Death Of The Ultimate Warrior

When I was a kid I was an Ultimate Warrior fan. On one side you had the kids that loved Hulk Hogan and everything he stood for. Saying your prayers, taking your vitamins, yadda yadda yadda. And one my side of the fence we were cheering for the guy that had muscles on muscles, ran to the ring, shook the ropes, and beat guys in less than a minute. Warrior epitomized what a wrestler looked like in the 80's to me. To me there was no Jim Hellwig. This guy didn't wash off his face paint and go home to a family. When Warrior was done with a match he went to some rooftop and screamed at the sky until it was time to wrestle again.

One of my fondest memories as a child was Warrior making a surprise appearance during a pay per view and my brother losing his shit and gorilla pressing me into the air and coming down on these cheap dinner trays we had. It was the ghetto version of being put through a table. It was hard to not look at him and stop whatever it was you were doing. He wasn't known as being the most technical wrestler or the face of the company. But he was the best, if that makes any sense. I knew that if he got in the ring with someone chances are they were gonna get their asses handed to them pretty fast.

Warrior had his issues with many people over the years and views that others didn't agree with but I didn't care. I just wanted to see him beat people up fast. When he retired I didn't shout for him to come back. He was a human version of a tornado. He came, wrecked shit, and left. That is until he appeared in a commercial for a new WWE video game. I was like “Damn. This guy is still in better shape than I have ever been and he's past 50.”

As a wrestling fan you get used to hearing about wrestlers dying. I won't say die young. After having a brother die from a heart attack at the age of 32 hearing people say things like that take on a while different meaning. Warrior died old for a wrestler as sad as that may sound. There are certain wrestlers that die that make me go “Wow. Fuck.” This is one of them. As my friend Hazel said “There was a little part of me that thought he would live forever, through sheer force of will. RIP.” If you ever watched The Ultimate Warrior in the ring or one of his promos that statement makes perfect sense.

His last speech less than 24 hours before his passing.

“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, you are the legend makers of Ultimate Warrior. In the back I see many potential legends. Some of them with warrior spirits. And you will do the same for them. You will decide if they lived with the passion and intensity. So much so that you will tell your stories and you will make them legends, as well. I am Ultimate Warrior. You are the Ultimate Warrior fans. And the spirit of the Ultimate Warrior will run forever!”

Passing Of Paul Bearer

The wrestling world and millions of fans lost a legend. William Alvin Moody better known as Paul Bearer passed away and that sucks.I know that may not sound like the best way to describe his passing but its how I honestly feel. I grew up knowing him as Percy Pringle so when he showed up in WWF I was weirded out seeing him without blond hair. Before he managed Undertaker he wrestled himself. In one of my first articles for Tha O Show I mentioned how much managers were needed in the business and Bearer was one of the reasons I believed this.

Can you imagine Taker without him at his side? We would not be wondering if Taker would be wrestling this year at Wrestlemania were it not for Bearer getting that crazy ass character over. Yes, the WWF was strange at the time but the idea of a “dead man”wrestling? Please. Paul Bearer with his creepy ass voice and segments made what could have been a trivia question into one of the greatest wrestlers of all time.

Without Bearer there is no Taker. Its that simple. Taker didn't used to say shit back in the day! “Rest...in...peace.” That's it! Bearer did all the talking and there are millions of adults who were children creeped right the hell out by him.

This was a guy that was so damned good at his job that when he was buried alive in wet cement and returned no one asked “Uh, wasn't he...?” Doesn't matter. It's Paul Bearer. If you tell me that he can survive that I'll believe you because he was that damned good at his job. He made you believe that by raising an urn brought to ringside he could power up his wrestler that had gotten his ass beat. No one else can do that.

Years later he introduced Kane and brought an even more twisted element to his character. Yeah, managers had character but he was a character. Throughout his career he managed Mankind, Lex Luger, Rick Rude, and even Blackjack Mulligan. A lot of managers stay the same throughout their careers. Check out some old footage of Percy Pringle here if you feel like blowing your mind. If you've never seen him he's the opposite of the Paul Bearer you grew up with.

I was shocked to find out he passed away at the age of 58 but not so much that he was an actual funeral director. Makes perfect sense even though it would make me think I was being Punk'd if I saw him there. Paul Bearer was truly an original in every sense of the word. There will never be another manager like him. From interviews like in Episode 208 of Tha O Show he comes across as funny and a genuinely sweet guy. Years from now when I hear someone say “Oh, no...” I'll continue to respond with “Ooooohhh, yeeessss...!”

Rest in peace, Paul Bearer.