Theory on the Ultimate Warrior

[Mouthy Idiot]

Over the years Warrior aka Jim Hellwig has caused alot of controversy outside of the ring with his lifestyle. I have a theory about the whole thing. I know alot of people hate the guy and or think he is a big joke and cant stand his views and then he also has a very strong fanbase of warriors as they call themselves. Recently when Randy Savage dies , Warrior posted some anti Hogan videos and hes always had some strong views he has delivered on his website. Here is the thing , the truth is Jim Hellwig did one thing right his whole life and he sure knew it. The concept of the Ultimate Warrior character. He struck gold with that concept and he came along perfectly to fill that role in the late 80's early 90's just at the perfect time.

Jim Hellwig isnt a brilliant man , hes a man who knew how to invent an idea and milk it for all its worth , never looking back , live it , breathe it , beat it into everyones mind. Merely live that character until the day he dies. Persistency is the key , he has stuck with that motto and will never stop. Yes , he was a determined man who was dedicated to building his body and doing something better than others could do. His look was undeniable even now , he definetly in his prime had one of the best physiques of all time. Not only was his body fat level low but he was also huge and muscled and ripped. Thats a hard feat to achieve. Being huge and still ripped.

The point is the guy understood what alot of people fail to understand. When you find something that works , you have to stick with it and refuse to change or break from that concept. If you look at his interviews , he was asked about his lack of in ring talent and Hellwig always answers the same way. he says that its not about the in ring skills , its about the character and the charisma and personality. He is right , the boring ring technician who has no charisma can never reach the heights of an Ultimate Warrior. The fact is he took it to another level by making the Warrior concept his whole life , it became his own personal religion.

Is he a fake? Are the rumors true about his past, some sleazy rumors are out there about his younger days. The truth is he alienated pro wrestling fans by leaving the industry and reinventing his own concept into a supposed intelligent , satire , political , loner with no real connection to anyone but his wife and daughters. It doesnt matter if he hates Vince and the buisness of sports entertainment. Most people will never like him ever again, only memories of his match with Hogan are truly remembered. I dont like or hate the guy , I could care less. Hes just a man , a guy who overuses his one great idea and uses it to lure in lost isolated weak minded people who need someone like him to pump them up and make them feel good.

He needs money just like everyone else. He does what it takes to get by. At the same time , he does help people to an extent by being The Ultimate Warrior and bringing back memories for people who were motivated by him. He has done warrior health kits to possibly help someone get in shape and change their life. He has a plan and he sticks to it, he was right about alot of things he said about Hogan but he also refuses to reveal his own past mistakes. To sum this up , I think he is overrated but also underrated. He found a concept and my god he doesnt stop with it, He will die with it. He wasnt a great in ring guy or out of the ring guy , but he sticks to his own ideas and doesnt give in. Did he screw over the fans by not coming back? Yes and No , only in terms of not being there for these years when he could have but also he chose to back away when he wanted. He did his thing.

My question to the people who read this is , Do you admire this man? Do you hate him? Do you think hes a great mind? Is he a one shot wonder who flamed out? Everybody has a strong view of him. I wanna know what you think.

 

[King of the Words]

I admired the character back when I was a kid. He was the biggest name next to Hogan. But after leaving, then coming back, then leaving, then coming back at Mania 12 and shortly after leaving again, I gave up on the whole Warrior concept and didn't care if he ever came back to WWF.( at the time it was wwf) I thought he had big potential of being the top guy after Mania 8, when it seemed like Hogan was gone and Warrior was back to be the #1 guy in the business. That was his chance to take over and be the man, but he left again shortly after Summer Slam 1992 opening the door for Bret Hart to be the main guy, which I am glad of cause Bret deserved it.IMO. When he came back at Mania12 I had a gut feeling he wouldn't last long and I was right. So, it's a mixed bag of emotions for this guy. I will always remember, though, when he beat Hogan at Mania 6 in the Skydome. I couldn't believe it. It was a great moment in wrestling for me and I'm sure for a lot of others. It made me feel like the impossible was possible which was a great message for a kid's imagination. So, I guess, all in all, I'd say to the man, thanks for the memories.

 

[Syborgg]

I've followed Warrior off and on since the end of his in-ring career. I'm not sure I'd call myself a fan, but for some reason I find myself interested. The one thing I've found is that he enjoys the fact that he left wrestling on his own accord and never really looked back. In fact, he enjoys it so much that he almost rubs it in the faces of guys like Hogan and Nash and others.

Sure his stint in the ring was fairly short and only included one world title run, but he seems to view his defeat over Hogan at WM VI as a big-time achievement. At the time it really was though, as he was the first guy in a long time to cleanly go over the Hulkster for the title.

