In Defense of… 02.22.06: The Ultimate Warrior (Part 2 of 3)

Posted by JP Prag on 02.22.2006

Can you judge a man’s love of the business?

In Defense of…
By JP Prag

Issue #43

The Ultimate Warrior (Part 2 of 3)

Intro

Hello people who have spent a good deal of their time trying to figure out what curling is, and welcome back to In Defense Of…! With the Olympics underway and No Way Out behind us, that can only mean it is Wrestlemania season! But that has nothing to do with what we are talking about today. Or does it? Well, before we get into today, head back to our last issue to see the first part of our case for the Ultimate Warrior.

And while you are clicking links, you need to check out the most positive article in the IWC, Hidden Highlights! JT and I celebrated our 25th issue of showing how the little things make a huge difference in wrestling. If you haven't checked it out yet, I highly recommend doing it now. And I'm not just saying that because I wrote it.

But I supposed I can't get you to read my other piece before reading this one. 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 not getting much back in taxes this year. Just because I'm an unmarried, no child birthing, renter I'm not cool enough for any tax breaks. That's right, Federal and State governments, because I have no other expenses. Thanks a bunch!

Stenography

Those taxes really wore me out. Stenographer, why don't you take over and tell everyone what they already know.

Thanks, JP. And thanks for not inviting me to the Hidden Highlights 25th Issue Celebration!

Anyway, as JP said, last week we began the case of the IWC vs. the Ultimate Warrior. Before we dove too far into his specific charges, though, we needed to understand where he came from… and no, the answer is not "Parts Unknown". Warrior grew up in Williamsport, IN; a small skinny kid with only a few friends and a father who left him. He soon discovered the weight room in his High School and began to work out, teaching himself the self-discipline he needed to succeed. This inspired in him a desire to go into chiropractics, but his guidance counselor would hear none of it. The counselor felt Warrior had no future and told him to go down to the factory to get a summer job so he'd have a job when he graduated. How's that for support?

Undeterred, Warrior enrolled himself in college and found his way to Georgia. After seeing a body building competition in California, he felt re-inspired to change his work out program to match them and compete professionally. And for a number of years that is what he did, working his way up the ranks and paying his dues. After a while, though, the stress of constant weight gain took its toll on Warrior and he was almost set to return to school and finish his last couple of classes. But then another opportunity arose.

He and four other body builders were recruited by Rick Bassman and Ed Connors to form Powerteam USA, a professional wrestling stable. It quickly became obvious that Bassman knew nothing about professional wrestling and had no connection and no money, so the Powerteam was disbanded. But Warrior and one other member, the future NWA/WCW Champion Sting, decided that they wanted to continue. Warrior had found another calling and wanted to see it through to the end.

And so Warrior and Sting hit the road. Their early career consisted of living together, having no money for food, and piling eight guys in a car to get to a show and make $50. There was criticism that Warrior was green as he was making his way up the major independents. Well of course he was! He was new! But the only way he was going to get better was if people taught him, something the likes of Jerry Lawler seem to have forgotten.

So you see, Warrior was not just handed the world on a silver platter. He had paid his dues for years in weight training, learning a type of discipline few wrestlers of the era had. And then he paid his dues again on the road, earning his spot. The team of Sting and Warrior (before either were those names) went their separate ways, but Warrior was becoming a recognized name. So yes, he went through the independents quicker then most, but that is not a detriment that should be held against him. That is a testament to his dedication and connection to the crowd that made him so worthwhile.

After receiving offers from New Japan the WWF, the Warrior decided to go with the latter. Changing from the Dingo Warrior to the Ultimate Warrior, he began a path of glory in the WWF. Within a year he was Intercontinental Champion and a couple of years after that he defeated Hulk Hogan in the main event of Wrestlemania VI for the WWF Championship.

