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!”

The Classics Part 9

Back when I was around ten years old I was sitting at home watching an episode of Superstars on a Saturday morning as I usually did. On this particular episode I had my mind blown by a situation involving John Tenta also known as Earthquake. This was back in the day when the audience barely brought signs and the only time fans were brought into the ring was when Ted DiBiase would offer money for things (fact: a young Rob Van Dam was one of these fans and kissed some sweaty ass just wrestled feet for a hundred bucks) or when Rick Rude would jam his tongue down some woman's throat.

So The Ultimate Warrior, Dino Bravo, and Jimmy Hart are in the ring doing what was cool back then but makes me groan now which were tests of strength. Tests of strength, pregnancies, and weddings never work out in wrestling. Now, in my house you were either a Hulk Hogan guy or a Warrior guy. My oldest brother was a Warrior guy as well as me, so when Hart called this big ass dude into the ring to sit on the back's of Bravo and Warrior we knew Warrior would win because fuck you its The Ultimate Warrior. This guy could do anything.

So this guy, John, gets on Bravo's back and I'm shouting “He isn't sitting all the way! He's cheating!” “Mean” Gene is there in the ring and everyone is amazed. Next it was Warrior's turn. John gets on his back and then just drops! I get all emotional and shit channeling my inner Jim Ross. “Oh, my god! He's been broken in half!”

Next comes the beatdown of Warrior, Okurland bounces out the ring not even trying to offer help, and a young me is wondering why security is letting this fat dude out of the audience beat up a wrestler. “That's not fair! There's two of 'em!” I'm shouting and my brother is just shaking his head probably wondering why he decided to share the gift of wrestling with me.

Next thing you know this guy from the crowd gets a name and outfit and becomes Earthquake which made me smile because I was born and raised in Los Angeles. His finisher is a simple leap into the air and dropping all his weight on someone laying in the ring. Sounds lame by today's standards but so does Hogan's legdrop. Its all about who is doing it. In this case it was a large Canadian man.

Earthquake went on to have a pretty good career. Lots of non-wrestling fans actually know of him as Earthquake and will ask what happened to him. He sadly passed away from cancer a few years back but will always have a place in my heart as the guy that traumatized me when he jumped onto Jake “The Snake” Roberts bag, squashing his snake Damien. Seriously.