 00:16:14,540 --> 00:16:19,520 A lot of drama, politics, backstabbing, trying to work your way up the 217 00:16:19,520 --> 00:16:20,940 popularity food chain. 218 00:16:21,400 --> 00:16:27,220 People would shake your hand out of social decorum, but if they really 219 00:16:27,220 --> 00:16:31,540 resented you, they'd say something shitty to you. So he felt a little 220 00:16:31,540 --> 00:16:32,540 disrespected. 221 00:16:35,920 --> 00:16:40,680 As Wilson's success becomes real, new temptations follow. 222 00:16:41,440 --> 00:16:43,740 I had gone to our apartment. 223 00:16:44,600 --> 00:16:47,380 And underneath the kitchen cabinets was alcohol. 224 00:16:47,620 --> 00:16:48,620 We didn't drink. 225 00:16:50,180 --> 00:16:54,060 And then on top of the refrigerator, I found a card. 226 00:16:55,660 --> 00:17:00,160 And it said, I can't wait to swing from your 10-inch vine. 227 00:17:01,960 --> 00:17:08,579 I destroyed our apartment. I destroyed it. I could wobble onto the 228 00:17:08,579 --> 00:17:09,579 television. 229 00:17:10,319 --> 00:17:12,540 And I destroyed clothes. 230 00:17:15,110 --> 00:17:18,109 And then when he called me and said, come to Tampa and bring me some clothes, 231 00:17:18,190 --> 00:17:19,569 I was like, hmm. 232 00:17:20,990 --> 00:17:22,950 You don't have a lot of clothes left here. 233 00:17:25,970 --> 00:17:31,870 When I got to the hotel, we had a huge blowout. And I took my wedding ring off 234 00:17:31,870 --> 00:17:33,390 and I left it on the counter and I left. 235 00:17:35,430 --> 00:17:38,790 I do think we would have laughed if he hadn't gone into wrestling because he 236 00:17:38,790 --> 00:17:40,510 evolved into someone I didn't know. 237 00:17:43,430 --> 00:17:48,250 Separated from his wife, Wilson throws himself into his wrestling career. 238 00:17:52,550 --> 00:17:58,910 He told us that somebody was sort of giving him Ultimate Warrior lessons. 239 00:18:01,490 --> 00:18:05,610 Saying do a little more of this and a little less of that, whatever was going 240 00:18:05,610 --> 00:18:06,610 on with his hands. 241 00:18:06,830 --> 00:18:09,170 He was doing exactly what he was told. 242 00:18:11,440 --> 00:18:16,460 It was very clear that they were committed to trying to go with this guy. 243 00:18:18,180 --> 00:18:23,860 And putting the television title on him was step one in that process. 244 00:18:27,460 --> 00:18:28,460 No, 245 00:18:33,320 --> 00:18:39,620 he's an asshole. 246 00:18:40,220 --> 00:18:41,220 Watch his background. 247 00:18:41,460 --> 00:18:42,540 Nobody knew. 248 00:18:42,940 --> 00:18:48,280 And apparently he was a dick dancer in Boston, Massachusetts. 249 00:18:49,260 --> 00:18:54,220 This is professional wrestling. I expect him to be a professional wrestler, not a 250 00:18:54,220 --> 00:18:55,220 dick dancer. 251 00:18:56,820 --> 00:19:01,780 This is Arne Anderson, the enforcer of the Four Horsemen. I wrestled the 252 00:19:01,780 --> 00:19:03,280 Renegade many times. 253 00:19:08,010 --> 00:19:10,050 I went and got him, went and found somewhere quiet. 254 00:19:10,450 --> 00:19:13,210 I just was trying to get a feel of, is he nervous? 255 00:19:14,150 --> 00:19:15,390 What do you want to do? 256 00:19:15,890 --> 00:19:17,070 What can you do? 257 00:19:18,190 --> 00:19:19,330 He didn't say much. 258 00:19:19,770 --> 00:19:22,430 Come to find out, he didn't know much. 259 00:19:25,450 --> 00:19:30,110 You want to have a good match with everybody, period. 260 00:19:30,530 --> 00:19:31,530 That's your job. 261 00:19:31,990 --> 00:19:35,510 There's so much mystery and intrigue about this Winnegan. We don't know that 262 00:19:35,510 --> 00:19:36,510 much about him. 263 00:19:36,640 --> 00:19:38,480 But he was a blank slate. 264 00:19:39,040 --> 00:19:40,540 It wasn't filled in yet. 265 00:19:41,660 --> 00:19:43,720 He knows some wrestling hold. He really does. 266 00:19:44,120 --> 00:19:45,380 He was in the ring with Art Anderson. 