The Warrior In WCW – A Series Of Unfortunate Events
Jim Hellwig. Oh, my apologies, I mean Warrior Warrior. Easily one of the most divisive characters in the crazy business called professional wrestling. By all accounts, the man himself, despite WWE’s insistence since his sudden passing just days after his WWE Hall Of Fame induction in 2014, was not a good person. Outside of WWE’s hype videos in the current climate there simply are not many people who speak fondly of the one-time WrestleMania main eventer.
In 1990 however, everything seemed to be going the way of the Ultimate Warrior. In one of the most iconic WrestleMania main events of all-time, The Ultimate Challenge would happen with Hulk Hogan defending his WWF Championship against The Ultimate Warrior who was also putting his Intercontinental Championship on the line. Following a match that had no right being as good as it was, it seemed the torch had been passed as Warrior defeated Hulk Hogan (who being who he was still kicked out immediately after the three count to save face). Unfortunately, it was not meant to be, and within a three year period, Warrior had been fired once after holding Vince McMahon up for money, made his return and left the company once again.
Fast forward to 1995 and Hulk Hogan was now working for the enemy in World Championship Wrestling. After several teases, Hogan and his manager, Jimmy Hart would bring in The Renegade, a blatant rip-off of the Ultimate Warrior. The behind-the-scenes chatter was that Eric Bischoff had tried bringing in Warrior but couldn’t agree to terms at the time. The most consistent rumor at this time was that Bischoff and Warrior actually met backstage at WCW’s 1995 Bash At The Beach pay-per-view. On that card, The Renegade would successfully defend the WCW Television Championship against Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff in what would eventually being one of his last high-profile matches for the company.
In 1996 the Ultimate Warrior would return to the WWF for a short run that would see him absolutely squash Hunter Hearst Helmsley at WrestleMania XII. If you ask Triple H before 2014 he would not speak fondly of his time working with Warrior.
“I had the opportunity to be the guy that the Ultimate Warrior came back and faced in his debut match. Mixed emotions because when I finally got to the arena that day I got to find out how big of a dickwad The Ultimate Warrior really is. Probably one of the most unprofessional guys I’ve ever stepped in the ring with. That day I went in the ring at WrestleMania and I stood in front of a sold-out Anaheim pond and I did what I had to do, I wrestled The Ultimate Warrior to the best of my ability. You know looking back on it I always think it was an exciting match for me because it was against a huge star in the business and it was the ultimate show and it was my first time there and it was great on one hand. But he ruined the experience for me on the other hand.”
Triple H in archival footage from WrestleMania All Day Long on 04/02/2000 and later used in The Self-Destruction Of The Ultimate Warrior
Of course, following his death, the tone from Triple H and anyone else in the WWE umbrella has mostly changed, but one thing that everyone seemingly always agrees on is that his 1998 run in World Championship Wrestling was an Ultimate Disaster.
On August 17, 1998, Monday Nitro would emanate from Hartford, Connecticut. This would be the night that the man now known as simply Warrior debuted in WCW. Looking back it was actually rather genius booking to have Warrior, a man known for his WWF ties, to debut in WWF’s backyard. The first problem comes to light due to the fact that he was not promoted ahead of time, instead debuting as a surprise, which slightly eliminates some of the appeal to the WWF base. Regardless, Warrior was scheduled to interrupt one of the weekly ramblings from Hollywood Hogan and Eric Bischoff and to their credit, Hogan and Bischoff sold the surprise beautifully, especially with Hogan mocking the longstanding rumor of Warrior’s death in the early 90s by saying “I thought you were dead.” The first of many missteps would come that very night as the duration of the segment and Warrior’s promo was slotted to be in the 10-minute range. Warrior would end up cutting a promo that would go well over double that time. On a recent episode of 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff would describe the situation.
“Under 10. Probably 7 or 8, tops. Because keep in mind, we had to hit a commercial break. Fortunately, we were owned by the same company that owned the network we were on, so it was more of an internal problem or challenge or hiccup, whatever you want to call it, then anything else. Seven minutes tops. A five to seven-minute promo, unless you’re really good at them, you can lose a lot of audience unless there is something really compelling going on, or the person who is cutting that promo is a great storyteller and has a big audience. You can have a great five to seven-minute promo with certain people, under certain circumstances, but generally, you don’t want to go beyond that, even for something big. This one, and I’ll look it up, I remember looking at it a year or two ago, I think this one could have gone as long as 27 minutes. I don’t know anybody who can be out there for 27 minutes and hold an audience. I don’t think The Rock could do it. If anybody could, he could.
