In Defense of… 02.15.06: The Ultimate Warrior (Part 1 of 3)

Posted by JP Prag on 02.15.2006

Or should that be “In Defense of… Warrior Warrior”? Meh.

In Defense of…
By JP Prag

Issue #42

The Ultimate Warrior (Part 1 of 3)

Intro

Hello everyone who enjoyed Valentine's Day yesterday (and if you did, I hate you) and welcome back to In Defense Of…! We're on the upswing of crazy cases, and this is insane case number two of five, all leading up to our one-year spectacular. If there's a chance I could lose a case, it'll come up real soon. And you would think it would start last week when we did the case of Vince McMahon in the Death of Owen Hart.

But with 84.9% of the vote, Vince McMahon in the Death of Owen Hart has been found:

NOT GUILTY!

All I can say is… wow. I never, not for the life of me, thought I would get a Not Guilty with that high of a percentage. I honestly did not think I could have gotten above a 65%. I'm very happy that I did so well, but I just hope you naysayers out there haven't given up on voting because I haven't been defeated yet. I only get to become a better writer when I get challenged, so if you think something is off, I want to hear about it. Hell, even the people who vote not guilty sometimes tell me something is off. Or they tell me some Hidden Highlights.

Now, perhaps this is your first time clicking on In Defense Of…? Maybe you didn't read about Vince McMahon in the Death of Owen Hart, Larry Zbyszko, Scott Hall, New Jack, the McMahon-Helmsley Era, Mike Awesome Leaving ECW, Sid Vicious, the Undertaker, the Sport of Professional Wrestling, Lex Luger, WCW Thunder, the Brand Extension, Goldberg, Vince not buying out WCW's contracts, Earl Hebner Screwing Bret Hart, Dusty Rhodes: Head Booker, The Finger Poke of Doom, Kevin Nash, the Elimination Chamber, or even Eric Bischoff. It might be that you are attracted to… unhinged people. Well, for those new to the concept, this article has a pretty simple premise:

Certain people, events, organizations, and storylines in wrestling history have gotten a bum wrap. Some writers have presented overtly critical comments and outright lies as fact, and others have followed suit. Well no more! "In Defense of…" has one reason: to bring the truth to the wrestling fan!

And that's what I intend to do.

Me? I'm the One and Only JP, and I am on the road for work for Valentine's Day. Not that I really have anyone at home to be there for. Ladies, we will be accepting applications for my birthday (March 19th!).

Some dame walked into my office and said…

First up I heard from Casey Trowbridge who said:

I'm sure you've gotten this one a lot, especially with the DVD hitting shelves yesterday but the Ultimate Warrior would be an interesting case to defend. Not that I have a great fondness for the guy necessarily but it would be a really compelling case I think.

And then Rick Cobos joined the fun when he gave many ideas, including this one:

[T]he Ultimate Warrior's unprofessional conduct during his WWF tenures in 1991 and 1996

Of course, Matthew Leisten was not to be outdone. Here are his partial thoughts (the rest are for me and me alone!):

I [definitely] think that the Ultimate Warrior deserves a defense. I've never seen a wrestler as despised by his [colleagues] as he is. The guy is a little weird, and I cannot defend his remarks about Turban wearers, but otherwise he's just come across to me as a very intelligent person who just doesn't fit in.

Strangely, Migueal Sardalla sent this in two months ago:

[C]an't wait to see you defend the Ultimate Warrior.

Have you been peeking at my files?! Well one man who wasn't looking was Cam, who really laid it out best:

Defend the Ultimate One! Oh yes this would be the ultimate (sorry about the play on words) test. But there is hope in anyone who's ever had 4*+ main event matches isn't there.

Well I have laid the gauntlet sir, will you accept my ultimate challenge?

Oh yes, I will take…

THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE!!!

Why this?

Have you ever heard a rumor about yourself? Have you ever happen to overhear someone talking bad about you?

How did that make you feel? How did you want to react?

We all had experiences like this, where someone says something not true, or an exaggeration, or a misunderstanding about you.

