Wrestling / Ultimate Warrior

aka: Warrior

"THE FAMILY THAT I LIVE FOR ONLY BREATHES THE AIR THAT SMELLS OF COMBAT!!"

"No WWE talent becomes a legend on their own. Every man's heart one day beats its final beat. His lungs breathe their final breath. And if what that man did in his life makes the blood pulse through the body of others and makes them believe deeper in something larger than life, then his essence, his spirit, will be immortalized by the story tellers, by the loyalty, by the memory of those who honor him and make the running the man did live forever. YOU! — YOU! — YOU! — YOU! You are the legend makers of Ultimate Warrior."

— The Ultimate Warrior's final promo, WWE Raw, April 7, 2014

Warrior (born James Brian Hellwig; June 16, 1959 – April 8, 2014), best known by his WWF ring name The Ultimate Warrior, was one of the most famous names of Professional Wrestling from the late '80s and early '90s thanks to an uncanny and unprecedented meteoric rising to fame. Best-known for his appearances in WWE, where he had his most famous matches, first defeating The Honky Tonk Man for the WWE Inter Continental Heavyweight Championship at Summerslam '88 and then Hulk Hogan for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania VI. Back then he was seen as the next big legend of wrestling, the next Hogan, so to speak. His gimmick is bit hard to describe but, put simply, he's an incomprehensible new-age nut who acts as sort of spirit channel for various great warriors across history.

Unfortunately, he became infamous for being somewhat of a Cloudcuckoolander in Real Life, having legally changed his name from Jim Hellwig to Warrior in order to use it outside the WWE, his short-lived comic book containing bizarre imagery and Walls of Text, his disastrous run in WCW in the late '90s, again feuding with Hogan in what is now seen as one of the worst pay-per-view matches in the history of pro wrestling, and his nonsensical promos.

On January 13, 2014, he was finally announced as a WWE Hall of Fame inductee. Sadly, he passed away on April 8, 2014, a few days after being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, with his last appearance on Raw the day before his death.

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"LOAD THIS SPACESHIP WITH THE ROCKET FUELS... LOAD IT WITH THE TROPES AND GET READY TO EMBRACE DESTRUCITY, DUDE!!!"

• 10-Minute Retirement: The Ultimate Warrior came out of retirement to do a one time only match in 2008 for the independent Italian wrestling promotion Nu-Wrestling Evolution (NWE) against Orlando Jordan before he went on to TNA.
• '80s Hair: When he first appeared on WWF TV, he had a pure eighties Hair Metal mullet bigger than most wrestlers.
• '90s Anti-Hero: Hogan himself has described him as "a good guy character with a maniacal edge".
• Aborted Arc:
  • Warrior's suspension in 1991 forced a high-profile storyline between himself and Jake "The Snake" Roberts to be dropped.
  • For whatever the reason, WCW never booked Warrior and Sting in a match sans one single solitary time as tag partners. ^note To put things in perspective, both met back when they started as bodybuilders, then went to the business at the same time and with the same people (Rick Bassman, mainly), forming a relatively obscure Tag Team called "The Freedom Fighter"/"Blade Runners". Surprisingly enough (for Warrior, that is), even when they were apparently not on the best of terms, there didn't seem to be any bad blood between them both.
• Action Fashionista: He started sporting quite cool jackets once in a while every time he ran down the aisle. Starting in '96, Warrior encased himself in a different Badass Longcoat each time, airbrushed with his trademark style imagery and looks.
• Adam Westing:
  • Warrior's commercial for WWE 2K14 had him acting as an over-the-top parody of himself.
  • In his last promo on Raw, he seemed well-aware of how popular his skronk had become.
  • In Ultimate Warrior: The Ultimate Legend, he jokingly refers to his segments as "the interviews nobody could understand".
• Affectionate Nickname: He called his child fans "Little Warriors".
• All-American Face: Subverted. Probably the closest thing to an Audience-Alienating Era that Hellwig had. No fanfare, no change in personality: he just showed up to the '91 Royal Rumble wearing red, white, and blue tights, tassles, boots and facepaint. At the time, Warrior was being pushed as the next Main Eventer—substitute "Hulkamania runs wild" for "trembling and chanting to the wrestling gods◊"—so somebody upstairs gave him a makeover he didn't need.
