One Year Later: Can We Finally Be Honest About The Ultimate Warrior?

[Con T.]

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of the Ultimate Warrior's passing. A long legacy left behind, a loving (assuming, very forgiving) familyleft to grieve, at the age of 54. Surely, WWE has not scrimped on reminding us of Warrior's legacy, devoting an entire award in his memory. Much has been made of decision to twist Warrior's words into a PR spin; I've been somewhat amazed at the amount of fucks that people have given with a business deciding to be a business. We've gnashed our teeth and thumbed our noses at what seemed like a crass way to cash in on Warrior's death (and, to be fair, there is validity to this criticism. Frankly, at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter: Connor the Crusher got his moment, and that's what really matters). That's never been a problem, at least for me.

My problem has always been, why in the fuck would we name an award of courage and compassion after such a homophobic bigot?

Last month, Dana Warrior said the following;

"Connor displayed all of the positive traits that Warrior stood for, and he is the perfect recipient for this inaugural award."

I'll do you one better, Dana; Connor deserves more, than what the Warrior award entails. Over the past year, we've indulged ourselves (with no uncertain help from the WWE) in a great dosage of revisionist history. Ironic, considering the WWE's involvement in the revisionist history that surrounded Warrior. Warrior has been, and always will be, one of the most identifiable names in wrestling. The right mixture of attitude and flash, Warrior now rightfully is deemed by us as one of the most memorable wrestlers ever. We're finally done ignoring the good that Warrior brought us; the involvement he had in our childhood, the memories he has left us, and the business he helped make a worldwide entity.

But just because we have all of these positive elements of Warrior to remember now, doesn't mean we should exclude the negatives. There are many adjectives that can be used to describe Warrior; I'm sorry to say "courage and compassion" are not the two words I'd use to describe the man.

It always struck me as odd that WWE chose to honor a Make a Wish child, by presenting an award from the memory of someone who seemed to be rarely involved with Make a Wish children...

I got to see exactly what kind of champion Warrior was during a show in Omaha. Propped up on a stretcher a few feet outside the dressing room was a Make A-Wish kid who looked to be down to his last few hours. There was not a hair left on his head, and not even his Warrior face paint could mask his sad eyes. Sickly pale and barely breathing through a ventilator tube, the boy wore a purple Warrior T-shirt and green and orange tassels tied around his biceps to honor his hero. His mother and father and an older brother and sister were with him, patiently waiting for the promised encounter with The Ultimate Warrior.

I bent over to say hello, as did all the other wrestlers on the way into the dressing room. It was odd, but there was Warrior actually sitting with us: He usually kept to himself in his private dressing room. By the time the third match started, a WWF public relations rep poked his head in and politely asked Warrior if he was ready to meet the dying boy. Warrior grunted, “In a fuckin’ minute. I’m busy.” I thought to myself, Busy doing what, talking to a bunch of guys you can’t stand anyway?

As the night wore on the family waited just outside the dressing room door, the boy hanging on to his dying wish to meet his hero. As I was returning to the dressing room after my match, I was relieved to see that they weren’t there anymore; I assumed that the kid’s wish had come true.

Warrior’s entrance music played while Jim and I quickly showered in hopes of beating the crowd out of the building. We’d have to hurry since Warrior never went over ten minutes. We dressed, grabbed our bags and took off. As we rounded a corner down a backstage ramp, we came upon the boy and his weary family, who had been moved there so as not to get in the way of Warrior’s entrance. I thought, That lousy piece of shit. He’d made them wait all night, unable to summon the compassion to see this real little warrior. Hogan, Randy and countless others, including André, never hesitated to take the time to meet a sick, dying kid. My disgust for Warrior magnified a thousand times. To me he was a coward, a weakling and a phony hero.

The sad truth is, Warrior was a man who rarely conjured up passion for anyone. When Heath Ledger passed away, Warrior had this to say:

By today's standard, though, I do have to agree that he was a great father. Perhaps even greater then the father of the year, Hulk Hogan. After all, Leather Hedger did what it took to kill himself. His kid is without a father, yes, but the negative influence is now removed and his own child has the chance for a full recovery.

His thoughts on gays have been well chronicled over the years, so this seemed a knock on Ledger, for portraying homosexuality in Brokeback Mountain. Incidentally enough, while certainly unintentional, Warrior would leave his daughters fatherless, as well.