And yet the criticism oozes out of the "Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior" DVD. Many complained that he wasn't ready, that his skills were not good enough, that he didn't have the right mic skills. Well, if the all of that was true, then who is really to blame: The Warrior, who was uber-over with the crowds and was doing what he was told, or the promoters who put him in that position? It's simple. If the promoters did not believe in him they never would have given him the championship and the biggest win ANYONE ever had in that time period. It is only in retrospect do these people chose to re-write history and try to shift blame and make the Warrior out to be less then what he was.

Not to mention that Sting, Warrior's former partner, won the NWA championship just three months later. Yet very few complain about Sting the way they do the Warrior. And there is a reason for that that we will get to.

Meanwhile, the Warrior's relationship with the WWF would go south, and he would leave the company in August 1991. He shortly returned in 1992 for seven months before leaving again until 1996. And that would be the last time Warrior was in the WWF/E.

Warrior would make appearances from time to time and even had a two month run in WCW in 1998. Once he left wrestling, though, Warrior engaged in a journey of self-discovery and knowledge through reading. Yes, a lot of elitist go through such a journey in their teens and twenties, but the Warrior was always a late bloomer. Just because he had his epiphany in his late 30's does not make him any less intelligent, informed, or opinionated. Warrior took his self-discipline and new found inner knowledge and began a speaking tour that continues to this day.

That catches up the history of Warrior, but there are so many points along the way to hit.

What really happened?

As we went through the history of the Warrior, there were a lot of controversial points to go over. Now we will delve into the Warrior's wrestling history (we'll get to the speeches in Part 3), and take a look at the other side of the coin that the "Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior" refused to look at.

Unprofessional

There are several examples of Warrior being "unprofessional" in the Self-Destruction DVD, yet none are delved into or explained in any terms outside of those affected. Take for instance in 1996 when the Ultimate Warrior returned to the WWF and squashed Triple H at Wrestlemania in just a few minutes. Triple H says that Warrior was the most unprofessional person he has ever worked with. One problem: he doesn't say what was so unprofessional about the Warrior. We are just supposed to believe at face value that Triple H, a man who was being punished and depushed, could criticize someone for being unprofessional? With no reasoning whatsoever?

Might it be that Triple H did not like having to job to returning star? Might he be upset that he was embarrassed because he takes himself too seriously and never can get that win back? Might he be perturbed that a so-called non-wrestler was given another chance? Might he be upset that someone with much less in-ring talent then him drew a boatload more money? Just perhaps.

Another story I'd like to debunk is one where Bobby Heenan said Andre hated the Ultimate Warrior and had nothing to do with him. From the Warrior's interview with Dan Flynn:

Andre was at the end of his career. He was happy and wealthy...I had a great run with Andre and became good friends with him, really. I would even make the case Andre did more for the Ultimate Warrior than he ever did for Hogan. And that's saying a lot because Andre did not ever do what he did not want to. Ask Randy Savage.

Randy Savage was not available for comment.

Although Andre and Warrior were never probably great friends, they were not the bitter enemies that Heenan (or the editing) made them out to be. Andre would not work with anyone he did not want to, and would not job for someone he did not think had a future. Yes, he probably did rough up the Warrior a few times for being green and not paying enough attention, but the Warrior learned from those mistakes and Andre was happier for it. It's much the same as Hardcore Holly or the Undertaker—an old school mentality to be rough to young guys to teach them the business, but it is not a sign of a lack of respect.

Contract Problems

These comments about Warrior's so-called unprofessional conduct led the DVD to use it as reasoning the Warrior leaving the WWF under varying circumstances.

The first such instance came at SummerSlam 1991. Warrior was in a tag match with Hogan against Sgt. Slaughter, Gen. Adnan, and Col. Mustafa. Before the main event, Warrior went to Vince and said he would not go on unless Vince paid him some additional money. Vince, on the DVD, goes into a tirade against the Warrior saying you work out these things in back before the event, you don't hold someone up. Hogan also went on the attack, saying that is just not how you do business. But why would Warrior do such a thing? From Warrior Wilderness:

Vince still owed Warrior his WrestleMania VII payoff, and after skirting around the issue time and time again, the Warrior gave Vince an ultimatum: He either paid Warrior what he owed him, or Warrior [wasn't] going to go to the ring that night. Vince paid up, and when Warrior returned to the locker room after the match, Vince suspended him, or fired him, or Warrior walked out, depending on who you ask.

