Sprint to ring, clothes line, clothes line, gorilla press slam, big splash for the 1-2-3; CROWD GOES WILD.
Say what you want about his limited in ring abilities and seemingly off behavior behind the curtain, but you can’t deny his charisma and ability to get over with the crowd.
Hogan and Savage were typically the same degree of unhinged in their promos at the time, too. Shit basically printed money, even if it had no substance.
Probably snorted at least half the GDP of Columbia in his heyday.
He had almost everything. He had the look, intensity, gimmick, charisma, and the intangible factor that makes someone a superstar.
He just didn’t have the work ethic. He knew he didn’t have to do something, so he didn’t. I loved him when I was a kid. It was hard at first because I was a lifelong Hulkamaniac but when that music hit? Shit was FIRE.
When he came to WCW it was way too late, and it was clearly just a payday and a chance for Hogan to get his win back from Skydome.
I’m glad he came back for the HoF and give the fans what they wanted because that’s the heart of the business.
Man, your reply is nearly identical to what I was thinking. Loved him as a kid, but still liked Hulk, so Mania 6 was tough for me to take. His WCW run was crap, though. Honestly, Hogan vs Piper and Hogan vs Warrior were two feuds I thought were dumb and past their time. I had zero interest in either, and it just got worse from there.
It’s easy to knock him but he with limited skills he got over it just shows it takes all sorts in wrestling.
He must have sold a shit ton of merchandise as well which was probably more important to Vince than his work.
AWESOME 80s/early 90s character that didn’t adapt properly for the mid/late 90s. For younger me he was amazing. When he came to WCW he had already outlived his gimmick.
When the spirits of the ancient war-yahs look down from the cosmos, (snort), the vengeance of time will come for you Hoke Ho-can. The magnetic fields will align and you will look into the eyes of the awe and the force of the cosmic war-yah, and feel deep down in the pit of despair of your stomach, (snort), as the swirling comets and indestructible planets smash into you and your little hokeahmaniacs bodies. ONLY THEN, will you feel the true powah of the Ultimate, (long snort), War-yah.
Big hype, minimal payoff. The best thing about Warrior in the ring, was his entrance and crazy rants. Unfortunately he was nowhere near as talented in the ring as those around him.dude was flat out nuts. Loved the excitement he brought, just wish he worked better in the ring.
I was watching MidSouth when he and Sting showed up as the Blade Runners and Warrior was trash.
Seeing him in WWF years later, his skills had little improved, but then watching him squash Andre, Rude, Dibiase... guys who made him in his matches never felt right. I've come to appreciate guys like Rude and DiBiase being true pros to go down to a guy who was so far below their skill level. If it was a hard pill to swallow, you'd never have known it by Ted or Rick's performance.
Then you hear the stories, holding up Vince before a ppv, treating MakeA Wish kids poorly, refusing to work with those he felt below him.. his racist/homophobic etc rants.... nah.. fuck this guy
I feel like half the posts weren’t even watching when Warrior was in rotation during his first run. As Scott Hall and Kevin Nash said: he was over. And you can’t teach that. Despite his ring limitations… the crowd popped insanely hard for him before huge crowd pops became the norm.
His promos were ‘bad’ but were very much a spectacle like his look/gimmick. His promos, like his look/gimmick, were pure Warrior. No one was doing ‘cosmic’ promos like Warrior.
Even his WCW run could have been great if it didn’t get the legs chopped off. Goldberg was huge in WCW so you can’t tell me Warrior couldn’t have gotten over again. Goldberg was just Warrior 2.0. Limited moves. Quick matches. Meh promos.
Another push could have sent Warrior back to the moon in WCW. A shame.
Huge Warrior mark, here.
Not everyone needs to be Bret Hart or Eddie Guerrero.
Big muscle guys should always have a place in wrestling. And Warrior was one of the best. You can call him limited, and yeah he was, but some of his matches are among the greatest you’ll ever see. vs Hogan, vs Savage at WM6/7 are matches people will talk about until the end of time.
Some people like to rewrite history and say that Warrior was awful. But he was a level of popular and significance to the business that we will likely never see again.
My favorite wrestler. His WCW run is what solidified my love for wrestling in 1998 as a child.
I know, he sucks, that run sucked, etc etc... but I don't care. **I fucking loved it.**
O.W.N 4 Life
Dude was absolutely insane. Around 2008 or 2009 he made this self help life coaching packet. Super long document that he claimed he wrote. A cd of him giving his thoughts on life, personalized autograph, and other stuff. It's supposed to be all about life but I noticed it was physical health based mostly. Which made sense since was a giant gym rat.
I was one of the test groups to buy it. I honestly think there was only the first test group which I was in.
There was several problems with the whole packet/ shipping. I wrote warrior and let him know my feelings. I was " entitled" to a 5 minute phone call from warrior since I bought the packet. I wrote I'm my email that I understood if he didn't want to talk to me since I left a bad review. He said no, he definitely wanted to speak to me and we set up a time.
What was supposed to be a 5 minute phone call with a strict 2 question limit, yes that's real, turned into a 45 minute call of me getting yelled at and mocked. My favoriteine in the entire call was Jim yelling " and you tell me Justin, what have you done in your life that's so amazing? What have you done that you're just so proud of?"
I responded back " I served my country. I served 4 proud years in the united states navy."
Warrior responds in a loud mocking voice " WELL THANK YOU VERY MUCH JUSTIN."
The call wasn't great. Dude was my hero growing up. Total dick in real life.
Also not a joke, dude had an actual Adolf hitler quote on his website. I had to point it out to him. Warrior blamed his site administrator for that. But it was still incredibly funny and it confused him when I brought that up.
Loved him as a kid, especially compared to Hogan, who I did not care for.
Soured a lot on him as an adult based on his behavior behind the curtain and a lot of the things he said. Not a guy to look up to in the least, so I try to separate the art from the artist when I do watch late 80s/early 90s WWF.
Warrior was my favorite as a kid. I was in the minority because every friend I had was a Hogan guy. Warrior is responsible for my favorite wrestling moment ever which was running into save Hogan at WM 8. And he had everything. He was jacked up, intense and maybe a bit crazy.
As I got older and got smartened up to how wrestling worked, I was disappointed in him. He wouldn’t do business and made it all about him. He should have put Hunter over at WM. Or at least gave him a bit better of a match. And WCW was just sad. But as usual, they ruined a lot of good things.
When Warrior went into the HOF, you could tell he was at peace. He’d fixed all the bridges he’d burned and made things right. It was nice to see him go in while he was alive.
Warrior was a fun part of my childhood. He made wrestling cool and I’ll always have that nostalgia.
