Let us celebrate the career of Ultimate Warrior before his Hall of Fame induction. I bet his speech will be enough of a trainwreck to qualify for this list, but obviously I couldn't see into the future to add it.
I also have my 5 Best / 5 Worst Returns list waiting to be published, so that should be up in a day or two as well.
Scott, you forgot about the return of Brother Love in 1996! That's okay, though, because he didn't really do anything anyway.
ReplyDeleteHow about a Top 10 Reasons Why NXT is Better Than RAW?
ReplyDeleteI had never seen Warrior's debut. Interesting how he doesn't quite have the act together yet. No music. Walking to the ring. The hair a little too well groomed.
ReplyDeleteThe moment when he squashes Ryback at WM 30 should be on there too but it also hasn't happened...yet.
ReplyDeleteI'll be honest, I don't watch much classic stuff(not many things have a high replay-ability for me), but geez, they must have pumped the steroids in through the vents. Watching as a kid, you never really put the 2 and 2 together on guys like Tito and even Shawn, but watching the Hogan/Warrior rumble clip and they're all roid-puffed out the gills.
ReplyDeleteGreat article! Loved the "Hulk sad face" comment, if you notice too, when Hulk is leaving on the little cart after the match it starts too quickly and he awkwardly slips a little bit, I always LOL'ed at that because it seemed to add to his humiliation. I also loved you pointing out that argument between Ventura and Schiavone, I always got a kick out of that too and I think it illustrates something that's missing today, there are no great heel commentators for the play by play guys to work off of. What happened to the position of guys like Ventura or Heenan who had epic hilarious arguments with the other commentators but still got the product over, rather than themselves?
ReplyDeleteI always felt Warrior's 1990 title reign could have been salvaged so Warrior actually drew on top, same thing with Diesel in '95. But yeah, as a kid growing up, he was everybody's favorite wrestler as he was a younger, cooler version of Hulk Hogan.
ReplyDeleteI never got the Warrior/HHH deal at WM12 either. Personally I thought this would be a terrific way to write 1-2-3 Kid. Kid was soon leaving the promotion, so was Hall, so it never made sense for Hall to beat the Kid and humilate him. It would of been better for Hall to win by DQ or something when he suffers a Corporation beatdown thus stopping Razor from getting his final revenge on the Kid. In the weeks following you can have Kid act more of a jerk and demanding a match at WM12 and Roddy Piper finally grants him one against Ultimate Warrior as Kid would poop his pants and much like Brother Love/Honky Tonk Man, you can have Warrior come in, kill Waltman in 30 seconds to end his WWF career.
ReplyDeleteYup, it's always weird seeing Warrior's early WWF work as it's obvious no-one in charge knew what kind of star they had.
ReplyDeleteSo, pretty much how no one in charge deals with everyone on the roster today.
ReplyDeleteI think the big difference is due to revisionist history as we're led to believe Warrior was a star since day one, when that obviously wasn't the case. Same thing with Golberg, everyone assumes the guy was just mowing down opponents from his debut but the guy was treated as any other guy before his monster push.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, this was Warrior's debut. Even Hogan's debut wasn't spiffy but you could see there was something to it. Same with Warrior. He that undeniable "it' factor.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if there's many guys that have that today and I don't know why.
There's already a couple of those on there.
ReplyDeleteMan, I really really REALLY forgot how good that Rude / Warrior summerslam match was.
ReplyDeleteGreat article Scott.
Damn, nice catch. I had no idea about it.
ReplyDeleteYou should see his work in WCCW. Even then you could tell he was going to be a star.
ReplyDeleteDISPOSE OF THE PILOTS THAT HAVE ALREADY MADE THE SACRIFICE!!!!!
ReplyDeleteHere is an interesting question: What if the Warrior went to the NWA instead of the WWF?
ReplyDeletehe wasn't getting over with that gimmick
ReplyDeleteSaves Dusty from a Horsemen beat down, turns on Dusty, Dusty sends him on his way? Assuming he's in as some variation of dingo warrior. Dude always had an undercurrent of crazy so no way he reaches Sting's NWA heights
ReplyDeleteB-but they're not written by YOU. *fawning eyes*
ReplyDeleteI suppose they might've kept him and Sting as a tag team, so they'd be another Legion of Doom kind?
ReplyDeleteBTW - I like the way the Honky Tonk Man spun himself into position to take the splash.
ReplyDeleteLOVE it, great column, as the biggest Warrior mark possible I can't tell you how happy I am seeing him finally have his 'moment' in the spotlight in this cynical age where his reputation has been shred to pieces (some doing himself) but mainly because of WWE propaganda machine over the years.
