Early career (1987–1996) Lloyd began his wrestling career shortly after graduation. He was trained by Georgia grappler Fred Avery in a makeshift ring set up in Avery's backyard, and then cut his teeth on the Georgia
independent circuit for two years, Lloyd worked as an assistant high school football coach at Lassiter High in
Marietta, and at Valdosta Junior High School, Lloyd additionally competed in the North Georgia Wrestling Alliance, alongside future WCW stars
Scotty Riggs,
Buff Bagwell, and
Disco Inferno. Lloyd's second stint in WCW was when he was
booked to be defeated by
The Great Muta at a
house show in Atlanta. Following that match, at Muta's request, Lloyd joined Muta on a string of WCW house shows before he moved to
Japan in 1993. Glacier was also given one of the most extravagant entrances in wrestling at the time, which consisted of blue
laser lights streaming across the arena and synthetic snow falling from the ceiling, while the ring was enveloped in blue lighting. Production costs for the entrance amounted to nearly half a million dollars, while the costume and armor, designed by Andre Freitas of Atlanta-based AFX Studios, cost $35,000. After slowly walking to the ring, he then engaged in a ritual of standing on a center
turnbuckle in order to remove his armor and mask, then somersaulting off the buckle and into the center of the ring to perform a
kata routine; this process sometimes lasted as long as two minutes. Moreover, since he was a
face character, he would bow to the referee and his opponent. To further accentuate the character's image, Lloyd, a natural brunette, temporarily bleached his hair blond from April to December 1997. Glacier was originally intended to debut in July, but due to the coinciding appearance and immediate impact of the
New World Order at the
Bash at the Beach pay-per-view that month, his debut was delayed indefinitely; WCW worked this into a
feud with
Big Bubba Rogers, who criticized Glacier's hype and the overlong wait for his arrival during interviews on
Nitro with the
Dungeon of Doom. His debut finally occurred on the September 9, 1996 episode of
Pro, when he pinned
The Gambler in a match, which was also one of only two matches in which he executed his
Cryonic Kick finisher off the top rope before it was changed to a spinning reverse roundhouse kick, and subsequently to a standard side kick. Glacier then defeated Bubba on his
Nitro debut on September 16, ending the brief feud. The original costume and blue lighting were scrapped, however, after only his fourth match, a pinfall victory on
Nitro over Mike Wenner on September 30. Postmatch assaults by Mortis and Wrath became commonplace after Glacier's
Nitro matches, and on the April 21 episode, his helmet was also stolen by the pair after he defeated
Ciclope in less than one minute. His rematch with Mortis at
Slamboree on May 18 ended in a disqualification after less than two minutes when Wrath attacked him from behind. Mortis and Wrath then had their way with Glacier for several minutes before he was rescued by
Ernest "The Cat" Miller, who had entered the ring from the crowd. On June 15, Glacier pinned Wrath at
The Great American Bash, after which another beating commenced, this time after he was handcuffed to the top rope by Mortis, who himself had been cuffed to the turnbuckle prior to the match in order to prevent outside interference. The very next night on
Nitro, Glacier again defeated Mortis and then was attacked for the last time by Mortis and Wrath after Miller again came to his rescue. From then until
Bash at the Beach, Glacier wrestled as a tag unit with Miller, mainly in the lower card against luchadors. After Mortis and Wrath finally won their first encounter in the feud at Bash at the Beach on July 13 and ended Glacier's undefeated streak, WCW promptly shut down the angle due to the creative team's inability to further evolve the characters and the storyline. As a result, the backstory between Mortis and Glacier was therefore never revealed. On September 1, nearly a year after he had made his official debut, Glacier was handed his first singles loss by
Buff Bagwell. He and Miller lost their second consecutive pay-per-view affair in November, to the
Faces of Fear at
World War 3, and Glacier capped off the year with a squash at the hands of
Bill Goldberg on December 27. Despite an undefeated twelve-month singles period from September 1996 to August 1997, Glacier remained entrenched in the midcard ranks. However, during the tag match, Glacier turned on Miller, allowing Mortis and Wrath to get the win. This brought the "Blood Runs Cold" angle to an official close as Mortis and Wrath were split up from Vandenberg and moved into the singles ranks.