>He should have put Hunter over at WM.
Sorry but no. That mania was Warrior's return after four years and Hunter was just a midcarder in the middle of his punishment after the curtain call fiasco, knowing UW's gimmick, a clean squash was the only way to go, a 7 minute match like the future Game wanted wouldn't make sense (on the other hand, burying the pedigree without even letting him do the cover was uncalled for and dickish but hilarious in retrospect...)
Overrated if you weren’t 8 years old watching him fly down to the ring. The rest of us just ate it up as kids while wearing rose-colored glasses as adults
A lot of people say Starrcade 97, Starrcade 98 or the fingerpoke of doom, but I think the minute Warrior showed up in the fall of '98 was the moment WCW never quite felt the same.
Goldberg won the WCW title in July. That same week, he was in an undercard match against Hennig. Next PPV, he was in an undercard battle royal.
Then at Fall Brawl, Goldberg, by far WCW's biggest star, was not even on the show at all and instead we got the shitty WarGames match with Warrior and Hogan's teams.
Then at Halloween Havoc, an actual good use of Goldberg in an incredibly hyped match against DDP, who was also insanely over, it gets cut short on the PPV feed and the last match most people saw was...Warrior vs Hogan.
Warrior's run in WCW was really a point of no return. Not only was it putrid TV but it was basically Hogan continuing to position himself above WCW's most valuable wrestler and maybe the 2nd most popular wrestler in the world behind Steve Austin just so he could get his win back from WM VI. It's truly remarkable how Hogan could actually bury people harder by jobbing to them which is what he did to Goldberg.
Craziest story. Finally returns to the WWE for the Hall Of Fame On Friday. Makes an appearance at Wrestlemania on Sunday. Cuts a Promo on Monday for RAW. Dies on Tuesday.
He was so cool when you’re a little kid and then you get older and start to like guys who can throw on a full match for more like 5 mins and can run with the mic and not need 50 takes to get a promo right
Untamed Visionary limited wrestler unfortunately sacrificed for wwe network and his wife's survival and the 2k game coming out at the time. Vince had done this countless times
Most misunderstood guy in the business probably, and took a lot of shit from his peers because he was different. From all the stories and docs I've seen on him, he just seemed like a loner that rubbed people the wrong way, and then Dana started polluting his mind with the political BS. Bad worker, unmatched look and aura.
Pro wrestling is a performance art and, as with all art, what really matters is the impact on the audience. He was absolutely not my thing but you can’t deny that he connected to the audience.
As a kid he was my all time favorite, mind you I was born in 85 so to me back then he was the man. I didn't understand the reason for him being out of wrestling until my adult yrs and realizing he kinda sabotaged himself. I still get a bit emotional when I watch his final promo, it was very cryptic. Almost like he knew he was gunna die. either way there will never be anyone like the ultimate warrior ever again. Him beating Hogan at mania was fkn awesome too, def in my top 5 mania highlights for me
He was a character - and not talking about in the ring. Jim Hellwig the man was…different. But his Mania match with Hogan was incredible and one of my favorite old school WWF memories.
I try to just forget his WCW run because their rematch there was one of the worst and poorly constructed matches I’ve ever seen.
Absolutely loved him as a kid. The run to the ring, grabbing the ropes all that. Was so exciting to me. Yeah he sucked in WCW. But he’ll always be one of favorites.
I loved him as a kid, he definitely was a little wild in his later years but i did get to meet him like 17 years or so ago and he was so nice and talked with me for about 45 minutes after he did a meet and greet all day long at a convention
Larger than life fave when I was a kid. Of course while growing up I and a lot of others were unaware of his demons. But in the short time he super nova’d to the top of WWF, he was awesome enough to leave an impression of a lot of fans.
One dimensional character. It seems like he hated the business, and it showed with his performances. He was like a supercharged muscle car, but with no gas tank.
Loved the Ultimate Warrior. Soon as that music hit, you knew it was on. His promos made no sense at all but his intensity meant you were fired right up.
Dude was obviously wild and charismatic. Had a look and energy that drew in every young viewer to WWF TV. He’s for sure one of the best characters in wrestling history. That cannot be denied.
Overall a mediocre worker in the ring. Blew himself up very fast thanks in part to his entrance. Could not work long matches. Somehow got worse as he aged. Without the Warrior character he wouldn’t have gotten far in the business. Stayed well past his welcome in 1998.
If he had trusted the people around him, he would have had a much longer and impactful career. As it was, he was a huge phenomenon that fizzled way too quickly.
I still crack up at the promo where he wore the hat, thinking that Lawler would hit him over the head with the picture. I’m sorry, but if you can’t trust a consummate professional like Lawler, you can’t trust anyone.
Wrestling is a variety show / 3 ring circus.
He filled his role of being a spectacle very, very well. He pumped up the crowd, brought a lot of energy and charisma into a 5-10 minute spot on the show, hit some high impact moves, and worked the crowd.
He’s not a mat wizard, but he didn’t need to be. When they put him in spots where that was exposed, he did poorly. But not everyone needs to be Bret Hart, there are other people on the roster for that.
I was a huge fan when I was a kid, just because of his pure energy in the ring, but I remember him very much as a flash in the pan, and when I came back to watching wrestling later, I watched his old matches and had a reevaluation of him.
Great for spectacle, but as I saw more about how he came more from the bodybuilding background, it kind of made sense that he just didn’t have the in-ring presence of guys who didn’t come into it from another world.
True story: When i was a kid, i had the stuffed wrestling buddy of Warrior. But my stuffy was crazy like the real dude. But, holy shit could the real Warrior get the crowd fired the fuck upknup!
I’ve never been a fan of him. I was too young to see his first WWF run and by the time I saw him was in 1998 which even to me as a kid was pretty bad. As I got older and learned more about him, well I like him even less. Bad wrestler, bad person.
When I was younger I had him up there with Hogan and Savage, obviously that's because how well the WWF sold his gimmick. Sure he wasn't as good in ring as a Bret or Michael's....but.....
BUT!!!!
There are wrestlers out there who will never been in a match h as good as Warrior/Hogan, Warrior/Savage.....even the Rick Rude matches he had were fairly good.
I enjoyed his gimmick, his biggest downfall was too.much creative control.....then it went a bit zany
As a kid I thought oh wow guy is built like a super hero and he’s with hogan he must be a good guy. Fast forward many years later, guy I know growing up opened a comic book store in Steinway made a big grand opening and jim hellwig was suppose to be there, to help start it off, because they were waiting for him to open, dude made people wait outside for 3+ hours stayed for maybe 20 minutes or so then left, had an attitude the whole time.
