The Self Destruction of The Ultimate Warrior

Documentary:

- The debut of Jim Hellwig as half of the Blade Runners is discussed. From here, he becomes the Dingo Warrior and shortly thereafter jumps to WWF. Vince claims that he doesn't know what a Dingo Warrior is (and neither do I) and he doesn't want another "Warrior". There were the Road Warriors, the Modern Day Warrior and that he didn't want a type of Warrior, he wanted an "Ultimate Warrior". It stuck and that was that. Entrance music made the character, claim most. It's hard to dispute that. It's one of the greatest entrance tunes in the history of the business. Edge jokingly claims that he's one of the only wrestlers to ever get blown up before the match even began as he ran full speed to the ring. It's arguably the most memorable entrance ever.

- Hercules Hernandez vs. The Ultiamte Warrior. Nobody dug these matches. It's easy to say why. Ted Dibiase claims that if he didn't have someone to lead him, the matches wouldn't be good and Hercules wasn't one of those guys. This leads to the Weasel suit gimmick feud with Heenan. Heenan said he wanted to do it with Hogan, but Vince ordered it to be done with Warrior. Ultimately, it was done but Heenan hated helping to put Warrior over. Understandable. Laughably, his hometown "Parts Unknown" is discussed. Jericho and Edge are quite comical saying that it's a city in Spain or an island off the coast of Costa Rica. Warrior was bigger than a regular city, so to keep the mystique, he was billed from Parts Unknown. Unfortunately, Heenan feels that he was just stupid and didn't remember where he was from. I'll believe and go with that.

- The Honkytonk Man reigned as the Intercontinental Champion for quite some time, but Warrior came in and beat him in less than a minute. It helped set the tone for his career. Short, sweet and effective. From here, his stock began to rise and he became one of, if not the most, over stars in the company at the time. Everything he did was high impact and the fans loved it. Wrestlers and collegues however, thought it was hilarious -- just like his promos. Clips of his promos are played and they are definately quite comical. If you are depressed, watch these promos and they'll make you laugh. Subtitles are needed for his promos, says JR. Christian quotes the Wrestlemania VI promo word for word. Hilarious.

- Rick Rude is credited for helping make Warrior look like an actual wrestler. Rick Rude, not as big as Warrior, but just as chiseled if not moreso. Rude and Warrior had a lot of entertaining matches and Rude definately carried Warrior. In contrast, Warriors matches with Andre The Giant were kept short and were still crap. A story is told by Heenan where Andre had to knock Warrior out half way to get him to obey his calls in the ring. This all led to Warrior's biggest feud. Hulk Hogan won the 1990 Royal Rumble, eliminating Warrior leading to a feud between the two. This led to The Ultimate Challenge: Hulk Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior in a Title vs. Title main event. Warrior was the first person since 1984 to cleanly defeat Hulk Hogan, thus it was a passing of the torch. The torch then fizzled.

- As WWF Champion, Warrior was still huge if not bigger than Hogan. He feuded with Ted DiBiase, the had the best matches they possibly could. Ultimately, he began a feud with Randy Savage. This provided many memorable moments and a great culmination at Wrestlemania VII. Excellent match. For some reason, the match was made a retirement match rather than keeping the title on Warrior and having them face off in a title bout. Regardless, their match at Wrestlemania is one of the best matches in Wrestlemania history and without a doubt Warrior's best match.

- The Controversy at Summerslam 1991 is discussed. Warrior went to Vince and said that he wasn't going to perform unless he was paid X-amount of money. Vince said he'd take care of things and he did. Warrior wrestled on pay per view and as soon as the match was over, Warrior was fired. Vince says that as soon as he did so, he couldn't wait. It gave him great pleasure to fire Warrior. Excellent quote. Hogan of course has to claim that he felt his payoffs were inadequate. He's so full of shit -- he's the biggest draw in the history of the business along with Steve Austin, but that's besides the point. Ultimately, Vince gave him a second chance and a few months later at Wrestlemania VIII, Warrior returned aiding Hulk Hogan. Rumors spread that "the real" Warrior died, or that the guy who returned was a fake Warrior.