Feud with Perry Saturn and injury (1998–1999) Glacier spent the next three months on a losing streak, losing matches to the likes of
Steve McMichael,
Prince Iaukea, and
Lex Luger on
Nitro and
Thunder, while feuding on the side with
Chris Adams on
WCW Saturday Night in a battle of
superkick finishers. Glacier then entered a feud with
Perry Saturn, starting with an angle in which he cut a promo on the May 11
Nitro declaring that his Cryonic Kick finisher was his own move and threatened to take out anyone who used it. This prompted a response from Saturn on
Thunder later in the week, in which he lambasted Glacier for his in-ring appearance and his claiming ownership of the superkick. Starting with a pin of
Sick Boy on May 18 after Saturn's outside interference was unsuccessful, Glacier then fought a series of matches against several other members of
Raven's Flock. He and Saturn then alternated wins on
WCW Thunder, but the most notable aspect of the angle was that Kanyon, who had recently shed the Mortis gimmick, was regularly conducting sneak attacks on
Raven and the Flock in various disguises. On the June 4 edition of
Thunder, Kanyon (disguised as referee
Nick Patrick) entered the ring and took out Saturn with a Russian legsweep, allowing Glacier to get the win, and flashed the Mortis mask to Glacier before leaving the ring. The feud died down shortly thereafter when Saturn was moved to a new angle involving Raven and the breakup of the Flock. A Glacier-Saturn matchup (won by Saturn) that aired on
WCW Worldwide on September 26 was the last match broadcast on the program before its format was changed to a recap show. Glacier suffered a severe knee injury during the main event on
Nitro on June 29, in which he lost to then-
United States champion Goldberg for the fourth time in what would be his only title challenge in WCW. He kept the extent of the injury hidden until after the match and left the ring under his own power, but after rehabilitation proved unsuccessful, he underwent knee surgery. One week later, he returned to ring action for the first time in over four months, and debuted his new finisher, a version of
Terry Gordy's
Oriental thumb spike (dubbed the "Ice Pick"), for a submission victory over Adams. On November 16, Glacier, Kanyon, and Wrath reunited for the first and only time since the demise of Blood Runs Cold, when Glacier and Kanyon were scheduled to face each other on
Nitro after Wrath fought Raven in the previous match, but Raven's refusal to wrestle, despite goading by Kanyon, saw it called off. Wrath then took out his frustration by pummeling both Glacier and Kanyon inside the ring before their opening bell, but the match commenced nonetheless with Kanyon ultimately scoring the pin. Glacier made his final WCW pay-per-view appearance with a loss to Wrath at
World War 3 on November 22, and closed out the year with another series of matches against Saturn on
Thunder and
Saturday Night, in which Miller's manager,
Sonny Onoo, repeatedly interfered. By early 1999, Glacier was again booked to lose to lower-card opponents so that WCW could finally bury the character and allow Lloyd to transition into a new one. This came to a head on February 6, when he was pinned on
Saturday Night by
Al Green. Five days later, a series of skits aired on
Thunder in which Glacier, tired of his gimmick, sold his armor, mask, and helmet to
Kaz Hayashi and Miller; Onoo convinced the gullible Hayashi to buy the gear for ten times Glacier's asking price. For a short time, Miller came out to Glacier's music and entrance, while Hayashi wore his armor and mask to the ring. Though Lloyd had not appeared on television following the end of Glacier, he, along with
Gene Okerlund,
Alex Wright, and other WCW personalities, attended the public grand opening of the Nitro Grill at the
Excalibur Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on May 22, 1999; the restaurant lasted only sixteen months and closed in September 2000.