ReplyDeleteWarrior was MY guy and for millions others too even if he was never bigger than Hogan.. but then again who was? I can't frigging wait for the HOF and I got a sneaky feeling were going to get a Warrior/Hogan vs Real American segment at WM30.. with both of them posing at the end with pyro ala WM8 (Ok a the inner child in me can dream).
I don't remember the WWF even doing vignettes on Warrior like they did for guys like Outback Jack or Dibiase. He was one of my favorite wrestlers from WCCW, so I knew who he was right off the bat, but it took a while for the WWF hype machine to get behind him. One of the few wrestlers of that era to jump to the WWF and not get an entirely new cheesy character/name.
ReplyDeleteI fondly recall his feuds with Rick Rude and Bob Bradley. With some time I think Warrior would have eventually became the WCCW World champion. I wonder how that would have changed history..
ReplyDeleteIn kind of a reverse to this question, I think Sting would have been better off going to the WWE instead of the Warrior, simply because I think Sting would have been more willing to "play ball" and taken better advantage of getting put over by Hogan and getting the title. I think Sting is less, for lack of a better word, crazy, and could've been the guy that actually ran with the torch and became the face of WWE, rather than sort of flaking out like Warrior. That's all predicated on the idea that Sting would've got the same opportunities as Warrior if he had went to WWE instead of him, which isn't certain at all. As for Warrior in the NWA, I think he would've never got over there like he did in WWE, because I don't think he would've put up with the politics and would'nt have been there long enough to get the chance to get over.
ReplyDeleteI recall a thread on this subject a little while back, but there's no way that Sting becomes more than a tag team or IC champ in the pre-Zahorian trial era of WWF. He'd have been the next Ricky Steamboat and feuded with Jake Roberts, Rick Rude, Mr Perfect and others. Now if he stuck around, then maybe he would have been in a great position during the Flair/Hart/Michaels eras, but that's stretching it.
ReplyDeleteI was a Warrior mark but going back and watching those promos have given me a greater respect. That dude was on another level with some of that stuff. Laugh if you want but it's borderline genius, I say.
ReplyDeleteI guess it depends on what gimmick he would've been given, if he had the Sting gimmick in WWE, which, in the beginning, was more like a calmer version of the Warrior, I would say he had a pretty good chance of reaching the top. He really wasn't that much smaller than Warrior in the early days, in fact, I think he even might be a little taller than Warrior.
ReplyDeleteA little business exposing, no?
ReplyDeleteSting wouldn't have gotten out of the midcard. Sting's promo work is nothing to write home about (see 1994-1996 when his stuff is cringe-level in places as Hogan and Savage's little buddy), so Warrior had a leg up on him in that regard. WWF always struck me as more promo-centric than the NWA, where ring work took on more importance, so Sting would not have achieved the same level of support the Warrior had.
ReplyDeleteThe Warrior's face paint for that promo really suited things well. He just looked evil and insane.
ReplyDeleteI agree. As a mark, Triple H getting squashed by the Warrior lowered him a little in my eyes since Triple H had only lost 1 match up to that point IIRC and had not jobbed clean one-on-one on television. Would've been better to sacrifice the Kid or someone who was "expendable" rather than have one of your bright stars squashed in a minute.
ReplyDeleteHHH did ok for himself in the long run.
ReplyDeleteLawler could still be that guy if he tried, but he's just content to earn an easy payday sitting at the table, smiling for Cole's hype of ads, JBL just does snarky insider jokes and yells the faces slogans. I mean, how hard is it to have a guy who just cheers for ALL the heels?
ReplyDeleteNeeds more Harley Race.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I see Harley Race on a WWE documentary, I always immediately think "Now THAT guy is a wrestler!"
ReplyDeleteIt takes a few listens to get what he's actually saying. The intensity just made it mean that much more. Hogan had no idea what he was up against. Sad thing is they humanized him after this, I guess to make him more marketable, but I think the money was in taking it further.
ReplyDeleteOne problem though, after taking down Hulkamania, what's left?
Sting was pretty large in California, but slimmed down (no juice?) when he got to Mid-South/UWF. He looked good and was tall, but there's no way McMahon is giving over the reigns to him the same way he gave it to the Ultimate Warrior. Sting in the NWA had an edginess that I can't see the WWF giving him in that era. I can see Sting languishing int he tag team ranks for a year or two and then maybe getting to a higher level, but without the face paint or Flair rub, I can't see Sting having that big of an impact in the WWF.. not until after 1993 at least.
ReplyDelete