And then they use it viciously against you.

Their motives may be numerous, but the point is made. You are the bad guy. You are wrong.

What if one day you discovered not only were people saying bad things about you, but your former colleagues decided to put together a DVD to reshape history and make you look like a complete chump.

After everything you did for them, after everything that you've accomplished, out of everything beyond your control, is seems that your legacy will be this:

You self destructed.

This is what happened to our client Warrior. Eccentric? Yes. Misunderstood? No doubt. A destructive force in this industy?

I don't think so.

We will explore the Warrior in many ways, debunking the "Self Destruction" DVD along the way. We will delve deeper into his past, the motivations of others that are fighting against him, and just for a few moments at least try to understand where he is coming from.

The important question throughout the next three weeks will be simple? What is the legacy of the Warrior? Is he some flash in the pan nut job or he is a lasting testament to wrestling greatness, though eccentric and misunderstood?

I'll have to ask you to have patience as my points may not be clear right away. But the picture will form overall, and as always, I invite your feedback as we progress and delve deeper and deeper into......... Parts Unknown…….

History Part 1 – Who is Jim Hellwig?

The year was 1959. The month was June. The day… it was the 16th.

And in the real world, the place was Williamsport, IN, and a man was born with the name Brian James Hellwig. Ok, maybe he wasn't born with that name, it was the name given to him shortly after he was born, but that's besides the point.

The point is, he was born. And then he started to grow up, but not much. From Warrior Wilderness:

Warrior was a self described "skinny little 135lbs kid with no ass"…

He also had a fairly strained relationship with his father, so say the least. Due to being a lanky, skinny kid with parental issues (his dad split when he was twelve and provided no support, his mom was domineering, but he thinks that is a good thing), he became a recluse and outsider. His friends were limited and he was mostly by himself.

Then, one day, an odd thing occurred. During his High School days, he stumbled upon the weight room of his school (I assume Junior/Senior High School [I went to one of those]) and decided to give it a try. From Warrior Wilderness:

[H]e became good friends with an old, rusty Universal weight machine, nothing fancy, it was oldschool. He started lifting and enjoyed seeing the benefits it had on his body, both in strength, looks and the discipline it gave him to push himself and his body to the limit, physically and mentally.

And so Warrior did push himself. Who else was there to push him? This was the type of support he got (from Warrior Wilderness):

Growing up, he wanted to become a Doctor of Chiropractics. This led to a meeting with the high school [councilor], he had a meeting because he wanted to discuss Further Education. Sadly, his reputation as a kid who was always in the wrong place at the wrong time reared its ugly head and the school [councilor] didn't want to know, let alone listen. Not giving him a chance, she immediately told him "This summer, you need to go down to the factory..." (In Indiana, where the a young Jim Hellwig grew up, many people worked in the factories there)...she continued "and put an application in, and you work there this summer. That way, when you get out of school next year, you will have a full time job."

Young Mr. Hellwig left that office that day, continually questioning how that lady could make that life decision for him, without even giving the impressionable young man a chance to talk to her about his aspirations for HIS future. He questioned how not once in his 12 years of school, how nobody had ever stopped him and told him they didn't think what he had what it took to learn what they were teaching, how could she come to the conclusion he was a lost cause.

Through his weight training, Warrior had grown an appreciation for physical and medical arts and wanted to pursue that further. But there was no help for him. His father was not his friend, his high school had turned against him, and he had no one else to turn to in all of Indiana.

But he would not let that stop him. He began his schooling, but life would give him a twist in the road. From the Warrior's own mouth in an interview with Dan Flynn:

Out of that [his work out discipline] I set an educational goal for myself to become a chiropractor. I turned my hobby of working out into a successful bodybuilding career. At the tail end of my schooling, the school being in Atlanta and it being a hotbed for pro-wrestling, my bodybuilding success created an opportunity to get into the business of wrestling.

