"Ultimate Warrior" redirects here, for the South Korean movie Ultimate Warrior, see Musa (film). For other uses, see Warrior (disambiguation).

Warrior
File:Warrior speaks at DePaul 2006.jpg
Born	June 16 1959 Crawfordsville, Indiana
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Jim "Justice" Hellwig Blade Runner Rock Dingo Warrior The Ultimate Warrior The Warrior
Billed height	6 ft 3 in (188 cm)
Billed weight	275 lb (125 kg)
Billed from	Parts Unknown
Trained by	Red Bastien Rick Bassman
Debut	1985
Retired	1999

Warrior (born James Hellwig on June 16, 1959) is a former American professional wrestler known to many as The Ultimate Warrior. He legally changed his name to Warrior in 1993.

Career

Warrior began his pro wrestling career as Jim "Justice" Hellwig of Powerteam USA, a group of bodybuilders formed in 1985 by Red Bastien and Rick Bassman, but the gimmick went under when they discovered that, in their estimation, the team had limited wrestling potential.

Of the four members of Powerteam USA, only Hellwig and Steve "Flash" Borden had subsequent wrestling careers of any note (Borden went on to become Sting). They formed a tag team called The Blade Runners with Warrior as Blade Runner Rock when they wrestled in the UWF and on the independent circuit, but the group ended, and Warrior became Dingo Warrior for a short period in World Class Championship Wrestling, winning the Texas Title. After WCCW, Jim Hellwig signed with the WWF and adopted the name Ultimate Warrior.

World Wrestling Federation: The first stint (1987-1991)

As a World Wrestling Federation (WWF) superstar from the mid-'80s to the early '90s, the Ultimate Warrior was known for his high-energy wrestling style. The Ultimate Warrior's ring entrances featured him racing into the arena at full speed, bursting into the ring, and violently shaking the ropes up and down. He was also known for his distinctive pattern of face painting.

Warrior enjoyed two stints as Intercontinental Champion, defeating The Honky Tonk Man (in 32 seconds at the first ever SummerSlam in 1988) and Rick Rude at SummerSlam 1989. The Warrior was heralded as the wrestler to carry the torch after the pending retirement of Hulk Hogan in 1990. Following a few confrontations with Hogan, most notably at the 1990 Royal Rumble, the Warrior was written in as Hogan's opponent for WrestleMania VI. Ultimate Warrior defeated Hogan on April 1, 1990, at the SkyDome in Toronto, Ontario in the main event (which was billed "The Ultimate Challenge", as both Hogan's WWF World Title and Warrior's Intercontinental Title were on the line) of WrestleMania VI. The Warrior held the title until the Royal Rumble in January 1991, dropping the belt to Sgt. Slaughter (thanks to interference by Randy "Macho Man" Savage).

Warrior gained revenge on Savage at WrestleMania VII, pinning him in a "retirement match." Thereafter, he became embroiled in a brutal feud with The Undertaker after Undertaker and his manager, the macabre Paul Bearer, locked Warrior in a coffin on the set of Bearer's Funeral Parlor (one of the WWF's biggest "evil" incidents to that time; the Warrior's life was portrayed as being in danger as Bearer sealed the casket shut, and WWF officials worked feverishly to break the casket open to reveal a motionless Warrior inside). Eventually, Jake "The Snake" Roberts offered to help Warrior in his feud, but wound up turning against him; however, Roberts' impending feud with Warrior was quickly scuttled.

In August 1991, Warrior was involved in an alleged pay dispute with WWF owner Vince McMahon. Warrior had reportedly threatened to no show the main event for SummerSlam teaming him with Hulk Hogan against Sgt. Slaughter, Colonel Mustafa, and General Adnan unless he was paid a certain amount of money. It is unclear whether this sum was an amount the Warrior felt was owed to him (for previous work), or whether it was a new demand. The amount was never disclosed to the public and after the Ultimate Warrior chased Adnan and Mustafa backstage, McMahon promptly fired him, although he did pay Warrior the amount that was demanded. He would then be re-hired in 1992.

