The Ultimate Warrior
- "Ultimate Warrior" redirects here, for the South Korean movie Ultimate Warrior, see musa (film). For other uses, see Warrior (disambiguation).
| Warrior | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 16 1959 Crawfordsville, Indiana |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Jim "Justice" Hellwig Blade Runner Rock Dingo Warrior The Ultimate Warrior The Warrior |
| Billed height | 6 ft 2 in (188 cm) |
| Billed weight | 275 lb (125 kg) |
| Billed from | Parts Unknown |
| Trained by | Red Bastien Rick Bassman |
| Debut | 1985 |
| Retired | 1999 |
Warrior (born Bryan Barry James Hellwig on June 16 1959) is a former American professional wrestler known to many as The Ultimate Warrior, one of the most controversial characters in the history of the wrestling industry. He legally changed his name to Warrior in 1993.
Career
Warrior began his pro wrestling career as Jim "Justice" Hellwig of Powerteam USA, a group of bodybuilders formed in 1985 by Red Bastien and Rick Bassman, but the gimmick went under when they discovered that, in their estimation, the team had limited wrestling potential.
Of the four members of Powerteam USA, only Hellwig and Steve "Flash" Borden had subsequent wrestling careers of any note (Borden went on to become Sting). They formed a tag team called The Blade Runners with Warrior as Blade Runner Rock when they wrestled in the UWF and on the independent circuit, but the group ended, and Warrior became Dingo Warrior for a short period in World Class Championship Wrestling, winning the Texas Title. After WCCW, Jim Hellwig signed with the WWF and adopted the name Ultimate Warrior.
World Wrestling Federation: The first stint (1987-1991)
As a World Wrestling Federation (WWF) superstar from the mid-80s to the early 90s, the Ultimate Warrior was known for his high-energy wrestling style and his Gorilla Press Slam, in which he would lift his opponent with an overhead military press and then drop him to the mat face-first, following with a running splash for his finisher. His matches were generally kept short and frantic, featuring a handful of power moves. The Ultimate Warrior's ring entrances featured him racing into the arena at full speed, bursting into the ring, and violently shaking the ropes up and down. Warrior's string of fast-paced squash matches ended up being a fundamental key to his popularity (the same routine later popularized Goldberg). He was also known for his distinctive pattern of face painting.
Warrior enjoyed two stints as Intercontinental Champion, defeating The Honky Tonk Man (in 32 seconds at the first ever SummerSlam in 1988) and Rick Rude at SummerSlam 1989. The Warrior was heralded as the wrestler to carry the torch after the pending retirement of Hulk Hogan in 1990. Following a few confrontations with Hogan, most notably at the 1990 Royal Rumble, the Warrior was written in as Hogan's opponent for WrestleMania VI. Ultimate Warrior defeated Hogan on April 1, 1990, at SkyDome in Toronto, Ontario in the main event (which was billed "The Ultimate Challenge", as both Hogan's WWF World Title and Warrior's Intercontinental Title were both on the line) of WrestleMania VI. This match is regarded by many fans as "the greatest match ever in the history of WrestleMania" due to the atmosphere, timing of maneuvers, and the build-up (and possibly where the match took place, the massive then-SkyDome, now Rogers Centre, WrestleMania's 2nd largest-sized venue after the Pontiac, Michigan's Silverdone which allegedly held 93,000 for WrestleMania III). The Warrior held the title until the Royal Rumble in January 1991, dropping the belt to Sgt. Slaughter (thanks to interference by Randy "Macho Man" Savage).
Warrior gained revenge on Savage at WrestleMania VII, pinning him in a "retirement match." Thereafter, he became embroiled in a brutal feud with The Undertaker after Undertaker and his manager, the macabre Paul Bearer, locked Warrior in a coffin on the set of Bearer's Funeral Parlor (one of the WWF's biggest "evil" incidents to that time; the Warrior's life was portrayed as being in danger as Bearer sealed the casket shut, and Vince McMahon frantically reminded the audience that he had a limited air supply as WWF officials worked feverishly to break the casket open to reveal a motionless Warrior inside). Eventually, Jake "The Snake" Roberts offered to help Warrior in his feud, but wound up turning against him; however, Roberts' impending feud with Warrior was quickly scuttled.
