Ice Train

Ice Train – Born Harold Fitzgerald Hogue

Born: November 13, 1967 in Atlanta, Georgia

Other Ring Names: M.I. Smooth

Ice Train was a powerful, large-bodied wrestler, who is most famous for his time in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and made his wrestling debut in the early 1990s.

In his first run with WCW, Ice Train went undefeated over his first twenty-five matches. His first defeat came at the hands of Ron Simmons at Clash of the Champions in 1994. After his first defeat, Ice Train would not be seen on WCW TV until the end of March in a losing effort against the team of Ron Simmons and Harlem Heat. Ice Train would tag with Marcus Bagwell and 2 Cold Scorpio in early April in winning efforts, but by June, he had in final match in WCW in a losing effort against Lord Steven Regal.

After his time in WCW, Ice Train would show up in Catch Wrestling Association (CWA) where he wrestle from 1994 until 1998 and found a lot of success, winning 70 percent of his matches, including several wins over Cannonball Grizzly, Hiro Yamamoto, Bruiser Mastino, and retired WCW/WWE star, Fit Finley, and also won the Catch Cup in 1995.

In 1996, Ice Train would return to WCW in a powerful time-limit draw against Scott Norton. After the match, both men shock hands as a sign of respect and due to their similar styles in the ring, Horton announced in an interview after the match with Gene Okerlund, Ice Train and himself would be a formidable tag team, and giving berth to, “Fire & Ice”. With their massive size and power, the tag team would overpower most teams in the ring om their way to establishing themselves as a legitimate team for the tag team champion.

During this time, Fire and Ice began feuding with The Steiner Brothers. Their first two encountered ended in double count outs. At Great American Bash, both teams would face each other in a number one contenders match for the tag team championship. The Steiners would defeat Fire and Ice, when Scott Steiner pinned Norton after a Frankensteiner. Both teams would continue feuding to prove who was the best team.

Dissension between both men started to surface during an episode of Main Event, Fire and Ice were defeated by The Rock’n’Roll Express and after the match, Horton attacked Ice Train. After the defeat, Fire and Ice would lose two more times before Norton turned his back on Ice Train and the two men started feuding. In their first encounter at Hog Wild, Horton made Ice Train submit to an armbar, but Ice Train would even the score in their next encounter. Norton would win the next two matches by count out, as he brutal beat Ice Train, but in their final encounter Ice Train submitting Horton to a full nelson, winning the war between the two mammoth beasts.  

With Norton now in the rear view mirror, Ice Train was stuck in WCW’s overcrowded mid card and was prominently featured on the undercard. During this time, Ice Train gained a manager in Theodore Long and gain minor push on the WCW’s Nitro show but was back on the undercard until his final days with WCW.

In mid-2000, Ice Train would return to WCW and gained push as he became a member of the The New Blood, who were in a feud with Millionaire’s Club. Ice Train was rebranded as M.I. Smooth and severed the Commissioner, Ernest Miller as his limo driver, and regularly appeared in segments with members of the New Blood. In 2001, Smooth had a minor feud with Kanyon. The feud would end when Smooth and Miller defeated Kanyon and Road Warrior Animal. Five days later, WCW was sold to WWE and Ice Train retired.

During his career, Ice Train was named as one of the Top 500 wrestlers by PWI three times, (1993 – 221, 1996 – 237, 1997 – 240). In 2019, Ice Train capped off his career with an induction in the European Wrestling Promotion Hall of Fame, he was inducted in a class which included Dave Taylor an Doug Williams.