As it pertains to Bobby Heenan, Warrior had this to say:

As for you, Booby Heenan, it’s just too difficult to keep a straight face talking about the pure two-faced bag of shit you are (and have always been), what, with you also actually wearing one as a piece of body jewelry. You are dying, dis-eased on the inside, and no more time is left to get back any of the integrity that matters the most on death’s bed. Imagine what it will be like, lying there taking in your last breaths, knowing you ****ed yourself out your whole life, and had to, in your final years, be faced with emptying your own personal shit bag affirming to you the true value of what you achieved in your life. Not even Vince could come up with a better finish than this. Karma is just a beautiful thing to behold.

Regarding the victims of Hurricane Katrina:

If we could be shown what general conditions they lived in before the hurricane, we would see that had little respect for what they did have. We would see just how unorganized, unclean and dysfunctionally they lived. They never gave a care for order, cleanliness or function before, but now that they can get someone's attention who will possibly take over the responsibility of their life for them, they go on these tirades about how their life has been ruined. Their lives were already in ruin — self ruin. Ruined by the bad choices they made over and over.


And they are fat. Have you ever seen so many fat people? Poverty? Poverty of what? Having enough to buy so much food to eat that you become obese — this is poverty? Only one TV? This is poverty? A house with a roof over your head? This is Poverty? Indoor plumbing? Electric appliances? Refrigeration? Phones? Cell phones? Computers? Designer clothes made by rap stars? $200 Nikes? Free medicine and medical care if you really need it? Is having all this poverty? What the hell, then, do we call the scenes they shoot out of Africa that they use to lay guilt trips down on all of us?


They claim New Orleans was (is) a great city. Maybe once it was, I don't know. Too, maybe it's just always been corrupt as it has been for years and years. Truth is, today, it was nothing more than a pornographic cesspool of decadence and depravity. You know, an East Coast version of that Las Vegas take on vacation time — "what you do there stays there." You go there, drink and drink and drink and behave like a pervert, reprobate and degenerate, take a huge dose of antibiotics and a nice extra long shower before you hop on the plane back home, and, "Hey, who knows any better?" You go back to the church, PTA, and local council and "squarely" fit right back in. One thing is for sure, IF New Orleans ever was a great city, it certainly was not because it had leaders and citizenry like the leaders and citizenry it has today.

Warrior clearly fostered an unwelcoming environment to those different from him, and did so unapologetically to his grave. In return, the WWE decided to name an award based on courage and compassion (admittedly, somewhat against Warrior's actual message) off of the man. A man with little compassion, and based on these quotes about MLK, a man who knew little about courage...

Martin Luther King can have his own self-titled birthday recognized as a National Holiday, but not our country's First President? Should I go on? Should I have to? Do I want to? Will I? You bet your ass I will.

Let's see if I understand this correctly. Or should I say, let's see if I can get to anywhere near a "correct understanding" of this piece of nonsense by, first, understanding it sensically using political-incorrectness?

Martin marched a few times from Selma, AL to Montgomery, AL. It's only about 40 miles and he walked along paved roads with security escorts and modern comforts and conveniences. He wrote a few jailhouse letters, plagiarized a great many speeches, and played up his last name "King" as if he was ONE. He led his best rally amid the monuments of Washington, DC. He preached proper, righteous behavior while he at the same time committed adultery many publicly verifiable times — oh, and he had "a dream."

If this post seems harsh on Warrior, it's because it absolutely is. We all laughed a year ago, when Donald Sterling was set to receive an award from the NAACP, days before the sound of Sterling speaking with his mistress leaked. Imagine if the NAACP went one better, and decided to fund an award in honor of Donald Sterling's racial tolerance?

That is the equivalent of what WWE has done.

Warrior was able to come back, and make his peace with WWE. Grand. That doesn't, and shouldn't, absolve him of the troubling homophobia and bigotry that always seemed to follow this man. I'm sure he was a wonderful family man, and may have been a loving husband. I'm also sure that Joseph Stalin and Idi Amin's family would tell you the same thing, about them.

It astounds me how a man who has gone above and beyond to give back is still widely booed by the audience, while Warrior can be annointed for sainthood.

So, I present to you the real shame of the Warrior Award, that so many deserving warriors are going to be tarnished by the lasting legacy of a homophobic bigot.

Tell me, where exactly am I wrong?