• Alternate Company Equivalent:
  • A WCW wrestler, Rick Wilson A.K.A. "The Renegade", was this to the WWF's Warrior. The northern promotion sent a cease-and-desist letter to Atlanta because of this, they would eventually fire him once the real Warrior showed up there. Several months after he was fired, Rick committed suicide.
  • He got the receiving end precisely in WCW, for he was turned into a somehow "Mystic" character since his very role was already taken by the sort of a Spiritual Successor of his: Goldberg.
• Animal Motif: The Thunderbird, considered the "powergiver" amongst several Native American cultures. It was all over Warrior's imagery, not just in his war paint but as a Chest Insignia from time to time.
• Angrish: Seriously, listen to any of his interviews and try to wonder what the hell he's saying.
• Arch-Enemy: ...oh boy! Where do we start from?
  • In kayfabe, "Ravishing" Rick Rude, "Macho Man" Randy Savage and The Undertaker. Ironically, he got along fine with and professed respect for them three in later shoot interviews.
  • In Real Life:
    • Vince McMahon. According to a MLW interview, Hellwig actually admired Vince as a businessman, didn't blame him for what happened, and had no ill will towards him. The problem was (according to him, at least) that both stood in each other's way to make a profit out of the Warrior's character. Their hatred apparently had weakened enough for Warrior to take his rightful place in the WWE Hall of Fame.
    • Warrior also didn't appreciate what Ted DiBiase said about him in The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior and ripped into him. DiBiase has since expressed regret he couldn't make it to WrestleMania XXX and make peace with Warrior in person.
    • The Iron Sheik at one point too. It was later revealed, after Ultimate Warrior passed away, by Sheik himself in an Instagram video that it was all a work and he had nothing but love for him.
    • On his Dark Side of the Ring's episode, Eric Bischoff, Jim Ross and Jim Cornette expressed unanimously that he was the very worst and most under-developed wrestler they had to deal with in the business. Ross even mockingly said that Hellwig had it all to be a superstar except for in-mat chops or talent, and that to convey your ideas to him was a complete waste of time.
    • Bobby Heenan had absolutely no love for Warrior either. He was by far his most vicious critic in Self-Destruction. Given the fact that Warrior was reckless with Bobby in the ring, to the point where he clubbed Heenan in the back of the neck so hard he actually broke Bobby's neck (And reportedly never bothered to apologize.) You'll see Heenan take a shot at the man every now and then. Once, during an interview with WrestleCrap, RD Reynolds asked Heenan about Warrior. Heenan told Reynolds to bring the microphone with him and lead Reynolds into a bathroom. He asked Reynolds to say Warrior's name again and once he did Heenan flushed a toilet repeatedly he stated:
    "...and that's what I think of that man!"
    • Jake Roberts for costing him what could be his first and most important shot for the Heavyweight title, Stating even that he beared a deep, bitter grudge for Hellwig for years.
    • ...and (For whatever the reason) exactly at the top of his shit list there was a certain HOAK HOGAN!!!.
  • In short, during his career his only worst enemy... was himself.
• The Atoner: During his WWE Hall of Fame appearance, he sought out many of his peers that he had real life issues with in the past (e.g. Jake Roberts, Ted DiBiase, Kevin Nash, etc.) mending fences with them. Right after, and having what was by all accounts a very good time in New Orleans, Warrior goes on to give a great speech at the following night's Raw. Less than 24 hours later, he passes away from a sudden heart attack.
• Becoming the Mask: It's generally believed that at some point, Jim Hellwig lost his original self to the Ultimate Warrior persona, thus why he kept the eye mask as long as he could.
• The Berserker: During his matches, he would often enter a berserker rage and proceed to beat the ever-loving crap out of his opponent. Sometimes, he would even begin the match in a berserker rage; one match versus Macho Man lasted only a couple of minutes because the Warrior charged into the ring and proceeded to beat the crap out of Savage even before the bell rang. Within two minutes, Savage was so demoralized that he fled back to the locker room, causing the Warrior to win by countout.
• Bittersweet Ending: After decades as a punch line, Warrior would finally gain the respect he had sought by entering the WWE Hall of Fame... and less than a week later he was dead, dying young as he always expected he would. His speech to celebrate his induction became recognized as him delivering his own eulogy.
