Interesting Facts about The Ultimate Warrior

Interesting Facts about The Ultimate Warrior

June 16, 2024

By Ryan Porzl

One of wrestling's most colorful, charismatic, and controversial personalities is The Ultimate Warrior. During the late 1980s to early 1990s, few were as big and larger than life as Warrior. With his colorful face paint and tassels as well as his bombastic entrances, he was almost a superhero come to life. At his peak, he achieved many things most could only dream of. Unfortunately, as many fans as he had, he certainly had his detractors including hardcore wrestling fans who argue he lacked any talent or his own colleagues who he didn't always make friends with. Regardless of where you stand, it's hard to deny that The Warrior was a unique and special talent in the business and while his star burned brightly for a short time before issues backstage saw him usually disappear into the night, he'll always be remembered for his contributions. In the end, his journey and legacy is rocky but the final chapter would see redemption before his untimely passing in 2014. With this month marking what would've been his 65th birthday, I'll take a look at facts at a star who everyone had an opinion of: The Ultimate Warrior.

Note: I don't own the pictures, I found them on Google. Credit to WWE and whomever are the owners.

Was A Two Time World Champion- We start with the usual. Obviously, it's no surprise Warrior is a former world champion but many are probably surprised he held two world titles. As many know, Warrior won his first world title when he famously defeated Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania VI on April 1, 1990 to win the WWF Championship. Warrior would hold the belt until losing it to Sgt. Slaughter at Royal Rumble 1991 on January 19, 1991. What many may not know is Warrior held a second world title for the European Nu Wrestling Evolution promotion as he defeated Orlando Jordan for the NWE World Heavyweight Championship on June 25, 2008 and would vacate the championship afterwards after retiring from the ring.

Was An Aspiring Bodybuilder- As I usually bring up with these articles, many wrestling legends aspired to be in some other sport before getting into wrestling. Warrior would be no different and it's probably no surprise, he tried for bodybuilding. In the early 1980s, Warrior would try his hands in bodybuilding and would compete for several National Physique Committee competitions peaking in 1984 when he won their Mr. Georgia. He also would compete for the Amateur Athletic Union where he won their 1983 Coastal USA. He competed in other contests during the early to mid 80s, usually finishing 5th in several of them. It would be during his bodybuilding career where he was approached to pursue a professional wrestling career as part of a group of bodybuilders named "Powerteam USA" which including Steve Borden (the future Sting) and two other guys named Mark Miller and Garland Donoho.

Studied To Be A Chiropractor- Say what you will about Warrior but the man led an interesting life. Obviously, a legend in wrestling and as mentioned, he was an aspiring bodybuilder. However, another interesting fact about Warrior's early life was his desire to become a chiropractor of all things. Warrior would actually go to school and study for it while he was bodybuilding on the side. According to a shoot interview Warrior did, he claimed he was only a couple of credits short of graduating academically and was about to begin the clinical side of it when he decided to take a break to focus on bodybuilding and went out from Georgia to California where he eventually found his way to wrestling. While Warrior never finished his education, it's fascinating he studied to be a chiropractor.

The First Title Win Of His Career Was The Only Tag Team Title In His Career- Outside of his short but famous tag team with Sting in the Blade Runners, Warrior was never known as a tag team wrestler but that doesn't mean he didn't enjoy success in the tag team ranks. Ironically, out of the championships he won in his career, the first one of his career would be a tag team title. In 1986, while in World Class as The Dingo Warrior, he formed several teams and pursued the World Class Tag Team Titles with a wrestler named Socko and then with World Class regular Steve Simpson before forming a team with fictional Von Erich relative Lance Von Erich. The team with Warrior and Von Erich proved successful and captured the World Class Tag Team Title on November 17, 1986 from Matt Borne and Master Gee (subbing for Buzz Sawyer). Warrior and Von Erich would hold the titles for two weeks before losing the belts to Al Madril and Brian Adidas on December 1st. The tag title win marked the first and only tag title win in Warrior's career while every title afterwards were singles belts.

Was Originally Considered To Portray Big Van Vader- This one has become well known over the decades. In 1987, New Japan Pro Wrestling decided to bring a foreigner in to portray a character named "Big Van Vader", a warrior from Japanese folklore. While Leon White would eventually become the character and achieved legendary status in the wrestling business, he wasn't the first choice to play him. According to Warrior in a shoot interview, he was still in World Class but right around the time he was denied a raise, New Japan called him and wanted him to play Vader. Warrior claims he actually was ready to accept the deal but right as he did, former WWF booker George Scott came to World Class to book and called the WWF telling them about Warrior and his potential. This would catch WWF's interest enough to the point where they made the call to Warrior and he decided to take the WWF deal. Ironically enough, Warrior and Vader would eventually meet during Warrior's short 1996 WWF run mostly working dark matches and house shows with Vader actually being Warrior's final WWF opponent on June 25, 1996 during a dark match at a Superstars TV taping which Warrior won on a count out. 