In August 1991, Warrior was involved in an alleged pay dispute with WWF owner Vince McMahon. Warrior had put a figurative gun to Vince McMahon's head and threatened to no show the main event for SummerSlam teaming him with Hulk Hogan against Sgt. Slaughter, Colonel Mustafa, and General Adnan unless he was paid a certain amount of money. It is unclear whether this sum was an amount the Warrior felt was owed to him (for previous work), or whether it was a new demand. The amount was never disclosed to the public and after the Ultimate Warrior chased Adnan and Mustafa backstage, McMahon promptly fired him, although he did pay Warrior the amount that was demanded. He would then be re-hired in 1992.
WWF: The second stint (1992)
Upon returning at WrestleMania VIII (to rescue Hulk Hogan from a beat down at the hands of Sid Justice and Papa Shango), he received a degree of creative control over his bookings. Many fans may remember the Papa Shango storyline, in which the "witch doctor" cast a spell over Warrior, causing him to convulse and vomit in very odd colors though Warrior says he hated that story and had no control over it.
Rumors and urban legends began around this time (and still persist to this day in some fan circles) that the original Ultimate Warrior and Dingo Warrior were not the same as the one who returned to wrestling in 1992, 1996, and 1998, and it was believed that the original Warrior had died. When the Ultimate Warrior returned to the WWF in 1992, it was rumored that Kerry Von Erich was playing the part, since Warrior's hair was much shorter than before; however, this has been shown time and time again not to be the case, as the character had always been played by the same individual. The reason for this confusion is a storyline which featured Warrior being "locked in an air-tight coffin" by The Undertaker (whom he was feuding with at the time) and his musculature's drastic changes, provoked by the presumed reduction (or cease) of anabolic steroid use occasioned by Titan Sports legal troubles over the alleged distribution of performance enhancing drugs. It was around this time (mid-late 1992) that Warrior sported a "Muscle Outfit," a flesh colored spandex singlet with muscles printed upon it.
Late in 1992, Warrior was scheduled to be the tag team partner of Randy Savage (who lost to Warrior in a retirement match at WrestleMania VII) at Survivor Series. Weeks before the event, however, Warrior and WWF were at odds again, arguing over who had creative rights to the Ultimate Warrior name as well as creative differences as to how the Warrior's character should be used. Though popular belief was that the Warrior was actually supposed to start a feud with Nailz, the WWF states that his reason for leaving was a "violation" found in his system during a random drug test. This occurred at the height of Warrior's ongoing marketing/financial differences with Vince McMahon, the owner and CEO of Titan Sports and World Wrestling Federation. Titan Sports—and specifically, the WWF—was under intense scrutiny of its drug policies including "performance-enhancing" drugs, the most prominent being steroids. According to Bret Hart during an interview with the Below the Belt show, the WWF was actually preparing to have a Hart/Warrior match at Royal Rumble 1993. But Warrior was replaced by Razor Ramon after he left.
WWF: The third stint (1996)
After several years spent mostly outside of the wrestling limelight, Warrior returned to the WWF in 1996, squashing future superstar Hunter Hearst Helmsley at WrestleMania XII. Triple H refers to his match against Warrior as "not my best event," and has referred to Warrior as "the most unprofessional guy I have ever worked with." Following WrestleMania, Warrior participated in brief feuds with Goldust and Jerry Lawler.
The WWF terminated Warrior's contract when he took time off allegedly to grieve the death of his father. WWF owner Vince McMahon claimed that Warrior had not seen his father in ten years and didn't care much for him; therefore, he did not take Warrior's excuse for missing bookings at face value. Warrior disputes Vince's explanation, claiming that the real reason why he no-showed those events was a breach of contract by McMahon.
In 1995, The Renegade debuted in WCW as Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage's "secret weapon," using ring attire and mannerisms that closely resembled Warrior's. Renegade was later used as Warrior's stunt double when Warrior himself was in WCW for a brief time in 1998.
