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The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 Ways The Ultimate Warrior Influenced The Wrestling Business

June 14, 2017 | Posted by Mike Chin

The Ultimate Warrior is one of the most famous wrestlers of all time, but with that also comes his status as one of wrestling’s all time most polarizing figures. Yes, he was popular, connected with the fans, and had some great kayfabe accomplishments, not least of which was defeating the biggest star of his era cleanly in the main event of a WrestleMania to win the WWF Championship. But Warrior also had his differences with the WWF brass, and his work in and out of the ring wasn’t always great.

So, this week, I’m looking back at some different facets of the business affected by The Ultimate Warrior. I won’t claim that he was the only one to do some of the things listed—or at least not that he was the lone contributor. Just the way, the seven items listed represent some of the ways in which he most profoundly influenced wrestling.


Ultimate Warrior Returns – WrestleMania VIII by WWFOldSchool

#7. His Surprise Return at WrestleMania 8

The close of WrestleMania 8 was pretty strange, and not just because Papa Shango missed his cue to run to the ring and cause a DQ finish, but because of all of the mixed emotions WWE generated for its fans. Hulk Hogan won (yay!) but he was retiring (boo!). Sid Justice and Papa Shango were cemented as top heels (exciting enough, but still—boo! Villains!)

And The Ultimate Warrior returned.

While big stars returning is a part of wrestling and had been long before Warrior did so, this particular return was extremely unusual for it happening after the main event of the biggest show of the year, and with absolutely no warning. At the risk of hyperbolizing a step too far, I’d argue it was the first truly shocking finish to a WWF PPV.

Nowadays, we all but expect big surprises and particularly so on PPV. While Warrior alone may not have set that template, he did offer one of the earliest, biggest, highest profile surprises of this ilk.


Ultimate Warrior Uconn Speech Highlights by HarmanMaury

#6. His College Speaking Tour

The idea of a pro wrestler going on a college speaking tour, in and of itself may not sound like a great idea, but Warrior reinforced some of the worst of what fans might expect in offending so many people so brazenly in his path. Warrior purportedly cast aspersions toward the gay community, people of Arabic descent, and folks whose politics leaned left.

Warrior’s public speaking was surely, in part, a sign of the times, as celebrities have become more vocal and often more political in all sorts of formats over the last twenty years. Just the same, even for those inclined to agree with Warrior’s ideas, the heated reception of his speaking career served as a cautionary tale to wrestlers to be careful about stepping into this arena, and to colleges to think twice about whom they booked to visit campus.

#5. Showing How To And Not To Use A Returning Legend

In 1998 WCW signed The Ultimate Warrior. As a kid who had loved Warrior and remembered listening to the PPV broadcast against a scrambled signal for the glory of hearing him win his first world title, I was overjoyed at this development. While a lot of big stars had matriculated to WCW, Warrior was one of the biggest, one of the most genuinely surprising guys to make his way south.

Things got off to a rough start when Warrior debuted by cutting an incredibly long, boring promo. Things only got worse as he started implementing the lousiest, most incoherent set of magic tricks this side of The Black Scorpion, before it all culminated in a genuinely awful match with Hulk Hogan at Halloween Havoc.

You can compare that to his final days with WWE (which I’ll discuss more fully in entries to follow) in which highlight packages, a Hall of Fame induction, and a heartfelt promo on Raw hit just the right combination of bonkers Warrior fun and nostalgia to make everyone fall in love with the character and his gimmick again. From having one of wrestling’s all-time worst come back tours, to having a genuinely heart-warming final chapter to his wrestling story (and life), Warrior helped shed light on exactly how the wrestling industry should and should not make use of legends

#4. The Specter Of The Self Destruction DVD

In 2005, WWE released DVD titled The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior. The documentary featured an account of Warrior’s WWF and WCW tenures that was factual, but also quite clearly told from the perspective of a company that wasn’t happy with the guy. Interviews with his contemporaries discussed how difficult he was to work with, while interviews with superstars who succeeded him really leaned into over-the-top impersonations of Warrior.

While the documentary was reasonably entertaining, it also came across as a bit of a hit job on Warrior, using WWE’s considerable resources to commit character assassination on a guy who didn’t really get the chance to stand up for himself. WWE’s documentary business was still in its infancy at that point, and it’s noteworthy that the company never released a production that negative again. Still, the specter remained. Bret Hart has explicitly mentioned that one of the motivating factors for him to collaborate with WWE on a DVD set was the fear of Screwed: The Bret Hart Story following in the tradition of smearing a fallen legend’s name. While WWE seems to have, in general, taken the high road since, one has to wonder if the company might not have been so kind to the legacy of folks like Bruno Sammartino, Wendi Richter, and Alundra Blayze had they not played nice and come back when WWE came calling.

#3. The Face-Face Main Event

WrestleMania 6 featured an unusual face versus face main event, as The Ultimate Warrior squared off with Hulk Hogan. While it was hardly the first time that this had happened in wrestling, it was the first time it happened on this scale in the WWF since Vince McMahon launched his national brand.

Warrior-Hogan—the fact that it drew, plus the quality of the match—laid the foundation for clashes like Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 12, The Rock vs. Steve Austin at WrestleMania 17, and John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 23. While WWE is still justifiably trigger shy about leaning too heavily into face-face rivalries, and especially so at the top of the card, Warrior helped show that the dynamic could work when used at the right time, with the right stars involved.

#2. Mending Fences With WWE

In 2014, the unlikely occurred when The Ultimate Warrior and WWE management put legal proceedings, money problems, creative differences, and personal jabs all behind them to reconcile.

A lot of time had passed. Warrior hadn’t appeared in WWE for over fifteen years and nearly a decade had gone by since the Self Destruction DVD. The time was right WWE, via Triple H, to extend an olive branch, and Warrior, to his credit met the company on its terms. As a result, Warrior’s life came to a close under WWE contract again, fresh off a Hall of Fame induction and emotional farewell promo on Raw, and with the promise of doing ambassador work for the company for years to follow.

The beef between Warrior and WWE was profound, and in making up, the two sides demonstrated that any old grudges might be settled. The cynic in me says that WWE will always make the right business move, regardless of personal feelings. The optimist in me will say that, at the end of the day, Vince McMahon and company do want to do right by the people who made the company what it is today—that as company would have itself portrayed, at the end of the day, WWE is a family.

#1. The Warrior Award

While one could dismiss the Warrior Award more as a public relations gesture than an actual good deed, the spirit of the waward does represent something good. The Hall of Fame celebrates wrestling history, and in adding The Warrior Award, explicitly earmarked for non-wrestling entities, people who are fans, supporters, or even celebrities who have in one way or another embodied “the spirit of the Warrior.”

The broad scope of the award, with its first two recipients being a young, devout fan who lost his life to cancer, and breast cancer survivor Joan Lunden, makes some uncertain of what to make of this award, and time will tell what WWE might do with it in the long term. For now, though, it feels like a genuinely kind, good-spirited gesture on the part of WWE to reach out to and celebrate the broader community. Maybe WWE would have done something like this on its own, but the Warrior’s legacy seems to have been a catalyst to get the ball rolling, and add a heartfelt dimension to the Hall of Fame proceedings each WrestleMania weekend.

What elements of Warrior’s influence you add to the list and how would you order them? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Read more from Mike Chin at his website and follow him on Twitter @miketchin.