Alot of people just shrug him off and call him stupid. The fan in me thinks, yeah he was stupid to basically throw away the HUGE opportunity that was afforded him. The fan in me also thinks that if I were at the top of the industry the way he was, that I'd want to do anything to stay there instead of asking for more money or no-showing events. However, looking at him now, he seems to be doing pretty well for himself and he's probably in as good of shape now as alot of guys on the current WWE roster. He never had a major injury so he doesn't limp around like Nash or Hogan and he virtually went out on top of the game. I personally don't count his short stint in WcW or his last "run" in WWF/E, sure he was paid very well for those, but he didn't stick around long enough to do anything.

From what I've seen he's invested his money well and and he seems like a smart guy. The thing that rubs alot of people the wrong way is that he has an opinion and strongly supports it no matter how many people oppose his view.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Hellwig's legacy has been seen in the last couple of years, flash in the pan guys taking "waaay early retirement" but being called Legends... I liken him most to Batista in their impact on the business...

In 1988 The Ultimate Warrior had "something" much as Batista did in 02/03, the look, a modicum of charisma and something not seen for a while in terms of overall package... Where Vince went wrong was overrulling good sense in favor of quick hits... Warrior beating Honky Tonk in that manner was a big mistake, because it fed the ego behind The Warrior... sure he jobbed to Rude but did it kicking and screaming cos he'd been handed that IC belt... that set the pattern...

Batista was similarly indulged early on with Push that didn't quite fit the product of the time... both men would have gotten there... but Warrior needed that strong big man feud first before a title... Big Bossman rather than Hercules would have been the fued to do it... maybe Andre first off... maybe a handicap feud with Powers of Pain or Demolition...

Jim Hellwig was not a dumbass, he was a liscened pratictionrer of Chiropractic, thus he did college to a medical level... he chose to bodybuild too...parlayed that into a wrestling career and then with simple but effective moves made himself remembered by everyone, if not for the right reasons he made money off them...

He's no genius... but he is the template of the modern," ride it till the wheels get squeaky" wrestler... as opposed to letting them fall off like his predecessors did....

 

[Defekt]

I was a fan of his back in the day. He had alot of energy and great look.

But I think Jim Hellwig is a petty, immature idiot.

He's a grown man who spends his time making youtube videos, obsessing about stuff that happened 20 years ago, and telling lies about Hulk Hogan. Nearly everything he says sounds like complete bullshit to me, and not because I'm some Hogan fan boy, but because I honestly don't believe Hulk Hogan is a cuckold who prostituted his wife. I mean come on.

He's one of the few guys that no one in the wrestling business seems to have anything positive to say about, and it's easy to see why.

 

[Shakin' Abe]

Warrior was a good gimmick for it's time. The problem with Helwig is he's a very jealous man who thought he should have been bigger than he was or ever could be. It's not all his fault. Nobody could fill Hogan's shoes when he left. Warrior was in the right place at the right time but he couldn't be as big as Hogan. His stick abilities were laughable at best and his ring skills were what would be expected from a roided out freak at that time. The fans just wouldn't have a replacement and he blames Hogan for never being as over as him. His attitude has always sucked and he is as pathetic as every other "neverwas" in the industry who thinks they deserved better.

 

[Razakel]

I'm a bigger fan of the Warrior now that i was when I was younger.
Everything he said in his youtube videos about Terry Bollea rings true...and the more Bollea speaks out in interviews the more he makes himself look like a complete idiot. I don't think most people that bash Warrior even bother to watch his youtube videos from beginning to end.They just take random 20 second snippets from them and say.."Oh warrior's jealous and living in the past"....or they watch the youtube videos where warrior's in character from time to time and think the dude's lost it. However if you look at his other videos where he isn't in character... he is eloquent and his motivational videos are quite good.

The self destruction of the ultimate warrior dvd is complete farce that was created to destroy warrior's image and contribution to the business and make him seem like a flash in the pan. It's vince mcmahon's specialty to destroy anybody that refuses to stay 100 percent loyal to the all mighty WWE. How dare the warrior leave the business whenever he wishes! he must be loyal to the company forever!! lol

But if you're a WWE loyalist and believe in Mcmahon's revisionist version of pro wrestling history then I'm not surprised by the exagerated levels of hatred that people feel for the warrior. The same thing happened back in 1997 when the bret hart montreal screwjob took place: people jumped on the bandwagon of anti-bret propaganda that mcmahon was spewing (Bret screwed bret). People also turned their back on Lesnar , Goldberg and Savage for daring to do the unthinkable: Think about themselves first and have a life OUTSIDE of pro wrestling.