• Boisterous Bruiser: A loud blowhard with No Indoor Voice, except he almost never loses wrestling matches, all that screaming was just part of his appeal.
• Bullying a Dragon: On The Self-Destruction Of The Ultimate Warrior, Bobby Heenan tells an amusing antecdote about how, in his feud with André the Giant, he would run at Andre as fast as he could and slam him with a clothesline much harder than he needed to. Eventually Andre got sick of it and shot on the Warrior- holding up his fist and hitting Warrior right between the eyes as he ran in for the clothesline. After that, Warrior was apparently so dazed that he would barely touch Andre in their matches.
• The Cameo: Attacks the Amazon in Abobo's Big Adventure.
• Captain Ersatz:
  • Ultimate Warrior did not face any Japanese wrestlers but after WWF did some cross promotional shows with All Japan, New Japan and Germany's Super World Sports, Human Entertainment gave him one in Fire Pro Wrestling: Astro Blaster.
  • Abadede from the Streets of Rage saga is heavily based on him.
• Character Filibuster: The Warrior's trademark. He derailed his own WCW debut show for talking twenty four minutes longer than he was supposed to in his promo.
• Cloudcuckoolander: As his former wife Shari Tyree stated bursting in tears:
  "...it was all short-lived, because literally like two months after (Wrestlemania VI) Jim Hellwig left and Ultimate Warrior came home."
• Cluster F-Bomb:
  • Previews for "The Warrior Show", an attempted television show where he put metalcore bands (such as Asking Alexandria and I See Stars) through rigorous training, were edited in a way that showed him constantly swearing.
  • Inverted if you hear him say "Foke"... meaning being in a perpetual state of focus, and not... you know!
• Cultured Warrior: Sort of. He invented an entire philosophy out of whole cloth- Destrucity. It is both elegant in it's simplicity, and baffling in it's complexity.
• Deadpan Snarker: Though occasionally, the veil dropped.
  Warrior: HISTORY TELLS US, HOGAN....
  Crowd: Hogan sucks!
  Warrior: ...let's talk about something he doesn't know!
• Defeating the Undefeatable:
  • He was the one who ended The Honky Tonk Man's record 64-week reign as Intercontinental Champion.
  • He's one of the few wrestlers to hold a clean win over Hogan. At WrestleMania, no less.
  • Besides of this, that was his quest when he asked for Jake The Snake's help against The Deadman.
• Demoted to Extra: Many of his peers as Bret Hart have said they believe Vince had every intention to put the title back on Hogan by Wrestlemania VII one way or another. Warrior's big victory was more about Vince getting an advantage in his bidding war with The Hulkster by proving that he could get the latter to job^note It worked out way too fine 15 years later at WM XIX ....for Hogan!. The half-assed manner in which they booked Warrior afterward may lend credence to that.
• Divergent Character Evolution: Before they split, he and Sting were a pair of interchangeable big guys/pretty boys, who evolved into a Road Warriors ripoff. After they broke up, they eventually became two of the most distinct characters in wrestling, with very little in common except a penchant for facepaint.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: During his promo quoted above, Warrior kept motioning his arms as if he was doing pelvic thrusts at the camera. Between that and his talks of how he would "keep coming" and would "swell" really big it sounded, whether he wanted it to or not, like he's describing how he gets an erection.
  • "...feeling the injection from the gods above" stands as the worst ever.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": He legally changed his name to "Warrior".
• Drugs Are Bad: He never took a test while employed by the WWE, but he's been accused of using steroids throughout his career. He almost certainly did, especially since Sting confessed to using them until 1990 and the two broke into the business together.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: The notorious WWE compilation, The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior, who chafed at Warrior retaining the trademark to his stage name (among other things). It's basically a 90-minute hatchet job, interspersed with glowing praise for Vince and for his patient benevolence throughout the Hellwig affair.
  • He finally got the respect that deserved when he was the first inductee into the 2014 class of the WWE Hall of Fame.
  • WWE has also stopped selling Self-Destruction on their shop and replaced it with Ultimate Warrior: The Ultimate Collection, which is a compilation featuring Warrior in a much more positive light.