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

You're not, actually. Its just that it was a touching moment for him to reconcile with WWE and then pass away like that. It is that being taken away when us as fans think, oh there is peace and harmony finally that hit home the hardest

That comment about Heenan makes me sick. It really does. And WWE is a PR machine that will churn and turn everything into their good and at times, they need to be called out on that. The thing is though, when we last left him, Warrior came out as this amazing father and doting husband. Does it take away years of him spewing god knows what nonsense. Yes, it did. And then he passed away. One may have even thought that he has come to his senses, but that HOF speech still bore resentment. Although, I haven't seen the complete speech.

Many times, death acts as the great leveler. As narrow minded a life could have been lived, in death we let it go and remember the good. That is what happened.

 

[SoulTrain4]

Jim Hellwig is a documented piece of shit but he, like so many others, garners most of his sympathy from the internet wrestling crowd because of the Self-Destruction DVD. He shouldn't be sympathized with at all and I have still yet to see how much was false about the DVD.

That said, the idea about the Warrior Award is awesome, celebrating those outside of wrestling, like Connor, is a great idea regardless of where the idea came from.

I think Warrior, like many others, is a polarizing individual but he did bury a lot of hatchets before he died, apologizing to people and accepting apologies from others where he had refused to do so before. It's not WWE's business what Jim's opinion of homosexuals are because he wasn't doing business with them when he made those comments, just like they weren't in business with Austin when he beat his wife or Abdullah when he was giving people diseases and the list goes on, nobody is perfect and Warrior seemed to be interested in turning his life around and not being so negative when he died, that's the Warrior they chose to remember and commemorate which is fair.

We can go down the list of shitty individuals that are glorified in the media and in wrestling but it's not always necessary as it does more harm than good. Nobody in the business is a saint, not many walking the planet are.

I see the Warrior Award, not necessarily as WWE attempting to "cash in" on his legacy but as a bridge of Goodwill between the company and Warrior after all the years bitterness.

 

[mizowns]

Probably the biggest asshole of all times, Ultimate Warrior.

Racist, hompohobic and no sympathy and no understanding for social-economic background.

Ultimate Warrior even said it was perfect that Bobby Heenan got cancer...

And still people cheer this guy, with no knowledge.

No wounder why everybody was sick of Ulimtate Warrior. Edge and Jericho was spot on in the DVD against Warrior.

Casual fans need to know this.

 

[Con T.]

VD.

That said, the idea about the Warrior Award is awesome, celebrating those outside of wrestling, like Connor, is a great idea regardless of where the idea came from.



I see the Warrior Award, not necessarily as WWE attempting to "cash in" on his legacy but as a bridge of Goodwill between the company and Warrior after all the years bitterness.

And again, I don't have a problem with the award. Hey, any way you can memorialize fans who lived and died by the business, mazeltov. I found the actual Connor induction to be a tear jerker. Where my problem comes in, is using someone so filled with hate for an award about compassion.

Again, Warrior did seem to make an effort to be in the good graces of WWE. He sought out Hogan and Jake to apologize. But I've never really seen him look at his stances with homosexuality, and have any issues. Maybe he did, privately, and my points would be marginalized. But I just didn't see it happen.

I can see what you mean by the in and out of character point, but here's the thing. If we're leaving some slack for moral character out of the ring, why shouldn't Chyna get that slack? What she did as a person didn't involve hating a whole bunch of people due to their sexual preference or race. I'd way rather my daughter know about what she did vs seeing this dude immortalized then looking up his hate mongering. If you're going to add that moral aspect to the HOF for Chyna, doesn't it seem disingenuous to then honor Warrior?

 

[jmt225]

Alright, let's ignore the fact that by all accounts he was a wonderful father and husband, and that he inspired millions of people in a positive manner. No, that means nothing. What means everything is that he said some bad things, nearly ten years ago (the Make-A-Wish thing we don't know if it's true or not, and I'm sure a lot of good guys have one case here or there where they came across badly).

You compared him to Donald Sterling... in what position of power was Warrior in? Did he own a billion company and was in a position to discriminate against people? Of course not, so what does it matter that he once spewed some ridiculous views about homosexuality and Hurricane Katrina?

Then you want to put him in the same breath of Joseph Stalin and Idi Amin... get the fuck out of here, man.

And what he said about Heenan was disgusting, but think about it... this was said not long after that DVD was released; in fact I think it was right after. It was heat of the moment BS and he never said anything like it again in the ten years following that original statement.

Warrior obviously changed a lot as his daughters grew. He stopped with the stupid ultra Right Wing blog and public speaking appearances, and started publishing stuff that involved health improvement and positive thinking methods and the like. Outside of bashing Hogan and Nash (both of which deserved it), you didn't hear controversial stuff come from Warrior in a long time.

