With how big a star the Ultimate Warrior was in WWE during the late 1980s and early 1990s, it actually made sense that WCW wanted their own version of the larger than life fan favorite.
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Unfortunately, the way they went about it was a disaster, as they essentially just copied the gimmick down to the smallest detail, and even promoted their new superstar as though he was actually the Warrior himself. Instead, The Renegade debuted with the crowd immediately turning against him.
The gimmick, which was supposed to launch Richard C. Wilson into super stardom, and give WCW similar levels of success as Ultimate Warrior gave WWE, was a total bomb. It actually hurt Wilson's career more than it helped him, and he never quite recovered from the rough setback.
The Renegade Was Doomed In WCW From The Get Go
While essentially copying a character from a rival wrestling promotion never bodes well for an individual's career, promoting his upcoming debut as though he is the very star he'll be imitating killed any chance of a young Wilson having success in the role.
In the weeks leading up to The Renegade's debut, Hulk Hogan teased his arrival, revealing he had the 'ultimate surprise' up his sleeves. The quote was purely made to trick fans into believing WWE's Ultimate Warrior was making the jump to WCW, and it had fans excited about his debut.
There was plenty of hype and fan fever surrounding the story, with the notion of Warrior joining Hogan in Ted Turner's company being enough to excite the most casual of wrestling fans. When poor Wilson debuted as The Renegade, audiences were furious.
They felt as though they'd been played for fools, and from minute one, fans hated the character and Wilson stood absolutely no chance of making a career out of it. It can be hard to get the worst of gimmicks over, but with fans turning against the character immediately, he was doomed from the get go.
The Renegade Beat Arn Anderson For The WCW World Television Championship
Despite fans having no interest in The Renegade character, WCW was still determined to push him quite heavily in the gimmick's infancy, and even gave him a run as the World Television Champion.
Not only did The Renegade win the title, but he got to beat one of the promotion's biggest legends in the process. Yes, despite the fact the gimmick was already dead in the water, The Renegade beat Arn Anderson for the championship in 1995 at The Great American Bash.
A win over an established name like Anderson, whose career in WCW was legendary, should have pushed the then 29-year-old to the next level of stardom, but it fell flat, and didn't help either party whatsoever. The run was actually a substantial one as well, with Renegade holding onto the title for three months, picking up wins against the likes of "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff, before he eventually dropped it to Diamond Dallas Page that September at Fall Brawl.
The Renegade Eventually Worked As A Stuntman For The Actual Ultimate Warrior During His 1998 WCW Run
After basically cosplaying as a cheap imitation of The Ultimate Warrior for the majority of his wrestling career, Wilson was actually used as a stuntman for the real deal when he eventually joined WCW in 1998.
Following his arrival, Warrior was involved in all sorts of over the top and cheesy hijinks, with Renegade standing in for him as a stunt double whenever he needed one.
The move was an ironic and almost even cruel one, with some of Wilson's last appearances in WCW seeing him pretending to be Ultimate Warrior, but then again, that's also how he arrived in the promotion three years earlier.
It's a tragic story, as Wilson was soon released from the company in late 1998, and devastatingly took his own life just months later after struggling to find work inside the wrestling business.
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Being immediately paired with Hulk Hogan to kick off your wrestling career should have promised huge things for Wilson, but unfortunately things just didn't pan out that way, and his Renegade character is now mostly known, as it was even back then, for being a poor imitation of the real deal over in WWE.