267 00:19:45,680 --> 00:19:49,220 One of the top five workers of all time, in my opinion. When you're in the ring 268 00:19:49,220 --> 00:19:51,940 with someone like that and they can't get a good match out of you, it's tough. 269 00:19:52,580 --> 00:19:55,100 You're going to look at the crowd at Harrah Arena. 270 00:19:56,000 --> 00:19:58,760 It's kind of northwest of Dayton, Ohio here. 271 00:19:59,200 --> 00:20:01,240 He's still very early in his career. 272 00:20:01,950 --> 00:20:06,230 And you're seeing someone that's largely just trying to understand the basics of 273 00:20:06,230 --> 00:20:09,550 working a wrestling match, but now it's happening on national television. 274 00:20:11,250 --> 00:20:12,310 There's no fire. 275 00:20:13,130 --> 00:20:14,350 There's no intensity. 276 00:20:14,690 --> 00:20:16,350 He's just going through moves. 277 00:20:17,990 --> 00:20:22,790 That was not the collision it should have been, and there's only so much I 278 00:20:22,790 --> 00:20:23,790 can do. 279 00:20:23,890 --> 00:20:24,930 That's hard to watch. 280 00:20:31,630 --> 00:20:34,530 I've got to be honest with you, I've never been so glad for a match to be 281 00:20:34,530 --> 00:20:35,530 over in my life. 282 00:20:36,050 --> 00:20:40,250 The Renegade becomes the world television champion! 283 00:20:41,410 --> 00:20:46,370 That's basically the high point of the Renegade's run in WCW. 284 00:20:48,790 --> 00:20:53,670 So I get back to the curtain, who do I see? 285 00:20:54,610 --> 00:20:59,490 Someone I've respected my whole career and who's a real badass. 286 00:21:00,190 --> 00:21:05,370 Paul Orndorff, he went, oh, Jesus, Arnie, that sucked. 287 00:21:06,730 --> 00:21:09,670 Yes, Paul, I'm aware of that. 288 00:21:10,890 --> 00:21:17,730 Jimmy Hart has programmed me to D-O-S, terminate 289 00:21:17,730 --> 00:21:18,790 on that! 290 00:21:19,950 --> 00:21:26,190 The next big show in his first defense, Paul Orndorff against the Renegades. 291 00:21:26,310 --> 00:21:27,870 This guy's wired like a cheap watch. 292 00:21:32,139 --> 00:21:34,760 This was the Bash at the Beach event in 1995. 293 00:21:36,460 --> 00:21:41,560 And here is the renegade, the babyface, to save the day here on this sunny day 294 00:21:41,560 --> 00:21:42,560 on the beach. 295 00:21:45,440 --> 00:21:50,380 But one of the few memories of this show is Paul Orndorff delivering a pile 296 00:21:50,380 --> 00:21:51,640 driver to the renegade. 297 00:21:52,920 --> 00:21:57,580 The fact that the audience is cheering for this, it's... 298 00:21:57,840 --> 00:22:02,880 The worst case scenario for a babyface when the audience is metaphorically 299 00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:05,340 turning its back on you and backing the eel. 300 00:22:10,100 --> 00:22:15,320 After Bash at the Beach, I think everyone knew that this renegade 301 00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:20,600 character was not going to reach anywhere near the aspirations that WCW 302 00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:21,600 had when they brought him in. 303 00:22:25,070 --> 00:22:30,990 I think it was a lesson for pro wrestling that it is the person that 304 00:22:30,990 --> 00:22:35,150 makes the character and not always the character that makes the performance. 305 00:22:36,670 --> 00:22:41,850 As the Renegade fails to connect with fans, he loses the support of his 306 00:22:41,850 --> 00:22:42,850 biggest ally. 307 00:22:44,130 --> 00:22:48,530 Hulk was pretty self-centered, and I think he just decided, I'm just going to 308 00:22:48,530 --> 00:22:49,550 step away from it. 309 00:22:51,690 --> 00:22:52,750 He's on his own. 310 00:22:55,500 --> 00:22:58,820 You know, to every beginning there must be an end. 311 00:22:59,140 --> 00:23:02,040 Renegade had a firm ending. 312 00:23:02,880 --> 00:23:07,600 The end of the Renegade character, for all intents and purposes, happens in 313 00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:09,120 November of 1995. 