- Papa Shango vs. Ultimate Warrior is discussed. Shango placed a spell or a curse on Warrior causing him to puke all over people and drip ooze from his head and the like. Okerlund says that the feud was excellent, but the matches were absolutely horrible. It's true. Everyone says he had no love for wrestling, but rather for the money, fame, fortune and the bodybuilding -- but nothing else. Warrior's second departure in 1992 right before Survivor Series is discussed and it's implied that he failed a drug test, leading to his second release.

- Jim Hellwig is no more. He is now Warrior. The less said about that, the better. It's just absolutely ludacrous. It's different when guys like Rick Rude did it because it's an actual name, or Steve Austin. But Warrior?! Idiot. Despite the fact he changed his name, Vince still owned the property so ultimately, it did nothing but made him look even more foolish. However, Vince looked past all of this and still allowed the nutcase to return in 1996. Vince says he kept bringing him back because he still had drawing power and charisma. It was, apparently, right for business. Triple H says Ultimate Warrior was one of the most unprofessional guys he ever had the displeasure of working with. Footage is shown of the Helmsley/Warrior "match". Warrior no-sells everything and squashes Warrior in close to record time. Terrible. Lawler discusses his feud with Warrior and about how he was supposed to hit him with a glass picture. Warrior wears a hat and ruins the whole thing. Ultimately, Warrior is let go from the company once again... this time for good.

- Warrior filed a lawsuit to get the rights to his name, but lost. In WCW, Hogan and Jimmy Hart bring in The Renegade as a Warrior rip off. It was pretty terrible and ultimately wasn't memorable for the right reasons. In the end, Warrior wound up in WCW and was immediately thrown into a feud with Hogan. Bischoff, Hogan and Okerlund discuss the travesty that was Warrior vs. Hogan at Halloween Havoc 1998. Terrible, awful match. Bischoff claims that the match stunk up the joint and it could be noticed all over Vegas. It's true. The match is an abomination. Quite possibly the worst match ever. This match leads him to believe he deserves more money than he's worth and he ultimately ends his tenure in WCW. Warrior's legacy is discussed. It's not a pretty one according to most. Bischoff and Flair claim his legacy is that of a man who is a flash in the pan. Not much else is said about him besides a few positives from Hogan, McMahon and a few of his former fans like Jericho and Christian, but overall it's set -- Warrior is crap. Jericho claims Warrior was underrated as a wrestler.

Matches:

Ultimate Warrior vs. Terry Gibbs
This is from The Wrestling Challenge 10/24/1987. Squash match basically. Not much to say. N/R

Intercontinental Championship
Ultimate Warrior vs. The Honkytonk Man ©
From SummerSlam 1988. Yet another squash match. This time on a much larger scale. Not much else to say here except Warrior became IC Champion for the first time and the fans loved it. N/R

Title vs. Title
Ultimate Warrior © vs. Hulk Hogan ©
Excellent match from Wrestlemania VI. Somehow, Warriors streak of crap matches ended here and together, he and Hogan provided one of the most memorable and better matches in Wrestlemania history. The intensity was off the charts, the story telling was above all else, wonderful. In the end, Warrior put Hogan away with the Ultimate Splash to become WWF Champion. ****1/4

WWF Championship Cage Match
Ultimate Warrior © vs. Rick Rude
Rude helped carry Warrior to yet another good match at Summerslam 1990 in the culmination of their on and off feud which went on for quite some time. Rude was at the peak of his career at this point, IMO, and Warrior upped his game as champion. Together, both men meshed and created an above average title bout which was quite entertaining. In the end, Warrior prevailed and retained his coveted gold belt. ***1/2

Retirement Match
Ultimate Warrior vs. Randy Savage
Wrestlemania VII. My choice for Warrior's best match ever. Together, Savage and Warrior put forth an amazing match and one I've always had love for. Savage, the detail freak, did one hell of a job laying this match out and Warrior did an excellent job of following Randy's lead because everything fell into place correctly, gelled when it needed to and provided one of my top 10 choices for best Mania match. Warrior defeated Savage sending him into a "retirement". ****1/2

Overall, this DVD was quite entertaining. If you're an Ultimate Warrior fan, you may just want to skip right to the matches because the ones they included are decent. I fully expected the Halloween Havoc debacle to be included or something along those lines, but they included his better contests. The documentary paints him in a negative light the majority of the time, but still acknowledge that he was one of the biggest stars ever -- even if he didn't deserve it. That being said, it's good nonetheless. 4/5

Strongly reccommended