James Brian Hellwig

The Ultimate Warrior

June 16, 1959 – April 8, 2014

Kind of shocking to wake up this morning and hear that The Ultimate Warrior has passed away, days after being inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame and a day after his final appearance on Monday Night Raw. As of this writing the cause of death has not been determined, but reports say he collapsed outside his hotel.

The Warrior (Hellwig had his name legally changed in 1993) was a bit controversial when it came to his social and political views. While I haven’t paid attention to any of that as I haven’t followed wrestling much these days, I really don’t care and let’s not bring it up here. Warrior had a wife and kids who are in morning right now, as are his legion of fans. You don’t have to like the man, but show a little respect, okay? I do want to take a moment to look over the career of one of the most energetic men ever to his the squared circle.

We start by looking at his early years. Hellwig and his partner Steve Borden under the tag team name “the Freedom Fighters”.

While Hellwig joined other fellow bodybuilders, including Borden, the man later called Sting, it was as the Ultimate Warrior that he garnered the most recognition. This was his very first match on WWF television.

There are pretty much three types of wrestlers in professional wrestling. You have your technical wrestlers, your high-flyers, and your power wrestlers. Hellwig/Warrior was a power wrestler, who used to wear down his opponents. He didn’t have a lot of moves but when he hit you, you knew it.

What made the Warrior stand out, however, was how he could cut a promo. This should be a point where I break out Warrior chatting up “Mean” Gene Okerland, but this interview on the old Arsenio Hall Show is a better demonstration.

Not that he couldn’t calm down, too. Here is on Regis & Kathy Lee.

Probably his greatest match was against fellow “babyface” (the wrestling term for the good guys) Hulk Hogan title for title at Wrestlemania VI. The WWE’s official YouTube channel has a bit of that.

There’s one last video I want to show, his final appearance in the ring, as he addressed the audience on the most recent Monday Night Raw just after his induction into the WWE Hall Of Fame.

Farewell, Ultimate Warrior. May the rocketship have enough fuel to see you home.