Calinger: Hard to believe Ultimate Warrior is gone
By J.W. CALINGER
ISL Correspondent
With all the focus on character development, story arcs, and dramatic, competitive matches, pro wrestling fans still love the occasional virtual demigod or freak of nature who simply comes down to the ring and runs over or smashes people. It’s what made Andre the Giant such a star and, more recently, why the likes of Goldberg and Ryback had so much of a following for a while.
In the late 1980s, we had the Ultimate Warrior, a man who dressed like a cross between an American Indian and a comic-book hero, and who acted like an amalgam between Warner Bros’ Tasmanian Devil and a Viking berserker. Warrior was a man possessed by a gallon of coffee; he’d run down to the ring, shake the ropes, smash his opponents, press-slam and splash them, shake the ropes some more, and run backstage again. His interviews, aside from a few slow, snarly ones, were loud rants in a shaking voice that nearly make me surprised, in retrospect, that the camera crew didn’t back up a few steps or, better yet, simply put their cameras on tripods and leave the room until the promos were over.
This energy and intensity Warrior had is why his death at the age of 54 is so shocking to us. Intellectually, we understand that an intense flame burns out more quickly. On the other hand, it’s almost impossible to imagine Warrior being still in any way, shape, or form. Even when he walked at a normal human pace in what has become a very poignant reunion Sunday and Monday nights, I imagined that he wanted very badly to break into a sprint and shake the ropes one more time.
Here is his eerie final promo:
Warrior had his big break jerking the curtain at WrestleMania IV when, after a couple of remarkable power matches against Hercules, he pinned Herc in front of millions. A scant four months later, he ran into the ring at SummerSlam and pinned the Honky Tonk Man in about 30 seconds. Aside from a minor hiccup in his rise to the top, a loss to Rick Rude at WrestleMania V due to outside interference by manager Bobby Heenan, he continued to shock and awe his opponents until he and Hulk Hogan, at WrestleMania VI, managed to put together an epic half-hour match that ended with Hogan handing him the belt and riding a motorized cart off into the sunset.
That angle against Hogan, by the way, was without precedent in Hogan’s career. Usually, turning on Hogan made someone an instant heel. So charismatic was Warrior, though, that people continued to cheer for him even though he had an issue with Hogan and let Hogan know it. At WM VI, we all thought Hogan, after he kicked out of Warrior’s press-slam and splash, was going to win – and then came “the thud heard ‘round the world”. Hogan went for the legdrop, Warrior avoided it, Hogan came down on what Gorilla Monsoon would call his right gluteus maximus, and after one more splash, Warrior became the first wrestler to pin Hulk Hogan cleanly since at least 1983, and the first ever to pin Hogan for a championship.
Here are the highlights from that legendary match:
Inevitably, Warrior had to come down a notch, as all shock-and-awe workers do. He lost to Sgt Slaughter at the following Royal Rumble, thanks to outside interference by “Macho King” Randy Savage – seriously, for those who don’t remember, Savage was using that nickname at the time – and dirty tactics by Slaughter and managers Colonel Mustafa (aka The Iron Sheik) and General Adnan. Warrior put together one more epic match at WM VII, pinning Savage in a “loser-leaves-WWE” match, and he had a feud with The Undertaker that included Jake Roberts mentoring and then turning on him, but otherwise, he had less of a push from owner Vince McMahon, especially after contract issues and steroid abuse led him to leave what was the World Wrestling Federation at one point and be released at another.
Oddly enough, during that time, one of the most enduring rumors about Warrior concerned – his death. It’s a well-established urban legend that at some point, he died and was replaced by someone similar-looking.
Warrior would return to the WWE in the mid-90s and, some years later, be pushed as a challenger to the New World Order in World Championship Wrestling. He called his group of fans, “One Warrior Nation” and ranted about the OWN beating the NWO. He even managed to throw in a few ’80s references, such as when he gestured to The Disciple, aka Brutus Beefcake, and asked Hogan, “Who is this, your barber?” Still, nothing came of either stint. Perhaps due to contract disputes over creative control and use of his stage name – he legally changed his name to “Warrior” in order to be able to keep using it in the ring – he never was able to stay in pro wrestling very long. He eventually became a conservative political commentator, gaining attention mostly for a speech in which he insulted homosexuals while speaking at the University of Connecticut.
In pro wrestling, whether in storylines or in the locker room, bitter enemies become cordial again if they stick around long enough. Even Bruno Sammartino, who literally spent decades trashing Vince McMahon after being the longest-reigning and, for a long time, the most beloved WWE/WWF/WWWF Champion, eventually made up with McMahon and accepted an invitation into the Hall of Fame. So it was, this year, with Warrior. Warrior was able to enjoy the accolades of the WWE Universe Sunday, and to cut one more promo in the middle of the ring on “Raw” the next night. Less than 24 hours later, we read that he was no longer with us, and this time, it was no urban legend.
I’m not sure what exactly made Warrior die. The steroids and other pharmaceuticals he probably took in his career no doubt played a part, of course, as they did with so many other professional wrestlers. Still, I think part of it had to do with his feeling that after one more moment of glory, it was time to leave quickly, the way he did after so many matches. Like so many other WWE fans, I can imagine his entering the Pearly Gates much the same way, with angels in vertical-striped robes trying to calm him down, and his asking where the flip Macho Man is so they can have another match.