World Championship Wrestling (1998-1999)
WCW signed Warrior in 1998, and gave him a degree of creative control over his matches, considered by some to be a foolish move. His debut drew huge audiences and ratings, but it did not last. He created a storyline where he formed a stable opposing Hulk Hogan's New World Order: the "One Warrior Nation." The acronym OWN for One Warrior Nation was a play on the name nWo. Highlights of the unpopular storyline included Warrior kidnapping and "converting" The Disciple and frequent instances of "magic smoke" knocking out all of the nWo members except for Hogan (and covering Warrior's movement through a trapdoor in the ring). The British Bulldog suffered a near career-ending injury when he landed on Warrior's trapdoor at Fall Brawl '98; Perry Saturn was also injured by the trapdoor, though not as severely.
Warrior only participated in three matches in WCW. The first was the War Games main event (along with seven other wrestlers) at Fall Brawl. Then on WCW Monday Nitro, he tag teamed with Sting to defeat Hogan and Bret Hart by disqualification, in which he had virtually no participation besides single handedly chasing several nWo members down the entry way, whipping them with Hogan's belt. Lastly was his loss to Hogan at Halloween Havoc, in what is widely considered to be one of the worst pay-per-view wrestling matches ever.
In the build-up to their match at Halloween Havoc, Warrior played mind games with Hogan by projecting backstage "apparitions" of himself in a mirror that only Hogan could see. The WCW storyline portrayed Hogan as "cracking up" in seeing these apparitions. However, the announcers could also see them, as well as the television audience.
In the Halloween Havoc match, the timing of the maneuvers and hits was very poor; the match was worsened due to an arm injury that Warrior received in the War Games, and an attempt to "blind" Warrior with a fireball backfired when Hogan faced complications igniting the flash paper, causing the fire to go up in Hogan's face instead. The match finally came to an end when Horace Hogan hit Warrior in the back with a chair while Eric Bischoff had referee Nick Patrick distracted. Hogan then scored the pinfall, ending the match.
WCW claimed that attempts were made to save the storyline and re-sign Warrior, but he was said to have asked for too much money, and WCW ended negotiations. In a DVD shoot interview available through online sources, Warrior claims that they simply decided not to call him any more, despite his having phoned WCW general manager Eric Bischoff 16 times after the Havoc debacle. He has further indicated in interviews and convention appearances that the only reason he was brought back was so Hogan could get a win over Warrior in return for Hogan's WrestleMania job. Warrior has further described Hogan as "insecure," and has indicated that a weekend stay at Hogan's Tampa home prior to the October '98 PPV was "an eye opening experience." Warrior's last appearance in WCW was the Nitro after Halloween Havoc, when he chased nWo Hollywood out of the ring in a "shmaz" (multiple participant no finish). He announced his retirement the following year. According to the book The Death of WCW, Warrior supposedly insisted upon a new contract picking up where the previous one left off in exchange for the Halloween Havoc job, though this claim is largely unsupported.
Life away from the ring
Warrior officially retired from wrestling in 1999.[citation needed] He found a new career as a conservative speaker and commentator, denouncing left-wing politics. Most notably, he mentioned that "queering doesn't make the world work" (44:20-46:50 of the video) during a speech at the University of Connecticut. Warrior has explained those comments on his website as meaning that the human race would die out if everyone were a homosexual.[citation needed]
According to a 2000 research study by Turner Networks, Warrior and Bill Goldberg were among the top five most internationally recognized wrestlers in the world, behind Hollywood Hogan and Kevin Nash.[citation needed]
Finishing and signature moves
- Warrior Splash / Ultimate Splash (Running big splash)
- Warrior Press / Ultimate Press (Gorilla press drop)
- Warrior Tackle / Ultimate Tackle (Running diving shoulder block)
- Front powerslam
- Lariat, often repeatedly done in succession
- Axe handle
- Shoulderbreaker
- Bearhug
- Big boot
Championships and accomplishments
1-time WCCW Texas Heavyweight Champion
- 2-time WWF Intercontinental Champion
- 1-time WWF Heavyweight Champion
Comic book
Beginning in May 1996, Warrior began writing with Jim Callahan and The Sharp Brothers illustrating a comic book entitled WARRIOR, featuring himself as the main character. The comics sold well in the first two months of their distribution, before sales plummeted and the comic was taken out of circulation in early 1997.[citation needed] The initial success of the comic and its ultimate failure are often attributed to the same things.[citation needed]
According to Warrior, six issues of the WARRIOR comic book were created, as well as a "Warrior Graphic Novel that revealed the story behind the creation of Warrior’s Comic Book Universe".[citation needed] However, only the first four issues of the comic were actually produced.[citation needed]
The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior
On September 27, 2005, WWE released a DVD documentary focusing on Warrior's retrospective wrestling career, entitled The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior. The DVD featured clips of his more notable feuds and matches along with commentary from WWE stars past and present (some of which are largely unflattering), the DVD has provoked some controversy due to Warrior's own allegations of libel by WWE against him, and his wife. Originally, Warrior was asked to help with the production of the DVD, but as he refused to work with WWE (citing he did not want to be associated with their promotion), there has been some resulting animosity between Warrior and WWE over the content and his vehement accusations of bias.