Do the math. We are talking five months after the fact that Vince was refusing the pay the Warrior. Warrior had done what Vince wanted, for months! He had tried to talk to him in the back, and Vince said he was going to pay him. But he completely lied to Warrior and did not give him his back owe. No offense to Hogan, but he was always paid for his events and had already been paid. This was not a negotiation for a raise, but for the money Warrior was owed for his performance and sales. Warrior only had one bit of leverage: himself. If he did not stand up to Vince, then Vince would continue to run over him for years to come.

As it was, Vince quickly realized he was better off with the Warrior and brought him back just seven months later. This quickly fell apart as well (for reasons we will get to in a minute), and Warrior was gone from the WWF until 1996.

(By the way, the Warrior did not just sit around for four years. Aside from beginning his mental journey, he also worked a handful of independent dates and became the WWS Champion in Germany. He also spent some time in Hollywood and filmed the movie FirePower. It was during this time that he also opened up his own gym and the short-lived Warrior University. The point being, he kept busy.)

Vince needed a pick-me-up for the business. The WWF was down, way down, and the WCW was picking up steam quicker then ever. Vince McMahon, for all of his love of saying he creates stars, really does not. He chances upon stars who make themselves. Thinking that he could recapture the magic of the Warrior, he had Linda work out a contract with him. From the interview with Dan Flynn:

Vince called me at the end of 1995—I'd been out since 1992—and wanted me to come back to wrestling because the business needed a lift, and I guess, he had had the time to reconsider how he'd wronged me in 1992, using me and Davey Boy Smith as scapegoats to take the heat off his back when he was federally prosecuted over the steroid stuff.

When he called I was already up to my neck in my own entrepreneurial projects using the Warrior intellectual property. Basically, I just told him no, especially if it was to be under a generic contract. There was no way I could do that after all the investments I'd made since leaving the ring. Linda called me, his wife. Of course, I knew Linda because I had met her before out at their house, at Titan. I don't know really how much she did business wise before, my business was handled with Vince really. But somewhere in the 1990s, she took a more active role, then eventually became CEO.

She called me and said, "Can I meet with you?" So she came out to Phoenix and I just got the impression that it would really be different this time. So I said, "Look, I can't come back under a generic contract. I need a special contract. I got all these other projects going on. I got my gym, which is becoming a private facility—maybe to train guys who want to get in the business. I got my big comic book project I want to turn in to an animated movie, got my mail order business, etc. I can't just up and leave these things." I said, "This is what I'll do. I'll come back. I'll be the wrestler. You can sell the t-shirts, the posters, you can make the money from the ticket sales. You give me a price for that. But I get to plug into your merchandising and networking with my other Warrior projects. And there's got to be a distinction between my new intellectual properties that I've developed, and those that represent who the wrestler is. So, we had our distinct agreement and four months after I came back they just started violating it. They didn't give a shit. And it turns out they never were going to live up to it. Screwing me again was premeditated.

Lots of points to take away:

(1) In 1992, Warrior was used a scapegoat for the steroid trial (we'll get back to this in part 3)

(2) Warrior had been spending the past several years investing into the "Warrior" brand. You remember that the basis for the WWE's lawsuit against Brock Lesner is that they invested the money into creating Brock Lesner and therefore owned his wrestling rights. Well, Warrior had spent years investing his own money into "Warrior", a brand he felt was beyond wrestling. Therefore, the WWF had no claim to it, and the Warrior owned the outputs.

(3) Warrior would not accept the regular wrestling contract and Vince and the WWF, under good faith, agreed to the conditions that the Warrior outlined because they were desperate to have him back.