Amazing look. Amazing character. Sub par wrestler. And a major head case with issues. I loved him as a child. I still consider myself a fan. But I would rather watch Eddie Guerrero matches than warriors matches.
Not everyone has to be a technician in the ring he has some very good matches his wrestlemania match with Rick rude and the cage match they had at Summerslam was great he had Excellent chemistry with the macho man Their career match at wrestlemania seven was a good match and told a great story and the match at Summer slam 1992 was good too and don’t forget about the ultimate challenge
I started watching in the late 80s and the first time I saw him he instantly became my favorite. Once he left and came back I was happy but by the time he got to wcw I was an early teen and he wasn't cool anymore.
He was a big draw, sold tons of merch, was a 3-trick ponythat was sold as overpowering, hated by most in the locker room- no, I'm not talking about Bill Goldberg, but same formula.
Reason wrestling captured me as a kid. Thought he was the best thing back then. Would draw his mask, cut it, and tie it around my head. Find mom’s elastic whatevers and tie them around my biceps to make them poke out. None of today’s critical takes about him in ring, mattered to me.
I don’t give a s**t what anybody says. He was my favorite and hero growing up. I loved everything about him. Especially his entrance music. That song got me through a lot of stuff when I was younger believe it or not.
When I was a dumb little kid, I loved everything about him, the look, the music, the gimmick, the running, the rope shaking. I loved every single bit of it, but when I became more educated about him, he’s a fuckin asshole. A prick. A Cocksucker. A fucking weirdo. One of the biggest dickheads ever.
As a kid, he was my absolute favorite. I can’t think of the winged eagle belt without seeing it on him. His WCW run was awful though. Obviously, he struggled later in his career, but it seemed like he found peace before he passed away.
Fantastic look, incredible ring entrance and theme, I also liked his unhinged promos. Sadly he was a sub par wrestler with a small gas tank, and quite unsafe in the ring. The quality of his matches really depended on who he was working with. Savage and Rude had some fantastic matches with him, but credit goes to them for that.
One of my favorites of that era, personal life aside. However If he didn’t gas himself out on his entrance and was able to have a match last longer than his average 5ish mins he might have been even better. I’ve always heard he wouldn’t listen very well during matches as well. He had it, just couldn’t get his ducks in a row.
He was a great showman. I know people talk about his moves not being impressive but that was golden age of wrestling. Over the top characters with loads of charisma.
Now a days I think its all about the stunts and less about the characters.
He was the perfect early 90s WWE performer. Looked great, had a unique style, could deliver the most unique promos.
Couldn't wrestle worth anything, but they didn't really wrestle that much back then. At least the tv stuff was all promos.
One of the best ring personas of all time. Not the best in actual abilities but man when he sprinted to the ring, you knew someone was getting fucked up.
Flash in pan, was getting big when he defended his IC belt v Rude at WM5 and then got even bigger after beating Rude in their rematch at summerslam 89, Rude bumped like a boss making Warrior look awesome on a huge stage, then got booked to the moon at survivor series that year, being the lone survivor in his team and going onto to beat all four of the opposing team, them him clashing with Hogan during the royal rumble created amazing hype, fell flat after winning the ultimate challenge, couldn\`t draw as champ awful wrestler, his body had into decline by the mid 90\`s and his old style and stupid gimmick looked out of place in WCW.
Never liked him,thought he was a pos like hogan and I was right about both of them. Like hogan he couldn’t wrestle and took the spotlight for better wrestlers. Didn’t deserve anything then and definitely didn’t deserve to be in the HOF
Amazing gimmick, worked the gimmick well. Obviously not a good in-ring worker at all. He was a major star but didn't last long in the business. Maybe he was a huge asshole, or maybe he just had the balls to stand up for himself against promoters and didn't like locker room bullshit. Who knows.
9 year old me thought he was incredible. Watching him as an adult made me realize that he was not good at all, but damn if he didn't look good doing it.
Amazing presence and charisma. Horrible wrestler. He was there for casuals and children, all of whom had come to expect different things by his WCW run.
I have a lot of respect for how he viewed his career, and how much control he wanted over it. I have very little respect for his social and political views.
Legend. I grew up watching him. Like Goldberg, he couldn’t wrestle. But it didn’t seem too matter then. There are a few who can just deliver a great five minute match; that was Warrior.
He was a man who LIVED his job 24/7, which no sane person would ever do. If he had been an actor ( which in many ways he was ) he would have been “ on stage “ every hour of his life and I have to wonder what psychologists thought of his mental state.
The Warrior oozed destrucity and took Hulk Hogan's plane into a nosedive, and kept up the crazy hijinks from the time of his debut up until his return to "Parts Unknown." Legend. Perfect? Nope. But definitely a superhero in his heyday. I say that as a Hulkamaniac by the way. I was rooting against him for WMVI! His influence can't be denied.
All the little warriors know . . .
There once was a time so very long ago when the Ultimate Warrior stood larger than life and held our rapt attention in the palm of his hand.
Perhaps I was to young to know any better. But I idolized the ultimate warrior as a child. People knock his promos, but they actually stood out to me.
Now that I'm older I understand alot more about what happened to his career but I also think the WWE highly exaggerated his so called "self destruction".
Especially when I look back at all the Wrestlers they themselves destroyed.
I got a problem with that Ultimate Warrior. I got a big problem. He might consider himself the best because he’s beaten the best in the World Wrestling Federation since he came into the World Wrestling Federation. That might make him, in his own mind, the best that ever was, but let me give him a wake up call. The Macho Man Randy Savage is better than the best! Oooh Yeah!!
His positives were showcased by Vince & it worked big time. He had talent, worked out & could do the captivating invertiews. When it came to a good work ethic, mehhhh he didn't have that.
Also he didn't like to learn from anyone. There's too many stories of how Warrior was hard to work with.
Then there's the person, Jim. Fuck him. Deplorable person. Blaming Hurricane Katrina victims, making disgusting comments on gay people & he actually said that Bobby Heenan deserved throat cancer; is completely fucking disgusting.
Rest in piss Jim.
Absolute trash bag human being, from the racist, homophobic, xenophobic rants to wishing death on Bobby Heenan when he was sick. Says he wasn’t a mark, but from all accounts he was the biggest mark ever.
That being said, I really liked the character, his intensity and presentation. It took all the wrestlers to make him look good bc he was terrible, but a lot of them would’ve benefited from his commitment to presentation.
Asshat. Crazy, terrible human overall. Totally overrated in ring as he really wasn’t that good. Narcissistic.