• Dumbass Has a Point: Shortly after Randy Savage's departing, Hogan gave an interview about him, their rocky friendship and the details of the marriage to Miss Elizabeth, including how paranoid and protective Randy was of her. Warrior responded with a vlog that, predictably, rambled through the point, pointing out that Hogan airing the sordid details of his friend's failed marriage was certainly a dick move, especially on the heels of the man's untimely demise.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: His surprisingly intelligible promo the night before his death, essentially having this message: "I wouldn't have been this star if it wasn't for the fans. Even after death my fire will live on within you." In essence and maybe unbeknownst even to him, Warrior gave his Final Speech that fans will always remember, because he was performing his own eulogy.
• Expy: His Tag Team with Sting, "The Freedom Fighters/Blade Runners" were very much modeled on LOD.
• Face: He was never a Heel in the WWF. Reportedly, they planned on turning him heel in the summer of 1992 but Warrior vetoed it.
• Facial Markings: His trademark facepainted mask symbol. It originally was on Warrior's right cheek, then the symbol was painted as a mask shape around his eyes, which then stuck with his persona.
• Faking the Dead: According to one interview with Paul Bearer, in preparation for one such memorable Funeral Parlor segment, Paul and The Undertaker and the others had to remove the airtight rubber seal from the lid of the casket they had bought and decorated and drill holes in said lid to allow breathable space inside, so in that manner Warrior would not suffocate when they locked him in the casket. Which explains that once inside, Warrior would tear up the coffin for show before closing his eyes and calmly relaxing in order to create the apparition of a Disney Death when the casket was unlocked and opened. Warrior must have been very good in convincing his rescuers and everyone involved that he was Only Mostly Dead, giving them quite a scare (before the administration of CPR, of course).
• Family Man: It's been stated that once the man known as Warrior winded up a fatherly figure himself, he came to terms with most of his insecurities, thus quenching the demons that tormented him during his life for good.
• Finishing Move: Much like Hogan's Atomic Leg Drop, Warrior adapted a fairly basic maneuver, the Boring, but Practical Jumping Splash to a grounded opponent off a rope run as his . Needless to say, he did carry that championship so one must say it worked. The fact that the splash was often (But not always) preceded by a Gorilla Press Drop probably helped, too.
• Five Moves of Doom: A punch/kick, two rebounding clotheslines, jumping shoulder block/gorilla press slam, and the running splash.
  • After his return in '92, he sub the gorilla press for the jumping shoulder block completely for some reason.
• Foil: To Hulk Hogan- an intense and charismatic power wrestler with a very limited technical skill but huge crowd support. They even had similar move-sets by then, and Warrior's look was in many ways an exaggeration of Hogan's long hair, tanned skin and body-builder physique.
• Forgiveness: The Warrior achieved maybe the most difficult feat in his life-time during his inception to the WWE HOF.
• The Grinch: Something must have really traumatized him on Christmas as a kid for him to create something as horrifying as THIS! WARNING: Not for the faint of heart.
• Heel–Face Turn: In Dallas as "Dingo Warrior" and he never looked back, working obsessively as a Face for the rest of his career.
  • His homophobic ramblings may potentially be considered a heel turn though.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Jim Hellwig was a trained and licensed chiropractor, able to heal spinal columns as easily as he turned them to powder.
  • He had an outside career as a conservative lecturer. Yes, really. Hence, you can call him "Professor Warrior".
  • At his Ringside Collectibles shoot interview, everybody who first looks for it expected to see an incoherent, demented person rambling about WWE, McMahon, and Hogan. They're surprised at a guy that actually speaks clearly and coherently, bringing up many interesting facts like his early friendship with Sting and his very early matches with one of wrestling's most tragic dynasties, having some, if not many, fond memories about his career.
• Honor Before Reason: A very sad case of Truth in Television:
  Shari Tyree: Jim's greatest downfall of all time was his inability to see things from somebody else's perspective. He just always thought that his way was the right way.
• Hot-Blooded: Very!!!
  Warrior: (shaking his head rapidly) AWWWWWWWWWWWWWW YOU CAN FEEL IT, DUDES!
• Iconic Item: For one, there's his arm tassels, which in the comic book series is described as "belief banners" ...and fringes... TASSELS AND FRINGES EVERYWHERE!
• Insistent Terminology: JIM HELLWIG, his own name, on his DSOTR episode. As if all of them were keen on trying to remember him for who he really was.
