RIP Ultimate Warrior

[YankeeFan]

First Peaches Geldof, now him. What a week!

I was waiting for this!

I wanted to say it, but you deserved it.

 

[Steak Snabler]

What a ****ing awful lede in the Washington Post's obit:

You could not find a scarier man in neon spandex.

Also, this dreck:

There was wrestling before Warrior, and it went something like this: Get two huge guys who don’t like each other — or, at least, pretend not to. Let them fight in a ring in front of a bunch of people. Televise it.

Warrior changed the game.

He sported a mop of wild, dirty-blond hair that — let’s be honest — probably saw its fair share of Aqua Net. His face was always covered in warpaint that resembled Kiss makeup on steroids.

He scoffed at breaking kayfabe — character — and made it seem utterly unthinkable. Sort of like Stephen Colbert, but about 120 pounds bigger and with a penchant for butt-kicking.

He wasn’t the first to develop and commit to a character — “Classy” Freddie Blassie and Hulk Hogan, among many others, did it too — but he turned it into an art form.

I don't expect some random reporter at the Post to be an expert on pro wrestling, but I do expect someone completely ignorant of it to not pretend otherwise.

Yeah, it's like they took a pre-written Hulk Hogan obit and subbed in "Warrior" for all the Hogan references.

The Ultimate Warrior had a terrible on-mike persona and wasn't much of a wrestler from a technical standpoint. But he had an incredible physique --- especially for the time --- so for some reason people loved him.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Sadly, there's probably a pre-written Hogan suicide obit from a few years ago.

 

[Boom_70]

It's the way of the world but still strange when the announcement of a man's death comes in a 40
character tweet.

 

[Big Circus]

It's the way of the world but still strange when the announcement of a man's death comes in a 40
character tweet.

I don't even think it's the weirdest Twitter-related news story this week. That goes to the bass player from R.E.M. breaking Letterman's retirement.

 

[Oggiedoggie]

First Peaches Geldof, now him. What a week!

They were both celebrities I didn't know were celebrities until they died.

I'm still waiting for the third one.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

First Peaches Geldof, now him. What a week!

They were both celebrities I didn't know were celebrities until they died.

I'm still waiting for the third one.

Already happened. ...
John Pinette.

 

[MisterCreosote]

I'm pretty sure it was impossible to grow up in the late '80s-early '90s and NOT know who the Ultimate Warrior was.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

By the way .... Abe Vigoda. ....

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I'm pretty sure it was impossible to grow up in the late '80s-early '90s and NOT know who the Ultimate Warrior was.

I'm guessing he was probably the third most popular wrestler during that time, behind only Hogan and Savage.

 

[MisterCreosote]

At his peak, Warrior was bigger than Hogan or Savage. His peak didn't last very long, though. I'd say 15 months, tops.

 

[Songbird]

Nobody was bigger than Hogan. He was it. It. The Guy.

Everyone else was so far behind that its yesterday.

I started watching in '83, as the Hulkster emerged. It all began when he beat the Iron Sheik for the belt.

That being said, if there's a All Star team for that era -- the era from '83 to '90 or so -- in terms of sheer magnitude of popularity, it would be:

Hulk Hogan

Macho Man
Superfly Snuka
Ultimate Warrior
Rowdy Roddy Piper
Andre the Giant

Bret Hart
Junkyard Dog
Greg the Hammer Valentine
Big John Studd
Davis Schultz
Tito Santana

Others joined the pantheon, some dropped out between those years. I stopped watching in '90 or '91.

 

[KYSportsWriter]

Nobody was bigger than Hogan. He was it. It. The Guy.

Warrior was. Not for long, but he was bigger than Hulk at one point.

 

[MisterCreosote]

The only wrestlers who had peaks higher than Warrior's were Hogan, Austin, Rock, and Goldberg.

Warrior was the biggest thing in wrestling by 1990, and was at the time the only guy who ever beat Hogan at Wrestlemania. That was a huge deal.

 

[Songbird]

OK, I'll accept as a passing-of-the-torch sort of thing.

I just see it as this: the WWF became what it became because of Hulk. But the time the Ultimate Warrior came around its popularity was astronomical. So yeah, at some point SOMEone was going to replace Hulk as the It-guy. I was leaving the WWF and wrestling in general at the same time the Ultimate Warrior was becoming massive so I missed his peak.

I'll take your word that he was AS big as Hulk. But BIGGER than Hulk? Not sure that's possible. Hulk Hogan is the reason the WWF got so big, so massive, so popular, so fast before the game morphed in the '90s and 2000s and now 20-10s.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

In terms of being The Guy, that was Hogan from '84 through '93 in the WWF. But there were a plethora of guys who were No. 2, who arguably, we're just as popular among wrestling fans, but didn't have the same appeal among the mainstream, except for Andre the Giant, who, by the mid-80s, was being deemphasized.

'83-84: Snuka
'85: Junkyard Dog
86 to part of 87: Piper
End of '87- start of '89: Savage
Middle of '89 to middle of '91: Warrior
1992: Hart

 

[BDC99]

Damn. Still hard to believe the guy just dropped dead the day after his appearance on Raw and a few days after his induction speech. Definitely surreal. Wouldn't say I'm a fan, but I really enjoyed his days in the WWF. RIP

Also, it's depressing that as a journalist, my first instinct these days is to question the validity of the report. But given the fairly recent phenomenon of wanting to get it first rather than getting it right, that's where I am. Also find it interesting that TMZ is one of the few outlets to offer any new information.

 

[Batman]

Well, that's kind of pathetic.

Warrior was bat**** crazy. That explains a lot. He once starred in a self-published comic book in which he raped Santa Claus.

http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/warrior-xmas/

 

[Batman]

As stunning as Warrior's death is, it's almost as stunning that he was the first (well, technically the second) member of the dysfunctional 2014 WWE Hall of Fame class to die. Five years ago, I doubt anyone would've thought Scott Hall and Jake Roberts would outlive Warrior.

 

[BDC99]

Yeah, my money would have been on Hall.