You see, Warrior was not a big guy when he left school. He still had not finished growing and at that point was about 5' 10" and 155 lbs. Compare that to his average size while wrestling: 6' 3" and 260 lbs. So while going to school, Warrior continued to grow, but there was much to learn. From Warrior Wilderness:

During his third or fourth year of college, he went to California and saw all the bodybuilders like Robby Robinson pumping up. He was smart enough to realize that if these guys looked this way from repping out with weights and pumping up with strict form and not tossing heavy weights around, that was the way to do it. There was nothing to question. That was just the way they worked out and they all had the best physiques. Right then, Jim realized that working out with correct form and letting the muscle decide how heavy a weight to use was the way to go.

Seeing those guys gave the Warrior a goal. He was always a goal orientated person, so so long as he had something to set his sights on he was willing to work for it. And so he built up his body, physique, and style and started to compete. Living between Florida and Georgia, he moved up in the ranks. He started off by placing 5th in a gym contest, but that was just the beginning. As time went on, he won the Junior Atlanta contest, he placed in the Collegiate Nationals, and moved on to the Junior USA. By 1984, his professional competing days were coming to their end. From Warrior Wilderness:

In his final contest, he took fourth in the Heavyweights the year Ron Love won the Overall. He weighed 257 and was 253 the year he went to the Nationals. In his own words he says "I never seemed to get it together on the day of a contest."

You see, the Warrior's training regimen put him off-cycle with the major competitions, and he found that it was not the direction for him. Although he enjoyed working out and keeping in good shape, there was too much back and forth weight changes to feel good. And besides, another offer came along.

History Part 2 – And then there was…

Our story begins in 1985. From Warrior Central:

Jim Hellwig began wrestling in November 1985. He started [training] with [Rick] Bassman for a spot as one of a quartet of bodybuilders known as Powerteam USA. The members of the team were Jim "Justice" Hellwig, Steve "Flash" Borden, Mark "Commando" Miller and Garland "Glory" Donnoho.

Warrior went into greater detail in his interview with Dan Flynn:

I was going to chiropractic school and competing in bodybuilding. In 1984, I won the Mr. Georgia competition. From that, I went to the Mr. America competition that year in New Orleans. And there, there was a guy by the name of Ed Connors, who was one of three guys who bought the Gold's Gym that Joe Gold founded, and the three set out and turned into the worldwide franchise operation that it is today. Every year, back at that time, in the '80s, they would take two amateur bodybuilders they thought had potential to make it big, and bring the two out to California and put them up while they trained at "The Mecca" for a Junior National or National level contest. I was one of the guys in '84 or '85. I went out there and I trained for a Junior Mr. USA contest, took fifth in my class, if I remember right. Anyway, things didn't, in the contest, really go the way we expected them to go. The opportunity was still there. I was like one of the biggest, by bodyweight, bodybuilders at the time, got great reviews with [Joe] Weider and all the other top bodybuilders, just didn't hit my mark for that show. So, I decided to get back to Atlanta and finish the small amount of school I had left, mostly clinical requirements.

Just as I got back to Atlanta, Ed called and told me there was a guy out there in California who's putting together a team of four guys to become pro-wrestlers, and he asked me if I'd be interested. I didn't follow the sport at all. Atlanta, of course, was a hotbed of wrestling at the time and I had crossed paths with a few of the guys—the Road Warriors, Paul Orndoff, Dusty Rhodes, Tony Atlas—but I didn't know them personally. But after some minor investigation, and the fact that I could use all the hard work I'd done in bodybuilding to capitalize off it—make some money, come back to the chiropractic later... I decided to go for it.

But things were not so rosey. You see, Rick Bassman (who put the team together) knew nothing of the wrestling business and had no connections to anyone. After a very short time the team with no resources was quickly disbanded. But despite this, Warrior chose to continue his wrestling path. He wasn't indebted to the business, he wasn't without options, but he had found another goal to shoot for. Was he hoping for money? You bet! Why is that such a bad goal? Not everyone has to love the business to be a part of it. We'll get to that in Part 2. For now, Warrior had this to say while speaking with Dan Flynn:

Turned out, within a couple weeks, that the guy who had the idea didn't have the money to float the beginning phases and the bottom fell out. We lost our place to live, had just enough to eat peanut butter, and do midnight snack runs at local grocery stores, eating in the aisles, funny stuff. To top it off, as Steve [Sting] and I later found out, this guy didn't know jack about how the business operated on the inside. Even if he'd had the money to feed us and get us fully trained, his big plan still would have failed.