• Invincible Hero: The Warrior's career in the WWF was this personified. At first, Warrior was everything Vince loved in a wrestler at the time (insanely ripped, unique promo style, lots and lots of energy) and was built up as the next generation's Hogan. Warrior rarely ever lost and when he did, it was pretty much never cleanly. He ended the IC championship reign of The Honky Tonk Man (the title's longest ever), beat the likes of André and Hogan, capping it off by completely no-selling Triple H´s finisher. Chances are this treatment helped turn him into the person everyone knows after.
• I Have Many Names: Jim "Justice" Hellwig, Blade Runner Rock, Dingo Warrior, the Ultimate Warrior, the Warrior.
• Irony: After being dumped by WCW, Warrior didn't have another match until 2008. The match was with the Italy-based Nu-Wrestling Evolution against Jordan, giving us a fight between "Mr. Queering doesn't make the world work", and the man who would a few short years later be sexually assaulting his way through both genders in TNA.
• Large Ham: IN SPADES!!!
  Stuart Millard: His 100% commitment to the character is what made a snarling, facepainted maniac with neon tassels on his biceps spitting black metal poetry monologues and shaking the ropes completely believable.
• Legacy Character: Downplayed. He would often try to claim that he and his opponent du jour (usually Hogan), were the latest in a long line of champions/heroes/spiritual avatars/whatever representing two sides in an ancient conflict. Needless to say, they weren't.
• Lightning Bruiser: Mostly out of necessity; because of his habit of running full-tilt into the ring during his entrance, he would be too out-of-breath to have a protracted match. Incidentally, his average match was over in barely 6 minutes, you'll notice that even the most bloodthirsty "berserker" characters nowadays make a habit of walking down to the ring.
• Lost in Character: He was notorious for coming up with some extremely bizarre promos during his run as a wrestler where he would talk about powers he could tap into and strength he could summon. However, there was a twinge of this that could also be glimpsed particularly in his post-wrestling career exploits.
• Magical Native American: Although at times he sounded more like a Miles Gloriosus with a Knight Templar's edge, that's possibly the best way we have to describe his gimmick. Furthermore, it's in his name, right?
• Meaningless Meaningful Words: It's a mystery why no one has yet published a coffee table book entitled The Wit and Wisdom of the Ultimate Warrior.
  DDT: Randy Savage is in trouble. When he gets on the mic, I actually find myself thinking things like "I really wish WCW would hire the Warrior back so we could get some interviews that make an ounce of sense on occasion."
  • Chris Jericho once described his reaction to Warrior's promos as this:
  "I don't really know what he just said, but I think it sounded cool, so yay!"
  • Similarly, in 1999, Warrior posted a statement on his website about him supposedly joining ECW.
  Paul Heyman: "I don't know what to say, because after reading what he wrote, I don't know what he said!"
• Mirror Monster: WCW tried to give him these powers. Unfortunately, their specials effects department weren't up to the task. TNA would later duplicate the trick to less critical derision with Winter.
• Muscle Angst: Tier 1, most likely one of the many reasons Warrior ended up as he did. According to the episodes related to him on A&E Bio and DSOTR, he used to be a scrawny, insecure little kid who by the time he reached high-school, weighted barely 140 lbs.
• Muscles Are Meaningful: He was a bodybuilder before he got into wrestling, Hellwig and Borden (Sting) had previous history together working in Gold's Gym and then forming a Tag Team, thus entering to the business. And while working singles in WCCW as "The Dingo Warrior", he got a Bear Hug on ABDULLAH THE BUTCHER!!!
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Would you want to face a man simply dubbed "The Ultimate Warrior" in combat?
• Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Warrior was a divisive figure in life to say the least, but after his untimely demise, there has been a noticeable softening of opinion around him, including on This Very Wiki. For example, Triple H spent much of "Self- Destruction" DVD blaming his squash at the Warrior's hands at Wrestlemania on the latter's backstage politicking, but backtracked and later considered it an honor to work with him.