People change. And by the time of his death, it was apparent that he changed quite a good bit as compared to the POS a lot of people believed he was. You think the guy who made that HOF induction speech is the same guy who wrote those right wing blogs? Come on, man. The Warrior from 2005-2006-2007 would have gone up on that podium and made a huge ass of himself, insulting everyone he could possibly think of. And again, even if his crappy views remained in tact, they're just his personal views. He's not out there actually harming anyone. The things you posted were just words on a computer he typed out many years before his death. What's the big deal?

Actions are much louder than words. And you have not one example of Warrior actually doing something bad or harmful to another human being, except for a hearsay Make-A-Wish story from Bret Hart that happened 25 years ago. That's it. And that's just not enough for me to condemn someone as a piece of trash not worthy of posthumous recognition.

 

[Con T.]

Alright, let's ignore the fact that by all accounts he was a wonderful father and husband, and that he inspired millions of people in a positive manner. No, that means nothing. What means everything is that he said some bad things, nearly ten years ago (the Make-A-Wish thing we don't know if it's true or not, and I'm sure a lot of good guys have one case here or there where they came across badly).

He very well may have been a great father; never doubted it. Fatherhood changes people, and we'll address that soon enough.

Is it the entirety of what should make up his legacy? Of course not. Dude was a part of our childhoods, I'm well aware of that. But I just can't throw out the "bad things" (and to be honest, "bad things" is kind of marginalizing it).

When you're giving an award, and this is the exact wording;

The Warrior Award will be given to someone who has exhibited unwavering strength and perseverance, and who lives life with the courage and compassion that embodies the indomitable spirit of WWE Hall of Famer, The Ultimate Warrior.

I'm sorry, but that wasn't Warrior's life. In many cases, Warrior did eventually apologize for things he said (namely, to Hogan, Jake, and Vince). Stopping from making the public events and saying stupid right wing things is not the same as atoning for them. Did he ever need to? Of course not, it was his prerogative to not do so.

Just like it's my prerogative to feel hurt by what the man said, acknowledging he probably isn't the best choice for an award honoring compassion and courage in life.(side note; doesn't that kind of make it worst he had the chance to type everything? That he could type out his thoughts, look over them, make sure that was what he wanted, and then send it?)

And you have not one example of Warrior actually doing something bad or harmful to another human being

That's just it, JMT. Those quotes I posted? They are harmful, and they do hurt. Are they just words? Sure, of course they are. But they're also the type of words that say, essentially, "fuck your right to humanity"

Ironically enough, kind of the opposite of what the Warrior award is supposed to be about.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

Yeah it's really hard to believe the Warrior Award about "positive traits" after WWE smeared The Warrior 10 years ago with that Self Destruction DVD where almost everyone said a lot of terrible things about him.

I am not here to take sides since I do not know the whole story. But WWE has to "man up" and either acknowledge that releasing the Self Destruction DVD was a mistake or not even try to put Warrior over and have awards and celebrations with his namesake (which I assume is for PR and profit related reasons). They can't have it both ways.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

As a wrestling fan, I can't say that I was ever really a fan of Warrior. Even as a kid, the guy just didn't really do anything for me even though he was kinda cut from that nigh invincible, superhero cloth as Hulk Hogan. As a person, I was probably even less of a fan of him than as a wrestler as he often came off as embodying some of the worst aspects, sometimes even stereotypes, of conservatives. I can say that I never wished him ill or wanted him dead and that, as a wrestling fan, it was a cool moment to see him step back into a WWE ring.

The guy wasn't perfect by any remote stretch of the imagination. I've read all the various examples the OP mentioned and more over the years, I've seen clips of his speeches in front of conservative crowds and I've read most of every account pertaining to what other wrestlers have said about him. He's not somebody that I personally would've wanted to associate with, not necessarily because of his beliefs but because of the heartless, callous, alienating and deliberately offensive ways he states them. I don't know if it was all 100% legit, if it was exaggerated for the benefit of cameras and the press and, if so, to what degree, but he often came off as being very much in the same vein as the likes of Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter.

