Grilling JR - The Ultimate Warrior [Show Notes] (Patreon)

The Ultimate Warrior

Jim Hellwig/Warrior was born on June 16th, 1959 in Crawfordsville, Indiana, which is about 50 miles from Indianapolis

He was the oldest of five children and was raised by his mother (along with, later, his stepfather) after his father left his family when he was 12. His father died at 57 and a grandfather died at 52. The family moved and he graduated from Veedersburg's Fountain Central High School and attended Indiana State University for a year 

Before entering the world of pro wrestling, he was an amateur bodybuilder. He started weight training swhen he was 11 years old and described himself as "the small, insecure kid who wasn't into any sports". He competed in several NPC contests, and won the 1984 NPC Mr. Georgia contest. 

He moved to California where, after seeing bodybuilder Robby Robinson, he decided to take up the sport. His first contest took place in Florida, where he placed 5th. Later, while he was attending Life University in Marietta, Georgia, he won the Junior Atlanta contest and placed 5th at the 1981 AAU Collegiate Mr. America. 

In 1983, he won the AAU Coastal USA, before taking the Mr. Georgia title the following year. His last bodybuilding contest was 1985's Junior USAs, which was won by future IFBB Pro, Ron Love. Jim finished 5th.

In 1985, after spending six weeks in California training for a bodybuilding contest, he was invited to join a group of bodybuilders – Garland Donoho, Mark Miller, and Steve Borden – to form a professional wrestling group known as Powerteam USA. Warrior accepted the invitation and abandoned his bodybuilding career, as well as his plans to become a chiropractor.

He was trained by Red Bastien, Rick Bassman and Bill Anderson. He began his professional wrestling career as Jim "Justice" Hellwig of Powerteam USA

He formed a tag team called The Freedom Fighters (Hellwig was known as Justice and Borden was called Flash) in Memphis' Continental Wrestling Association. Debuting in the Memphis, Tennessee-based Continental Wrestling Association (CWA) promotion. They were babyfaces at first, but were quickly turned heel, and given Dutch Mantel as their manager

Ironically, years later, both of them would go on to beat the man who was the biggest star in wrestling during this time, Hulk Hogan for World Titles.

They became known as The Blade Runners for the Mid-South Wrestling promotion, which became the UWF in 1986; Hellwig was "Blade Runner Rock" and Borden was "Blade Runner Sting". 

He looked different than he would as the Ultimate Warrior; he had a spike haircut and weighed about 280 lbs.

You were in Mid-South when they got there. What was your first impressions of them?

Do you think they were made to look similar to the Road Warriors?

Who did you think had more potential at the time?

Talk about how green both of them were in the ring when they got to Mid-South.

What was both of their attitudes like at this time?

Did Bill Watts work with them to help them get better in the ring, or did he have some other wrestlers do that?

Meltzer said that when they came in, they got a lot of heat right away because to make room for them, Watts fired Kelly Kiniski. Is that true?

Bill Watts came out of retirement to work with them and because he was the boss, Jim had to bump for him, and it's been said that Jim didn't understand why he had to bump for Watts, who was 47 at the time, and not in wrestling shape, let's say.

What's your memories of that?

They ended up being apart of Eddie Gilbert's Hot Stuff International group in 1986

It's been said over the years that Warrior and Sting weren't really getting along too good during this time. Is that true?

What led to Warrior leaving UWF and Sting staying?

From there, Warrior went to WCCW; World Class Championship Wrestling in Dallas, which was run by Fritz Von Erich. He became the Dingo Warrior. Jim has said that he took that name because a wrestler told him he looked like a Warrior

He started there as a heel, managed by Gary Hart and he teamed with a guy he'd have a lot of interaction with a few years later, Rick Rude. During a tag match, they had problems during the match, which led to Dingo Warrior turning face

On February 2nd, 1987 Warrior won the WCCW Texas Heavyweight title from Bob Bradley and held it until he left to go to the WWF, then the title was vacated

However, before Warrior came to the WWF, New Japan Pro Wrestling was looking for someone to fit their new Big Van Vader gimmick

It was down to Sid Vicious, Leon White, and Warrior. Warrior was chosen for it, but he decided to go to the WWF instead, and Leon White became Big Van Vader

Warrior definitely fit the mold that Vince liked during the 80s, big bodybuilder type. Did you think he'd do good in the WWF?

When Warrior came in, he used the name Dingo Warrior still. Bruce Prichard has said that Vince didn't know what a dingo was (it's a wild dog) but because there was the "Modern Day Warrior" Kerry von Erich and The Road Warriors there should not be one more simple warrior, but the ultimate warrior. 

