12 Things We Learned From Dark Side Of The Ring: The Fall Of Renegade

Things were about to go south for Renegade as an ongoing concern though.

Stalwart pro Arn Anderson put him over for the WCW TV Title at Great American Bash 1995. On VICE, several talking heads opined that 'if you can’t have a good match with Arn then you can’t have a good match with anyone'. Meanwhile, Anderson himself sat down to rewatch the bout, and he was just shaking his head throughout.

“There was no fire, there was no intensity”, he offered. Pulling his friend to one side afterwards, Paul Orndorff told him behind the curtain that the match “sucked”. “Yes, Paul. I’m aware of that”, Arn replied. Later, Orndorff was cheered by fans on the Beach At The Beach pay-per-view for hitting a piledriver on The Renegade.

During the match, Renegade (despite being the babyface) was booed heavily, and it was obvious that WCW fans were sick of the character already. This had to worry Wilson, because he was keen to show that he could be a major player in the company. Backstage, Marty Jannetty (who was actually friendly with Rick) admits that there was some resentment towards Rick for bagging a guaranteed top spot alongside major stars like Hogan and Randy Savage.

That won’t be news to most wrestling fans, because obviously a locker room full of workers would be jealous. However, what’s rarely been explored is the impact this had on Rick himself. James Mitchell said that people would “shake your hand out of social decorum”, but they’d say things behind your back or try and squeeze their way past you on the pecking order. He says that Renegade “felt a little disrespected”.

The man was grossly ill-prepared for the shark tank that is pro wrestling.