At the same time, nobody's perfect as there are always gonna be people who're willing to say negative things about anyone at any given time. Everybody's got their own faults; for example, in Bret Hart's book, it seemed as though he'd mention at least one instance in which he screwed around on his first wife in every chapter. Stone Cold Steve Austin, on at least a few occasions, beat his then wife Debra Marshall, AKA Debra McMichael. There are numerous accounts of wrestlers in any number of promotions back in the day who were heavily into abusing drugs while said promotions looked the other way. If you're looking for a saint in the world of pro wrestling, you're going to be very hard pressed to find one.

The Warrior Award itself, in my opinion, is a pretty cool idea and is definitely a nice public relations stunt. Do I believe it's all 100% altruistic? Hell no because there's always something in it for everyone whether it be some NBA player appearing in a commercial for the Boys & Girls Club or media mogul donating millions of dollars to one charity or another. However, it doesn't make the idea any less of a cool one in my eyes.

Warrior's legacy as a wrestler, for the handful of years he was at the top, is pretty much assured. The pinnacle of his career is a good 25 years gone, yet people still talk about it with reverence in somewhat similar ways to what you still hear in regards to Brock Lesnar's first run beginning back in 2002. I wasn't a fan of Warrior, but I have to acknowledge that he was a major player who left a huge impression in the 3 or 4 years he was in WWE.

 

[MartialHorror]

I have always found it fascinating how polarizing peoples opinions on him were behind-the-scenes. Hogan, prior to WWE reconciling with Warrior, said he thought Warrior was a nice guy who simply could not carry the company in his book. Bret Hart thought he was a piece of shit. And so on.

Personally, Bret's story disturbs me more than the majority of his comments. I am all for gay rights and disagree with practically everything Warrior said, but do I think being homophobic makes you a terrible person? Not really. Homosexuality is still a topic people struggle with and not everyone is comfortable with it yet. Then again, I try to avoid judging people based on beliefs, as if I do so that would likely mean that 75% of this world is comprised of turds.

The Bret Hart story just makes him seem cruel and his poor treatment of fans is almost legendary. Those are closer to being actions, which I am willing to judge someone for. I agree that since he's died, people are a bit too PC in regards to talking about him. He was a crappy worker who didn't know shit about wrestling psychology...or wrestling in general. He was always more interested in money than the fans, although I don't know if he had changed in recent years. So I can see both sides of the coin here.

 

[d_henderson1810]

Yeah it's really hard to believe the Warrior Award about "positive traits" after WWE smeared The Warrior 10 years ago with that Self Destruction DVD where almost everyone said a lot of terrible things about him.

I am not here to take sides since I do not know the whole story. But WWE has to "man up" and either acknowledge that releasing the Self Destruction DVD was a mistake or not even try to put Warrior over and have awards and celebrations with his namesake (which I assume is for PR and profit related reasons). They can't have it both ways.

I think the "Warrior Award" ONLY happened because Warrior died soon after the HoF induction. It's like how Vince ONLY decided to induct "Macho Man" only AFTER he died. It is a way of WWE pretending to say and do nice things for deceased wrestlers, who they had no time for when alive.

Warrior came back to WWE, went into the HoF, and then died. So, WWE couldn't really say what they thought of him.

Warrior saying that Heenan's cancer is kharma is like saying that Warrior's heart attack, a heart full of bitterness and hate, was kharma.

I think that it is cool that a true fan of WWE, like "Krusher" Connor is recognized, but maybe they should name it something else.

 

[FromGlasgow]

You can always rely on the IWC to find the negative anywhere they can, If you looked hard enough you could find fault with anyone.
Is Warrior the only person ever in the wrestling business to talk trash about people?
Thats what always happens in proffesional wrestling as long as ive been a fan.

Another thing the IWC can't seem to do is differentiate between reality and fiction, The Ultimate Warrior the wrestler was a created character I imagine different from the Warrior outside of wrestling, With his incoherant promos etc that he was well known for.
As for the award at hall of fame, Who would you like to name the award after? My guess is nobody would be happy unless its named after one of the IWC favourites CM Punk or Zack Ryder.

 

[Burritocover]

I was a huge Warrior fan as a kid but way less as I got older. I guess I just head one too many stories of him being a douche. I also started to recognize how limited he was in the ring. I know lots of wrestlers might be dicks and might even share his views but Warrior went out of his way to make sure he got his stupid point of view out there. Maybe he did change later in life but he didn't do anything to show that other than making up with WWE. I don't remember ever seeing a blog from him saying he now understands he was wrong. And yeah I guess it seems like he was a great dad and I'm sure his family feels that way but if he's teaching his kids to hate gay, poor, black etc. people is that really a good dad? I don't think a good person acts that way. However I do think honoring someone like Conner is a really cool thing to do. As far as a Warrior award I guess if you are talking about Warrior as a character it makes perfect sense. The character was all of the things that award represents. And I guess in his situation it becomes a bit a grey area because there was very little distinction between him and the character. I guess it all comes down to lets focus on the good not the bad in this situation which is probably fine because I know he was a major positive force in some peoples lives. Overall I think the Warrior award is a cool idea but I hope we don't have to hear his wife every year carry on about how great he was.