314 00:23:10,060 --> 00:23:16,520 They have a match on television where Kevin Sullivan beats the Renegade, and 315 00:23:16,520 --> 00:23:21,220 after the match, Jimmy Hart pours water over the face paint of the Renegade. 316 00:23:33,080 --> 00:23:39,660 The symbolism of wiping that paint off was we gave you a shot and you failed us 317 00:23:39,660 --> 00:23:40,660 miserably. 318 00:23:43,560 --> 00:23:46,180 You know what he did? He just destroyed that man's identity. 319 00:23:46,460 --> 00:23:50,520 You would have to know after that kind of humiliation. There's no coming back 320 00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:51,520 from it. 321 00:24:06,440 --> 00:24:11,880 After his character is publicly humiliated on WCW television, Rick 322 00:24:11,880 --> 00:24:13,680 Wilson is left to pick up the pieces. 323 00:24:14,100 --> 00:24:18,340 It had to be demoralizing for Rick Wilson. He had gotten in the door at 324 00:24:18,340 --> 00:24:22,680 WCW, but there was no demand for this character. 325 00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:27,100 It felt like an admission by WCW that this was a failed experiment. 326 00:24:29,040 --> 00:24:33,940 You had to salvage something, and it was time to get a return on that investment. 327 00:24:34,990 --> 00:24:38,970 But there was no heat off of it because the fans had already gave up on him. 328 00:24:41,610 --> 00:24:45,350 When he'd go into the change room, people wouldn't talk to him, wouldn't 329 00:24:45,350 --> 00:24:46,169 look at him. 330 00:24:46,170 --> 00:24:50,450 The guys had moved on. It had been established what he had brought to the 331 00:24:50,450 --> 00:24:51,910 table, and that wasn't much. 332 00:24:53,410 --> 00:24:57,490 He disappears off television for a few months, and the Rick Wilson that would 333 00:24:57,490 --> 00:25:02,610 return, yes, he is billed as the renegade, but he's a far cry from their 334 00:25:02,610 --> 00:25:03,950 hopes that they had a year prior. 335 00:25:17,510 --> 00:25:22,110 In the mid to late 90s, there was a lot you could have done with a Rick Wilson. 336 00:25:22,210 --> 00:25:26,570 There are ways that you could camouflage his limitations, like putting him in a 337 00:25:26,570 --> 00:25:27,429 tag team. 338 00:25:27,430 --> 00:25:28,610 Joe Gomez! 339 00:25:30,429 --> 00:25:35,410 Joe Gomez was a journeyman wrestler, and they were paired as part of this group 340 00:25:35,410 --> 00:25:36,730 called the In Crowd. 341 00:25:37,410 --> 00:25:40,890 They were not that in, to be quite honest. They were never quite in style. 342 00:25:41,390 --> 00:25:45,230 When they put us together, we were both excited because I truly think they 343 00:25:45,230 --> 00:25:46,230 wanted it to work. 344 00:25:47,830 --> 00:25:51,830 I got on great with Rick. 345 00:25:52,030 --> 00:25:53,170 We were both green. 346 00:25:53,630 --> 00:25:55,310 I was taking it all for granted. 347 00:25:57,550 --> 00:26:00,730 And I don't think Rick had a firm grasp on it, to be honest. 348 00:26:01,490 --> 00:26:04,970 The smarter guys, they really work hard at it and they live it and they breathe 349 00:26:04,970 --> 00:26:05,970 it. 350 00:26:07,390 --> 00:26:11,090 Rick and I didn't take it seriously enough to hone our craft. 351 00:26:11,410 --> 00:26:15,570 We had every opportunity in the world to shine. We just chose not to. 352 00:26:17,410 --> 00:26:24,010 When you're brought in and 353 00:26:24,010 --> 00:26:25,010 you're promised... 354 00:26:25,200 --> 00:26:30,980 and it doesn't materialize, I'm sure that played a lot of games on his head 355 00:26:30,980 --> 00:26:34,260 of how committed he was going to be to professional wrestling. 356 00:26:35,240 --> 00:26:41,600 This is where he gets into the wrestling lifestyle, which included drugs, which 357 00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:43,420 included drinking and partying. 358 00:26:43,640 --> 00:26:48,580 Part of the business is to be social and always be in the hotel bar after and buy 359 00:26:48,580 --> 00:26:49,580 the veterans around. 