  • The fact that he spent much of his hall of fame weekend making a conscious effort to mend some bridges and make peace with a lot of people he was at odds with^note INCLUDING HOGAN!!! no doubt has a lot to do with this. Ted DiBiase, one of Warrior's biggest critics on the Self Destruction DVD, utterly laments the fact that he never got the chance to speak with Warrior that weekend.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Beyond being a big guy who beat people up in a berserker rage, it's difficult to pin down exactly what the Warrior character was supposed to be, especially since it was almost impossible to understand his promos; at various times he seemed to claim to be an alien, an ancient mystical warrior or some kind of superhero. Or perhaps it was intentionally a mix of all three, something akin to a really coked out version of Marvel Comics' "The Mighty Thor".
• No-Sell: Much like Hogan, Warrior made a career out of no selling even the most powerful moves used against him. One of them was IMMEDIATELY STANDING UP AFTER BEING PEDIGREE'D by HHH at Wrestlemania XII! This feat alone was a testament to his Invincible Hero status.
• Only One Name: James Hellwig legally changed his real name to "Warrior" in 1993.
• Parental Abandonment: As stated in DSOTR and A&E Bio, his dad left home when he was around twelve, since the man was cheating on his wife with one of the neighbors and that caused Warrior several issues during his life.
• Parts Unknown: He's billed from there.
• Perfectly Cromulent Word: Destrucity, Foke, Jet-Jack.
• Portmanteau: Destrucity is the truce between destiny and reality; in other words, staying true to what you are right now while striving for your ultimate destiny.
• Power Stable:
  • (as "Blade Runner Rock" in Mid-South): The First Family.
  • (as "Dingo Warrior" in WCCW): Gary Hart's Army.
  • (In WWF):
    • Survivor Series '88: with Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake, The Blue Blazer, "Jumping" Jim Brunzell and Sam Houston.
    • Survivor Series '89: "The Ultimate Warriors" with Jim Neidhart and The Rockers.
    • Survivor Series '90: "The Warriors" with The Texas Tornado and The Legion of Doom.
  • (In WCW): He attempted to start the "One Warrior Nation" (OwN) , but only managed to recruit "The Disciple" before leaving the company.
• Precision F-Strike: During his WWF comeback in 1996, he responded to a particularly innuendo-laced approach from Goldust with this interesting quote (keeping in mind, of course, that this was pre-Austin 3:16):
  Warrior: Whatever you're trying to pull from the minds of those you screw with, and whatever those choose to do with what you dish out, let me make it perfectly clear: what is, is. And whatever you're into, I don't give a shit!!!
• Public Service Announcement: He did a hilariously over-the-top anti-smoking PSA, where he began chewing on a pack of cigarettes.
  • Made Hilarious in Hindsight when he (briefly) returned in 1996 and smoked a cigar during a match to mock Goldust.
• Purple Prose: Much of what made his promos unique was his tendency to add odd and complicated metaphors and/or ridiculous hyperbole to get across his point. He couldn't just tell you he was going to beat Hulk Hogan, he had to let you know he was going to invade Hogan's plane in mid-flight to Wrestlemania and throw the controls into a nosedive. While it made him unique in the context of the other wrestlers, it's so overblown and complicated in comparison that nobody really grasps what he's saying. As a result, his promos are seen most often as hilariously stupid.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Often seen wearing bright, gaudy colors and bizarre design patterns.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: His big promo on Hogan on the August 17, 1998 WCW Monday Nitro qualifies. More specifically, he was telling Hogan how, when he came to WCW, thought he'd be able to reach the same WWF's levels of popularity, but when he found out he was wrong, Hulkamania "became boring" to him, leading him to a Face–Heel Turn, thus launching the nWo.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red to Sting's Blue.
• Running Gag: In re The Other Darrin on the Trivia page: This created an early one on the Usenet newsgroup rec.sport.pro-wrestling that said, "he died and was replaced by Steve DiSalvo". The gag took on a life of its own and when some new poster would ask, "Who is <Wrestler X>?", some joker would answer, "Steve DiSalvo."
• Ryu and Ken: He had this relationship with Hulk Hogan, at least for the first 2 and a half years or so.
• Sanity Slippage: From the fairly calm "Dingo Warrior" to... this!. At this point, he's presumably lost his original personality to Warrior for real!
• Screaming Warrior: Especially during his rope shaking sequence.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Warrior claimed in his WWE Hall of Fame speech that the company asked him not to mention or reference The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior. In classic Warrior fashion, after barely avoiding the subject one or two times, he gave up and mentioned it anyway, albeit never by name.