Warrior was known for his high intensity ring entrances where he'd run to the ring but in his very early WWF days, he'd walk to the ring, and give fans high 5s

Warrior has said that after one of his first matches, McMahon had him do a pretaped promo. It was there Vince said we want you to do Warrior, but we don't want Dingo. The Warrior then proceeded to cut the promo and stated that he was not this warrior or that warrior, he was The Ultimate Warrior. 

Warrior was soon put into a program with Hercules, which culminated in a match between them at WrestleMania 4, in which Warrior won.

Warrior lost twice by pinfall shortly thereafter: cleanly to Andre the Giant in April in Italy, and to Dino Bravo, who put his feet on the ropes for leverage, in Montreal in June. In the summer of 1988, he wrestled Bobby Heenan in a series of weasel suit matches, in which Warrior won by sleeper hold. In fact, Mattel is about to release a new Bobby Heenan figure, which includes the weasel suit, from these matches with Warrior

Bobby had been very outspoken about his dislike for Warrior over the years. Did you ever talk to Bobby about that, or hear about it?

At SummerSlam 1988, Honky Tonk Man was supposed to defend the Intercontinental Title against Brutus Beefcake, but he was unable to make the match, so Honky came to the ring and called anyone out to wrestle him, and Warrior's music hit to a huge pop, he ran to the ring and pinned Honky in 27 seconds, to win the title & end Honky's 454 day reign 

Even though you were in NWA at the time, did you keep up with WWF at all, and were you surprised to see Warrior get the IC title so soon?

Hulk Hogan had been the #1 star in the WWF for years, but it was pretty apparent that Warrior was hot on his heels

At the 1989 Royal Rumble, where the two met in a "super posedown". After Warrior drew the support of the live crowd in their judging of the contest, Rude attacked Warrior and choked him with a steel bar. This led to a championship match at WrestleMania 5, where Rude pinned Warrior to win the title with the help of his manager Bobby Heenan, who held down Warrior's foot from outside the ring as he was being pinned. 

At SummerSlam, Warrior defeated Rude to regain the title and become a two-time Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion.

It's been said over the years that Warrior and Rick Rude had some problems and even had a backstage fight. When Rick came to WCW after his WWF run, did you ever talk to him about Warrior?

Around this time, Owen Hart was in the WWF as the Blue Blazer, and it's been said that he was Warrior's best friend, before Kerry Von Erich came to the WWF. Did Owen ever talk to you about his friendship with Warrior back in those days?

After his feud with Rick Rude, Warrior started working house shows with Andre the Giant, often times pinning him in like 10 seconds or less. Which is crazy to think about because even though Andre had lost a few times in Japan, he was billed as undefeated for 15 years in the WWF

Were you surprised to see Warrior pinning Andre so often and so quickly on house shows?

From there, Warrior was put into the biggest spot in his career up to that point. At WrestleMania 6, Warrior, as the Intercontinental champion challenged World Champion, Hulk Hogan in a title for title match. Not only was this a rare title for title match in the WWF, but it was the 2 most popular guys in the company wrestling each other in the main event of the biggest show of the year

Warrior won in 22:51, when Hogan missed his legdrop and Warrior hit him with a splash. That was the first pinfall loss Hulk had since he returned to the WWF at the end of 1983

How did you think the match was going to go, and were you surprised that Warrior won?

A few months later in June, Sting would beat Ric Flair to win his first World Title. So the guys who started as the Blade Runners were now the WWF World Champion and the NWA World Champion at the same time, and they beat the 2 greatest World Champions of the 90s to win those titles; Warrior beat Hulk Hogan and Sting beat Ric Flair

The win over Hulk not only won the World Title but it made Warrior the only man in WWF/E history to hold the World & IC titles at the same time. Soon after WrestleMania, he'd relinquish the IC title and Mr. Perfect would become the new champion, winning it in a tournament.

Warrior would hold the title until the Royal Rumble 1991, where he lost it to Sgt. Slaughter.

Were you surprised to see that Warrior dropped it relatively quickly after winning it, and didn't make it to WrestleMania 7 as the World Champion?

From there, Warrior started a feud with Randy Savage, culminating in a WrestleMania 7 retirement match between them, which Warrior won.

They had some amazing chemistry and great matches together. Did you ever see them? Did Randy talk to you about his matches with Warrior when you went to the WWF?