(4) As part of the agreement, the WWF was to use their vast marketing and distribution networks to promote and sell Warrior branded merchandise that did not directly benefit the WWF.

That said, the WWF refused to live up to their agreements. How do I know this? Because Warrior sued and won. Back to the interview:

FLYNN: So did you sue them, or did they sue you?

WARRIOR: I sued them.

FLYNN: So what happened in the suit?

WARRIOR: The short answer is that I prevailed. Beyond that, I learned a lot about myself and life and my own integrity. I found out a lot I do not like about other people, especially the professional, expert suits in the world who get unchecked approval just because of who they are. I am more skeptical and cynical of others. I matured much, became a better man and came to know how I would define being one. I found out that it is never wrong to fight for what is right—never. In ways, having the experience has set me on the path I am now.

FLYNN: And when was the date of that?

WARRIOR: March, 2000, and then I fought my own lawyers for over a year, because they did an unbelievably corrupt turn and tried to screw me out of rightful settlement. I hung in there and beat them too. It was a rough five years.

FLYNN: So now, you have the right to "Warrior," "Ultimate Warrior"?

WARRIOR: Yeah, I have all the intellectual property rights and everything to it. I always did, the lawsuit was necessary to prove it, to put to rest Titan's fallacious claim that they did. Although just one aspect of the litigation, it was important from the stand point—a standpoint many don't want to understand—that I had worked hard to create it and make it what it was and wanted to be able to, should be able to, use it to do other business things outside of the ring—down the road at a different time in my life. Christ, what was I supposed to do: just lay down and give over all the work, sweat, toil, and value? Critics are so narrow-minded, like, "Yeah, he fought for it just so he could always have it as a momento of his wrestling days." The intellectual property is worth more than the memory of my career there. That chapter in my life signifies something about the whole of my life, what my life and the way I think about it and live it means to me. Of course, too, my full legal name is the one name of Warrior, and my family has it as their surname. It signifies the philosophy of life I live by.

Warrior proved that it was his investment into the Warrior name, and that the WWF had not lived up to its agreements at all. He was right all along, yet that is not what the WWE would admit in its Self-Destruction DVD. Instead they intended to make Warrior look insane and out of line for doing so. Yet the courts would say otherwise.

At the end of the day, Warrior made a stand few would make. From the interview:

In 2000, the day our trial was to begin and all was settled, he came up to me in the courtroom before the day got underway with his hand out and stared with his trademark, "Hey pal." I refused to shake his hand and told him, "I've been insulted enough and we have nothing to be pals about." Truly probably the only time Vince has had that done to him. Try it some time. Refuse to shake the hand of a person you don't respect when they have their hand extended. It's very hard to do. But man does it build your character and tell you something about yourself. Ever since that day, my handshake means something and I don't give it as if it does not.

Crazy Angles

And with all that, Warrior was involved in some crazy angles. But was he the one responsible? From his interview with Dan Flynn:

FLYNN: One thing that I remember, and I asked a guy today if I were dreaming or something like that—one of the gimmicks that Vince had you do which was probably the dumbest thing I've ever seen on professional wrestling…

WARRIOR: With the Papa Shango thing?

FLYNN: Yeah, you know exactly what I'm talking about. So, he had some guy put a voodoo curse on you and you where throwing up or something. Could you say to Vince, "Hey Vince, this is a bad idea?"

WARRIOR: I did. But it did little good once he had his mind set on something. The big problem was that every three weeks you showed up at a television taping and they had it all laid out already. They got that one evening to tape three different television programs—whatever they were at the time. So, they can't modify things that much. You—the talent—have been on the road and you're worn down anyway, so it depends how much fight or how much creativity you have in you to make the case for doing something differently.

FLYNN: If you tried to say to him, "Look, this isn't such a good idea." Is he the type a guy that takes criticism in stride?

