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Wow. What can one say?
The passing of the Ultimate Warrior, literally hours after he returned home to Arizona following his first appearance for WWE since 1996 on Raw, is going to either be remembered as one of those tragic coincidences or a truly amazing final chapter in his life.
In a way, that's sort of fitting for the life and the career that Warrior led. There was no middle ground for him, no grey area. You were either on his side or you were against him - and it didn't matter if you were Vince McMahon, Hulk Hogan or an independent promoter....if Warrior didn't feel he was being treated fairly or was being represented fairly, you were going to suffer his wrath, publicly and privately.
That led to a lot of people seeing Warrior in one of two ways - the man who stood up for himself and would walk away from anything...or the man who was impossible to deal with. The reality is that he was both, sometimes at the same time, but he was also someone who was that way because he had a strong belief in himself, his family and his legacy - and that is something that has to be admired, especially today.
I spent about six hours with Warrior in a hotel room once in October 2004, filming a shoot interview that was later released by Ringside Collectibles. Off camera, he was warm and funny and friendly, even though he was very tired from his flight to NYC. His primary concerns were to call his family during every break.
Once the camera turned on, there was an intensity to him and on many points during the filming (and on a lot that was never seen - Warrior had final approval over the final cut, of course: he was Warrior) we argued about different points. He even at one point mocked me for asking him about different memories, which made his WWE Hall of Fame speech pretty amusing to me as he went on and on and on with what else? Memories.
At times, on camera, it felt like I was going to war with the man, but anytime the cameras were off, he was nothing but friendly and happy, especially when his long-time friend Jim Powers showed up. That visit was especially awesome, since the segment we had just filmed featured Warrior's statement that he didn't keep in contact with anyone from the business. Five minutes later, he's hugging Powers. Why? Warrior knew how he wanted to be presented on the DVD.
When the interview was over, Warrior asked for my information. When I left the hotel room, I could hear him very unhappy complaining about the line of questioning I used at times. I knew right then I'd never hear from him. I never did, but at a signing the next day, he greeted me warmly. That was just how he was. The experience led to one of the most unique interviews ever released on DVD: a dare anyone to find another where the interviewer and the subject are almost at odds the entire time. It remains in my personal "top ten" things I've done around wrestling just because of the surreal nature of the discussion.
I was often asked a lot over the years about what Warrior was really like and the filming of that DVD and it was certainly an interesting day. There were times when I would ask a question (he had demanded them in advance) and he had a great answer, but when I asked a follow-up, he would stare at me as if I had broken the rules before finally giving one. If you watched his WWE Hall of Fame speech, there were times when he seemed to lose his train of thought before coming back to his point - that was the same Warrior I met in 2004.
At the Hall, just like that day with me, he was focused and intense, and if you knocked him off that focus, he wasn't happy about it and needed a minute to refocus himself and his thoughts. The guy envisioned what he wanted in his head for himself and how he was to be portrayed and if he was off even a small point from what he wanted, there was going to be hell to pay. I can and do respect that.
For all the talk of the guy not being a great in-ring worker or hard to deal with, he was in the top echelon of all time great professional wrestling personalities. He went from being just another muscle-bound rookie in wrestling scene full of them to the man that handed the Hulkamania-era Hulk Hogan his first-ever clean pinfall loss in the WWF. He was undoubtedly part of the trilogy of the WWF's great three babyfaces of their first decade - Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage and Ultimate Warrior - that trio shaped the enjoyment, dreams and happiness of a lot of wrestling fans....and Warrior was the only guy to pin them both at Wrestlemania.
Anyone who denies that he was an icon or a legend or anything else in pro wrestling is completely insane - Warrior hit a level that very few ever have...and very few ever will...especially in the short amount of time Warrior accomplished the feat.
It absolutely sucks that he died when he did. The idea that this man left his home to come back and finally embrace his past - bringing his children to see what Daddy used to do - and never returned to his home again is pretty damn jarring and if anything, should be a reminder to us all that nothing is ever, ever promised to us.
It's also absolutely insane to think of the timing of his passing. If it had been 96 hours earlier, there would have been no WWE Hall of Fame speech that brought some around me to tears in New Orleans. Had it happened on Sunday, it would happened the same day as Wrestlemania. 48 hours sooner, it could have happened before, at or after Monday Night Raw.
In some ways, we were watching Warrior give his own eulogy. Again, you never know. Nothing is a given for any of us.
Wrestling fans who love Warrior owe a great deal of thanks to Triple H, who spearheaded the drive to bring Warrior back into the WWE family, much as he did Bruno Sammartino a year before. Had it not been HHH trying to put out old fires and give wrestling fans what they wanted, had it not been HHH wanting important figures in the history of the business back in the WWE fold, there never would have been that final moment of farewell, that moment for Warrior fans to enjoy and that crazy picture of Vince McMahon and Warrior smiling together.
Don't believe me? As any die-hard Randy Savage fan what they would have given for that sort of closure and happiness.
It would have been very interesting to see what could have come for Warrior and WWE in the years to come. His appearance on Raw was as much about closing the door on his career as the Hall was. He was never going to let himself be one of the older guys appearing in a silly Wrestlemania vignette. He was more likely going to be presented like Bruno Sammartino was - this legend that WWE is lucky to have had blazing the trail and lucky to have around today.
Well, for two days, WWE and its fans were extremely lucky to have Warrior back.
The story of Warrior is going to be one that is told for many, many decades to come. There were the early days in Memphis and Mid-South with Sting. There were the Dingo Warrior days with the Von Erichs, who Warrior loved deeply. There was the first WWF run that saw him go from an unknown working B-shows to winning the Intercontinental title in 30 seconds to main eventing Wrestlemania VI before 60,000 fans to "retiring" Randy Savage. There was the first break-up with WWF over money, which as court documents would later show, WWF was willing to give him before things went sour. There was a return a year later before the inevitable change in the landscape in the business as Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels began to be pushed while larger characters were let go for different reasons that all began with the Dr. Zahorian trial in the early 1990s. There was the 1996 return, during a time period where WWF really needed as many strong characters as possible as WCW breathed down their neck, but heads began knocking and Warrior quit and went home. There was the WCW run that was as awful as anything and really just an excuse for Hulk Hogan to get his old loss back - one that was so bad that Warrior admitted on the WWE DVD release that just came out that if he had known what the deal was, no amount of money would have brought him back.
There were lawsuits. There were rumors of multiple Warriors (false). There were rumors he died and was replaced (again, false, although eerily sad given the news of today).
In the end though, Warrior best summed up his career with his appearances this past weekend. His character was one that inspired and one that gave fans something to believe in. I don't think anyone could ask for a better legacy than that.
Always Believe.
Mike Johnson can be reached at MikeJohnsonPWInsider@gmail.com.
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