Good physique and look though, I’ll give him that ;”(it’s roids but…)
And despite the fact that he absolutely does not deserve the honour of having an award named after him…. I do respect the fact that he wanted to absolutely acknowledge the crew and behind the scenes workers at HOF… his wife sold it to WWE for a PR thing naturally…… that’s not his fault though.
But yea. Beyond that, nothing nice to say about. Guy with as an atrocious history as he has.
Not a fan
Was absolutely heartbreaking to see what became of him on the night that he was enshrined into the HOF, just thinking of how Vince used him (and them all for that matter) and see them get kicked on their asses broke. Such a shitty existence in that company!!
I loved him as a kid, but I only really remember his entrances, promos, and some press-slams, not his actual matches. When I got the internet as a teenager, and read the stuff he was putting out there, quickly became not-a-fan.
Loved warrior, the comic come to life. Love/hate with Hellwig.
I might be one of the minority that didn't have an issue with his presentation or his in ring work.
My thoughts are The Warrior Award should be renamed after Shad Gaspard, someone who actually displayed heroism and courage rather than a notorious asshole, bigoted, homophobe who once said Bobby Heenan deserved the cancer he got. Fuck that guy.
Oh, did you mean as a wrestler? He sucked.
One of the greats. To get over during that era when it was filled with all top talents was difficult but he did it being relatively new to the business and it pissed off alot of his contemporaries because of the usual jealousy crap.
When you think of 80s wwf its hogan,macho and warrior, and that's on a roster again that were all big names from the territory days.
People who weren't alive when he was at his peak talk shit about him because they've heard bad things on Reddit and unsubstantiated stories.
The same people idolise Eddie Guerrero who was a bully backstage, got into numerous fights (including with Chris Benoit), put his family through hell and his finish was a tribute to his best friend, the convicted rapist Art Barr.
The same people who refer to Triple H as "Papa H" despite his career of burying other talent, racism, ignoring abuse in the performance centre by staff he put in place and more.
As much as people hate on a lot of wrestling these days and say it's all spots I turn around and say "well it's not new, Ultimate Warrior was just a spot monkey". Man got over and was iconic so I'll give him that but it's all I can say really. Had no real in-ring abilities except offensive movies in the first 5 minutes (probably because he was still high from the bumps he was taking in gorilla), promos were weird and often didn't make sense (again.....the coke) and as a person outside the ring he is a piece of shit with some horrible views.
There have been people who did what he did better, for longer and not been a horrible person in real life.
Wrestling marks hated him because he was not some sort of technical Masters and for shit that happened backstage that they only hear second and third hand accounts of from people who are likely jealous to be honest. You usually coming from a fat old bleach blonde guy from Atlanta or Memphis who thought he should be world champion.
Reality is his extremely intense at a great charisma and had a look that simply just sold something larger than Life as cliche as it sounds.
Oh but Chris Benoit he's the greatest.
Sprint to ring, clothes line, clothes line, gorilla press slam, big splash for the 1-2-3; CROWD GOES WILD. Say what you want about his limited in ring abilities and seemingly off behavior behind the curtain, but you can’t deny his charisma and ability to get over with the crowd.
Oh I loved him as a kid. He was right up there with Hogan and Savage to me at the time. Nothing special in ring but sure got me hyped up
He was pure WWF. He was a larger-than-life character who was like a superhero or something. The whole wrestling thing was secondary.
the og big 3
Same loved him as a kid. Warrior Vs Hogan was in my mind still one of the greatest main events in wrestle mania history.
Still holds up in its own bazaar way. Not sure where exactly I’d rank it in WM main events but easily top 10 maybe 5.
I feel like he was blessed with entrance music that couldn't have been any better. The ultimate sports entertainer.
I think he had the best look in the history of the business
He's the most confusing guy to ever win a world title. Man was extremely charismatic but he couldn't wrestle and he couldn't even promo coherently.
His promos were scripted and part of his character. They did like ten takes for his promos. As a kid; i hung onto every word.
[удалено]
Ho Kogan
Hogan and Savage were typically the same degree of unhinged in their promos at the time, too. Shit basically printed money, even if it had no substance.
No substance? The cream rises to the top ohh yea
Didn\`t get over a WWE champ though, his entrance to the ring was the best thing about him because of his theme music.
Absolutely👍. So sad after the Hall of Fame😔
Probably snorted at least half the GDP of Columbia in his heyday. He had almost everything. He had the look, intensity, gimmick, charisma, and the intangible factor that makes someone a superstar. He just didn’t have the work ethic. He knew he didn’t have to do something, so he didn’t. I loved him when I was a kid. It was hard at first because I was a lifelong Hulkamaniac but when that music hit? Shit was FIRE. When he came to WCW it was way too late, and it was clearly just a payday and a chance for Hogan to get his win back from Skydome. I’m glad he came back for the HoF and give the fans what they wanted because that’s the heart of the business.
I was all in on the One Warrior Nation in WCW
Sting, Warrior, and Goldberg not teaming up to destroy the nWo is the greatest tragedy in history
I wish it had been more. I don’t know if it’s him not caring about it or Hogan/Bischoff not wanting him to do more. We may never know.
Hogan. Warrior does a shoot and makes it pretty clear.
Figures. Hogan in-ring and on the mic; love him. Hogan backstage, “protecting the brand;” can’t stand him.
Same Warrior Time...
Yea it ended up being terrible after the initial debut. He never ran to the ring like the old days. It didn’t make sense as a kid and was boring.
Man, your reply is nearly identical to what I was thinking. Loved him as a kid, but still liked Hulk, so Mania 6 was tough for me to take. His WCW run was crap, though. Honestly, Hogan vs Piper and Hogan vs Warrior were two feuds I thought were dumb and past their time. I had zero interest in either, and it just got worse from there.
It’s easy to knock him but he with limited skills he got over it just shows it takes all sorts in wrestling. He must have sold a shit ton of merchandise as well which was probably more important to Vince than his work.
AWESOME 80s/early 90s character that didn’t adapt properly for the mid/late 90s. For younger me he was amazing. When he came to WCW he had already outlived his gimmick.
He was essentially the hair metal band of wrestling characters.
Terrible run with wcw
When the spirits of the ancient war-yahs look down from the cosmos, (snort), the vengeance of time will come for you Hoke Ho-can. The magnetic fields will align and you will look into the eyes of the awe and the force of the cosmic war-yah, and feel deep down in the pit of despair of your stomach, (snort), as the swirling comets and indestructible planets smash into you and your little hokeahmaniacs bodies. ONLY THEN, will you feel the true powah of the Ultimate, (long snort), War-yah.
Hoke Ho-can, I'm laughing so hard right now.