After the release of the DVD, Warrior was asked to appear on Byte This!, WWE's weekly webcast program, ostensibly to air his side of the story. He refused the offer, instead opting to issue a paragraph-long controversial statement, responding back to the insults of host Todd Grisham by calling him a "queer", and frequent contributor Droz a "cripple." This led to Matt Striker subsequently appearing on Byte This! and performing an unflattering impression of Warrior, including numerous references to the abuse of steroids. Striker, Grisham, and Droz shared several jokes at Warrior's expense, and an edited version appeared on WWE.com days later - the edits chosen giving the segment a less vitriolic feel than what was originally broadcast.
A week after this parody aired, JBL was featured on the show and angrily criticized and mocked Warrior, angry at his recent calling of his real-life friend Droz as "crippled." He angrily called Warrior an "absolute piece of shit" and said he "can't stand the son of a bitch." JBL would, however, admit to the fact that he and Warrior had no previous grudge - he was simply angry about Warrior's original statements.
Legal issues
In 1993, Jim Hellwig legally changed his name to Warrior in order to retain the legal rights to use the name outside of the WWF.[citation needed] The one-word name appears on all legal documents pertaining to Warrior, and his children carry the Warrior name as their legal surname. The ultimatewarrior.com domain is registered to "Mister Warrior".
Warrior and the WWF engaged in a series of lawsuits and legal actions in 1996 and 1997, culminating in a court ruling that Warrior was legally entitled to use the gimmick, costuming, face paint designs, and mannerisms of the "Warrior" character, though his facepaint was a similar facepaint that the Road Warriors used.[1] [2] In January 2006 Warrior filed another lawsuit against WWE in an Arizona court over the depiction of his wrestling career on their recently published The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior DVD.[citation needed]
![[1]](http://www.davemillicanbelts.com/Large7/RoadWarriors.jpg){kind=link}
![[2]](http://www.pwtorch.com/artman/uploads/sdwarrior3warrior.jpg){kind=link}
Forthcoming publications
In a recent audio interview with conservative speaker, Dan Flynn, Warrior revealed that he will be publishing two books in 2007. The first being a strictly ideological work on the core conservative values, and their function in a modern society. Although as yet officially untitled, Warrior hopes the work will be released as America: Get It or Get Out; but the release date of the book is unknown.
He also has plans to release a second book in the second half of the year, which will be part autobiography, part motivation guide. Warrior has stated that "...the book will detail my wrestling career...but it will be from an intelligent, inspiring angle". He further stated, "I'm not interested in detailing the seedy underbelly of an industry I have no desire to be associated with".
Personal life
Warrior was married to a woman named Sherri, but divorced later. This woman threatened to publish a book regarding their relationship, but that publication was later canceled.[citation needed]
In 2000, he remarried, this time to the former Dana Viale (whom he had been dating since at least 1996, as admitted in interviews during his WWF stint then). They now have two daughters; Indiana Marin and Mattigan Twain.
External links
- Home of Warrior - Official website (Under Reconstruction, but is to reopen soon)
- Ultimate Warrior FAQ
- Obsessed With Wrestling - Ultimate Warrior Profile
- IMDb Entry
- Legal threats
- Ultimate Warrior Shoot Inteverview