360 00:26:49,900 --> 00:26:54,100 And I think Rick was trying to keep his place in the proverbial pecking order. 361 00:26:56,020 --> 00:26:58,280 We had been separated for a while. 362 00:26:58,760 --> 00:27:03,240 When I saw his wrestling pictures, his body had changed. 363 00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:06,740 He looked bigger and bloatier. 364 00:27:07,300 --> 00:27:09,220 His hair wasn't as nice. 365 00:27:10,220 --> 00:27:15,720 He came to visit me in Panama City one time. He had a big belly, had a bandana 366 00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:19,100 on covering up his lost hair, and he wanted to drink. 367 00:27:19,760 --> 00:27:23,700 And that blew my mind because Rio never did drugs. He never drank, never did 368 00:27:23,700 --> 00:27:24,700 squat. 369 00:27:25,340 --> 00:27:28,000 We did these damn things called purple hooters. 370 00:27:28,200 --> 00:27:32,580 And we did so many of them that when we were done doing the shot, we started 371 00:27:32,580 --> 00:27:33,980 building this wall. 372 00:27:35,260 --> 00:27:40,140 We had so many of those things. I didn't know my name. I was talking Russian. And 373 00:27:40,140 --> 00:27:43,980 I shit myself. I peed my bed. 374 00:27:44,340 --> 00:27:45,960 And it wasn't pretty. 375 00:27:49,550 --> 00:27:54,130 And he stayed and drank, and I'd never seen anybody could drink like that. 376 00:27:56,030 --> 00:28:02,770 As the renegade character falls further into obscurity, WCW enters a whole new 377 00:28:02,770 --> 00:28:03,770 era. 378 00:28:04,130 --> 00:28:10,130 In the summer of 1998, this is all hands on deck for WCW. 379 00:28:11,570 --> 00:28:16,010 It is combating what is a thriving World Wrestling Federation. 380 00:28:18,410 --> 00:28:20,930 And they're starting to lose market share. 381 00:28:21,170 --> 00:28:22,510 So WCW. 382 00:28:22,710 --> 00:28:26,350 You never know what Big Shot's going to do. Their instant answer. 383 00:28:26,550 --> 00:28:27,550 Uh-oh. 384 00:28:27,890 --> 00:28:28,970 Go to the past. 385 00:28:29,750 --> 00:28:32,270 It's a silhouette of a man that we've seen right now. 386 00:28:32,550 --> 00:28:33,590 Oh, my goodness. 387 00:28:35,210 --> 00:28:37,030 Unmistakable. It's the warrior. 388 00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:55,220 After years of anticipation, the ultimate warrior finally arrives in WCW. 389 00:28:55,500 --> 00:28:57,480 There's only one, and that's him. 390 00:28:58,260 --> 00:29:02,040 Eric paid him a lot of money to come in. Warrior didn't do anything cheap. 391 00:29:02,380 --> 00:29:09,080 For years, I have watched while this industry has tried to recreate what 392 00:29:09,080 --> 00:29:13,500 is simply unrecreatable. 393 00:29:15,500 --> 00:29:18,780 Warrior was a big player. He still had great name value. 394 00:29:19,060 --> 00:29:23,940 And the fact that Warrior had beaten Hogan at WWF, that story was there. 395 00:29:24,180 --> 00:29:27,080 And it would have been fresh to WCW. 396 00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:32,700 The Warrior's return spells trouble to Rick Wilson. 397 00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:38,280 It was such a painful pill for Rick Wilson to have to swallow. 398 00:29:38,780 --> 00:29:42,960 He is picked out to play this character of the Renegade. 399 00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:48,280 You failed under the role that we crafted for you as the knockoff version 400 00:29:48,280 --> 00:29:52,380 of the Ultimate Warrior, and then the actual Ultimate Warrior is finally 401 00:29:52,380 --> 00:29:55,340 coming to WCW, and you're going to be his bodyguard. 402 00:29:55,580 --> 00:29:56,580 Yes! Yes! 403 00:29:56,980 --> 00:29:58,140 The Warrior! 404 00:29:58,620 --> 00:29:59,900 And Hogan got him from behind! 405 00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:02,560 There's no Warrior! 406 00:30:03,040 --> 00:30:04,260 Wait a minute! 