Steve [Sting] and I stayed positive about it all, and really our ignorance about things was a blessing. We sent pictures out to everybody on a list of wrestling organizations we had. We only had ten to fifteen hours of training. And that was basically just lifting each other over our heads and dropping one another on the floor—on the basic gymnastic mats.

Oh, did I forget to mention that the other person to continue wrestling was fellow bodybuilder turned wrestler Steve "Sting" Borden? Well, it was. Sting, who is regarded much differently then Warrior, yet has the same training. I'll get back to this in a minute.

In the meanwhile, their story began. Warrior and Sting began to tag team together and send their pictures to promotions around the country. One bit. From Warrior Central:

But the wrestling seed was sown so Hellwig and Borden decided to tag together. They sent flyers out to every wrestling promotion in the country but only Jerry Jarrett was ballsy enough to take a chance on the two green but eager stars in the making. They wrestled in Memphis for Jerry Jarrett promotions as the Freedom Fighters. From there they moved on to Bill Watts' UWF (Universal Wrestling Federation). There they turned heel and renamed themselves The Bladerunners in which Hellwig changed his name to Rock and Borden changed his name to the more familiar Sting. They wrestled together in the Universal Wrestling Federation until after a contract dipute and his take no shit attitude not going down too well with Watts, Hellwig left the promotion.

So it seemed like things were just turning out completely rosey for the Warrior. He was getting everything he wanted without the work. Or was he? From the Flynn interview:

FLYNN: What kind of money did a wrestler make back then?

WARRIOR: We were making $25 to $50 a night.

FLYNN: Were you rooming with Sting?

WARRIOR: We did everything together. Laundry, gym, groceries—always together. We had the one car. I'd sold mine so we could eat in California. We drove to the towns together. Sometimes 4-5 hours one way and with 4-5 guys in the car just to cover the cost of gas. Slept in a fleabag hotel until we got an apartment then we slept on the floor. Ate tuna fish out the can. Had to call Ed Connors to send us some money. It was really rough, but we stayed positive as we could. I thought a lot about going back to school, but didn't even have the money to get back to Georgia, let alone re-enroll. And we knew there was nothing we could do about it. It was about paying dues. One week we got a check for the whole seven days of working for like $150-$200. Beat all to hell, bummed out and all, we ask one of the boys, Rip Morgan, a guy from New Zealand, "How do you know when you are getting screwed (euphemism)?" He said, "Oh, don't worry about that mate, you'll know when you are getting screwed. The question then becomes ‘What can you do about it?'" He was right. There was nothing we could do about it.

May I repeat one line for you?

It was about paying dues.

Did you read everything Warrior went through? Anyone who says the Warrior was just handed the world does not know what they are talking about. Warrior had to work for it, he did pay his dues. Sure, he did not do it for five years like some guys did. But that should be a testament of his dedication and unique connection to the audience, not used against him. It's a shame that some guys who were not good enough to hack it that quickly (or at all) feel the need to take it out on someone else who got a break.

Besides, it was not like Warrior did not have years of previous sacrifice. In the Warrior's words in his interview with Flynn:

I'd also busted my ass in painful ways they never had—years of training in the gym, self-discipline in working out and dieting. If they want to criticize anybody they should criticize the promoters who were, in effect, telling them, your little bag of fancy wrestling moves don't sell tickets t-shirts, posters, dolls, etc.—so leave them and your tears at home, instead show up with some muscle and some energy.

What, am I supposed to apologize I did what it took, at that time, and they didn't?

Just because Warrior had not spent half a dozen years on the circuit did not mean that he had not paid his dues in other ways. The training and work he did in the bodybuilding circuit was very similar. He was on the road, he had no money, he was stretched to his physical and mental limits, he was eating whatever he could find. How does any of this, coupled with his wrestling experience, not count as paying dues?