WARRIOR: Yeah, Vince was always good about hearing good ideas out. In fact, back then it was really up to the top talent to come up with their own creative ideas to make an angle work. But you had to come up with another idea really quick because they are going from one thing to the next. Papa Shango was a voodoo type of character anyway. So, in some way the office was already convinced that people were buying the voodoo thing. So taking it up a notch and having Warrior leak ooze or puke pea-soup wasn't, so they thought, wasn't going to make less believable the angle.

Warrior was not really in charge of his angles unless he could come up with something better on the spot. And even then, his ideas could be rejected. But like a professional, he went through the angle and tried his best to make it entertaining. But in the end, Warrior cannot be held responsible for his crazy angles, that again belongs to someone else. And again, his peers have held this against him.

Why would his peers, who were in the same situation, hold Warrior to a different standard. Well, there is the other side of the coin. Not just who Warrior was away from the ring, but who he was in the back.

Friends

I touched on this briefly last issue, but the question remained: what is the main difference between Sting and Warrior? The answer is friendship. Sting immersed himself in the locker room while Warrior distanced himself.

On the DVD, several people (including Heenan) said everyone hated Warrior. But on the same DVD, Hogan said everyone liked Warrior, just thought he was eccentric. To make it even more confusing, Vince said that most people were not friends with him, but nobody disliked him, and that if they got to know him better that that they would realize what a charming, funny man he was. How confusing!

So where is the truth in all this? Well, the first question to ask is if, and why, the Warrior distanced himself from the boys. From our overused interview:

Look, I'm cut from a different mold. Most of the guys have this loyalty to the business that I don't have. Even when it ruins their lives, breaks their character as a human being, or, worse, kills them. If things would not have gone sour with the McMahons, maybe I'd be more inclined. I mean, many of the old timers still work for Titan behind the scenes, as agents, gophers, real jobbers. It's their job. They've made the business their life.

When I was having my success, you have to understand something: I'd been in the business a few years. Other guys had been in it 10 to 12 years and they never had the success I did. There was a ton of envy. I knew and was also smart enough to navigate the shark infested waters. I was despised in a lot of ways. I knew I had to be a loner to succeed—do my own thing. And I beat them at their own game—their own "work." I got out on my own terms. They didn't get to abuse the character or me.

They want to think in some ways—the pundits at least—that they were instrumental in making you what you were. And they also want to write the obituary for you. They want to be the ones to ridicule you on your way out: "Don't let the door hit you in the ass." It pisses a lot of people off that I have gotten on responsibly with my life. Like I've said numerous times, if I had ended up a pitiful, drugged bum I'd be better appreciated for what I did in the business. If I OD'ed in a Budget hotel room doing dirty little street drugs, my wife and kids at home, I'd be a real superstar. It also bothers a lot of people in the industry that I don't have a problem defending the legitimacy of my career, using my mind to do so instead of muscle.

Warrior laid it out pretty simply. Yes, he did intentionally distance himself from the boys, but that was only because wrestling was not his life. It was his job. He felt he had enough interaction with them seeing them everyday. I work in an office with four other people but I don't feel the need to hang out with them after work all the time or always talk to them. It's my job, not my life. Warrior thought the same way.

But because he was not their friend, and definitely not one of the good ‘ol boys, they feel the need to badmouth him when he left. Hogan, being of a similar mode as Warrior, was more inclined to paint him in a better picture. But those who could not reach the success Warrior had, and had no strong connection to him, felt more of a need to speak harshly of him because they had nothing else to base it off of.

Warrior has another point. Great wrestlers in the industry like Curt Henning who died dishonorable deaths due to drug overdoses will always be more revered then him, a man who has been able to hold his life together. And like I said, we'll get more into the drugs next issue.

Drugs are only one of the controversial issues we will touch. But this is the first taste of what the Warrior is reviled for. And then there is a bigger story.

To have wrestling ability, or not to have, that is the question

Throughout the "Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior" DVD and around the internet for year, Warrior has been called green, sloppy, and just a poor wrestler. Unlike many of our past cases (Nash, Undertaker, Sid, New Jack), Warrior did not have previous extensive training that he chose to ignore. Instead, he chose not to continue to develop his training.

