Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
Jerry says the Ultimate Warrior took his rightful place in the Hall of Fame. Because of his spirit, the Warrior Award will be given to someone who exhibits the spirit of the Ultimate Warrior.
CONNOR MICHALEK
Last year the Ultimate Warrior returned to the WWE to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
This year the Warrior Award was created. It recognizes a true hero who lives life in the spirit of the Ultimate Warrior.
The first recipient is Connor Michalek.
Daniel talks about how you had to fall in love with him if you were around him. Stephanie says the same thing. Stephanie mentions that she found out he did not have long to live after meeting him.
They show information about Connor’s Cure and they mention that more than $200,000 has been raised and more than 50 families have been helped.
Connor lived life with passion and he is the first winner of the Warrior Award.
Jerry says Warrior loved nothing more than his wife and children and they are here to witness this honor being bestowed.
Dana Warrior comes out with the Warrior Award.
She asks if it is too late to say she had other plans. She says it is an honor to stand before you tonight, a terrifying honor, but an honor nonetheless. A year ago, she sat in the crowd and saw her husband deliver an epic speech. She says she may have cried the entire way through it, but that was what it evoked from her. She believed in all her husband stood for. She believed in the character he played and the depth of his personal character. She was honored to be his partner, his biggest cheerleader, and a place for him to fall. She was proud to be called his wife.
Losing him was an unspeakable blow. It felt like someone physically removed a part of her body. You don’t hear about the physical pain when you lose someone. It was like losing the ai in her lungs and the beat of her heart. That sadness could swallow someone whole if you did not spend 20 years with a man who embodied the spirit of the Warrior and he gave some of that for her.
She says she has wanted him back, but she knew she had something to do. She had to embody the way of a Warrior woman and that is what she did. A wallflower cannot be married to a warrior. Even though she is a quieter warrior, she is a warrior nonetheless. She was aided by many people and you have her heartfelt gratitude.
She thanks her daughter. You have been her reason to get up every day and fight like mad to make them proud. She has never known a more fierce love than the love they share. She asks for their apology for any mistakes she made. She says the most awesome thing she will ever do is be their mom.
She thanks the people in Santa Fe. She thanks the people who were there for her after Warrior’s death. She thanks the legion of Warriors who held them up and carried them forward. She thanks the WWE Universe for standing by them. She thanks the WWE Divas, Superstars, Corporate Office, and Production staff. She says they made her girls smile when she did not think they could smile. She thanks everyone for supporting them.
She thanks the WWE for easing the burden. She thanks Stephanie and Paul. You might be really bad guys, but you are really great friends. She thanks Auntie Deb who called her every day to make sure she was okay. She thanks Uncle Bob for helping her get organized. She thanks Steve Wilton for being there as her husband’s best friend and trusted ally.
It is impossible to move on, but we can move forward.
She has told the girls that you get up, show up, and act like Warriors. She says this is a step forward and this award is a quantum leap. She says that she looks at photos of Connor and she is awash with love and awe. His vibrancy and the way he tackled life is a testament of the Warrior spirit. It is not the size of the body or the length you live. It is the way you live and the legacy you leave behind. Even though they have taken their final breaths and moved on, their legacies live on.
Connor was a little Warrior whose heart left this world a better place. What if his quest was to cure cancer. What if we took bold steps to make this happen. She challenges everyone to make a donation to Connor’s Cure in the memory of the Ultimate Warrior. What greater gift can we give than to eradicate something so horrible that took Connor too soon. If you do this for Connor and raise a million dollars in a month, she will run the ring, shake the ropes, and even body slam a person. She has an opponent in mind . . . BROTHER.
She says she is kidding and she has nothing but love for Hulk Hogan.
Dana introduces a man who has shown the Warrior spirit with his “YES’. She says her husband thought he was a perfect example of an underdog persevering and getting to the top. Not because it happened and he made it look easy. You climb to the top, but you hug children, sign autographs, share the title belt and share your victories on the way up.
You can always tell a phony from the genuine article and he is the genuine article. She is honored to have Daniel Bryan do the induction because of his Warrior Spirit.
Daniel says that he is trying to control the crying right now.
He sincerely and truly appreciates the people chanting for him, but everything he does is fiction. It is not real. If he has inspired you, that is great. When you talk about inspiration, you are talking about something very real. Someone who inspired him was Connor.
When he first saw Connor it was on a YouTube video he made requesting to meet Daniel. That video went viral and everyone knew about it. Daniel says that even he knew about it and he is not on social media. The arrangement was made to meet him and the moment he met Connor, he stole his heart.