407 00:30:04,460 --> 00:30:05,279 How did he do that? 408 00:30:05,280 --> 00:30:09,280 We're going to build to the WrestleMania VI rematch at that year's Halloween 409 00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:10,280 Havoc. 410 00:30:13,280 --> 00:30:16,320 That's a disaster of a match, an all-time disaster. 411 00:30:17,540 --> 00:30:21,580 After all the hype that was built around The Ultimate Warrior, 412 00:30:21,980 --> 00:30:26,400 it's over in three months. 413 00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:30,940 It turns out to be a much bigger financial disaster for the company than 414 00:30:30,940 --> 00:30:32,280 The Renegade was. 415 00:30:33,560 --> 00:30:34,820 In retrospect, 416 00:30:35,760 --> 00:30:40,100 Ricky wasn't really any worse of a wrestler than the Ultimate Warrior. 417 00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:44,520 And Ricky was a much nicer guy, by all accounts, than the Ultimate Warrior, 418 00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:45,680 too. 419 00:30:46,540 --> 00:30:52,760 The first time I really spoke to him was when he hitched a ride back to the hotel 420 00:30:52,760 --> 00:30:59,340 room. And Ricky said he would sit and drink some beer with me. And we just got 421 00:30:59,340 --> 00:31:00,840 to shooting the breeze. 422 00:31:02,100 --> 00:31:05,080 I would have thought that he was going to be... 423 00:31:05,740 --> 00:31:11,380 a bitter know-it-all who had hung out with hogan that would tell everybody to 424 00:31:11,380 --> 00:31:16,300 shut up because they didn't know what they were talking about but he wasn't 425 00:31:16,300 --> 00:31:21,820 that way at all he came off to me as a very genuine guy 426 00:31:22,540 --> 00:31:27,980 We were sharing what it was like to kind of be thrown into a spot you weren't 427 00:31:27,980 --> 00:31:30,400 ready for, but how can you turn it down? 428 00:31:30,760 --> 00:31:37,080 He was a little bitter, kind of felt like he'd been misled a little. There 429 00:31:37,080 --> 00:31:41,320 was a lot of looking down at his feet and saying, that's just such bullshit, 430 00:31:41,440 --> 00:31:42,440 man. 431 00:31:43,180 --> 00:31:45,260 But where else are you going to make that kind of money? 432 00:31:45,480 --> 00:31:48,360 And he just laughed at me and he said, do you know what I make? 433 00:31:48,660 --> 00:31:51,480 I think he said something like $500 or $600. 434 00:31:56,570 --> 00:32:01,750 Every bad thing you see anybody doing wrestling comes down to the creative. 435 00:32:02,850 --> 00:32:06,210 Rick and I completely commiserated on it. 436 00:32:08,050 --> 00:32:14,950 He was dead on arrival because they didn't book 437 00:32:14,950 --> 00:32:15,950 him properly. 438 00:32:16,510 --> 00:32:19,710 This is all WCW's fault. That's the way I saw it. 439 00:32:21,390 --> 00:32:22,850 Rick Wilson was green. 440 00:32:23,310 --> 00:32:29,010 When he got to WCW, he didn't have a lot of national primetime exposure, so I 441 00:32:29,010 --> 00:32:30,930 think he was thrown to the wolves. 442 00:32:32,330 --> 00:32:35,590 And you know what? I shouldn't even blame that on Rick, because even if Rick 443 00:32:35,590 --> 00:32:39,430 would have done the best job possible with that Renegade character, I don't 444 00:32:39,430 --> 00:32:41,370 think the audience would have ever bought into it. 445 00:32:43,610 --> 00:32:50,150 Already lost in the roster, Wilson's career unravels after a 446 00:32:50,150 --> 00:32:51,570 positive steroid test. 447 00:32:53,710 --> 00:32:58,790 Drug testing was not very prevalent in WCW or WWF at the time. 448 00:32:59,010 --> 00:33:03,950 They knew that physiques were part of the sales pitch to its audience. 449 00:33:04,410 --> 00:33:10,370 And quite frankly, if they were to do a drug test of everybody under WCW 450 00:33:10,370 --> 00:33:12,970 contract, the results probably would not have been pretty. 