• Self-Deprecation: The Ultimate Warrior: The Ultimate Legend special makes it quite clear that Warrior was well aware of the fact no one could understand his promos and laughs about it.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: This combined with his unusual pronunciations made him hard to understand, but fans seemed to buy into his promos anyway, just because he was so enthusiastic about whatever he said. Part of this was also from the fact Warrior would sometimes make up words.
• Shout-Out: "I was sent in a capsule from a place long from here", is a either a reference to Superman, or another bit of rambling nonsense, or somehow, both.
• Signature Move: A rebounding clothesline known as the Dingo Bomber (similar to Hogan's running lariat, the Axe Bomber), Oklahoma Slam, or a series of rope-assisted Toe Kicks to a cornered opponent.
• Simple, yet Awesome: His wrestling style in a nutshell. Warrior had a very limited moveset, fairly slow workrate and generaly couldn't wrestle for more than a few minutes at a time. However, his intensity and charisma meant everything he did popped the crowd llike crazy.
• Smoke Out: 12 October 98 Nitro. The nWo (Black & White) attack the Warrior during a tag team match between Sting/Warrior and Hogan/Hart. During the attack, smoke starts to fill the ring, and they end up hurling Warrior onto the apron. It looks like either Warrior was too gassed to make the vanish exit work, or they blew the timing, because you can clearly see Hogan 'call' the move from outside of the ring. So, in spite of all of the Warrior’s supernatural powers—including but not limited to summoning magic smoke— simply tossing him outside the ring renders his abilities useless.
  Tony Shiavone: "....oh, th-they threw him out of the ring to keep him from disappearing, Mike!"
  • It comes to mind that ECW achieved Offscreen Teleportation with a severely limited budget by simply switching the lights off!!! ...really, WCW???
• Smug Super: He would occasionally refer to non-wrestlers as "normals", expressing contempt for their weakness compared to him and his opponents.
• Squash Match: What most of his matches were, but Warrior’s defeat of The Honky Tonk Man to win his first Intercontinental Championship is particularly noteworthy. Honky was supposed to fight Brutus Beefcake for the title, but since Bruti was attacked and injured the week before, Honky made an open call to anyone to fight him for the championship. Out comes the Warrior! After a few punches, body slam, and a flying tackle, the Warrior did his splash on Honky and got the pinfall.
• Tag Team: He and Sting started in Memphis together as "The Freedom Fighters" ("Justice" (Warrior) and "Flash" (Sting)) before moving on to first make their name in "Cowboy" Bill Watts' Mid-South Wrestling (Louisiana/Oklahoma)/Universal Wrestling Federation as "The Blade Runners" ("Rock" (Warrior) and Sting As Himself).
  • The one where he fought alongside The Hulkster in '92.
  • The Ultimate Maniacs, with Randy Savage.
• Talkative Loon: The Ultimate Warrior's wrestling promos often took the form of long, rambling diatribes addressed at Hulk Hogan that often made little sense. It's unclear how much James Brian Hellwig himself actually understood what he was saying.
• Take That!: He was the subject of the Ultimate Hatchet job on pro wrestling's history, "The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior", released in 2005.
• Takes Ten to Hold: When you got Warrior angry, you really don't want to be in his way, and not even a small army would be able to fight him off. This was the case at New York's Madison Square Garden in January 1991, shortly after he lost the WWF World Heavyweight Championship to Sgt. Slaughter. During a steel cage match against Randy Savage, Sherri Martel constantly interfered, ultimately helping Savage to win the match. Afterward, Warrior went completely berserk, chasing Sherri into the cage and attempting to pummel her into submission. Literally a dozen people came to the ring, but he fought them off as he continued to get at Sherri; at one point all of them attempted to restrain Warrior by the arms, but he successfully muscled them all off (simply by moving his arms) before going after Sherri again. In the end, Warrior completed his objective by press-slamming Sherri into submission.
• Terms of Endangerment:
  • You know things really went south if he started to call you "Jet-jack".
  • Watch any of his promos and tell us sincerely if he didn't sound like he was threatening you instead of... well, inviting you to one of his matches.