WWF: The second stint (1992)

Upon returning at WrestleMania VIII (to rescue Hulk Hogan from a beat down at the hands of Sid Justice and Papa Shango), he received a degree of creative control over his bookings. Many fans may remember the Papa Shango angle, in which the "witch doctor" cast a spell over Warrior, causing him to convulse and vomit. It was around this time (mid-late 1992) that Warrior sported a "Muscle Outfit," a flesh colored spandex singlet with muscles printed upon it.

Late in 1992, Warrior was scheduled to be the tag team partner of Randy Savage (who lost to Warrior in a retirement match at WrestleMania VII) at Survivor Series. However, Warrior left the company two weeks before the event and was replaced by Curt Hennig.

WWF: The third stint (1996)

After several years spent mostly outside of the wrestling limelight, Warrior returned to the WWF in 1996, squashing future superstar Hunter Hearst Helmsley at WrestleMania XII. Triple H refers to his match against Warrior as "not my best event," and has referred to Warrior as "the most unprofessional guy I have ever worked with." Following WrestleMania, Warrior participated in brief feuds with Goldust and Jerry Lawler.

In July 1996, Warrior was scheduled to be the tag team partner of Shawn Michaels and Ahmed Johnson in the main event of the In Your House 9 pay-per-view but was suspended by kayfabe WWF president Gorilla Monsoon before the event. He was never seen on WWF programming again.

World Championship Wrestling (1998)

WCW signed Warrior in 1998. After debuting on Nitro in Hartford, Connecticut, he created a storyline where he formed a stable opposing Hulk Hogan's New World Order: the "One Warrior Nation." The acronym OWN for One Warrior Nation was a play on the name nWo. Highlights of the storyline included Warrior kidnapping and "converting" The Disciple and frequent instances of "magic smoke" knocking out all of the nWo members except for Hogan (and covering Warrior's movement through a trapdoor in the ring). The British Bulldog suffered a near career-ending injury when he landed on Warrior's trapdoor at Fall Brawl '98; Perry Saturn was also injured by the trapdoor, though not as severely.

Warrior only participated in three matches in WCW. The first was the War Games main event (along with seven other wrestlers) at Fall Brawl. Then on WCW Monday Nitro, he tag teamed with Sting to defeat Hogan and Bret Hart by disqualification, in which he had virtually no participation besides single handedly chasing several nWo members down the entry way and whipping them with Hogan's belt. Lastly was his loss to Hogan at Halloween Havoc.

In the build-up to their match at Halloween Havoc, Warrior played mind games with Hogan by projecting backstage "apparitions" of himself in a mirror that only Hogan could see. The WCW storyline portrayed Hogan as "cracking up" in seeing these apparitions. However, the announcers could also see them, as well as the television audience.

In the Halloween Havoc match an attempt to "blind" Warrior with a fireball backfired when Hogan faced complications igniting the flash paper, causing the fire to go up in Hogan's face instead. The match finally came to an end when Horace Hogan hit Warrior in the back with a chair while Eric Bischoff had referee Nick Patrick distracted. Hogan then scored the pinfall.

Warrior's last appearance in WCW was the Nitro after Halloween Havoc, when he chased nWo Hollywood out of the ring. He announced his retirement the following year.

Life away from the ring

Warrior officially retired from wrestling in 1999. He found a new career as a conservative speaker and commentator, denouncing left-wing politics.

Finishing and signature moves

• Warrior Splash / Ultimate Splash (Running big splash)
• Warrior Press / Ultimate Press (Gorilla press drop)
• Warrior Tackle / Ultimate Tackle / Spear (Running diving shoulder block)
• Front powerslam
• Lariat, often repeatedly done in succession
• Axe handle
• Shoulderbreaker
• Bearhug
• Big boot

Championships and accomplishments

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• PWI ranked him # 11 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the year in the PWI 500 in 1991

• World Class Wrestling Association

• WCWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Lance Von Erich
• WCWA Texas Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

• World Wrestling Federation

• WWF Championship (1 time)
• WWF Intercontinental Championship (2 times)

Note: He is the first and only wrestler to hold the WWF Championship and WWF Intercontinental Championship simultaneously.