I completely disagree with warrior's views on politics but besides that part of his personality I like the warrior.

 

[mattpep5021]

I was a fan of his back in the day. He had alot of energy and great look.

But I think Jim Hellwig is a petty, immature idiot.

He's a grown man who spends his time making youtube videos, obsessing about stuff that happened 20 years ago, and telling lies about Hulk Hogan. Nearly everything he says sounds like complete bullshit to me, and not because I'm some Hogan fan boy, but because I honestly don't believe Hulk Hogan is a cuckold who prostituted his wife. I mean come on.

He's one of the few guys that no one in the wrestling business seems to have anything positive to say about, and it's easy to see why.

If it's one things I have learned in life it's never be surprised on what people are capable of doing.

Anyway on to the Warrior. I firmly believe in speaking my mind no matter what the backlash may be. Whether you agree or disagree with what he says is moot. The fact that he speaks his mind is a very admirable trait. And btw I do not always agree with what comes out of his mouth, but I do agree with some of it. I also believe that leaving when he did, left me dumbfounded. The man could have been so much more and just think about how different the landscape could even be today if he had stayed. But on the other side of the coin he did what he wanted and didn't NEED wrestling anymore to make a living. So many guys make crappy choices like bad financial ones and practically NEED to stay in the picture even when they are WAY past their prime. Warrior didn't need to do that, and frankly as fans we shouldn't condemn they guy for leaving when he did. It's HIS life. But that is my point of view. I have a feeling that if any of us were in the say same situation as him back in his wrestling days we may have just done the same thing.

 

[FlairFan2003]

Warrior had a bad reputation, backstage and in the ring... he got multiple chances and never was able to hold onto anything. In the end, he has only himself to blame.

 

[Headman]

He speaks his mind and doesn't care what anyone thinks. He's the real life CM Punk. All in all if people are really that upset by what he has to say, stop seeking him out. It's not like he's being pushed in our faces. His ditractors actually go out of their way to hear what the man has to say for the sole purpose of disrespecting him and his opinions. Opinions that seem to have worked for him as he's doing quite well for himself.

 

[d3thRoW]

I'm was a huge fan of his as a kid, at 8 years old I was painting my face...as far as his legacy as a wrestler, yeah obviously not a technician by any means but the intensity and charisma made that an afterthought at the time, say what you want to about his work, but in a very short time he had the top guy in the business drop the strap to him in the middle of the ring. I marked out for all of the comebacks, but they were always lackluster and never matched that feel of his first run...heard all the stories of him being difficult to work with, which clearly cost him, and that's on him, but he was able to walk away and stay away, and not have to cling to the spotlight until it became embarrassing like we see so many doing now. Present day ,Warrior is doing very positive things as a motivator and still inspiring people to this day, only I don't think it's a gimmick, I really believe he lives it. He has his principles and beliefs that he sticks to without fear of what anybody thinks. Not many can say that , in the wrestling business or otherwise.

 

[xoxo French Kiss xoxo]

He probably has really, really tiny balls... I mean he was clearly a juicer

The WWE buried him completely in the Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior... his battles with Hogan via whatever social media service didn't help, neither did bashing gays, or being a right wing republican.

 

[Peoples_Champ]

My question to the people who read this is , Do you admire this man? Do you hate him? Do you think hes a great mind? Is he a one shot wonder who flamed out? Everybody has a strong view of him. I wanna know what you think.

I wouldn't say I 'admire' Warrior, but I do have a certain level of respect for him. At first I had zero respect for him as a person, after his comments about 'queering'. But I watched his 1-hour shoot on RF Video and then his preview video shoot on Hulk after Macho died; and I began to like him more. I have a level of respect for someone who is so willing to stick to his guns and is misunderstood but a great percentage of the population whom have a remote interest in him.

It's not fair to call him a one-shot wonder when for a couple years at least (maybe three, tops) he was the top dog, at least in my eyes. His promos were the best the industry had seen at that point and he was dominant. He had so many 'moments' that stood out for better or for worse. He was locked in a casket by Undertaker, went over on Andre the Giant, his matches with Rick Rude had me on the edge of my seat, WM 6, the Papa Shango feud and, of course, the weird angles (covered in black tar, puking yellow, etc.).

Warrior said in his shoot video that it was the right time for that character and he was the only man who could portray that character, and he's right. He deserves higher acclaim than he usually gets.

 

[Defekt]

If it's one things I have learned in life it's never be surprised on what people are capable of doing.