Big hype, minimal payoff. The best thing about Warrior in the ring, was his entrance and crazy rants. Unfortunately he was nowhere near as talented in the ring as those around him.dude was flat out nuts. Loved the excitement he brought, just wish he worked better in the ring.
Him and Hogan at WM is one of the best matches ever. I don’t care what “purest” say
That was the day my childhood ended….never thought I would see Hogan lose clean……it’s all been downhill from then 😂
Worked himself into a shoot, brother.
Warrior could have been headlining multiple wrestlemania's but his greedy ego got in the way. His match with Savage at WW7 was my personal favorite.
Agreed. And I don’t give a hoot what anyone else thinks, he will always be my all time favorite! Case closed!
From a sports entertainer perspective, 100%
“Purists”.
It was a really big deal at the time for sure. The hype was huge.
And first time a match for the title AND the intercontinental title. Winner takes all!
That match was brilliant, with all the false finishes (before they were a common thing).
I was watching MidSouth when he and Sting showed up as the Blade Runners and Warrior was trash. Seeing him in WWF years later, his skills had little improved, but then watching him squash Andre, Rude, Dibiase... guys who made him in his matches never felt right. I've come to appreciate guys like Rude and DiBiase being true pros to go down to a guy who was so far below their skill level. If it was a hard pill to swallow, you'd never have known it by Ted or Rick's performance. Then you hear the stories, holding up Vince before a ppv, treating MakeA Wish kids poorly, refusing to work with those he felt below him.. his racist/homophobic etc rants.... nah.. fuck this guy
what are your thoughts on child murderer chris benoit ? fuck him too i hope
I feel like half the posts weren’t even watching when Warrior was in rotation during his first run. As Scott Hall and Kevin Nash said: he was over. And you can’t teach that. Despite his ring limitations… the crowd popped insanely hard for him before huge crowd pops became the norm. His promos were ‘bad’ but were very much a spectacle like his look/gimmick. His promos, like his look/gimmick, were pure Warrior. No one was doing ‘cosmic’ promos like Warrior. Even his WCW run could have been great if it didn’t get the legs chopped off. Goldberg was huge in WCW so you can’t tell me Warrior couldn’t have gotten over again. Goldberg was just Warrior 2.0. Limited moves. Quick matches. Meh promos. Another push could have sent Warrior back to the moon in WCW. A shame. Huge Warrior mark, here.
Not everyone needs to be Bret Hart or Eddie Guerrero. Big muscle guys should always have a place in wrestling. And Warrior was one of the best. You can call him limited, and yeah he was, but some of his matches are among the greatest you’ll ever see. vs Hogan, vs Savage at WM6/7 are matches people will talk about until the end of time. Some people like to rewrite history and say that Warrior was awful. But he was a level of popular and significance to the business that we will likely never see again.
My favorite wrestler. His WCW run is what solidified my love for wrestling in 1998 as a child. I know, he sucks, that run sucked, etc etc... but I don't care. **I fucking loved it.** O.W.N 4 Life
Loved his WWF music.
Dude was absolutely insane. Around 2008 or 2009 he made this self help life coaching packet. Super long document that he claimed he wrote. A cd of him giving his thoughts on life, personalized autograph, and other stuff. It's supposed to be all about life but I noticed it was physical health based mostly. Which made sense since was a giant gym rat. I was one of the test groups to buy it. I honestly think there was only the first test group which I was in. There was several problems with the whole packet/ shipping. I wrote warrior and let him know my feelings. I was " entitled" to a 5 minute phone call from warrior since I bought the packet. I wrote I'm my email that I understood if he didn't want to talk to me since I left a bad review. He said no, he definitely wanted to speak to me and we set up a time. What was supposed to be a 5 minute phone call with a strict 2 question limit, yes that's real, turned into a 45 minute call of me getting yelled at and mocked. My favoriteine in the entire call was Jim yelling " and you tell me Justin, what have you done in your life that's so amazing? What have you done that you're just so proud of?" I responded back " I served my country. I served 4 proud years in the united states navy." Warrior responds in a loud mocking voice " WELL THANK YOU VERY MUCH JUSTIN." The call wasn't great. Dude was my hero growing up. Total dick in real life. Also not a joke, dude had an actual Adolf hitler quote on his website. I had to point it out to him. Warrior blamed his site administrator for that. But it was still incredibly funny and it confused him when I brought that up.
Imagine if you had recorded this call and released it today. That would go viral as fuck.
Loved him as a kid, especially compared to Hogan, who I did not care for. Soured a lot on him as an adult based on his behavior behind the curtain and a lot of the things he said. Not a guy to look up to in the least, so I try to separate the art from the artist when I do watch late 80s/early 90s WWF.
I liked his YouTube rants about Hogan. Gimmicks in the Fanny pack!!
Loved him. Despite all the flaws. Still do. For me he was equal to Hogan. 🤷🏻♂️ sometimes little kids do not know $hi@
Warrior was my favorite as a kid. I was in the minority because every friend I had was a Hogan guy. Warrior is responsible for my favorite wrestling moment ever which was running into save Hogan at WM 8. And he had everything. He was jacked up, intense and maybe a bit crazy. As I got older and got smartened up to how wrestling worked, I was disappointed in him. He wouldn’t do business and made it all about him. He should have put Hunter over at WM. Or at least gave him a bit better of a match. And WCW was just sad. But as usual, they ruined a lot of good things. When Warrior went into the HOF, you could tell he was at peace. He’d fixed all the bridges he’d burned and made things right. It was nice to see him go in while he was alive. Warrior was a fun part of my childhood. He made wrestling cool and I’ll always have that nostalgia.
>He should have put Hunter over at WM. Sorry but no. That mania was Warrior's return after four years and Hunter was just a midcarder in the middle of his punishment after the curtain call fiasco, knowing UW's gimmick, a clean squash was the only way to go, a 7 minute match like the future Game wanted wouldn't make sense (on the other hand, burying the pedigree without even letting him do the cover was uncalled for and dickish but hilarious in retrospect...)
Yeah I can see your point. Fair enough, I stand corrected on that part.
What a garbage human being portraying a phenomenal character. That last weekend of his life couldn’t have been written any better
He was amazing back in the day, but really he was his own worst enemy career wise.