On July 10, 1991, Warrior sent a letter to Vince McMahon requesting inclusions in his new WWF contract. He wanted $550,000 for his WrestleMania 6 match against Hogan, a guaranteed number of working days, travel accommodations and a higher percentage of merchandise sales. He remarked that $550,000 "was fair", and that "[Warrior] meant as much or more to the show than Hulk [Hogan]". He ended his letter with "Whatever your decision, I can and will live with it. Till then I remain home with one who cares"

The WWF responded on July 13, agreeing to $550,000 for WrestleMania VII, a higher royalty rate and promising no other WWF performer would be paid more than him on WWF pay per views. Vince McMahon personally ended the letter by saying, "I would like to express my deepest appreciation and admiration for you as a performer, as a member of the WWF family, as a man, and as my friend".

Following SummerSlam 91, Warrior was handed a letter dated August 26, 1991, from Vince McMahon, saying Warrior was suspended effective immediately. Among other things, McMahon said, "You threatened to stay at home thereby not even appearing at Titan's major summer pay-per-view event SummerSlam. I had no choice but to accede to your exorbitant demands. This was a serious mistake on your part". 

McMahon later testified that the only reason the company agreed to the contract was to "acquiesce to his demands temporarily" to ensure Warrior would perform at the SummerSlam event.

After that, Warrior left the WWF.

What have you heard about that over the years?

Do you recall any conversation within the NWA about trying to bring him in at that time?

He returned at WrestleMania 8 to rescue Hulk Hogan from an attack from Sid Justic and Papa Shango

He started a feud with Papa Shango. During it, Shango casted a spell over Warrior, causing him to convulse and vomit in very odd colors. Warrior has said he hated that story and had no control over it.

At SummerSlam 92, Warrior challenged former rival Randy Savage for the World title. The Warrior won the match by countout, but not the title. At Survivor Series 1992, Warrior was scheduled to team with Savage (as The Ultimate Maniacs) to face Ric Flair & Razor Ramon. Weeks before the event, Warrior was released and replaced by Mr. Perfect

In his book Sex, Lies and Headlocks, ESPN writer Shaun Assael stated that Canadian chemist Mauro Di Pasquale, who had been hired in June to monitor the WWF's new drug testing program and was known for being tough towards anyone who failed a drug test, got Warrior for steroid use in September, and was able to successfully persuade McMahon, who was under federal scrutiny at the time for allegations of illegally supplying steroids to some of his wrestlers, to release Warrior from the company.

In the Warrior: The Ultimate Legend documentary Vince McMahon claims that it was Warrior's experimenting with growth hormone which led to his departure; Warrior was suspended and, in return, skipped dates as he took offense to McMahon's actions. Warrior left the company on November 21, 1992.

In 1993, Jim legally changed his name to Warrior. WWE tried to prevent him from using the Ultimate Warrior name in personal marketing. He tried to claim use of the character and name, since he was Dingo Warrior in Texas doing pretty much the same act. The actual name Ultimate Warrior came from Allen Coage, who wrestled as Bad news Brown in WWF, a former Olympic bronze medalist in judo and badass who referred to himself as The Ultimate Warrior in the 80s on promos.

The WWF couldn’t stop him from using his real and legal name in marketing. Still, they fought Ultimate Warrior, but once he changed his name to Warrior, he was able to market himself using that moniker. 

In January 1993, he wrestled as the Dingo Warrior he defeated Hercules Hernandez in Billerica, Massachusetts, for Killer Kowalski's International Wrestling Federation.

In April 1993, he toured Europe for World Wrestlings Superstars in Germany and that same year he also played the role of "the swordsman" in the action movie Firepower.

On July 22, 1995, he returned to the ring for the National Wrestling Conference (NWC) promotion in Las Vegas, defeating The Honky Tonk Man. He had also wrestled a tour of Europe for Otto Wanz's Catch Wrestling Association (CWA) promotion.

On February 10, 1996, he defeated Jimmy Garvin in an independent show in Princeton, West Virginia.

Also during these years, he started the wrestling school, Warrior University.

Talk about when you first heard talks about bringing Warrior back in 1996 and what was your role in that

Talk about your meeting with him

What were you led to believe Destrucity meant?

Warrior also published a comic book about himself and wanted Vince to buy a lot of them, correct?

Warrior has said the meaning of it is the truce between destiny and reality; in other words, staying true to what you are right now while striving for your ultimate destiny.

A deal was made for Warrior to return in 1996. What do you know of the deal? Where there specific plans/feuds for him?

At WrestleMania 12, Warrior returned and squashed Hunter Hearst Helmsley in 1:39. During the match, Warrior no-sold the pedigree

Triple H was new to the company at the time. Why was he chosen for this match?

Did he know that Warrior was going to no sell the pedigree?