Won The First Casket Match In WWF History- Throughout the decades, the WWF/WWE have had several signature gimmick matches. The most notable ones include the Royal Rumble, Hell in a Cell, Survivor Series elimination matches, and casket matches. Casket Matches are matches where there's no pinfall, submissions, disqualifications, and count outs and the only way to win is to put your opponent in a casket at ringside and close the lid. To no surprise, The Undertaker is mostly known for this match and the first person you think of with it which isn't surprising as it's considered his trademark match and as far as most believe, he won the first one at the 1992 Survivor Series against Kamala on November 25, 1992. However, what many don't know is the Survivor Series casket match was actually the first televised one. In actuality, the casket match was over a year old by November 1992 and while Undertaker was in the first one, he didn't win it but rather his opponent won it in The Ultimate Warrior. During the Warrior and Taker's memorable feud during the spring and summer of 1991, the WWF would experiment by coming up with a stipulation for the feud. Originally, they came up with a bodybag match which was similar except that was getting your opponent in a bodybag and zipping it up. The first casket match would eventually take place at a non televised WWF event called Wrestlefest 1991 on July 14, 1991 between Warrior and Taker. Not much is known of the match except Warrior ended up winning. As it turns out, Warrior and Taker would wrestle two more casket matches during July and August before Warrior's abrupt first departure following Summerslam 1991. Afterwards, Taker took on Sycho Sid (then Sid Justice) in several which he also lost. Eventually, the match was put on the backburner until Survivor Series 1992 when it made it's televised debut.

First Wrestler To Win A Championship At Summerslam- This one is pretty well known. In 1988, the WWF would begin a new summer tradition when they debuted their end of the summer PPV: Summerslam on August 29, 1988 at Madison Square Garden. Since it's debut, Summerslam has been dubbed "The Biggest Party of the Summer" and become the WWE's second biggest show in the calendar with Wrestlemania only being bigger. The Warrior would make his mark at this show and perhaps give Summerslam it's first memorable moment. After Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake was sidelined with a storyline injury, WWF Intercontinental Champion The Honky Tonk Man was left without a challenger and a mystery opponent was announced for Summerslam. After Honky refused to know his opponent until match time, MSG would explode when The Warrior's music played and he ran out as the mystery opponent. As if that wasn't enough, Warrior would dispatch of Honky in only 31 seconds to claim the championship and end Honky's then record 454 day reign. With the win, The Warrior became the first wrestler to win a championship in Summerslam history. On a side note, Warrior would also become the first to win a title back to back in Summerslam when he regained the IC title from Rick Rude at Summerslam '89.

Reunited With Sting For A Match In WCW- I think by now, most wrestling fans are familiar with the history between Sting and Warrior. The two started as aspiring bodybuilders before getting into wrestling with the Powerteam USA idea in 1985. After it imploded and the two received some training from legend Red Bastien, they worked as a tag team from their debuts in November 1985 till splitting up in June 1986. During their brief time together, they teamed as "The Freedom Fighters" in Jerry Jarrett's Continental Wrestling Association and then as "The Blade Runners" for Bill Watts' Universal Wrestling Federation. After a falling out with each other and Warrior's issues with Watts, the two split up with Warrior jumping to World Class while Sting remained with UWF. From there, the two would obviously go on to have Hall of Fame worthy careers in opposite promotions. Ironically, their careers even were briefly similar as both debuted for the promotion they became legends for (Warrior in WWF and Sting in NWA/WCW) in 1987, both would see their careers be put on the map in 1988, both won their first world titles in 1990, and they lost those world titles in January 1991. For the people in the know, there probably was some wonder if the two would ever get back together even for a match. As it turned out, they did. On the October 12, 1998 edition of WCW Monday Nitro, Warrior and Sting reunited for one match twelve years after the last time they teamed as they took on Hollywood Hogan and Bret Hart. Unfortunately, because this was late 1998 WCW, the reunion wasn't anything to write home about as it wasn't built up properly and the match would go 5:40 before ending in a disqualification win for Warrior and Sting. The match would only be the second of Warrior's three matches in WCW with the first being in the WarGames match at Fall Brawl 1998 and the third was the infamous rematch with Hogan at Halloween Havoc 1998 weeks later.