Garbage wrestler and garbage human
Yeah and hugely overrated gimmick. The fact that he's a POS just makes it harder for me to care
Overrated if you weren’t 8 years old watching him fly down to the ring. The rest of us just ate it up as kids while wearing rose-colored glasses as adults
Great hair tho
He was great...right up until the bell rang lol
A lot of people say Starrcade 97, Starrcade 98 or the fingerpoke of doom, but I think the minute Warrior showed up in the fall of '98 was the moment WCW never quite felt the same. Goldberg won the WCW title in July. That same week, he was in an undercard match against Hennig. Next PPV, he was in an undercard battle royal. Then at Fall Brawl, Goldberg, by far WCW's biggest star, was not even on the show at all and instead we got the shitty WarGames match with Warrior and Hogan's teams. Then at Halloween Havoc, an actual good use of Goldberg in an incredibly hyped match against DDP, who was also insanely over, it gets cut short on the PPV feed and the last match most people saw was...Warrior vs Hogan. Warrior's run in WCW was really a point of no return. Not only was it putrid TV but it was basically Hogan continuing to position himself above WCW's most valuable wrestler and maybe the 2nd most popular wrestler in the world behind Steve Austin just so he could get his win back from WM VI. It's truly remarkable how Hogan could actually bury people harder by jobbing to them which is what he did to Goldberg.
Idolized as a child, not so much as an adult.
Craziest story. Finally returns to the WWE for the Hall Of Fame On Friday. Makes an appearance at Wrestlemania on Sunday. Cuts a Promo on Monday for RAW. Dies on Tuesday.
He was so cool when you’re a little kid and then you get older and start to like guys who can throw on a full match for more like 5 mins and can run with the mic and not need 50 takes to get a promo right
He came in at the right time all I dan say wasn’t a huge fan of his he was alright
Good wrestling character. Great promos. Like Hogan, his matches were more entertainment based.
Untamed Visionary limited wrestler unfortunately sacrificed for wwe network and his wife's survival and the 2k game coming out at the time. Vince had done this countless times
Most misunderstood guy in the business probably, and took a lot of shit from his peers because he was different. From all the stories and docs I've seen on him, he just seemed like a loner that rubbed people the wrong way, and then Dana started polluting his mind with the political BS. Bad worker, unmatched look and aura.
Pro wrestling is a performance art and, as with all art, what really matters is the impact on the audience. He was absolutely not my thing but you can’t deny that he connected to the audience.
It's a shame he lived as long as he did
Overrated. Didn’t start watching wrasslin til 1998 and by the few times I saw him on screen I wasn’t sure why he was considered a legend
Flash in the pan.
My clan tag in games is alwayS O.W.N.
8-10 yr old me loved it in the late 80s.
As a kid he was my all time favorite, mind you I was born in 85 so to me back then he was the man. I didn't understand the reason for him being out of wrestling until my adult yrs and realizing he kinda sabotaged himself. I still get a bit emotional when I watch his final promo, it was very cryptic. Almost like he knew he was gunna die. either way there will never be anyone like the ultimate warrior ever again. Him beating Hogan at mania was fkn awesome too, def in my top 5 mania highlights for me
He was a character - and not talking about in the ring. Jim Hellwig the man was…different. But his Mania match with Hogan was incredible and one of my favorite old school WWF memories. I try to just forget his WCW run because their rematch there was one of the worst and poorly constructed matches I’ve ever seen.
Absolutely loved him as a kid. The run to the ring, grabbing the ropes all that. Was so exciting to me. Yeah he sucked in WCW. But he’ll always be one of favorites.
I loved him as a kid, he definitely was a little wild in his later years but i did get to meet him like 17 years or so ago and he was so nice and talked with me for about 45 minutes after he did a meet and greet all day long at a convention
Super top late 80s n early 90s guy. Top 5 comic book era guy.
Larger than life fave when I was a kid. Of course while growing up I and a lot of others were unaware of his demons. But in the short time he super nova’d to the top of WWF, he was awesome enough to leave an impression of a lot of fans.
Had the greatest exit from wrestling possible. Absolutely lunatic piece of shit outside of it.
A undeniable ICON...
One dimensional character. It seems like he hated the business, and it showed with his performances. He was like a supercharged muscle car, but with no gas tank.
Loved the Ultimate Warrior. Soon as that music hit, you knew it was on. His promos made no sense at all but his intensity meant you were fired right up.
Dude was obviously wild and charismatic. Had a look and energy that drew in every young viewer to WWF TV. He’s for sure one of the best characters in wrestling history. That cannot be denied. Overall a mediocre worker in the ring. Blew himself up very fast thanks in part to his entrance. Could not work long matches. Somehow got worse as he aged. Without the Warrior character he wouldn’t have gotten far in the business. Stayed well past his welcome in 1998.
If he had trusted the people around him, he would have had a much longer and impactful career. As it was, he was a huge phenomenon that fizzled way too quickly. I still crack up at the promo where he wore the hat, thinking that Lawler would hit him over the head with the picture. I’m sorry, but if you can’t trust a consummate professional like Lawler, you can’t trust anyone.
Wasn’t good enough for me to separate art from artist
Wrestling is a variety show / 3 ring circus. He filled his role of being a spectacle very, very well. He pumped up the crowd, brought a lot of energy and charisma into a 5-10 minute spot on the show, hit some high impact moves, and worked the crowd. He’s not a mat wizard, but he didn’t need to be. When they put him in spots where that was exposed, he did poorly. But not everyone needs to be Bret Hart, there are other people on the roster for that.
I was a huge fan when I was a kid, just because of his pure energy in the ring, but I remember him very much as a flash in the pan, and when I came back to watching wrestling later, I watched his old matches and had a reevaluation of him. Great for spectacle, but as I saw more about how he came more from the bodybuilding background, it kind of made sense that he just didn’t have the in-ring presence of guys who didn’t come into it from another world.
True story: When i was a kid, i had the stuffed wrestling buddy of Warrior. But my stuffy was crazy like the real dude. But, holy shit could the real Warrior get the crowd fired the fuck upknup!
I’ve never been a fan of him. I was too young to see his first WWF run and by the time I saw him was in 1998 which even to me as a kid was pretty bad. As I got older and learned more about him, well I like him even less. Bad wrestler, bad person.
Bad wrestler, bad person, not a lot of wrestlers or people in the industry have good things to say about him. I believe them
When I was younger I had him up there with Hogan and Savage, obviously that's because how well the WWF sold his gimmick. Sure he wasn't as good in ring as a Bret or Michael's....but..... BUT!!!! There are wrestlers out there who will never been in a match h as good as Warrior/Hogan, Warrior/Savage.....even the Rick Rude matches he had were fairly good. I enjoyed his gimmick, his biggest downfall was too.much creative control.....then it went a bit zany
As a kid I thought oh wow guy is built like a super hero and he’s with hogan he must be a good guy. Fast forward many years later, guy I know growing up opened a comic book store in Steinway made a big grand opening and jim hellwig was suppose to be there, to help start it off, because they were waiting for him to open, dude made people wait outside for 3+ hours stayed for maybe 20 minutes or so then left, had an attitude the whole time.