How did Warrior get along with everyone backstage at this time?

Warrior challenged for Goldust's Intercontinental Championship at In Your House 7; Warrior won the match by countout, but did not win the title. The following night on Raw Warrior defeated Issac Yankem, the future Kane. A rematch with  Goldust happened on the May 27th Raw in the King of the Ring tournament, which ended in a double countout, thus eliminating both men from the tournament and eventually giving Vader a bye into the semi-finals.

Warrior defeated Jerry Lawler at King of the Ring. Leading up to that match, they had a face to face confrontation/interview in the ring on Raw conducted by Vince. Jerry was to hit Warrior in the head with a picture of Warrior that Jerry drew and was going to give him as a gift. However, Warrior wore a hat to the ring, but Jerry still had to hit him with the picture.

Did Jerry or Vince know ahead of time that Warrior was going to wear a hat during this, and what was the reaction to that?

Warrior defeated Owen Hart by DQ on the July 8th Raw 

Warrior was scheduled to team with Shawn Michaels and Ahmed Johnson to face Owen Hart, Davey Boy Smith, and Vader at In Your House 9, but the WWF fired Warrior when he missed several house shows and taking time off allegedly to grieve the death of his father. Vince McMahon claimed that Warrior had not seen his father in ten years and did not care much for him. 

Warrior disputed Vince's claim, saying that the real reason why he no-showed those events was a breach of contract by McMahon, in which WWF sold Warrior's merchandise without giving him a percentage. 

Meltzer reported at the time - Jim Hellwig was officially suspended by the World Wrestling Federation on 7/8 due to missing shows the previous weekend in Indianapolis, Detroit and Pittsburgh.

The suspension, which was announced later that evening on the Raw show, was effective immediately. Psycho Sid (Sid Eudy) will take all of Hellwig's announced bookings starting on 7/11 in Albany, NY and continuing through the 7/21 International Incident PPV show from Vancouver, BC. Sid was flown into Stamford, CT on 7/8, while Shawn Michaels, Ahmed Johnson and Jim Cornette, who worked Providence the previous night, stayed in town to do a series of vignettes taped that earlier that day that ran throughout the Raw show hinting of a secret third partner for the main event against Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith & Vader. They finally announced the partner and had Sid do an interview at the end of the show after teasing it would be one of several others.

WWF figurehead President Gorilla Monsoon announced the suspension to the fans, saying that no matter how popular Ultimate Warrior was, no wrestler was above missing his scheduled appearances and letting down the fans. Monsoon stated that Warrior would be welcome back provided he posts an appearance bond, which is in fact basically the truth. 

There was a lot of negativity among the WWF wrestlers regarding bringing Hellwig back unpunished for missing the shows. Vince McMahon told Hellwig that he would be brought back provided he post a large bond, which he would forfeit to the WWF provided he were to no-show another card. The exact amount Hellwig will be required to post is being negotiated but it will be in excess of $100,000. Hellwig is said to have neither agreed to the price, nor indicated that he won't meet the price in order to return although the belief is that he will return. 

If Hellwig were to agree to post the bond, he would probably be written back into the storylines and return to the WWF for the Monday Night Raw taping on 7/22 in Seattle.

There was tremendous bitterness within the company regarding Hellwig's no-shows. Reportedly, he was in Indianapolis on 6/28, had a telephone blow up with McMahon regarding something he saw at a licensing show a few days earlier. WWF sources claim that at no point did Hellwig complain about his Wrestlemania payoff in the argument, but he blew up because he saw a slogan of "Always Believe" being used as a WWF marketing slogan. 

He felt that was his personal slogan that he had used for years and that the WWF hadn't paid him for use of the slogan and felt the items with that slogan should have been his items and he should have been informed of them and receive a cut of them. Many in the company, particularly in the marketing department, were upset because Hellwig apparently blew up at people in the department, and also because of how he handled his no-shows. 

Hellwig claimed on 7/1 in an interview with Bob Ryder on Prodigy that he was having no problems with the WWF that caused him to miss the weekend shows and that he couldn't understand why the announcements were made about him in the buildings, saying he missed the shows because of the death of his father. His father in fact passed away on 6/30, but those in WWF claim the time line doesn't fit since he missed shows on 6/28 and 6/29 as well as 6/30 and that he was in Indianapolis and flew home. 

There was also bitterness that Hellwig, who as a WWF wrestler is banned from giving unauthorized interviews, gave an on-the-record interview on Prodigy, a competitor to America On-line, which WWF has its contract with. And even more that he mentioned his father's death as the reason for missing the shows on the interview, but never even informed the WWF as to the death of his father, who he had never spoken with since the age of three, until sending a fax to McMahon several hours later that day. 

