Insane Insights From Dark Side Of The Ring - The Ultimate Warrior
The Ultimate Warrior is often regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers ever. However, he is also one of the most controversial pro wrestlers outside of the ring, with his distasteful comments, and how he treated others. Dark Side of the Ring did an episode on the man's life and career and its crazy.
10. How Warrior Met His First Wife
The surprising part of the documentary, is that they got the Ultimate Warrior's first wife Shari Tyree to speak about him, which is a big get, because I can't remember if she's publicly talked about him before today.
How both met, was while he was doing bodybuilding, and she was attracted by his tremendous shoulders. They set up a date, and they meet at a bar Warrior was working as a bouncer. Warrior was tossing a man out of the building, and taking the garbage out in front of Shari. Once he was done, both went to his apartment and talked with each other about life.
9. How Different Sting and Warrior Was During Their Blade Runner Days
The Ultimate Warrior started in pro wrestling as a tag team wrestler. His partner was the Icon, Sting, and they wrestled as the Blade Runners. One thing that always came across with both wrestlers in their Blade Runner days, is how opposite both were from each other. Sting was a lot more trainable, talented, and well-liked compared to Warrior. Jim Cornette introduced himself, and admitted that he was not a fan of the Ultimate Warrior. Even Jim Ross in this documentary is not a fan of Warrior. He called him egotistical, and said, “I’ve never met or seen a wrestler with less ability than The Ultimate Warrior.”.
8. Nobody Knows What A Dingo Warrior Meant
The Ultimate Warrior wanted to go out on his own, and decided to break up the Blade Runners tag team. In his early matches, Warrior had a weird ring name. He was originally called the Dingo Warrior. Nobody even knew what the heck a Dingo Warrior even was, including his first wife. Vince McMahon himself hated that name too, and when Warrior officially signed with WWF, the name was changed to the Ultimate Warrior.
7. Warrior Was Traumatized As a Kid and Had An Anxiety Disorder
Throughout his time in the locker room, Warrior hated the criticism he got. He was very sensitive and very insecure. It all started in his childhood when his father left him as a kid. It also didn't help that he caught his dad cheating with the neighbor. Ever since then, he had an anxiety disorder, and he put a lot of pressure on himself to be successful.
6. Why Ultimate Warrior 1st Marriage Ended
The Ultimate Warrior would always call in to check in on his wife. Well, one day she noticed Jim was not well, and when calling him, he wouldn't answer, which was unlike him. Shari sent a wellness check to ensure he was okay, and it turned out he was only sleeping. When calling him back, she heard a woman's voice in the background. In looking through Warrior's items at home, she noticed Warrior had a day planner that had names and phone numbers of women for each town. When he came home she served him divorce papers.
Something interesting not mentioned, one of the women that he was cheating on his first wife with, was Melanie Pillman, the future wife of pro wrestler Brian Pillman.
5. Jake Roberts Had to Ask The Ultimate Warrior Permission to Start a TV Feud
Vince McMahon wanted to push Jake the Snake Roberts, who was growing in popularity in the 90's, and a feud against The Ultimate Warrior is in the plans. Jake claims that this was going to be for the WWF Championship, but he's full of it. At this point, Warrior dropped the title to Sgt Slaughter, and Jake's timeline makes zero sense.
For this feud to happen, Jake had to get permission from Warrior. Jake went to the Ultimate Warrior, and he went after Jake, claiming he didn't care about his family, him, or wrestling. He wanted to do his work, and get his money. Jake was not happy about what he said, but wanted to ensure he got the feud with Warrior locked up for Summerslam.
4. How Warrior Got Fired After SummerSlam 1991
This is the craziest firing story that I have ever heard as a fan. The Ultimate Warrior at SummerSlam 1991 was holding up the company for more money, and would send a letter to Vince. In that letter, Warrior wanted everything Hogan had in his contract, or he would no-show SummerSlam. Vince gave him what he wanted, but only did that for him to show up on the show to compete in the main event. When he walked back after the match ends, Vince yelled at Warrior, telling him that he's fired and to leave the building. Jake Roberts is nearby and hears this. When Vince saw him, he told him that he has the worst luck of any human. Jake was super angry that he lost this big money-making feud, and held that anger for many many years.
3. How Warrior Reconciled With Shari
Many long years passed, and the Ultimate Warrior was now living in Arizona. He opened up a gym, and crossed paths with Shari again. At this point, both were married to different people, but due to the awkwardness, both agreed for her not to be at his gym anymore. Before she left, Warrior apologized to her, and thanked her for being a great wife. He even inspired her, saying she's going to be a great mother one day. That was the last time both had a conversation, and it's nice hearing both left on good terms.
2. His Distasteful Motivational Speaker Speech
With the Ultimate Warrior's full-time wrestling career over, he transitioned into becoming a motivational speaker. It seemed like a good idea, but this career change did more harm than good. Especially he said and wrote homophobic and racist stuff. Some of those statements were "queering doesn't make the world work" and "These kids - these black-skinned kids- are behaving like animals, savages, less than human, like Rhesus monkeys".
The worst part is, there is so much more distasteful and disgusting stuff he wrote on his website. Oh by the way, he once called the people affected by Hurricane Katrina "poor, mostly black New Orleanians without cars.”. What a terrible thing to say about one of the worst Hurricanes that ever hit America.
1. His Return to WWE in 2014 and His Eerie Monday Night Promo
In 2014 the Ultimate Warrior decided to make peace with the WWE, and agreed to be inducted to their Hall of Fame. Guess who else got inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2014? Jake "The Snake" Roberts. He claims that at the Hall of Fame, he had a roll of quarters in his pocket and was going to beat Warrior up, but Warrior tapped his shoulder and apologized for the way he acted, and both reconciled. Again, I like Jake Roberts, but he's so full of it in this episode. I don't believe that he would attack the Warrior at the Hall of Fame.
Warrior gets inducted, and then he cuts this eerie promo on the next episode of Monday Night Raw, when he talks about "a man's heart one day beats a final beat and lungs breath their final breath". I remember being 14 and I said to myself, "Man Warrior looks rough and unhealthy". Little did I know, not 12 hours later, he suffered a heart attack and died. It's so eerie rewatching that promo thinking Warrior had to of known he was not going to live long.
My Thoughts On The Documentary
This was a well-made piece on a man who has a shady legacy. Not only for the way he treated people, his steroid usage, but for the racist/homophobic statements. This should have been a two-part episode, but the MVP is his first wife Shari, who brings great insights on Warrior.
I'm stunned that the documentary didn't talk about his WCW tenure, and how disastrous that was. Especially that awful Hulk Hogan vs Ultimate Warrior rematch at Halloween Havoc 1998.
Another statement not mentioned, and this doesn't paint Warrior in a good light, is his comments on Bobby the Brain Heenan. Heenan was battling throat cancer and had surgery that disfigured his face and couldn't speak. Warrior said the following about Heenan below,
What an absolute jerk to say this about someone who at that time was fighting and potentially dying of cancer.
He made a tremendous impact in professional wrestling, but you can't ignore all the heinous and disgusting stuff he has said and done. I am glad in his final days that he made peace with a lot of people, and it's still eerie hearing the promo he cut on Monday Night Raw. This episode was not the smut and filth that Dana Warrior called this episode, but it was well made by the Vice crew.