451 00:33:13,990 --> 00:33:19,290 They said everybody's doing it. There's just no way to be bigger than life like 452 00:33:19,290 --> 00:33:20,810 that without them. 453 00:33:21,440 --> 00:33:24,700 But this is how they let you out of your wrestling contract. They have that 454 00:33:24,700 --> 00:33:27,660 little clause in there, and it cancels the contract. 455 00:33:31,140 --> 00:33:36,260 Selective drug testing enforcement is very common in the wrestling business. 456 00:33:37,120 --> 00:33:40,940 Those you want to get rid of can be popped at any time. 457 00:33:41,700 --> 00:33:43,540 Renegade's not going to get up, I can tell you that. 458 00:33:45,880 --> 00:33:48,020 He had his contract rescinded. 459 00:33:49,140 --> 00:33:50,140 So that... 460 00:33:50,280 --> 00:33:51,280 Broke his heart. 461 00:33:52,660 --> 00:33:57,640 He became famous doing what he wanted to do. But, yeah, be careful what you wish 462 00:33:57,640 --> 00:34:02,620 for. And when that gets pulled away, yeah, your world's going to come down. 463 00:34:10,620 --> 00:34:14,679 Fired from WCW, Rick Wilson spirals into depression. 464 00:34:16,940 --> 00:34:18,320 100% of his. 465 00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:24,199 Identity was wrapped up in WCW. That's all he ever wanted in his life. 466 00:34:25,780 --> 00:34:32,580 But I don't think he ever got to the level that he wanted to get to, and 467 00:34:32,580 --> 00:34:34,659 he felt used. 468 00:34:38,120 --> 00:34:43,860 It's hard to state how much you really lay at the feet of WCW. Did they 469 00:34:43,860 --> 00:34:45,080 mishandle this character? 470 00:34:45,540 --> 00:34:48,000 Definitely. But that's... 471 00:34:48,400 --> 00:34:49,400 The industry. 472 00:34:49,500 --> 00:34:53,980 There are going to be stars, and then there's going to be people that don't 473 00:34:53,980 --> 00:34:55,860 pan out, and Rick Wilson was part of the latter. 474 00:34:57,020 --> 00:35:00,840 What about WWF? He says the reputation's gone. 475 00:35:01,060 --> 00:35:02,360 He's going out on bottom. 476 00:35:03,980 --> 00:35:09,840 He was in a lot of financial debt, and he didn't know how to talk about how he 477 00:35:09,840 --> 00:35:12,500 was feeling, so he just internalized it. 478 00:35:17,590 --> 00:35:21,850 Disillusioned with wrestling, Rick leaves the business for a fresh start. 479 00:35:24,010 --> 00:35:28,910 His friend, Wes, told me he was learning to shoe horses. 480 00:35:29,770 --> 00:35:31,030 Farrier, they call it. 481 00:35:31,490 --> 00:35:33,070 Very specific job. 482 00:35:34,130 --> 00:35:38,130 He was at peace, working on his own out in the country. I thought that'd be 483 00:35:38,130 --> 00:35:39,130 great for him. 484 00:35:39,410 --> 00:35:44,210 Splitting up with someone, there's always animosity. And then as time 485 00:35:44,210 --> 00:35:45,250 heals, all wounds. 486 00:35:46,170 --> 00:35:50,010 You know, I could start seeing him as the person that I liked to begin with. 487 00:35:50,070 --> 00:35:51,070 He was my friend. 488 00:35:52,210 --> 00:35:57,970 I think both of us were in relationships with other people that we knew maybe 489 00:35:57,970 --> 00:36:02,810 weren't quite right. We did talk on the phone through those relationships. 490 00:36:04,390 --> 00:36:06,130 And it was always him calling me. 491 00:36:06,610 --> 00:36:08,570 I think I was his best friend. 492 00:36:10,890 --> 00:36:12,550 And then I think... 493 00:36:12,760 --> 00:36:16,120 Shortly thereafter, he met Susie. 494 00:36:28,660 --> 00:36:33,080 Susie worked at Gold Club in Atlanta, which was a tremendously popular 495 00:36:33,080 --> 00:36:34,340 gentleman's club. 496 00:36:35,500 --> 00:36:37,320 She's a life of the party kind of girl. 497 00:36:37,620 --> 00:36:39,640 Kind of opposite of Rick, to be honest. 