Anyway on to the Warrior. I firmly believe in speaking my mind no matter what the backlash may be. Whether you agree or disagree with what he says is moot. The fact that he speaks his mind is a very admirable trait. And btw I do not always agree with what comes out of his mouth, but I do agree with some of it. I also believe that leaving when he did, left me dumbfounded. The man could have been so much more and just think about how different the landscape could even be today if he had stayed. But on the other side of the coin he did what he wanted and didn't NEED wrestling anymore to make a living. So many guys make crappy choices like bad financial ones and practically NEED to stay in the picture even when they are WAY past their prime. Warrior didn't need to do that, and frankly as fans we shouldn't condemn they guy for leaving when he did. It's HIS life. But that is my point of view. I have a feeling that if any of us were in the say same situation as him back in his wrestling days we may have just done the same thing.

I don't have a problem with someone speaking their mind, in fact I much prefer it to someone kissing ass or being politically correct. But I'm also not a big fan of people who start drama, which is what I feel like Warrior tries to do in his videos. Giving his honest opinion on Hogan in an interview is fine, but making a video where you make outrageous, baseless claims with no proof whatsoever is lame.

 

[robbo316]

If it's one things I have learned in life it's never be surprised on what people are capable of doing.

Anyway on to the Warrior. I firmly believe in speaking my mind no matter what the backlash may be. Whether you agree or disagree with what he says is moot. The fact that he speaks his mind is a very admirable trait. And btw I do not always agree with what comes out of his mouth, but I do agree with some of it. I also believe that leaving when he did, left me dumbfounded. The man could have been so much more and just think about how different the landscape could even be today if he had stayed. But on the other side of the coin he did what he wanted and didn't NEED wrestling anymore to make a living. So many guys make crappy choices like bad financial ones and practically NEED to stay in the picture even when they are WAY past their prime. Warrior didn't need to do that, and frankly as fans we shouldn't condemn they guy for leaving when he did. It's HIS life. But that is my point of view. I have a feeling that if any of us were in the say same situation as him back in his wrestling days we may have just done the same thing.

So, it's admirable that after Darren Drozdov was forced into a wheelchair by a botched piledriver, that Warrior (may as well call him by his name?!) famously called him "a cripple". Yeah thats very admirable. Simply put, the guy is scum. Even Andre couldn't stand him, Heenan couldn't stand him. Heenan actually has gone on record that he preferred working with Hogan. What the hell does that say about him? I have read some of his rants and to be honest, I really think he should crawl back under whatever damn rock, Vince found him under 25 years ago. And, just as an aside, he actually calls his watercolours that he paints his "Weapons Of Warrior Wisdom"! I'm sorry, but this guy has some serious psychiatric issues he needs to deal with.

 

[Mustang Sally]

He did his thing.

Yes, he certainly did. The problem is that when he signed a contract, his thing became intertwined with other people's thing and there was pain (corporate pain, at least) when he decided his thing lie in another direction.

Hellwig seemed to be invested in his early efforts with independent federations, including WCCW in Dallas. It was only when he achieved major prominence in WWF that he went off the deep end. After that, wrestling companies would invest big bucks in him, promoting him to the sky, only to have him quit the job out of the clear blue. Once he became big enough, he made his own rules, then blamed the companies when they didn't give him what he wanted.

One of the few good business decisions WCW ever made was to immediately put Hellwig in main event matches upon hiring him rather than wasting him in preliminary contests. That way, they at least got the benefit of some extra PPV buys before he did the inevitable and bolted.

He was an exciting performer, but the worst kind of employee a company could ever want. Over the past years, we've heard many rumors about a comeback, yet it never happened, did it? The guy is as unstable as an active volcano and any smart wrestling promotion would we well advised to stay away from him......and they have!

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Even as a kid, I was never really into the Ultimate Warrior character. To me, he was just this big muscular guy with face paint that yelled a lot. The whole Warrior Philosophy thing where he'd "talk to his gods" and all this and that was just kinda...well it was hard even for me to take seriously at 8 years of age.

Inside the ring, I thought he was average at best the vast majority of the time. His match with Hogan at WM VI might have been the overall best I've ever seen of either of them inside the ring. It was a good match that told a really good story after all. Most of the time, however, Warrior just didn't do it for me. His promos were...well his promos were a hodgepodge of incoherant rambling that he'd often scream at the top of his lungs. Just didn't do anything for me.

