Dark Side of The Ring “The Ultimate Fantasy: The Fall of Renegade” episode review
Episode Six of Dark Side of The Ring’s Seventh season takes a look at a man whose heart was in the right place, but ended up having it broken by the cut-throat world of wrestling, Rick Wilson.
Wilson is best known as “The Renegade” in WCW, a generic take on the WWF/E’s Ultimate Warrior. Wilson’s look and eagerness to please sent him right to the top to work with Hulk Hogan, but unfortunately Wilson’s skills in the ring were severely lacking.
In the end, when WCW brought in The (ultimate) Warrior, the Renegade was all but forgotten and cast aside, making this episode a study in what can happen when fame comes fast and then disappears just as quickly.
The Players:
- Kimberly Wilson (Rick’s ex-wife)
- Eric Bischoff (Former WCW President)
- Marty Jannetty (Former professional wrestler and peer)
- Father James Mitchell (Wrestling manager and personality)
- Arn Anderson (Wrestler, frequent opponent of Rick Wilson)
- John Pollock (Wrestling Journalist)
- Joe Gomez (wrestler, tag partner of Rick Wilson)
- Eric Henderson (Dancer, Friend of Rick Wilson)
Rio The Dancer
Rick Wilson was an ambitious young man whose physique and look caught the attention of Henderson, who hired Wilson to play “Rio” in his exotic dance troupe. However, Wilson maintained dreams of breaking into professional wrestling.
Wilson’s physical stature caught the attention of wrestling insiders at WCW. Lacking extensive in-ring experience, Wilson relied on raw athletic passion and an eager desire to please. However, his striking resemblance to Jim Hellwig—the Ultimate Warrior—made him an irresistible character for WCW top brass looking to recapture the magic of the Hulk Hogan/Ultimate Warrior feud of the 1980s.
An “Ultimate” Surprise
In early 1995, WCW began airing vignettes featuring Hulk Hogan teasing an “ultimate surprise” that would bring “ultimate power” to his side. Fans immediately assumed that the real Ultimate Warrior was making his debut in WCW. Instead, when Wilson debuted as The Renegade with neon face paint and an identical moveset, the crowd’s initial excitement instantly curdled into resentment.
Despite the immediate audience pushback, WCW fast-tracked Wilson’s push. Within months of his debut, The Renegade defeated veteran Arn Anderson to win the WCW World Television Championship. Backstage tension mounted as veteran wrestlers resented an unproven newcomer and even Wilson himself recognized he had been thrust into a role far beyond his skill level.
The Renegade Is Wiped Out
When WCW management realized the gimmick was failing, they chose to dismantle it on national television in devastating fashion. Manager Jimmy Hart turned on The Renegade, physically spraying water on his face and aggressively wiping away his signature face paint. Hart screamed into his face that he was “nobody” and “just plain old Rick,” effectively executing the character on live television.
Following the stripping of his gimmick, Wilson was relegated to a low-tier jobber role, frequently taking quick losses to build up other talents. As the wrestling landscape shifted into the “Attitude” era and WCW became dominated by the New World Order (nWo), Wilson was left behind as an afterthought. WCW doubled down on this by bringing the (Ultimate) Warrior into the company, making Renegade entirely irrelevant. Deprived of the spotlight and struggling with intense public ridicule, WCW eventually released him from his contract.
Off-screen, the psychological toll of his public fall proved overwhelming. Coupled with lingering emotional scars from a chaotic childhood, Wilson sank into deep depression after the wrestling industry closed its doors on him. Tragically, in February 1999—less than four years after his prime-time television debut—Rick Wilson took his own life at the age of 33.
Final Thoughts
The story of Rick Wilson is a sad and tragic tale, but it’s also one that the wrestling industry would do well to remember. There are a number of talents over the years who have been thrust into the spotlight before they are ready, but in this case it likely cost Wilson his life. Wilson simply had a deep motivation to please and would have done anything to make his bosses, colleagues and family happy. When that didn’t work out though, he was cast aside and had to bear the brunt of his failures alone, even though he was arguably set up to fail.
The episode as a whole is one that is a reminder of two things. First, that wrestling is not (or no longer is) an entertainment product built on just characters. In today’s world, Rick Wilson would have been sent to developmental, or watched on the indies, or taken under someone’s wing, not thrust into a spot that essentially had him being someone else’s character. With the exception of lucha libre, where masks and names are passed down, dropping another wrestler into someone else’s gimmick or character doesn’t happen much anymore and Wilson could have benefitted from that approach.
Second: there are real life humans behind these superheroic wrestlers that we watch. While it seems like Wilson was someone who just wanted to “play wrestler” the toll of the failure he was set up to take pretty much destroyed his life. He faced such vitriol from everyone around him, it’s hard to imagine how he would have handled the same criticisms in today’s world. The bottom line for Rick Wilson is that if they had simply taken some time with him instead of thrusting him into a top spot, he may have ended up with a long career and not such a tragic story in wrestling lore.
Jeff Moss is a writer, creator and developer in animation, comics and pretty much anything else he can get his mitts on. Pro Wrestling has always been his passion for reasons even he doesn't understand.