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Triple H just announced that the Ultimate Warrior passed away


flyonthewall2983

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This is some horrible news that Ive been thinking about all day.

 

I knew what the Ultimate Warrior was before I knew what the WWF was (as odd as that sounds) and used to run around with my friends shaking our fists and closelining eachother. Ive ruined many a swimming pool rope in my time shaking them violently. Like most, I never really liked any of his matches aside from Hogan at VI.

 

So it goes.

 

Aside, glad to see that the no nonsense moderation of prowrestlingonly is continuing. I love heated political debate as much as the the next wrestling fan but I come here to read about and talk about prowrestlingonly. Wrestling makes me happy in every way and politics make me angry, especially when discussed in the manor in which Jiz was discussing. I do not want them to mix. I can only imagine there was some private comment or deleted post that made this decision final. Most of the time when I make a longer post like he did I dont even revisit the thread for fear someone may have called me an idiot or something like that. I dont want to discuss wrestling I guess, just read about it at length and sometimes write about it.

 

RIP Warrior.

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I've been surprised at how large Warrior loomed for fans -- from the lapsed to the casual to posters here. He just never meant that much to me, and only the timing of his death seemed really striking. But I've read all kinds of things today from non-wrestling people who view him as a near-Hogan-level star. I get that the colorful gimmick and the bizarre promos cut through the fog of time for people who watched as kids. And I'm not running down the reaction to his death at all. I've just found it interesting.

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Any one else get a kick out of Warrior asking the camera man to hold his mic while he put on his mask during Raw?

 

Yeah, me too, especially since it seemed ad libbed. Raw in general had a more 'on the fly' feel than usual. It was still a smartly booked show with lots of interesting storyline progression, but the execution felt more chaotic and you had the sense that anything might happen. Helps to have mavericks like Warrior around on shows like that.

 

Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan cutting promos on Raw in 2014 - who would have thought it? Glad it got to happen before he passed. Some lots of surreal things happening in WWE that seems bizarre on paper yet come accross as natural in execution.

 

I too am surprised how major Ultimate Warrior is to a lot of fans. Personally I doubt I've seen more than 20-30 of his matches.

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I've been surprised at how large Warrior loomed for fans -- from the lapsed to the casual to posters here. He just never meant that much to me, and only the timing of his death seemed really striking. But I've read all kinds of things today from non-wrestling people who view him as a near-Hogan-level star. I get that the colorful gimmick and the bizarre promos cut through the fog of time for people who watched as kids. And I'm not running down the reaction to his death at all. I've just found it interesting.

Just timing of when his peak was Childs.

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Yeah, I agree that's a lot of it, although he was on top after the real boom time in the '80s. He actually fell in a bit of a dead zone for me as a fan, though I was still watching pretty regularly in 1989. Was he a major figure in the UK fan boom of the early '90s?

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Yeah, I agree that's a lot of it, although he was on top after the real boom time in the '80s. He actually fell in a bit of a dead zone for me as a fan, though I was still watching pretty regularly in 1989. Was he a major figure in the UK fan boom of the early '90s?

 

In my country he was a big deal from 1988 through to his title win in 1990. I had an Ultimate Warrior hoodie and action figure as a kid.

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I don't know if any one will agree (or if I really have any evidence to support this thought), but I think part of it stems from the late 20s/mid30s crowd who seem to be the target audience for a lot of sport talk shows, sports websites (deadspin, grantland), and even the less hip social networks (I'm on facebook and this is a source of ridicule to my students, who are younger and waaay more into Instagram and Twitter and a half dozen other apps that I don't even know about).

 

I turned 30 in February. I don't remember WrestleManias 1-6 aside from renting them from a video store when I was 7. I ordered WrestleMania 7 & 8, SummerSlam 91', Survivor Series 90' and 91', and Royal Rumble 91' and 92'. I remained a fan of WWE and WCW for years ownward.

 

I was really NOT around for the peak of Hulkamania, so, to me, while Hulk was obviously the top dog, my memories of early WWE really begin with Warrior's title reign, his feud with Randy Savage, his return at WrestleMania 8 and main event spot at SummerSlam 91'. It continued at WrestleMania 12, where his return was the second biggest story of the night. In 98', he showed up in WCW and it was must see TV to fans my age.

 

So, while older fans don't see Warrior as an equal to Hogan or Andre or Savage or Flair, to people my age, Hogan, Savage, and Warrior were almost on equal footing. Andre was someone you watched on video, not live TV. Roddy Piper and Ric Flair were stars, but Warrior had face paint and muscles and crazy promos. He was a superhero...and if you're between the ages of 8 and 10, that is going to connect with you way more than the psychology of Jake Roberts or "no frills" intensity of Arn Anderson.

 

Warrior may have only been a top guy for a few years, but they were key years for "the Millenials"/"Generation Y" who were too young to really know Rock n' Wrestling, but old enough to know Hulk Hogan's patriotism was a huge factor in the US's victory in the Gulf War. Throw in how much this generation loves irony and kitsch and it's no surprise Warrior is still a mainstream figure.

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The first wrestling match I ever watched was the Warrior versus Ted Dibiase. NBC's the Main Event. He was a favorite, though he seemed to lose his aura after his comeback in '92.

 

I'm sure some of you are familiar with the BBC series Father Ted. Dermot Morgan died of a heart attack no more than a week after filming the finale.

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I'm 30 as well, and when I was a kid me and my brother watched and were engaged with those old tapes as much, if not more than we were the current product. It played a big part of me becoming a loyal WCW guy during the MNW, getting a 2nd chance to experience Hogan and all those guys live.

 

I think as history plays out, WWE in the late 80's-early 90's will be remembered as fondly as the Rock-n-Wrestling period that came before.

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Jeremy Botter ‏@jeremybotter

I am of the hope that the era of men who felt they needed to take steroids in order to better entertain us is well and truly over.

Choose your wrestler internal dialogue:

 

'I'm going to take steroids because the fans are more entertained by better physiques, and I owe it to them to be more muscular.'

 

Or:

 

'That other guy sucks in the ring, but he's getting pushed because he's got a great physique. I work out all the time but I'll never look like that without steroids. I guess I'll go see that guy in the locker room...'

 

 

None of us would ever have heard of the Ultimate Warrior if he wasn't a roid freak. He'd probably have never gone into wrestling were it not for Vince's perverted bodybuilder fixation shaping the culture of the time. He'd have certainly never got anywhere in the business were it not for his exceptional physique. The Warrior enjoyed a better and longer life than many of the guys that the wrestling industry chewed up and spat out. Chalk up one more death for the era.

 

But who needs sadness or remorse? Just think of the increased DVD sales.

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I don't think you can blame Vince for everything, given that Jerry Jarrett, Bill Watts and Fritz Von Erich gave Warrior jobs before Vince did despite being really green and he was New Japan's first choice to be Big Van Vader.

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When you look at things like the cards for Wrestlemania 6 or 7 or Summerslam 89 or 92, it is legit shocking how many of the people are dead.

 

Kerry von Erich, Dino Bravo, British Bulldog, Randy Savage, Rick Rude, Curt Hennig, Boss Man, Earthquake, Road Warrior Hawk, Hercules, One Man Gang, and now Warrior.

 

Some events where almost half of the entire card died before they reached their 55th birthday.

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