Coach Buzz Stern (1999) On August 19, Lloyd made his first televised appearance in six months, this time on
Thunder in the first of several promos as
Coach Buzz Stern, featuring longtime independent wrestler
Luther Biggs. The clips were filmed at the
WCW Power Plant and served to introduce the storyline of Stern choosing the clumsy Biggs as his protege, and aired until the end of September, when Biggs was pinned by
Bobby Eaton in his in-ring debut on
Thunder; Stern put Biggs in a postmatch
full nelson as punishment. Over the following month, Stern served as Biggs' manager for only three additional matches: a squash loss to
Meng on
Thunder, a pinfall victory over Dave Burkhead on
Saturday Night, and a match against
Barry Darsow (wrestling as Blacktop Bully) on
Worldwide, which Biggs won only after Stern's outside interference. Though the Stern character was inspired by Lloyd's days as a high school football coach prior to his WCW career, and had received buildup in
Mark Madden's weekly WCW.com column, he received an indifferent reception from fans, and after Lloyd himself wrestled his only match as Stern in a November 4
Thunder loss to
Eddie Guerrero, the angle was shelved and both Stern and Biggs were removed from television. Lloyd was one of many wrestlers released by the company on November 21, 1999 as part of a cost-cutting measure. The promos were aired infrequently on
Nitro and
Thunder, and during
Starrcade. The night after Starrcade,
Norman Smiley was seen on
Nitro watching a promo on a backstage monitor, then happily reacting to having "a real hero" in WCW. Lloyd returned to WCW in January 2001, and Glacier was now played out in the angle as a superhero parody, with him pledging to watch Smiley's back during matches. In separate contests against
Mike Awesome and
Bam Bam Bigelow on
Thunder, an overpowered Smiley lost decisively both times because Glacier took his time coming to the ring in order to interact with fans. He then entered the ring after the fact to pose for the fans before pushing Smiley out of the way to perform his old kata routine. Though Lloyd never wrestled an actual match, the gimmick was a surprisingly mild success given the previous history of the character (a fan during the Bigelow match was seen on camera holding a sign that read "Glacier is My Hero"), but the angle abruptly ended and Glacier was not seen again following a skit on the February 7 edition of
Thunder in which he was pummeled offscreen by
Sean O'Haire inside his dressing room.
Independent circuit (2000–present) Along with
Dusty Rhodes, Lloyd co-founded
Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling (TCW) in 2000, which held shows throughout the Southeast and whose roster featured additional WCW castoffs such as
Scotty Anton (Scotty Riggs),
Barry Windham,
Big Ron Studd, and
Chad Fortune. Lloyd wrestled under his real name, and was the TCW Heavyweight Champion from July to October 2000, when he was dethroned by Windham. After Lloyd left WCW (which ceased operations six weeks later) permanently and returned to the independent circuit. On April 21, he won the TCW tag belts with Jorge Estrada. One of the highlights of Lloyd's wrestling career was fulfilling a childhood dream of winning the NWA World tag team titles, which he accomplished with Jason Sugarman on December 28, 2002, but Sugarman retired shortly after due to a career-ending injury. In 2002, he rejuvenated his Glacier gimmick to team with Big Ron Studd, with whom he won the tag title for the second time in his TCW stint on January 3, and then enjoyed a second reign as TCW Heavyweight Champion. After TCW folded in 2003, Lloyd made sporadic appearances with
Georgia Championship Wrestling, and held a backstage position with
TNA Wrestling. He again wrestled as Glacier as part of Ultimate Christian Wrestling's
Ultimate Armageddon Tour 2006, and participated in the
CHIKARA King of Trios tournament in Philadelphia on March 2, 2008, teaming with Los Ice Creams as their mystery partner in a first-round loss against Team Mexico. Lloyd also feuded with TNA and
IWA star
Ricky Vega on the Florida independent Circuit in 2008. He then made a return appearance in the 2009 King of Trios tournament on March 27, 2009, teaming with
Al Snow and
D'Lo Brown in another first-round loss, this time against The UnStable of
Vin Gerard,
Colin Delaney, and STIGMA. He would make his return to a major wrestling promotion on August 26, 2017, when he entered at #20 in
Ring of Honor's 2017
Honor Rumble, where he would be eliminated by
Bully Ray.
All Elite Wrestling (2019, 2024–present) On May 25, 2019, Lloyd made an appearance at the debut PPV for
All Elite Wrestling,
Double or Nothing, taking part in the
Casino Battle Royal. He was eliminated by
MJF. In June 2024, it was reported that Lloyd was hired full-time by AEW as a
coach and trainer. ==Acting career==