498 00:36:41,160 --> 00:36:47,020 One night, Ricky called me, and I could tell he was on something. He was, you 499 00:36:47,020 --> 00:36:52,160 know, and breathing heavy and talking in kind of circles. Could have been some 500 00:36:52,160 --> 00:36:53,160 cocaine, too. 501 00:36:53,780 --> 00:36:58,440 I was very uncomfortable. I'd never experienced that side of him. 502 00:36:59,760 --> 00:37:03,880 Dating girls in that entertainment industry also is a tough deal. 503 00:37:04,140 --> 00:37:07,900 Your girlfriend's out there, you know, shaking and getting tips. 504 00:37:09,960 --> 00:37:11,600 Rick wasn't making that much money. 505 00:37:11,860 --> 00:37:16,700 I'm sure it was exacerbated by his being released, and it's tough for some guys 506 00:37:16,700 --> 00:37:17,700 to deal with that, I guess. 507 00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:26,960 You know, if he had become all up on drugs, who knows what goes on behind 508 00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:27,960 closed doors. 509 00:37:30,080 --> 00:37:33,140 I didn't hear from him for quite a while. 510 00:37:35,140 --> 00:37:38,520 But then in 99, he called me. 511 00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:42,540 He was very back to his normal self talking to me on the phone. 512 00:37:43,520 --> 00:37:45,820 He did mention he had broken up with his girlfriend. 513 00:37:47,220 --> 00:37:50,800 We were just talking about all kinds of things, about how we had split up. 514 00:37:51,840 --> 00:37:56,380 And I said to him, maybe you should come to Charlotte and see me. 515 00:37:56,940 --> 00:37:59,140 And he said, maybe I will. 516 00:38:00,700 --> 00:38:02,700 And I kind of thought, maybe we'll get back together. 517 00:38:05,920 --> 00:38:07,760 I went to work the next night. 518 00:38:08,700 --> 00:38:14,720 And a manager came to me and said, do you know a Rick Wilson? And I go, yes, I 519 00:38:14,720 --> 00:38:17,540 do. They said, there's a phone call for you upstairs. 520 00:38:19,380 --> 00:38:23,840 When I went up and picked up the phone, he said, this is Wes, Ricky's friend, 521 00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:25,900 and I just want to let you know that he died. 522 00:38:28,040 --> 00:38:32,380 I said, what happened, a car accident? He said, no, he took his own life. 523 00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:49,100 On February 23rd, 1999, police respond to Rick Wilson's home in Marietta, where 524 00:38:49,100 --> 00:38:52,100 he's found dead for the self-inflicted gunshot wound. 525 00:38:53,920 --> 00:38:54,920 Shocking. 526 00:38:56,240 --> 00:38:57,940 Never in a million years. 527 00:38:59,300 --> 00:39:01,720 I was like, how in the, what happened? 528 00:39:02,060 --> 00:39:07,020 Well, didn't we just see him a month ago? It seemed, it seemed like it had 529 00:39:07,020 --> 00:39:08,020 only been a month. 530 00:39:10,830 --> 00:39:17,670 When I went to Rio's funeral, it was an open casket, and his face was sunken 531 00:39:17,670 --> 00:39:20,670 in, and his hair was almost gone. 532 00:39:22,890 --> 00:39:25,090 I didn't even recognize him. 533 00:39:25,870 --> 00:39:28,990 He was not the beautiful man that I was married to. 534 00:39:31,210 --> 00:39:37,770 I told him, go f*** yourself, call him an asshole, because he took the coward's 535 00:39:37,770 --> 00:39:38,770 way out. 536 00:39:40,880 --> 00:39:44,180 And then his girlfriend, Susie, came in. 537 00:39:46,980 --> 00:39:51,980 And we were all very surprised by what she was wearing. 538 00:39:54,260 --> 00:39:55,720 Everybody else was in black. 539 00:39:56,340 --> 00:40:03,000 And she had on a very short spandex-type dress with really 540 00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:05,520 high heels that looked like club wear. 541 00:40:08,040 --> 00:40:13,880 The story that I got was she had his drug, he wanted them, 542 00:40:14,060 --> 00:40:16,080 and he shot himself. 543 00:40:16,660 --> 00:40:20,980 That was all I knew until I read the police report. 544 00:40:22,320 --> 00:40:27,840 A Marietta police report reveals disturbing testimony from Susie Squires 545 00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:29,500 about the night of Rick's death. 