Was Offered A Chance To Return To The WWF In 1997- This one has become known in recent years. By now, just about every hardcore or long time wrestling knows that The Ultimate Warrior and the WWF had a very, and I do mean, VERY rocky relationship. Warrior became a legend in the WWF and some of the WWF's most memorable matches and moments from 1988-1992 involved The Warrior. However, for some reason, the two sides would have one falling out after another and by July 1996, The Warrior and the WWF would have their third falling out in five years. Fast forward to December 1997, things in the WWF look bleak. 1997 was one of the most tumultuous and chaotic years the now 70+ year old promotion would endure as they desperately tried to reinvent and breath new life into itself despite backstage chaos and WCW being a juggernaut who seemed to have everything it needed to be the promotion of the 21st Century. With the departure of Bret Hart in November 1997 and the way it was handled via The Montreal Screwjob, many thought the WWF wouldn't last much longer. Safe to say, desperate men do desperate things and Vince McMahon was certainly a desperate man. In what has been leaked in recent times, Vince sent The Warrior a letter dated December 17, 1997 about returning. The deal would reportedly be five years at $750,000 plus royalties all the while working fourteen days a month. As history would show, nothing came of this and Warrior wouldn't return in 1998. In the end, it wouldn't matter as by April 1998, the WWF would rise again like a phoenix with the arrival of the Attitude Era. Ironically, when WWF overtook WCW, it would be WCW who would reach out to Warrior. Of course, Warrior would eventually accept the WCW deal and would go on to regret it.

His Final Opponent Was Orlando Jordan- Usually the last match of a wrestling legend isn't always spectacular because wrestlers usually don't know when to hang it up and many have blown great chances to retire. The Warrior would somewhat fit this bill. After his short but disastrous WCW run ended in 1998, The Warrior left wrestling for a decade. Then in 2008, he would announce his return for one final match. The catch was it wasn't at a huge show like Wrestlemania or against a legendary opponent. Warrior's final match would be held on June 25, 2008 in Barcelona, Spain for the Italian based Nu Wrestling Evolution. NWE was a promotion based in Italy but ran shows around the European continent and featured their share of ex-WWE wrestlers and/or legends. It lasted eight years running from 2005-2013. His opponent would be a fascinating pick as it would be none other than.....Orlando Jordan. Jordan is of course best known for his time in WWE during the early to mid 2000s as he became best known as a member of JBL's Cabinet stable where he served as JBL's "Chief of Staff". His career peaking in 2005 as he defeated John Cena to win the United States Title and then memorably lost it in 25 seconds to Chris Benoit at Summerslam 2005. Jordan would also do time in TNA during the early 2010s. After his WWE run, Jordan worked for NWE and became their World Champion on April 19, 2008. The match would take place on June 25th with the NWE World Heavyweight Title on the line. Warrior would score the win in 17:07 to win his final match and title of his career. After the match, Warrior vacated the title and retired from the ring for good.

Was The First Wrestler To Promote Slim Jim- If you are a long time fan of professional wrestling, you probably are familiar with Slim Jims. Created in 1929, Slim Jim is a meat snack brand that eventually became known for their "Snap Into a Slim Jim!" campaign. Since the late 1980s, Slim Jim and professional wrestling have gone hand-in-hand. Wrestling legends such as Kevin "Diesel" Nash and Bam Bam Bigelow to current top WWE stars like Bianca Belair and LA Knight have promoted it while the brand has sponsored both WWF/WWE and WCW shows and PPVs. The most famous pitchman would be the legendary "Macho Man" Randy Savage who began promoting Slim Jim around 1993 to 2000 toward the end of his WWF run and throughout his WCW run. However, while Savage is the brand's most famous pitchman, he actually wasn't the first wrestler to promote Slim Jim. The first wrestler was actually The Ultimate Warrior. In the late 1980s, Slim Jim originally wanted comedian Sam Kinison to be their pitchman but his legal team didn't allow it. It would there where they decided to try wrestling and from there, The Warrior was chosen to be their pitchman. Warrior would promote Slim Jim beginning in 1989 with a television commercial and would later film radio ads in 1991.

Is The Only Wrestler To Have Held The WWF Championship and Intercontinental Championship Simultaneously- Since the debut of the Intercontinental Championship in 1979, many legends have been an IC Champion and a WWF/WWE Champion at different points in their careers. Wrestlers like Pedro Morales, Randy Savage, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Diesel, Steve Austin, HHH, and The Rock to name some have held both titles in their careers. However, none of those legends were able to achieve what The Warrior was able to do on April 1, 1990. Going into Wrestlemania VI on April 1, 1990, The Warrior was in his second run as Intercontinental Champion, a title he regained from Rick Rude at Summerslam 1989 on August 28, 1989. At the Showcase of the Immortals, The Warrior would face WWF Champion Hulk Hogan in an epic clash which saw both titles on the line. As is well documented, The Warrior would walk out of Wrestlemania VI and Skydome the winner and new WWF Champion. With the win, The Warrior made history as he became the first and, as of 2024, only man to have held the WWF Championship and the Intercontinental Championship simultaneously. While Warrior would immediately vacate the IC Belt shortly afterwards, he still achieved history in a way no one has been able to do in the last 45 years.