It is not because he was cute or charismatic. There was more there. Daniel says that he has struggled to come up with what it was because everyone knew about his kindness and compassion. He was so quick witted. What spoke to him from the start was his strength. When you got to meet and know Connor, he was truly amazing.
He was diagnosed at three with brain cancer. He spent most of his life in and out of hospitals getting chemotherapy. Daniel says that despite that terrible process, you would see the scar, but he was full of life and confidence when you met him.
Daniel was at the point where he was doing the ‘NO’ thing and Connor says he doesn’t like it when people say ‘YES’. Daniel asked him why and Connor said that it was because he didn’t want people to say it. Daniel asked him if he could put him in the No Lock and Connor said he would put everyone in it.
Daniel says that when Hunter had him hit him, Connor said he couldn’t do it , but not because he was eight, but because Connor said he would hurt Hunter. Daniel says that if you asked Hunter, he would say that eight year old really packed a punch.
Daniel says that Connor was known as “Connor the Crusher†and he says that he wishes he could see Connor through his eyes at the end of Wrestlemania. Daniel says he was in front of 70,000 people with confetti pouring down and there was Connor sitting through that show and no matter how tired he was, he was throwing his arms up while in his dad’s arms.
Daniel says that when he saw that, he had a sense of what was truly important. It was not what he was doing, it was the love between a father and a son. Daniel says that you could see the life in Connor’s eyes. You could see the life in his dad’s eyes so appreciative to hold his son. Connor is so appropriate for this award. Warrior talked about it is important what you leave behind.
Daniel mentions Connor’s Cure and the money it has raised to try to make sure that future children don’t go through what he had to go through.
Daniel says it is his pleasure to present this award to Connor’s father, who supported his son through all of this. Connor’s father is an inspiration for what a father can do for a son. He brings out Steve Michalek.
Steve thanks Connor because without him here in spirit, he would not be able to talk to all of you. He thanks Dana and says her bravery to raise her daughters after their loss and an inspiration. He learned that other children are important and your grief is second. Unless you have been put in that position, you may not know the pain.
He thanks Daniel for the kind words about a boy who saw Daniel as his hero. Connor’s love and passion for the WWE began with you. He says Connor would love the fact that it was you who inducted him into the Hall of Fame.
Steve says the Ultimate Warrior was his favorite when he was Connor’s age. Warrior owned the crowd. Even though they are physically different, Daniel and Warrior had the same passion. It is fitting that Daniel is giving the Warrior Award to a Warrior like Connor.
He thanks Stephanie and Triple H because of their love for Connor and all children, they started Connor’s Cure. He is proud that the foundation is already so successful and is producing results so fast.
He thanks the WWE Universe for their support and he says that it will ensure that Connor’s Cure will make a difference in dealing with Pediatric Brain Cancer. The people who are dealing with this disease are also grateful.
Even though he knows Connor is here with them in spirit, it should be him who should be earning this award. He would own the room and he was always ready to put on a show. It was natural to him. He says no moment was too big and Connor was never starstruck. It takes someone to be so brutally honest and endearing at the same time.
We have all seen the videos, whether it was the first time he met Daniel Bryan and he had Daniel tapping out to his own move. He told Daniel and Kane that him and his brother were the real tag team champions. When he was in the ring, surrounded by all of the superstars and divas, he even remembered to hook the leg when pinning the King of Kings.
Connor got to have his Wrestlemania moment by sharing a hug with Daniel Bryan last year at Wrestlemania while confetti fell all around them. Though Connor may not be physically here with us due to cancer, he never let it beat him. At times, it might have given him an F-5 or RKO, it was people like Daniel Bryan or Justin Roberts who helped him up.
The doctors told them Connor would never make it to Wrestlemania, but it never stopped him from making the Show of Shows and he earned his spot as part of Wrestlemania history. Connor will always be his best friend and hero. He hopes that by living life on his own terms and having his heart and soul so filled with hope, Connor will be an inspiration for people fighting this disease.
He is honored and proud that Connor has made an impact on so many lives. It seemed like everywhere they went, people knew him. He told Connor that he is turning into a huge celebrity and Connor looked at him and he says that he would be famous one day. Thanks to the Warrior Award, the Hall of Fame and his crusade, he has become famous. Thanks to all of you, his legacy will live forever. Steve introduces his true legacy, his younger brother Jackson.
Jackson says that he loves Connor.
If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!
Bang On Casino