And I know many of you are screaming right there. How could someone chose to stop developing? Isn't that the point of being a professional wrestler?

Yes, if all you want is to wrestle. We keep forgetting that those were not Warrior's goals. His goals were to entertain, be the best he could be, and make some good money en route. He did not need all of the Dynamite Kid's abilities to achieve what he did. As a matter of fact, they would have been a detriment. From the Warrior's interview with Dan Flynn:

Not being a technical wrestler is kind of a silly bad wrap I get all the time from guys like Bret Hart and industry pundits. My response is, look, you guys were in the business for a dozen years before I even got there. A dozen years and you never figured it out that wrestling skills per se were not where it was at. It was about being a gimmick. I got there and in two years I figured it out. 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?

It wasn't part of my gimmick—it wouldn't fit Ultimate Warrior—to keep doing the wrestling stuff. I was smart enough to know that. Making that decision is up to the talent. In other words, whatever a wrestler decides to portray himself as in the wrestling ring character-wise, he's the one who develops that.

I have to agree with the Warrior. He did in a few short years what it took others decades to achieve, or never at all. Watching the DVD, guys like Ted DiBiase come off as bitter and angry. Now DiBiase is one of my all time favorite wrestlers, but him never winning the championship while someone like Warrior has has dealt him a deep blow. And what about people like Steve Lombardi, aka the Brooklyn Brawler? How in the hell can Lombardi criticize anyone's wrestling ability when he spent twenty years doing kick, punch, lay on back? Not that Lombardi did not have any additional skills, but again he had no use for them as the "Brawler". I turn it over to 411mania's own Joe Boo:

Another time Jim Ross shows his hypocrisy colors is about why the title was put on the Warrior. Ross gets some help from the Million Dollar Man Teddy D. on this one. They both say that it was a bad idea because the Warrior had to be carried to a good match by his opponent and that the matches had to be short or it would stink up the joint. First off, I am not a huge fan of having a wrestler comment on another wrestler's in ring prowess especially when they wrestled in the same generation. It is in bad taste to do so and might just show envy, which is something that has been revealed about Teddy D. Somewhere it was said that Teddy D. was always bitter about not having a WWF Championship title run. He was a good solid wrestler but didn't realize that his potential was reached as a great heel and nothing more. Now back to Jim Ross is getting a superior roast by yours truly (thank you, thank you).

Jim Ross praises champions like JBL and Batista and even Cena as the future. News flash Jimbo….they have been keeping there matches short for a reason….they all blow ass in the ring.

Sorry to say, you don't need to be a five-star competitor to be a champion. If anything, it probably hurts you to the average wrestling fan. You need to be a character larger then life that people want to get behind (or run over), and that is what the Ultimate Warrior was. No doubt was he a sub-par in ring competitor. But wrestling, especially in the WWF/E, is not about in-ring prowess. It's about being able to drive emotion beyond where anyone will care what you do in the ring. One punch from the Warrior would send more ripples around the arena then an entire cruiserweight battle royal. People cared about the Warrior, people bought into the Warrior, and the Warrior became the epitome of wrestling—what everyone outside of the industry recognized as wrestling. The people who pay and the people who make the press don't recognize a reverse flying congitoro, they recognize a man who is beyond the ring.

Love of the business

And throughout it all, there has been a question of whether Warrior really cared for the wrestling business at all. All those guys questioning his dedication seem to have retroactively forgotten what the Warrior was about.

First of all, yes, the Warrior was not a fan of professional wrestling growing up. His step-father used to sometimes watch it, and would embarrassingly change the channel when the Warrior came home with some friends. So what? Hulk Hogan rarely watched wrestling as a kid, and he's the biggest icon in wrestling.