 

[thebarber]

people change, fences mend. Let the guy rest in peace.

 

[ilapierre]

To be 'fair' to Jim Hellwig, he was probably the most outspoken wrestler in wrestling history. He made a pile of money at a really young age and then sat on it his whole life. He never had to suck up to the WWE or WCW or anyone. Never had to bite his tongue so to burn bridges or feed his family. He was in a position where lifers like Bobby Heenan and Bret Hart were 'jealous' of his undeserved success and were both very critical of him.

Was Warrior the greatest human being? No. Is it a fair to say Warrior had little respect for the dying or dead? A lot of the time it sure sounds like it. Although he did have nothing but nice things to say about Randy Savage after his death. His tribute to Randy was probably the best of them all. Warrior had respect for Randy because, unlike most of his peers, Randy wasn't jealous of him. And thus treated him with respect.

Now this might sound like a complete defense of Warrior but it is not. I agree with a lot of what the OP put forth. Couldn't believe some of the shit Warrior had said over the years. But if memory serves me right you can catch so many of our most celebrated wrestling legends saying and doing so much shit. Warrior is not alone in the ridiculous actions department..

Levesque punching Chyna out after she approached him about his affair with Stephanie

Poffo's supposed inappropriate relationship with Stephanie

Hulk's conversation with Nick about his car accident

Scott Hall nearly drinking himself to death for years..and denying some sick kid a few years ago..oh and he killed a bouncer

Scott Steiner threatening to kill Hogan via his wife

Steve Austin beating Debra

Bret Hart cheating on his wife year in and year out

Ric Flair trashing everybody he was jealous of in his tell all bio..and obviously turning his back on his son's drug issues which turned out fatal..

Vince McMahon making BILLIONS on backs of dead and health failing old 80s and 90s mid carders and temporary draws who were forced to pay their transportation and hotel costs while, like even the main eventers, getting absolutely no health insurance..as is still the case today...

I could go on and on and yes I know most of the above instances are actions and not words. But I believe the actions speak even louder than words even if they were much fewer. Warrior was just brave/stupid/rich enough to broadcast his ******ed points of view.

 

[Mustang Sally]

My problem has always been, why in the fuck would we name an award of courage and compassion after such a homophobic bigot?

For one thing, it fortifies the mistaken notion that only nice people die.

After all, when do you hear a eulogy given that includes: "Even though the dear departed was a miserable, bigoted piece of shit" or "I hope the motherfucker is in Hell, toasting marshmallows with Satan."

Hellwig spent years and years saying rotten things about people, making me wonder what he was so bitter about. I figured his brain was so cooked on chemical substances that he was, essentially, insane.....and that the years he could have spent pro wrestling would have built a bigger nest egg for his wife and daughters.....not to mention the entertainment he might have provided his fans.

Still, his final appearance was nice; it has to be better to finish on a positive note. I guess.

 

[ilapierre]

Oh and one more thing I could add to this is that wrestlers have to sign autographs and meet with sick and dying kids day in and day out. Although it must be rewarding to see these kids light up it must also be depressing and sad to know they don't have long to live..and that meeting far from perfect wrestlers is their dying wish..I know if it was I who was larger than life I would not be able to hold it together perfectly 24-7. My death is something I don't like to think about and being forced to I would probably react selfishly once in a while due to the stress of everything. Our entertainers wrestle crazy schedules being on the road 5 or 6 days of 7 at house shows..at least in Warrior's time anyway..It's constant nagging from WWE officials on what they need to do and where they need to be and how to do things perfectly as Vince wants it done...Case in point being CM Punk's recent words on how he was told the same thing by about 20 WWE officials about a hundred times when it came to 'making the Shield look good at all costs'. Punk finally blew up after hearing it a hundred times. Could Bret have seen Warrior, using Warrior's own words, 'blowing up' at an annoying backstage official and taken the blowup the wrong way? Possibly. All i can really know about the Warrior is that two of my friends met the guy back in the early 1990s. One of them, when Warrior was champ, on a flight to Orlando Florida in 1991. Dude came back with photos, autographs and said the guy was the greatest. And a special needs guy with ALS who met him at a show in either 1991 or 1992. A fantastic autographed photo together. Warrior is still his all time favourite wrestler. Same guy also met Hitman at a small town community center and said Hitman was awesome too and willing to chat..

