Only a day after recording this promo, the man known as The Ultimate Warrior is dead at age 54.
Born Jim Hellwig, the masked wrestler eventually changed his name legally to Warrior. One of wrestling greatest icons from its 80s glory days, The Ultimate Warrior brought unmatched ferocity and craziness to his matches and promos. He was a comic book character brought to life.
After being on the outs for nearly 18 years with the WWE—at one point they even released an entire DVD devoted to showing how erratic he was in real life—Warrior had made a return just in the last few days, including a NEW three year contract to be a brand ambassador for the WWE. On Saturday, the 5th, he was iducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. On Sunday he appeared at Wrestlemania. On Monday he cut the above promo on Raw. And on Tuesday…he passed away.
Details weren’t known as I write this but suffice to say…wrestling is a very very difficult way to make a living.
The Ultimate Warrior at his WWE Hall of Fame Induction. (Photo: Jonathan Bachman, AP Images for WWE)
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So sad. Wrestlemania weekend was the first time most of us saw him as a real person. Not as some larger than life character or the butt of jokes. He was a man who loved his family and the business that was (let’s face it) unfair to him when he left. I feel awful for his family. RIP Warrior.
That promo he cut at RAW is one heck of a way to clock out of this world… And like a true-life superhero he really seemed to show his “real self” when he put on the mask.
“No (WWE talent) becomes a legend on their own. Every mans heart one day beats its final beat, his lungs breath their final breath, and if what that man did with his life makes the blood pulse into the body of others and makes them believe deeper, in something larger than life, then his essence, his spirit will be immortalized by the storytellers, by the loyalty, by the memory of those who honor him and make the running the man did live forever!”
It’s that promo that has a lot of people wondering if maybe he knew something ahead of time. It’s very “goodbye”ish.
Even though this happened yesterday, I didn’t know about it till I logged on an hour ago. I”m in absolute shock.