546 00:40:30,960 --> 00:40:33,160 The Squires advised that... 547 00:40:33,390 --> 00:40:37,470 At around 10 p.m., she had dinner and drink with Mr. Wilson. 548 00:40:39,430 --> 00:40:44,030 Ms. Squires advised that Mr. Wilson was belittled at her paying the bills. 549 00:40:45,370 --> 00:40:48,290 Sometime this morning, Mr. Wilson slapped and pushed her. 550 00:40:48,670 --> 00:40:51,930 Ms. Squires advised that Mr. Wilson slapped her hard again. 551 00:40:52,330 --> 00:40:55,790 He hit me. He hit me like he would hit a man. 552 00:40:57,150 --> 00:41:00,690 Ms. Squires advised that she went into the bedroom and got a gun. 553 00:41:03,240 --> 00:41:07,640 The squire stated that Mr. Wilson took the gun from her, put the gun in his 554 00:41:07,640 --> 00:41:08,780 mouth, and pulled the trigger. 555 00:41:12,760 --> 00:41:17,500 I never would imagine him hitting someone like he would hit a man. 556 00:41:18,300 --> 00:41:23,520 But if he was that despondent and had all that stuff in his system, he may 557 00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:26,500 have done it. In anger, things happen sometimes. 558 00:41:32,910 --> 00:41:35,950 collateral damage that comes out of suicide is you don't have answers. 559 00:41:36,330 --> 00:41:39,970 You're left trying to explain the unexplainable. 560 00:41:41,090 --> 00:41:46,530 He is messing with a lot of drugs. He's abusive towards his girlfriend. 561 00:41:46,970 --> 00:41:52,010 When you put together all of these factors, here is somebody that was 562 00:41:52,010 --> 00:41:55,270 probably not in the right state of mind. 563 00:41:56,890 --> 00:42:01,690 Ricky's death hurts so much because the way I view Ricky is one of us. 564 00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:07,300 I wish I had reached out to him. I really do. 565 00:42:07,780 --> 00:42:08,860 To this day. 566 00:42:10,880 --> 00:42:17,640 I think self-esteem played a huge factor in this and the obsession 567 00:42:17,640 --> 00:42:19,180 with becoming a star. 568 00:42:20,900 --> 00:42:25,800 But far more will fail trying to become pro wrestlers. And some of these 569 00:42:25,800 --> 00:42:29,780 performers, they are not equipped to be able to handle that realization. 570 00:42:33,710 --> 00:42:35,890 On that morning, he thought his life was over. 571 00:42:36,910 --> 00:42:38,690 I don't have a wrestling contract. 572 00:42:38,910 --> 00:42:41,330 I don't know what my future is going to be. 573 00:42:41,970 --> 00:42:45,570 But there is life after professional wrestling. 574 00:42:45,790 --> 00:42:49,310 240 pounds from Columbus, Georgia, Rick Wilson. 575 00:42:50,250 --> 00:42:54,990 Several times I was released at WWF. So I know the depression that brings. 576 00:42:55,350 --> 00:42:59,870 The only advice I would be able to give is like what you hear all the time. Let 577 00:42:59,870 --> 00:43:01,310 somebody know what you're feeling. 578 00:43:01,820 --> 00:43:06,800 It was really important for me to get out that he was a very genuine, caring 579 00:43:06,800 --> 00:43:11,680 person. I don't know what happened later on in wrestling, but it was a totally 580 00:43:11,680 --> 00:43:14,100 different person from the person that I was married to. 581 00:43:17,980 --> 00:43:23,800 Renegade, may he be remembered fondly as a good man with a good heart and got 582 00:43:23,800 --> 00:43:25,020 into a really tough business. 583 00:43:25,740 --> 00:43:29,220 I like to remember Rio as being Rio. 584 00:43:31,080 --> 00:43:36,760 Person at the beat, laying there in a thong when nobody did that. 585 00:43:37,980 --> 00:43:41,340 He was good at wrestling, but he was a better dancer. 586 00:43:43,540 --> 00:43:50,460 I hope that he is looking down at me telling this and realizing how much 587 00:43:50,460 --> 00:43:51,460 he meant to me. 588 00:43:51,500 --> 00:43:55,980 I still love you. I don't forget any of the good times that we had together. 589 00:43:57,100 --> 00:43:58,440 And I hope you're at peace.