 

[Creepy Old Man]

Good thread. I was listening to the Don Tony and Kevin Castle show on Monday, and they talked about the massive heat they were getting pre-2014, for being fans of Warrior's work (not his personality, but the excitement he brought to live arenas). I can relate to that personally. I have a large group of friends I go to wrestling shows with, and they all hammered me for remaining a fan Warrior's performances. Now that he's dead, everyone in my group of friends loves his work (and can't remember despising him). The same thing happened among listeners of the DT&KC show.

Now, people are pretending that Warrior was a good guy, when he was a thoroughly wretched excuse for a human being. He was openly homophobic, ridiculed Droz and Bobby Heenan for their illnesses, had no commitment whatsoever to his employers or his fans, and was generally a sociopathic piece of shit. An awful, awful man, and his wife basically said at the HoF that she echoes all of his principles. I'm reluctant to like the woman.

 

[Cats Pajamas]

I understand exactly what OP is saying. There’s probably a lot of people who wouldn’t find it too hard to dislike Warrior; he never made it his practice to avoid stepping on people’s toes. Based off what I heard about him from people who knew him and based off what he said himself, I’d be inclined to think Warrior was a bit of an asshole. To put it in nicer terms, he sounded like he lacked understanding of people who were different from him, and I suspect some of his opinions were rooted in his [gigantic] ego.

I never met Warrior, though. I never worked with him, or met his family, or got a creepy fax from him describing me as a best friend or being like a father to him. Vince McMahon had a much closer relationship with the Warrior, and I think Vince was genuinely sorry for having hard cheese between him and Warrior for so long. I’m sure that the memories Vince has of Warrior are a lot different than the ones I have. To Vince and some others who knew him, maybe Warrior did exemplify the traits recognized by the Award. Maybe…

Of course, a lot of Warrior’s Hall of Fame induction was themed around Vince McMahon publicly apologizing for the Self Destruction DVD. Warrior mentioned in his speech “the people who tried misrepresenting history”, the WWE released a new Warrior DVD that was much more flattering to Warrior (and they’re working on a book), even Linda McMahon’s speech didn’t really defend Warrior’s “no excuses” attitude, but just kinda said “we love him anyway.”

Like the OP, I don’t make every single connection between the Award and the man it was named after, but I think naming it the Warrior Award was due to one or two other reasons:
1. Jim and Vince were once close, and Vince was really, really sorry for the Self Destruction DVD.
2. Wasn’t it Warrior’s idea in the first place? I heard somewhere he was the one pushing for this to become a part of the ceremony.

 

[Navi]

I was never really a Warrior fan, just something about him bothered me. Am I surprised to hear the stories, not really, I think if you dig down deeply and do a lot of research then you will find something that isn't nice about almost everyone. He just happened to put it out there a lot more than others do, so maybe my gut feelings were right.

That being said, I won't disrespect the man now that he's dead. No matter what he did in life, I hope that he had the fortitude to at least try and rectify some of the wrongs he made before he died.

 

[mizowns]

Now, people are pretending that Warrior was a good guy, when he was a thoroughly wretched excuse for a human being. He was openly homophobic, ridiculed Droz and Bobby Heenan for their illnesses, had no commitment whatsoever to his employers or his fans, and was generally a sociopathic piece of shit. An awful, awful man, and his wife basically said at the HoF that she echoes all of his principles. I'm reluctant to like the woman.

Agreed. The hypocrisy from Dana Warrior was beyond me. There is something very fake about here.

Obviously having a man like him (Warrior), with his values, says a lot about her as well.

 

[FlairFan2003]

The idea of the award is a great one....naming after Warrior is not so great. He had a generally bad reputation for how he treated fellow wrestlers and fans, as has been documented by so many posters here.

I did think it was a nice story that he made seemingly made peace with his career, as well as Vince McMahon & Hulk Hogan before he died. That doesn't change the fact he was well known for representing through his behavior the very opposite of what the award is supposed to represent.