If it would have been anybody else, under any other circumstances, I could have improvised and made it work, but what was I going to do? Was I going to, you know me, as the President of the company, was I going to grab his mic and cut him off? That would have killed whatever chance he had of getting over if I had cut him off. Hogan was as shocked as I was. Brutus was too fucking stupid to think of anything to do.
It was, ‘Wrap it.’ That’s it. Just, ‘Wrap it.’
I wouldn’t have done that under any circumstances. It never occurred to me to try to improvise and pull something out of it that wasn’t planned because I wasn’t confident that anybody would have been prepared to do it. I wasn’t confident that Warrior would have been prepared. I wasn’t confident on how Warrior could or would react to it, because I had never worked with him before. I didn’t know if he was the kind of guy that could improvise. Ric Flair, Roddy Piper, Randy Savage, oh hell yeah, I would have improvised. Mick Foley? Oh come on, I would have relished the opportunity to improv that scene had it gone wrong with any of the aforementioned talent, but I didn’t have the confidence in Warrior. So there was nothing else to do but suffer through it.
I think we simultaneously looked at each other like a scene in a movie. We slowly looked at each other when we got away from everybody and it was like, what the fuck? We were shocked. We were just shocked. I’ve never experienced anything like it before, since, and I hope to never experience it again.
Yeah, to him it was like, he got caught up in the moment, and I understand that, because Warrior was, when I say he lived that character, I’m not exaggerating.
I think he knew he screwed up but I don’t think he felt the same way about it that I did, or Hulk did, he felt like he got out there and was able to speak to his Warriors and did what he wanted to do and realized he went over, but I don’t think he understood how far over he went because he was in the moment, he got lost in it, I don’t think he realized he was out there for over 20 minutes.”
83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff, Warrior Debuts in WCW.
Over the coming weeks, Warrior would continue making appearances on Nitro to help build to the Fall Brawl pay-per-view. Many of his promos were consistent with his particular style he perfected throughout his career. By that I mean, of course, using big words that he felt made him seem more intelligent mixed with incomprehensible storytelling delivered in his own intense style. It may seem like I am bashing him, but I am actually a big fan of his promos as they never failed to entertain. I’d take a nonsensical Warrior promo over the current model of reading from a script that very few talents can escape.
In the weeks following, Warrior would introduce the concept of One Warrior Nation, or OWN (it’s NWO backwards, get it?!?) which seemed fine as he began targeting The Disciple, better known to most fans as Brutus Beefcake with a big beard. Soon, The Disciple would fall under the tutelage of The Warrior and I imagine began believing in Destrucity. The biggest issue with this was that having a One Warrior Nation with two guys seemed a little ridiculous.
Leading into Fall Brawl, WCW made the baffling decision to change the rules of War Games. Instead of two teams of five battling until only one team stood superior, the 1998 version would feature three teams of three with the man who scored the victory receiving a shot at the WCW World Championship the following month at Halloween Havoc. The three teams would consist of warring factions. NWO Hollywood would be represented by Hollywood Hogan, Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart (who was not an official member of the NWO) and Stevie Ray. NWO Wolfpac would be represented by Kevin Nash, Sting and Lex Luger. Finally, the WCW contingent would be represented by Diamond Dallas Page, Rowdy Roddy Piper (who it should be noted always referred to himself as a free agent and not a WCW talent) and The Warrior (who also was not considered a WCW talent).
WCW Fall Brawl 1998 is widely panned as one of the worst WCW shows of the Monday Night War era and the main event War Games is easily the worst of the match’s long history. Before we would even get to the main event tragedy would strike due to the overproducing of Warrior’s entrance. In the weeks leading up to the show, Warrior began appearing in a field of smoke in the ring to make his appearance. This would be done via a trap door in the ring, an old staple that had been done for years. Unfortunately, the lack of communication and mismanagement at WCW resulted in no one bothering to let the wrestlers performing in the ring know about the trap door. This would result in the British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith taking a bump on the door that would leave him severely injured. This injury would leave the Bulldog hospitalized and with a crippling painkiller addiction that would play into his death just a few years later.