What's the real story with that?

You never saw real life suspensions announced on TV like that when Gorilla made that announcement. Was that done just to make Warrior angry?

Was there ever any conversation about trying to bring him back in the weeks after this happened?

In 1998, Warrior would go to WCW and have his rematch with Hulk Hogan, who was now a heel and known as Hollywood Hogan.

Did WWF reach out to Warrior when they found out he was negotiating with WCW?

Warrior only participated in 3 matches in WCW. The first was the War Games match at Fall Brawl, where he competed as a member of Team WCW, competing against 8 other wrestlers for a shot at Goldberg's World Title at Halloween Havoc. Diamond Dallas Page won the match by pinning Stevie Ray.

On the October 12th Nitro, he and Sting reformed their team and they beat Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart by DQ

Warrior and Hogan had their rematch from WrestleMania 6, 8 years later at Halloween Havoc 1998. this one didn't go as good as their first one. During the match, Hulk tried to hit Warrior with a fireball but Hogan couldn't ignitie a piece of flash paper. The finish saw Horace Hogan hit Warrior in the back with a chair, allowing Hogan to score the pin 

Did you see that match?

Warrior has said the only reason he was brought back was so Hulk could get his win back from WrestleMania 6.

On September 27th, 2005, WWE released a DVD documentary focusing on Warrior, titled The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior. The DVD featured highlights of some of his feuds and matches along with commentary from WWE stars past and present, most of which were insulting.

Warrior left in 1996. Why was this DVD done, 9 years later seemingly for no reason other than to insult him?

Originally, Warrior was asked to help with the production of the DVD, but as he refused to work with WWE (citing he did not want to be associated with the company), there had been some resulting animosity between Warrior and WWE over the Warrior claiming bias on the part of WWE. 

In January 2006, Warrior filed a lawsuit against WWE in an Arizona court over the depiction of his wrestling career In the DVD. On September 18, 2009, Warrior's lawsuit in Arizona was dismissed.

Over the next many years, there was often talk about Warrior getting inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and then in 2014, it happened.

Triple H was a big factor in getting that done. Warrior's return was mostly brokered by 2K who had him as a playable character in WWE 2K15 but Triple H took care of pretty much everything on WWE's end.

HHH had been very outspoken over the years in not very nice ways about Warrior, but did you ever hear any stories about why he decided to spearhead this and get it done to get Warrior inducted into the Hall of Fame?

This came a year after HHH was a main reason that Bruno Sammartino was inducted into the Hall of Fame

On April 5th, 2014, Warrior was inducted into the Hall of Fame. He walked onto the stage with his 2 daughters

What did you think of his speech?

The next day he appeared at WrestleMania 30 with the other Hall of Fame inductees.

Warrior had posted a picture of him and Vince hugging during this. What do you think reconciling with Warrior meant to Vince?

Warrior and Hulk Hogan had been very outspoken against each other in the years prior to this. Earlier in the day at WrestleMania Warrior was standing in a back area of the arena and Hulk was riding in a cart. Hulk saw him and asked the driver to stop. 

Hulk went over to him and they talked. WWE cameras caught this on video, Hulk said he dind't know they were filming when he went over to Warrior. 

Did you see or hear about that?

The next night on Raw, Warrior came to the ring and talked. It was 18 years after his last appearance on WWF TV

While he was talking, he said this - 

Every man’s heart one day beats its final beat. His lungs breathe its final breath. And if what that man did in his life makes the blood pulse through the bodies of others; If it makes them believe deeper in something larger than life; than his essence, his spirit, will be immortalized by the storytellers, by the loyalty, by the memory of those who honor him and make the running the man did live forever.” 

The next day, on April 8 at 5:50 p.m., Warrior was walking to his car with his wife, outside of their hotel in Scottsdale, Arizona, and he clutched his chest and collapsed. He was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead at age 54. It was later revealed that he passed away from a heart attack, caused by artherosclerotic cardiovascular disease

What was your reaction when you heard about this?

WWE paid tribute to Warrior on the April 14th Raw, with a ten bell salute and a video. The WWE Network aired a lineup dubbed "Warrior Week" in Warrior's memory. The lineup included a four-part special dedicated in Warrior's memory. The 2015 film The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age SmackDown!, which stars The Flintstones and WWE Superstars and Divas, was dedicated to Warrior's memory. 

In recent years at Hall of Fame inductions, the WWE gives out the Warrior Award, which is named after him and presented by his widow, Dana

What do you think is Warrior's legacy in professional wrestling?