Did the Warrior get into wrestling for money? Sure he did! But, as we noted last issue, that did not mean he did not pay his dues and scrapped by on nothing for years. Also, that does not mean he did not grow to love and respect the business. I turn it over to regular reader Doug Bernard who sent this in:

During Wresltemania All Day back in 2000 when they were going through the 15 Wrestlemanias up until that point they were discussing the Ultimate Challenge. Pat Paterson was being interviewed and began to tell [a] story of the Warrior after the match. He said he walked into the locker room to [congratulate] Warrior only to find the Warrior sitting down in tears saying he couldn't believe this had happened and how grateful he was for it all. Now-a-days you would never hear this mentioned but back then it was still ok to view the Warrior in a good light every once in a while.

You see, even just a few years ago the WWF was willing to let the truth of the Warrior slip out, that he was grateful for everything he received in the wrestling business. The Warrior himself continues in his interview with Dan Flynn:

My match against Hogan, that was…I had a lot of great moments, but I would probably say that was the pinnacle of my wrestling career and one of the best matches of all time. I'm proud of it. It was significant for, as I've said throughout the years, many things.

One, I'd reached the goal I set for myself. Many people don't understand, many in the industry just don't want to hear it. But when I got in the business, I got in it to pursue success. If after a certain amount of time that would not have happened, I sure as hell wasn't going to stick with it just so I could be professional wrestler, like so many others in the business do. And when I got in it, Hogan was the guy. The facts are I set a goal and achieved it. Did the work, turned the eyes of those who mattered, and made it happen. And like I'd done my whole life up till then, once I had reached a goal, I began setting others. In some ways, having that match with Hogan was anti-climatic. And I would say, now, after greater life experience and looking back, that the way I was about setting new goals, having the confidence to and not having any doubts I could achieve them, likely, underneath everything else that went on between Vince and I, contributed somewhat to the fallouts we had.

That match was also very significant from this point: Hogan was the superstar and had been for a long time the only superstar. Doing the match the way it was done, having the big baby faces face-off was a huge statement about how popular The Ultimate Warrior character was. I mean, Hogan was popular, there was no doubt about that. In fact, buildups to previous Wrestlemanias were done by taking one of Hogan's buddies and having that buddy stab him in the back, turn the second hottest baby face heel. That's how they built Wrestlemanias. But Ultimate Warrior was selling merchandise at the same pace or better than Hogan. If they'd done that, turned The Ultimate Warrior heel, they'd have been cutting their own wrists. So they had to do the match the way they did. I know on a deeper level what that meant and I am proud of what I accomplished to make that happen. It meant something to beat Hogan then…

Warrior was very cognoscente of the meaning of that match and his win, and he was thankful for it. At the same time, he had set a goal for himself and achieved it. Is that a bad thing? He achieved a goal and wanted to set a new one?

Also, who is to say that just because he did not love the industry as, oh, let's say Chris Benoit or Christopher Daniels does, means that he is not the best person for the industry. Some people become doctors because they want the money and prestige, not because they want to save lives. But that does not mean they are not damn good doctors.

If you needed brain surgery to remove a tumor, would you rather have the extremely skilled surgeon with an excellent track record who got into the medical business for money or the guy at the clinic who just wants to save lives but has no track record to speak of?

If you wanted someone to headline your Wrestlemania, would you want the guy selling as much merchandise as your top face but is only in it for the money, or do you want the guy that can put on a wrestling clinic but couldn't draw a dime?

These super technical wrestlers may very well be the best in the world, but they are wrong about Warrior. He did not need to love the business as they did. He had the only tool he ever needed to succeed: the audience in the palm of his hand.

RECESS!

Holy mackerel is this a long case! And there's still so much to go… and not just because Warrior is long winded. As you have seen so far, when you take the time to read what Warrior has said, he actually can make a lot of sense.

When we return, it is additional controversial moments, WCW, drugs, promos, conservative speaking, and more general insanity!

So tune in next week for our outrageous conclusion of In Defense of… the Ultimate Warrior (Part 3 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.