About eight years ago, World Wrestling Entertainment released “The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior”; a DVD that as you can tell from the title was far from flattering. As outspoken and let’s just say strange as the Warrior has been, for a multi-million dollar company to use their resources to bury a former talent was a questionable decision; even if there was some validity to the claims of those who spoke on the production.
At that moment, picturing the Ultimate Warrior in the WWE Hall of Fame was as impossible as picturing...well....Bruno Sammartino in the WWE Hall of Fame! We all know what happened last year where through the political savvy of Triple H, the man who held the WWE Championship longer than anyone else was inducted to the institution where he belonged. As that bridge was healed, another has apparently been resurrected as the man who was born James Hellwig (though his legal name is now Warrior) is coming back to the fold and has been announced as the first inductee to the 2014 Class of the WWE Hall of Fame.
At Wrestlemania VI in Toronto, Canada, the Warrior pinned Hulk Hogan in a great match to win the World Wrestling Federation Championship. He held that belt for nearly ten months before losing it to Sgt. Slaughter at the 1991 Royal Rumble. He would have the match of the night at Wrestlemania VII in a pinfall win over Randy “Macho Man” Savage, but over the next five years he would leave and return to the promotion twice; each time leaving with acrimony on both sides.
The Ultimate Warrior may not have been the most technically profound wrestler ever, but he was a huge draw and a major part of the history of the promotion. He was ranked at number 8 on our WWE list, and we are happy to cross him off.
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