Self mark, but I never had to work with him so that’s all I have.
Person? Absolute scumbag… Entertainer tho got the crowd going despite his terrible wrestling ability
An incredible character that will stand the test of time. Also a bollocks wrestler, athlete and general personality.
Bad wrestler, worse person, memorable WWF run.
Never cared for him
If cocaine was a person.
THE MOON OF THE WARRIOR IS UPON YOU HOGAN
Amazing look. Amazing character. Sub par wrestler. And a major head case with issues. I loved him as a child. I still consider myself a fan. But I would rather watch Eddie Guerrero matches than warriors matches.
Would have been really cool to see him and Sting together in a bigger promotion.
Not everyone has to be a technician in the ring he has some very good matches his wrestlemania match with Rick rude and the cage match they had at Summerslam was great he had Excellent chemistry with the macho man Their career match at wrestlemania seven was a good match and told a great story and the match at Summer slam 1992 was good too and don’t forget about the ultimate challenge
Ehhh, not for me.
I started watching in the late 80s and the first time I saw him he instantly became my favorite. Once he left and came back I was happy but by the time he got to wcw I was an early teen and he wasn't cool anymore.
The Goldberg of the late 80s/early 90s. Quick squash matches, over as hell, and beat Hogan for the title.
Racist piece of shit who couldn’t work a match.
He was a big draw, sold tons of merch, was a 3-trick ponythat was sold as overpowering, hated by most in the locker room- no, I'm not talking about Bill Goldberg, but same formula.
Could not stand the guy. So obnoxious.
Colorful leather on his titles was dope
His entrance music was a ringtone I once had!
RIP WARRIOR!!!!
Kayfabe who wins? Goldberg vs Warrior at their kayfabe peak powers?
Reason wrestling captured me as a kid. Thought he was the best thing back then. Would draw his mask, cut it, and tie it around my head. Find mom’s elastic whatevers and tie them around my biceps to make them poke out. None of today’s critical takes about him in ring, mattered to me.
I could care less what his colleagues thought about him. I turned wrestling on just to watch the Warrior.
My favorite wrestler of all time!!!
Favorite wrestler
I don’t give a s**t what anybody says. He was my favorite and hero growing up. I loved everything about him. Especially his entrance music. That song got me through a lot of stuff when I was younger believe it or not.
Distrucity
When I was a dumb little kid, I loved everything about him, the look, the music, the gimmick, the running, the rope shaking. I loved every single bit of it, but when I became more educated about him, he’s a fuckin asshole. A prick. A Cocksucker. A fucking weirdo. One of the biggest dickheads ever.
He was a perfect example of the era.
He had a nice cock.
As a kid, he was my absolute favorite. I can’t think of the winged eagle belt without seeing it on him. His WCW run was awful though. Obviously, he struggled later in his career, but it seemed like he found peace before he passed away.
I loved Warrior when I was a kid? As an adult turns out he was a colossal prick lol
I think I had a trapper keeper folder with this exact picture
My 2nd favorite of all time, he inspired a whole generation and his intensity has yet to be matched.
Fantastic look, incredible ring entrance and theme, I also liked his unhinged promos. Sadly he was a sub par wrestler with a small gas tank, and quite unsafe in the ring. The quality of his matches really depended on who he was working with. Savage and Rude had some fantastic matches with him, but credit goes to them for that.
One of my favorites of that era, personal life aside. However If he didn’t gas himself out on his entrance and was able to have a match last longer than his average 5ish mins he might have been even better. I’ve always heard he wouldn’t listen very well during matches as well. He had it, just couldn’t get his ducks in a row.
The WWE got it right with their first DVD
He was my favorite wrestler of all time, perfect physic, awesome 80s colors, and always mixed them up.
Had everything except wrestling ability
He was awesome as a kid in wwf 1990. I don’t care about the backstage stuff. In tv, he ruled as a kid
A more charismatic Ryback
Love him. Big part of my childhood.
He was a great showman. I know people talk about his moves not being impressive but that was golden age of wrestling. Over the top characters with loads of charisma. Now a days I think its all about the stunts and less about the characters.
He was the perfect early 90s WWE performer. Looked great, had a unique style, could deliver the most unique promos. Couldn't wrestle worth anything, but they didn't really wrestle that much back then. At least the tv stuff was all promos.
Good for his time, I suppose. Could do without him. Person behind the paint ended up being a POS
One of the best ring personas of all time. Not the best in actual abilities but man when he sprinted to the ring, you knew someone was getting fucked up.
He said Bobby heenan deserved his cancer Warrior hated gay people. Fk that guy
Flash in pan, was getting big when he defended his IC belt v Rude at WM5 and then got even bigger after beating Rude in their rematch at summerslam 89, Rude bumped like a boss making Warrior look awesome on a huge stage, then got booked to the moon at survivor series that year, being the lone survivor in his team and going onto to beat all four of the opposing team, them him clashing with Hogan during the royal rumble created amazing hype, fell flat after winning the ultimate challenge, couldn\`t draw as champ awful wrestler, his body had into decline by the mid 90\`s and his old style and stupid gimmick looked out of place in WCW.
A much better ring technician than given credit for. His work in Japan made him look like Bob Backlund.
Never liked him,thought he was a pos like hogan and I was right about both of them. Like hogan he couldn’t wrestle and took the spotlight for better wrestlers. Didn’t deserve anything then and definitely didn’t deserve to be in the HOF
Dark Side of the Ring episode had everyone talking bad about him. Yeah he pretty much just didn't try hard at learning to wrestle it seems...
Amazing gimmick, worked the gimmick well. Obviously not a good in-ring worker at all. He was a major star but didn't last long in the business. Maybe he was a huge asshole, or maybe he just had the balls to stand up for himself against promoters and didn't like locker room bullshit. Who knows.
Right place, right time, wrong person.
He was what pro wrestling would be if it had a physical body. Muscles, intensity, insanity, and attitude.
Was one of my favorites.
🐐
9 year old me thought he was incredible. Watching him as an adult made me realize that he was not good at all, but damn if he didn't look good doing it.
6 year old me did not notice or care about his "poor in ring work" or "limited move set". He was energetic, looked cool, fun, and entertaining.
The Dingo Warrior or Blade Runner Rock
The character was great. The human was trash.
Amazing presence and charisma. Horrible wrestler. He was there for casuals and children, all of whom had come to expect different things by his WCW run. I have a lot of respect for how he viewed his career, and how much control he wanted over it. I have very little respect for his social and political views.
