Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
The friendly feline that serves as WCW’s mascot Wildcat Willie, can be seen ringside at most matches. He often enters the ring to showcase his acrobatic skills. “Stay in school and stay off drugs…that’s the purrrrfect combination for success.” Wildcat Willie advises.
When Ted Turner bought out Jim Crockett Jr, he hired various executives outside of the pro wrestling business. One of those executives was a man named Bob Dhue (Pronounced Dew). Bob Dhue was formerly the Director of Bookings and ultimately President of the Omni in Atlanta, Georgia. Dhue started out running live events aka house shows for WCW and eventually became Executive Vice President of the company.
One of Dhue’s biggest ideas, was to create a mascot for the promotion. Considering his background in working sporting events at the Omni, Bob Dhue felt that cheerleaders and mascots played a big part in keeping fans entertained during long breaks. He decided to create a mascot for WCW and named it ‘Wildcat Willie’ or WCW for its initials. Wildcat Willie made his debut in 1995 during episodes of WCW Saturday Night shows. At first, the look of Wildcat Willie was imagined as a real life cartoon character. His look was very kid and family friendly. That eventually changed when the company started growing and more adult content was added. His look became more like Teen Wolf with a championship belt to boot.
Wildcat Willie usually shot t shirts into the crowd and did acrobatic tricks during commercial breaks. He also appeared at the entrance way cheering the babyfaces and jeering the heels as the came out for matches. Eric Bischoff said years later, that he liked the idea of a WCW mascot, but felt the introduction and execution of that idea was poorly done. It did inspire the idea of having dancers during the commercial breaks which later became ‘The Nitro Girls.’
The big question was…who was it that wore the Wildcat Willie costume and did all those acrobatic tricks? For years, there was an urban legend/rumor that Lanny Poffo was Wildcat Willie. The reasoning was because Poffo was signed to a lucrative contract and needed to justify paying him all that money without being used as a wrestler. Those rumors were proven to be false, as the person portraying the mascot was a man named Gary Hedrick.
Gary Hedrick was a tumbler, acrobat and gymnast who was ‘Harry the Hawk’ aka the mascot for the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks. Bob Dhue hired him to be Wildcat Willie through their connections of working at the Omni. Hedrick had the experience of being a costumed mascot at large events and seemed perfect for the role.
Hedrick’s role in World Championship Wrestling eventually expanded further, as he was used as the butler to the tag team of the Blue Bloods which consisted of Squire David Tayler, Sir William Regal and Earl Robert Eaton. Many nights, Hedrick would pull double duty playing both Jeeves and Wildcat Willie.
WCW decided to get rid of the mascot concept in 1998 and did so in pure pro wrestling fashion. Wildcat Willie was doing a bunch of flips on a trampoline during a Monday Nitro commercial break, when ‘Big Poppa Pump’ Scott Steiner ran into the ring and attacked Wildcat Willie. That was the blow off to the character, but in reality, Hedrick remained on WCW’s payroll and used as a consultant to the Nitro Girls dance troupe until 1999. Currently, Gary Hedricks works as a store manager at Home Depot in Flower Mound, Texas.