As far as Warrior goes in terms of his views, I certainly don't agree with the vast majority of them. To me, Warrior represents just about everything that's wrong with the ultra conservative side of the political spectrum. Warrior often comes across like a bigot and a hate monger. His rhetoric is clearly meant to divide people rather than attempt to bring them together. His beliefs and speeches and rants are clearly designed to do just that because he doesn't want people who don't agree with his views to have anything to do with him. If you don't believe what he believes, then you're an enemy as far as he's concerned.

Are his beliefs genuine? To some degree, I think the answer is yes but he definitely hypes them and goes to an extreme whenever he gives an interview or a speech. You know one reason why Ann Coulter continues to be a best selling author and continues to be a draw on talk radio or tv discussing political topics? Because she comes across as a hateful, mean, spiteful, bigoted, aggressive cunt that goes out of her way to insult anyone who doesn't agree with her views. She's extremely controversial and she's a helluva saleswoman. Controversy does sell in the real world when you're able to convince people that you 100% believe in what you're saying or doing. Warrior is someone that's able to do that whether you like the guy or not.

 

[H33LTurn]

I understand the whole concept of sticking by something when it works, but I think when you reach a certain age or level in the business its time to grow up and start acting like an adult. Acting the way he does has only garnered him negative attention. Look at a guy like Undertaker. He had a goofy gimmick that people didnt think would last, he wasnt great in the ring, and hes reached legend status in the business. All of those things parallel with Ultimate Warrior. The only difference is that Undertaker in the recent years has become a well respected individual within the wrestling community. He's still the Undertaker and still sticking with something that works but he doesnt put other down in the business. Warrior is trying to make a name for himself and its a shame that hes using Macho Man and Hogan to get somewhere. Thats not sticking with something that works, thats slander. We know all the old school guys like Hogan did a couple things they might not be proud of now, but to constantly attack someone just because your time in the business is coming to an end is just sad. The day Warrior threatened Vince for more money was the day he screwed his life over. He coulda kept going and have been somebody but he instead went down and now its like hes trying to bring others down with him.

 

[Pedigree1]

The Warrior character was right place right time ala kimbo slice!! He totally made the most of his opportunity cashed in and had a good match against hogan at WM6!! But his ego and attitude were his downfall!! He all about throw a tizy when he jobbed to rude and thought he was all that!! Him making youtube videos making up lies is really sad!! But i do respect the fact he speaks his mind right or wrong

 

[MrMojoRisin]

Hellwig had a couple of things going for him, and credit where it's due, he made the absolute most out of those couple of things.

He had a look that McMahon loved. The facepaint, the long hair, the steroid physique... he looked like a real life superhero for 12 year olds, and McMahon saw a license to print money with him... especially considering he'd spent the last few years conditioning a new generation of fans to idolize guys that looked like him. Kinda ironic then that when the time came and Hellwig was on top, business went into the tank.

The other thing Hellwig had was timing. He came to the WWF right when Hogan fatigue was just starting to show, and by the time it had settled in enough to put someone new on top, he'd been there long enough to be built up into the next big thing. If Hellwig had even just skipped WCCW and gone straight to the WWF, there's a strong possibility he would have been packaged as a monster heel to be fed to Hogan, instead of a babyface hero to replace him. Don't forget that prior to Texas, he'd only worked as a heel, and his look with short hair was actually very different.

Credit where it's due, because he made the most of all that, made a lot of money, and got out of the business early with his health still intact. And he has done well for himself reinventing himself as the batshit crazy whatever you want to call him, and he is good at keeping his name out there by calling out his old collegues from time to time.

That all said, it's really hard to have any respect for the man despite all that. He was never a worker. His matches were the phoniest around, and it took the rest of his lockerroom everything they had to make up for that. Andre in particular was so insulted that he had to job out to him that he insisted the jobs all be done quick so that he didn't have to be in the ring with him. He always held himself above the rest of the boys, and several guys that worked with him back then have stated that he rarely socialized with them.

He's a guy that took and took, but never gave back, which goes against the most basic principles of the business, and he seems to have carried that attitude into his post wrestling life.

Hellwig is a guy that you can bet if Vince McMahon could go back in time and change anything... it would be not to ever hire him in the first place, or if he did still hire him, it would have been to bury the guy as deep as anyone he's ever buried.

 

[sTyLnK]

I think he's bang on with a lot of the stuff he says. The problem I have with much of the stuff he says is he's saying what everyone already knows. IE about Hogan. Hogan has stepped on a lot of toes and constantly lies about everything. But even then who cares. It's Hogan's life not his, why he cares is beyond me.

I admire Warrior for doing his own thing outside of the ring, how he is great motivational speaker and tries to get you to get going, stop sitting around and just go for it, but the guy needs to calm down about the past and stop being so bitter. haha.