Comic book

Beginning in May 1996, Ultimate Warrior began writing with Jim Callahan and The Sharp Brothers illustrating a comic book entitled WARRIOR, featuring himself as the main character. The comics sold well in the first two months of their distribution, before sales plummeted and the comic was taken out of circulation in early 1997. The initial success of the comic and its ultimate failure is often attributed to the same things. There was also speculation that the reason the comic failed was because after the first two issuses Warrior decided that the publishing company was getting too much money. He then decided to publish and distribute it himself through his own website.

As a comic book, fans argued that WARRIOR was a failure: there were virtually no characters other than Warrior, little action, and considerably more text than the average comic (in the first issue, at least one entire page is nothing but text, with a small picture of Warrior in the corner).

The comic's most enduring issue, and the one which has received the most ridicule and is now worth the most money, is one of the final issues, which breaks away from the main storyline into a Christmas tale. The plot of the comic is hard to decipher, as it contains no dialogue, monologue, or text boxes. Inexplicably, Warrior attacks the North Pole, usurps Santa Claus' authority over the elves, and in the final frame, which gained the comic its enduring popularity, a sweaty Warrior forces Santa into bondage gear and poses beside him. The apparent sexual undertones, lack of an actual plot, and non-sequitur nature (nothing from the previous issue served to segue into the Santa attack issue) gained the comic cult popularity, especially on the internet. Though nothing sexually explicit is depicted in the comic, some fans have come to describe it as the "santa rape" issue; more commonly, it is referred to as "the one where Warrior puts Santa in bondage".

According to Warrior, six issues of the WARRIOR comic book were created, as well as a "Warrior Graphic Novel that revealed the story behind the creation of Warrior’s Comic Book Universe". However, only the first four issues of the comic were actually produced.

The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior

On September 27, 2005, WWE released a DVD documentary focusing on Warrior's retrospective wrestling career, entitled The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior. The DVD featured clips of his more notable feuds and matches along with commentary from WWE stars past and present (some of which are largely unflattering), the DVD has provoked some controversy due to Warrior's own allegations of libel by WWE against him, and his wife. Originally, Warrior was asked to help with the production of the DVD, but as he refused to work with WWE (citing he did not want to be associated with their promotion).

After the release of the DVD, Warrior was asked to appear on Byte This!, WWE's weekly webcast program, ostensibly to air his side of the story. He refused the offer, instead opting to issue a paragraph-long controversial statement, responding back to the insults of host Todd Grisham by calling him a "queer", and frequent contributor Droz a "cripple." This led to Matt Striker subsequently appearing on Byte This! and performing an unflattering impression of Warrior, including numerous references to the abuse of steroids. Striker, Grisham, and Droz shared several jokes at Warrior's expense, and an edited version appeared on WWE.com days later - the edits chosen giving the segment a less vitriolic feel than what was originally broadcast.

Legal issues

In 1993, Jim Hellwig legally changed his name to Warrior in order to retain the legal rights to use the name outside of the WWF. The one-word name appears on all legal documents pertaining to Warrior. The ultimatewarrior.com domain is registered to "Mister Warrior".

Warrior and the WWF engaged in a series of lawsuits and legal actions in 1996 and 1997, culminating in a court ruling that Warrior was legally entitled to use the gimmick, costuming, face paint designs, and mannerisms of the "Warrior" character, though his facepaint was a similar facepaint that the Road Warriors used.^[1][2]

Forthcoming publications

In a recent audio interview with conservative speaker, Dan Flynn, Warrior revealed that he will be publishing two books in 2007. The first being a strictly ideological work on the core conservative values, and their function in a modern society. Although as yet officially untitled, Warrior hopes the work will be released as America: Get It or Get Out; but the release date of the book is unknown.

He also has plans to release a second book in the second half of the year, which will be part autobiography, part motivation guide. Warrior has stated that "...the book will detail my wrestling career...but it will be from an intelligent, inspiring angle." He further stated, "I'm not interested in detailing the seedy underbelly of an industry I have no desire to be associated with."

References

External links

• Home of Warrior - Official website
• Warrior Central - Warrior Endorsed Tribute Site
• Ultimate Warrior FAQ
• Obsessed With Wrestling - Ultimate Warrior Profile
• Warrior at IMDb
• Legal threats
• Ultimate Warrior Shoot Inteverview