During the main event match, when Warrior made his entrance smoke would fill the ring with the Warrior appearing in the middle of the ring. This was actually The Renegade cosplaying in an effort to make Warrior’s entrance all the more magical, as he would disappear then Warrior would come running down the ramp to make his official entrance. Sadly, the real-life Renegade, Richard Wilson, would wrestle his last match on Nitro a few months later in December and was released. A few months later Wilson would tragically take his own life.
During the brawl between Hogan and Warrior in the War Games match, Hogan would simply leave the ring (defeating the purpose of War Games) and lock Warrior inside the cage. Seeing as WCW has established that Warrior can teleport it would make sense for him to teleport out of the ring right? Well, instead he kicks out part of the cage and jumps to the floor, notably injuring himself while doing so. In the end, DDP would pin Stevie Ray (who was clearly only in the match to take the fall) to earn the title opportunity. This would lead us to Halloween Havoc 1998, where DDP would carry Bill Goldberg to arguably the greatest match of his career….which most people didn’t see as the PPV feed cut out just as the match began due to the show running long. But the fans did get to see the highly anticipated WrestleMania VI rematch between Hogan and Warrior!
In the lead-up to Halloween Havoc, maybe the one cool thing for Warrior in WCW would happen on Nitro. The team of Hollywood Hogan and Bret Hart would face the reunited Blade Runners of Sting and Warrior. However, if you were looking for many actions from Warrior you will be saddened to know that he stood on the apron in his long duster jacket for almost the entire duration.
Of course, when one thinks of Warrior in WCW there are usually two specific things most fans remember. The match at Halloween Havoc and the segment where Warrior played mind games with Hogan appearing in the mirror. The hilariously bad segment had Hogan seeing Warrior, and the viewing audience could clearly see him, Eric Bischoff was unable to see him resulting in one of the most hilariously bad segments in the history of wrestling.
And finally, we come to Halloween Havoc 1998. The rematch of the century according to WCW…and what is now widely regarded as one of the absolute worst matches in the history of the business. Now it would be unfair to expect two guys who were never known for their in-ring prowess to have a quality match 8 years after their original encounter. First, they were both 8 years older and the wear and tear on any wrestler are gruelling. Secondly, and in my opinion the biggest factor, the two did not have the genius of Pat Patterson to lay out the entire match blow-by-blow as they did in 1990.
For just over 14 minutes in a match that would have been bad at 5 minutes, Hogan and Warrior seemed to move in slow motion and never gelled to put together anything coherent. Dave Meltzer would famously give the match a rating of Negative 5 Stars, making it one of the worst-rated matches in all of professional wrestling history. While Meltzer was never known to give Hogan a fair rating due to his bias, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who would disagree with the rating. In the end, a planned spot where Hogan would use a piece of flash paper to blind Warrior with a ‘fireball’ but would instead end up burning his own eyebrows off. Following interference from Horace Hogan (remember him?) Hogan would pick up the win and finally get his victory back from the one man he had never defeated who held a win over him.
The following night, Warrior would appear one final time on Nitro to cut a promo that would end up leading to nothing. He would once again disappear from the business, only making sporadic autograph appearances and wrestling one final match against Orlando Jordan of all people in 2008 for a company called Nu-Wrestling Evolution in Barcelona, Spain. Warrior would win the match and the company’s Heavyweight Title but immediately vacate the title.
Looking back from 2020, it is clearer than ever that Warrior’s entire WCW run was an unmitigated disaster from the beginning. Warrior would later comment that the only reason he was brought in was so that Hogan could get his win back. Of course, anyone with functioning eyes and a brain knows that and agrees. In the 22 years since the only people I have ever heard debate that logic are Hogan himself, one of his best friends Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson, a self-admitted Hulkamaniac who also happens to host Bischoff’s weekly podcast. So the odds that Warrior was brought in for any other reason is minimal.
Now, as I have become known for some of my reimaginings of botched runs and storylines, some of you may be wondering if this is one we will ever revisit, to which I say the following: Nope, never. There is really no way that in 1998 a feud between the increasingly immobile Hogan and the powder keg that was Warrior was ever going to work. In truth, the fact that it wasn’t worse is almost a miracle in and of itself.
But hey, we will always have Destrucity!