Back in Memphis, Jerry Lawler complained on the Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior DVD that when Warrior came in he was green.

Really? What a shock! A man with a few weeks of training was green? Who'd a thunk it?

Lawler complained that he did not know what he was doing. Well how was he supposed to learn? You have to teach someone, you have to give them a chance to get better. That would be like Goldman-Sachs hiring a kid out of college and then handing him a billion dollar account without training. Yes, you need young fresh blood, but you do have to train them and bring them up to your level, not fight against them.

And so Warrior and Sting (before either had those names) went on with their tag team, but the split had to come. From Wrestling Digest in December 2003:

While Sting stayed in the Mid-South, Warrior headed to the Texas-based World Class Championship Wrestling in 1986. Working as the Dingo Warrior, he entered the promotion as a heel but soon became a popular babyface. He went on to hold the WCWA Texas heavyweight title for four months.

That was the quickie version because the most important part comes next.

History Part 3 – The Ultimate Journey Begins

In mid-1987 interest in the Warrior was high, and not just from the then WWF. Although Vince and company would like to have us believe that they brought Warrior in and made him, the Warrior was making his own name and had a buzz of his own. From Warrior Central:

Several promotions had taken notice of Dingo Warrior and approached Hellwig with offers. Antonio Inoki and New Japan Pro Wrestling outlined details of a new monster charachter they wanted Hellwig to portray in their promotion. Hellwig of course turned them down in favour of the World Wrestling Federation.

Warrior could have gone to Japan and made good money with New Japan, but he knew that the bigger place was the WWF. If he could make it to the top there then he would truly have made it and proved himself… to himself.

So the WWF career of the Warrior began. From Warrior Central:

In 1987 The Dingo Warrior made his debut in The World Wrestling Federation. He impressed on his television debut in a 20 man Battle Royal which was eventually won by Bam Bam Bigalow. "Dingo" was soon dropped by Hellwig in favour of the more marketable "Ultimate" and he was given a guitar heavy enrance theme. His running entrance and the insane shaking of the ropes quickly made The Ultimate Warrior a crowd favourite and he took the WWF by storm. After taking care of jobbers in his early days he began feuding with another powerfully built wrestler, Hercules Hernandez. The feud began when before a scheduled bout Hercules challenged Warrior to a tug of war. Warrior accepted and ended up pulling on the steel chain so hard that it snapped! Their feud ended at Wrestlemania IV with The Warrior emerging victorious in under 5 minutes. The Warrior was now an established WWF superstar but this was just the beginning.

And it continues:

The Warrior became WWF Intercontinental Champion on 29/08/1988 when as a stand in for the injured Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake, he disposed of The Honky Tonk Man in just 31 seconds, the shortest Intercontinental Title match in history. Warrior defeated all challengers for his title and began a feud with "Ravishing" Rick Rude. He took part in a posedown with Rude at the 1989 Royal Rumble. Rude attacked Warrior setting the stage for a title match at Wrestlemania V on 02/04/1989 in which Rude won the IC title with assistance from his manager Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. Rude's title reign was short lived though as The Warrior regained his title at that years Summerslam on 28/08/1989. He entered a feud with Andre the Giant, most of which went on at house shows. Warrior regulary beat the Giant in under a minute and sometimes in only 10 seconds! A feature of this feud was Warrior's effortless bodyslamming of the 520 pound Giant!

In the Royal Rumble of 1990 Warrior was eliminated by WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan. This set up their huge match at Wrestlemania VI on 01/04/1990. It was the first time the top two babyfaces had squared off against one another. Title vs Title. WWF World Champion vs WWF Intercontinental Champion. Hulk Hogan vs The Ultimate Warrior. Before 65,000 ecstatic fans in Toronto Ontario, Canada The Ultimate Warrior defeated The Hulkster and became WWF World Champion. The rules in WWF at the time stated nobody could hold both titles at one time so Warrior had to give up his intercontinental title.