• Trash the Set: Of The Brother Love Show on the March 2 (taped January 28), 1991 WWF Superstars, as this was Bruce Prichard's last appearance in the gimmick until the November 25 (taped November 20), 1995 episode.^note Two weeks earlier, Brother Love had introduced Paul Bearer as the Undertaker's new manager.
  • For whatever the reason, he did just the same when he was guest on The Arsenio Hall's Show.
• Ungrateful Bastard: The opinion of MANY of his coworkers who did not have the same attitudes towards money that he did. Bobby Heenan for never being apologized to for being injured by him. Also many other wrestlers who were squashed by or had to carry him through matches felt he was ungrateful with them for making him look THAT good.
  Jim Ross: For Hogan to do what Hogan did for The Ultimate Warrior... is a miracle. He carried The Warrior to immortality in Wrestlemania VI, and he did it live what it makes it more astonishing!
  Jake Roberts: ...so I went to his private dressing room, knocked on the door a couple of times —- ...he got right in my face and said `Listen... I don't care anything about your family, I don't care anything about you...I don't care ANYTHING ABOUT WRESTLING! I just wanna do my shit... here's the deal: you better don't miss a show 'cause if you miss a show you're messing with MY MONEY! ...and if you mess with my money I'm gonna get'cha... end of the story, GET OUT!´ I walked out and I was in shock, for this jackass commming at me like that, just like pissing in my mouth!
• The Unintelligible: It is often difficult to make out exactly what he's saying, and if you actually do manage to work out what words he's saying, there's still a pretty good chance that it won't make sense.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: It seemed that Warrior had a set of bracelets, tassels, trunks, knee pads and boots for every occasion, almost never repeating a single attire.
• Unskilled, but Strong: On a good day, Warrior could pull off maybe four different holds. However he had the strength and the looks for the role, so he didn't need any more.
• Verbal Tic: As mentioned above, his... bombastic delivery of his promos led to him slurring and over-enunciating certain words, which in turn led to his Fountain of Memes status. There's also his distinctive grunt/snort, which his comic book rendered as *SKRONK*.
  Warrior: HOAK HOGAN!
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Briefly in 1992 with The Undertaker. Before a tag match against Papa Shango and the Berzerker at the Civic Complex in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada on June 3, 1992, they could be seen trash talking each other, most likely in reference to their feud a year earlier.
• Voice Clip Song: In 2016, Hardcore Techno DJ AniMe took some clips from Ultimate Warrior promos and put them into her song "Fear The Dogfight." Warrior fits the hardcore techno aesthetic like a glove.
• War Is Glorious: An integral part of his gimmick. Nevertheless, he was beaten by a long shot on this by the man who stripped him from the World Heavyweight title.
• Word Salad Philosophy: Destrucity.
  • The short-lived Warrior comic book was essentially a long promotional tract for his philosophical ideas. You can read an amusing summary of it here.
• Worthy Opponent: Scoff if you will, but there was a serious attempt in the run-up to WrestleMania VI to build Warrior up as Hulk Hogan's equal and rightful heir.
• Wrestling Monster: A rare Face example.
• Writing Around Trademarks: Billed as "The Warrior" in WCW.
• You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!: Already depicted as highly volatile, when Warrior was angry, he went on a rampage. In addition to the infamous 1991 steel cage match against Randy Savage mentioned elsewhere, on a fall 1990 episode of WWF Superstars Of Wrestling, Brother Love and Sensational Sherri got Warrior riled up, with Warrior going on a backstage rampage, beating up jobbers (including four who just stood there in a line and took their beating, without trying to run or at least defend each other), running after WWF officials, smashing a mid-carder's head into the wall, destroying furniture and then going after a cameraman (and presumably, "you," the viewer at home (during the point where he grabbed the camera) before the scene faded to black as "you" passed out and the Warrior (presumably) continued his rampage.
• Your Days Are Numbered: Jim Hellwig learned at a young age, when his grandfather passed away, that men in the Hellwig family rarely lived to their 60s. He eventually found out that his own father had died in his mid-50s. Ultimately, he himself would pass away at 55, just as he had expected.

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"YOU HAVE JUST WITNESSED THE POWER THAT MAKES THE SKIES CRUMBLE AND THE EARTH SHAKE... THE POWER OF THE WARRIOR... <SKROOOONNNK>!!!"

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