The mistreatment of fans bothers me most.....Many people see Brett Hart as way to full himself and he has held some legendary grudges over the years but you never hear bad stories about his interactions with fans.....Hulk Hogan & HHH are often portrayed as the all time master manipulators of backstage politics but there willingness to accommodate fans is legendary....Ric Flair seemingly never met a party or a woman he didn't want to enjoy but is well known for his willingness to visit hospitals, sign autographs, pose for pictures, etc with fans....Randy Savage was a veritable recluse who maintained the highest level of privacy yet he was known to be friendly and accommodating when in public with his fans....these guys are classic examples of successful wrestlers who in one way or another have been accused of having some pretty big character flaws YET they all have near excellent reps when it comes to accommodating the fans. Add Steve Austin to that list.

I think WWE went one step two far with the WARRIOR AWARD, mending fences, letting him appear on RAW, even the HOF Induction (which I don't think he deserved) Im fine with, but every name on the above list is more deserving of having an award named after them for the countless times they wrestled injured, performed hurt, and most importantly maintained positive interactions with their fans.

 

[FlairFan2003]

Scott Steiner threatening to kill Hogan via his wife


Ric Flair trashing everybody he was jealous of in his tell all bio..and obviously turning his back on his son's drug issues which turned out fatal..

.

Just to clarify....Ric didn't trash people needlessly in his biography....it was full of praise for Hogan, Savage, Dusty Rhodes, Steamboat, Funk, Steve Austin, Undertaker, Kurt Angle....he said a lot of positive things about almost all of his contemporaries....the only person he seemingly had nothing positive to say about was Fritz Von Erich.

As for his son....Ric got him into re hab, Ric dealt with his legal issues (at great expense in some cases) , Ric also got him a job in Japan trading on his own name and reputation to get Reid out of NC and away from the "bad influences" people wise he was associating with when he got into trouble. He certainly didn't turn his back on him. In fact, Reid when Reid returned home after nearly a year away he wasn't allowed to live on his own he had to stay with either Ric or his mom (when Ric was out of town for wrestling obligations).

The remark in your post about Hogan & his son Nick was a cheap shot too, and unwarranted

 

[ilapierre]

Just to clarify....Ric didn't trash people needlessly in his biography....it was full of praise for Hogan, Savage, Dusty Rhodes, Steamboat, Funk, Steve Austin, Undertaker, Kurt Angle....he said a lot of positive things about almost all of his contemporaries....the only person he seemingly had nothing positive to say about was Fritz Von Erich.

As for his son....Ric got him into re hab, Ric dealt with his legal issues (at great expense in some cases) , Ric also got him a job in Japan trading on his own name and reputation to get Reid out of NC and away from the "bad influences" people wise he was associating with when he got into trouble. He certainly didn't turn his back on him. In fact, Reid when Reid returned home after nearly a year away he wasn't allowed to live on his own he had to stay with either Ric or his mom (when Ric was out of town for wrestling obligations).

The remark in your post about Hogan & his son Nick was a cheap shot too, and unwarranted

Well dude your post makes a lot of sense to me. TBH I wasn't really paying much attention to the Reid Flair overdose and I figured he and Flair had been up to that stuff together when he died. From the sounds of what you're saying, Flair wasn't turning his back on his son. Fritz was not the only one Flair trashed. I own the book..there's a great section on Bischoff and Hogan. Another on Bret. All sorts of jabs at Savage. As for Warrior, I'm not saying he wasn't awful to fans from time to time or that Bret wasn't spot on with his criticisms..I'm just saying that that one example listed above could have easily been misconstrued as Bret was in the shower and missed what WWE officials had instructed Warrior to do. Regardless though Warrior say did some pretty shitty stuff that reveals deep down what kind of hatred existed within. He said horrible stuff about sick, dying people...stuff that nobody should ever say to anyone not even their worst enemy.

The only thing I don't see eye to eye with you is about Hulk telling his son it was his friend's fault he was a vegetable. How is that a low blow or unwarranted? lol As far as I'm concerned, if the stuff Warrior said is warranted then so is anything said by any other wrestler ever..What Hogan said to Nick reveals that Hulk's character isn't all that much different than Warrior's. And Hulk still gets his own appreciation night on RAW every six months.

 

[HBKistheHOF]

I'm a little surprised by some of the reactions to the Ultimate Warrior. Personally I was never a fan of Warrior either, the performer or the human being. But that being said, his passing was untimely & I didn't really have a problem with the award. It was clearly somewhat of P.R. stunt but what isn't these days? I really don't expect them to give the award out every year anyways.