And in the Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior DVD, the complaints rolled in. Again, the Warrior was too green for his spot. Again, he did not have the great wrestling skills. We'll cover the latter point in Part 2, but let's return to the first point: GREEN!

If the Warrior was so green, then why would you put him in a main event spot? If his wrestling ability and interview skills were not to your wanted level, then why reward him?

This revisionist history is sickening. The Warrior worked hard, was on the road and doing what he did best: entertaining the fans. Whose fault is it if he wins the biggest title in the land with the only clean pinfall off of the industry's biggest icon? Is that the Warrior's fault or the promoters behind him?

I'll answer that for you, it's the promoters. If Vince and the rest of his cronies really believed that Warrior was not capable of leading the company into the next generation, then they would not have given him this once in a lifetime opportunity. We'll spend a lot more time with this Hogan match later, but the important thing to take away is that Warrior was ready for the spot, and if he wasn't that fault belonged to the people who put him there, not anyone else.

And there is even more to this. From Wrestling Digest in December 2003:

Three months after Warrior defeated Hogan, his former partner, Sting beat Ric Flair to win the NWA world title. The two wrestlers who five years earlier were passed on by every promotion except one regional group were now world champions of their respective companies after defeating two of the greatest legends of all time.

Sting won his first world title at the same time as the Warrior, yet we rarely hear complaints that he was too green or it was too soon. Why is that? What is the real difference between Sting and Warrior?

It's their relationship with the boys in back. We'll get a lot more into this as well, but nobody is going to attack Sting for the way and time he won his championship as they would Warrior. Yet, it was the exact same story.

Warrior would then have a turbulent relationship with the WWF, leaving the company in August 1991. He would return in 1992 for seven months before leaving again for four years. He would return in 1994 for another four months before leaving the WWF for the last time. In 1998 he premiered in WCW for a short feud with Hogan before leaving wrestling for good. There's a great deal of detail to go over about each of these points in time, but that is for later.

After leaving wrestling, Warrior found he had a lot of excess energy. From his interview with Dan Flynn:

Being off the road and still having incredible energy and discipline and intensity, I began to want to do new things. I began a lot of self-study, including beginning a self learning journey reading the Great Books of the Western world, and the study of American history and came to see and call the Founding people and times the absolute heroic models. This was special for me, having done what I did as heroic role model for young minds, and never before in my life able to point to any one identity as a role model.

This is something that really bothers me. Here in the IWC elite we like to think we are so well versed, so self-discovered and aware that it makes us better then other people. Maybe it does, though I do not believe it. But here is something:

The Warrior began his journey of self-discovery in his later 30's, early 40's. Yes, most people who go through a process of self discovery do it somewhere between 13 and 29. So the Warrior began his discovery of history and knowledge and self-meaning at a later point in his life. So what? That is something we are to hold against him.

Or do we hold against him the answers he found for himself, and the answers he has taken on the road on his speaking tour?

RECESS!

Sorry for the delay this week (or most weeks recently). Time has not been my friend. I actually had most of the article written but fell asleep on my keyboard Tuesday night, and thus could not finish it until Wednesday when I got home (home being a relative term). But that's ok, I know the only person who is really upset is Larry. The rest of you were just anxious because, well, what else were you going to read? Another twelve parts of MeeThinks?

So I'll try to pick up the pace for next week to not put you through that torture. When we return, we'll continue to explore many of the myths of half truths of the Warrior's wrestling life, delve deeper into some particular events, and examine his wrestling ability. That'll be a fun time, eh?

So tune in next week for part two of our warriorism filled case with In Defense of… the Ultimate Warrior (Part 2 of 3)!!

Of course, be sure to check out Hidden Highlights in the meantime! Don't forget to send JT and I your Hidden Highlights for RAW, SmackDown!, Heat, Velocity, Impact, or any other show you saw this week (that includes house shows and indy events, you know)! Oh, and Wrestlemania, too!

Until then, the defense rests!




Know a particular person, event, organization, storyline, etc… in wrestling history that needs a defense? E-mail the One and Only JP at [e-mail], and I'll be glad to hear your case.