12 Things We Learned From Dark Side Of The Ring: The Fall Of Renegade
8. How His Marriage Broke Down
Just as Rick's wrestling career was about to take off, his marriage off the road was in tatters.
He'd already been signed to the big time with WCW when Kimberly came home one day and found bottles of alcohol around the place. That shocked her, because the couple were never big drinkers. Wilson had always been a clean cut body guy who didn't need booze or drugs to have a good time, so it took his wife by surprise.
There was also a card on top of the fridge that said: “I can’t wait to swing from your 10 inch vine”. Furious, and believing her husband was cheating on her, Kim destroyed the apartment then went to meet Rick in a hotel and they had a huge fight. She took off her wedding ring and left.
In a tragic moment (one of many), Kimberly says she thinks their marriage would’ve lasted if he didn’t get into wrestling, “because he evolved into someone I didn’t know”. The industry took a few major hits on this episode - it was generally presented as a sordid mess of liars, cheats and scumbags. If you couldn't hang with that, then you were chewed up and spat out.
Only John Pollock of POST Wrestling offered some balance. He rightly said that countless characters have flopped in front of the cameras. However, there was so much more going on in Rick Wilson's mind before he reached the spotlight. He was almost destined to fail, because the pressure was too great.
The Renegade continued on WCW TV after Kim split from Rick.