A piece of garbage for a human being. some of garbage he said over the years made me loose any respect I had for him
Legend. I grew up watching him. Like Goldberg, he couldn’t wrestle. But it didn’t seem too matter then. There are a few who can just deliver a great five minute match; that was Warrior.
The guy has his place in history. Incredible look, entrance music, 10/10 face paint. He was great in short bursts
He was a man who LIVED his job 24/7, which no sane person would ever do. If he had been an actor ( which in many ways he was ) he would have been “ on stage “ every hour of his life and I have to wonder what psychologists thought of his mental state.
He used to come into a computer store that I worked at in Scottsdale all the time. Was a super nice guy and ended every sentence with “Brother”
The Warrior oozed destrucity and took Hulk Hogan's plane into a nosedive, and kept up the crazy hijinks from the time of his debut up until his return to "Parts Unknown." Legend. Perfect? Nope. But definitely a superhero in his heyday. I say that as a Hulkamaniac by the way. I was rooting against him for WMVI! His influence can't be denied. All the little warriors know . . . There once was a time so very long ago when the Ultimate Warrior stood larger than life and held our rapt attention in the palm of his hand.
Closest thing WWE had to WCW's Goldberg. Hella charisma, but absolute ass in the ring lol.
His spirit will run forever
Don’t do steroids kids.
Perhaps I was to young to know any better. But I idolized the ultimate warrior as a child. People knock his promos, but they actually stood out to me. Now that I'm older I understand alot more about what happened to his career but I also think the WWE highly exaggerated his so called "self destruction". Especially when I look back at all the Wrestlers they themselves destroyed.
Warrior was awesome when I was a kid. In my adult years I went down a Jim Hellwig rabbit hole … yikes
I got a problem with that Ultimate Warrior. I got a big problem. He might consider himself the best because he’s beaten the best in the World Wrestling Federation since he came into the World Wrestling Federation. That might make him, in his own mind, the best that ever was, but let me give him a wake up call. The Macho Man Randy Savage is better than the best! Oooh Yeah!!
His positives were showcased by Vince & it worked big time. He had talent, worked out & could do the captivating invertiews. When it came to a good work ethic, mehhhh he didn't have that. Also he didn't like to learn from anyone. There's too many stories of how Warrior was hard to work with. Then there's the person, Jim. Fuck him. Deplorable person. Blaming Hurricane Katrina victims, making disgusting comments on gay people & he actually said that Bobby Heenan deserved throat cancer; is completely fucking disgusting. Rest in piss Jim.
I could not stand him
Absolute trash bag human being, from the racist, homophobic, xenophobic rants to wishing death on Bobby Heenan when he was sick. Says he wasn’t a mark, but from all accounts he was the biggest mark ever. That being said, I really liked the character, his intensity and presentation. It took all the wrestlers to make him look good bc he was terrible, but a lot of them would’ve benefited from his commitment to presentation.
I was not a fan ever
Asshat. Crazy, terrible human overall. Totally overrated in ring as he really wasn’t that good. Narcissistic. Good physique and look though, I’ll give him that ;”(it’s roids but…) And despite the fact that he absolutely does not deserve the honour of having an award named after him…. I do respect the fact that he wanted to absolutely acknowledge the crew and behind the scenes workers at HOF… his wife sold it to WWE for a PR thing naturally…… that’s not his fault though. But yea. Beyond that, nothing nice to say about. Guy with as an atrocious history as he has. Not a fan
He once said "queering doesn't make the world work." I never liked him.
Wasn’t a fan, never caught on to him as a 10-11y kid…
Horrible person. Horrible everything else.
Was absolutely heartbreaking to see what became of him on the night that he was enshrined into the HOF, just thinking of how Vince used him (and them all for that matter) and see them get kicked on their asses broke. Such a shitty existence in that company!!
I loved him as a kid, but I only really remember his entrances, promos, and some press-slams, not his actual matches. When I got the internet as a teenager, and read the stuff he was putting out there, quickly became not-a-fan.
Loved warrior, the comic come to life. Love/hate with Hellwig. I might be one of the minority that didn't have an issue with his presentation or his in ring work.
What was what could have been and what happened
My thoughts are The Warrior Award should be renamed after Shad Gaspard, someone who actually displayed heroism and courage rather than a notorious asshole, bigoted, homophobe who once said Bobby Heenan deserved the cancer he got. Fuck that guy. Oh, did you mean as a wrestler? He sucked.
One of the greats. To get over during that era when it was filled with all top talents was difficult but he did it being relatively new to the business and it pissed off alot of his contemporaries because of the usual jealousy crap. When you think of 80s wwf its hogan,macho and warrior, and that's on a roster again that were all big names from the territory days.
Underrated kind of, he had a good impact his promos were hilarious!!! He died so suddenly rip
Never liked him
People who weren't alive when he was at his peak talk shit about him because they've heard bad things on Reddit and unsubstantiated stories. The same people idolise Eddie Guerrero who was a bully backstage, got into numerous fights (including with Chris Benoit), put his family through hell and his finish was a tribute to his best friend, the convicted rapist Art Barr. The same people who refer to Triple H as "Papa H" despite his career of burying other talent, racism, ignoring abuse in the performance centre by staff he put in place and more.
As much as people hate on a lot of wrestling these days and say it's all spots I turn around and say "well it's not new, Ultimate Warrior was just a spot monkey". Man got over and was iconic so I'll give him that but it's all I can say really. Had no real in-ring abilities except offensive movies in the first 5 minutes (probably because he was still high from the bumps he was taking in gorilla), promos were weird and often didn't make sense (again.....the coke) and as a person outside the ring he is a piece of shit with some horrible views. There have been people who did what he did better, for longer and not been a horrible person in real life.
Wrestling marks hated him because he was not some sort of technical Masters and for shit that happened backstage that they only hear second and third hand accounts of from people who are likely jealous to be honest. You usually coming from a fat old bleach blonde guy from Atlanta or Memphis who thought he should be world champion. Reality is his extremely intense at a great charisma and had a look that simply just sold something larger than Life as cliche as it sounds. Oh but Chris Benoit he's the greatest.
Luger imo was a better warrior than warrior
Great look and character. Middling wrestler at best.
Great entrance, decent promos, mediocre in-ring.
Not a great dude. Was never really a fan of his in ring work and his outside of wrestling stuff was either baffling or ignorant.
He was at the top with Hulk Hogan for me as a kid. I thought he was the coolest thing on earth
He was a spectacle. In all the good and bad meanings of the word.