Ultimate Warrior
The Warrior (born James Hellwig; June 16, 1959 – April 8, 2014) was an American professional wrestler. In 1993, he had his name legally changed to The Warrior.[1] He made appearances for the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling under the ring name Ultimate Warrior. In recent years, he became a right of center political commentator.
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Early Days
Hellwig, a former amateur bodybuilder, got his start as a wrestler in 1985, initially debuting in California as part of the wrestling stable Powerteam USA. He subsequently joined fellow Powerteam USA member Steve Borden to form a babyface tag team called the Freedom Fighters in the Continental Wrestling Association in Memphis, with Hellwig adopting the ring name Justice while Borden called himself Flash. The team subsequently turned heel and renamed themselves the Blade Runners (after the 1982 science fiction film Blade Runner), with Hellwig becoming Rock while Borden adopted his most famous ring name, Sting, then moved to the Oklahoma-based Mid-South Wrestling Association (later renamed the Universal Wrestling Federation) in early 1986. After the Blade Runners split up, Hellwig then moved to the World Class Wrestling Association in Texas and used the ring name Dingo Warrior. His career began to take off while in the WCWA after he turned face again as he won the WCWA World Tag Team Championship and the Texas Heavyweight Championship with the promotion.
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment
1987-1992
By 1987 the WWF had taken notice and hired him. They quickly pushed him to the top of the card by having him win the WWF Intercontinental Championship. He would hold that title for most of the next twenty months. WWF owner Vince McMahon decided that the Warrior would be the "sports entertainer" (McMahon's term for professional wrestlers) he wanted to replace Hulk Hogan as his top star. McMahon had Warrior beat Hogan for the WWF Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania VI in an effort to improve the wrestler's crowd support. With Hogan off to pursue a movie career, Warrior was a regular at the top of the card. He would make a successful title defense against Rick Rude at the 1990 SummerSlam. With Warrior not taking off with the fanbase, the decision was made to have him drop the WWF title to Sgt. Slaughter at the 1991 Royal Rumble. Over the next year he would work shows against wrestlers such as Randy Savage, The Undertaker and Jake "The Snake" Roberts. He then opted to leave the company due to unhappiness with his role.[2]
1996
Warrior made a brief return in 1996. After defeating Triple H in his first match back, he entered a storyline against Jerry Lawler. Warrior left again after a dispute over the direction of his character.
2014
Warrior was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of its Class of 2014 on April 5, 2014, then appeared the next night at WrestleMania XXX in New Orleans. His final public appearance came on an episode of WWE Raw the night after WMXXX on April 7, where he gave a speech to fans and WWF/WWE wrestlers past and present on the RAW set.
World Championship Wrestling
Hellwig, now going by his new legal name Warrior, made a handful of appearances in WCW in the fall of 1998 to challenge the heel-turned Hulk Hogan, by then the leader of the WCW heel faction the New World Order. In the first match, Warrior led a team also consisting of Diamond Dallas Page and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper to victory in a three-team WarGames twin steel cage match at the Fall Brawl 1998 pay-per-view on September 13, defeating the Hogan-led heel team NWO Hollywood (also consisting of NWO Hollywood member Stevie Ray and associate Bret Hart) and the tweener team NWO Wolfpac (comprised of Kevin Nash, Sting and Lex Luger). On October 12, Warrior and Sting teamed up for a one-night Blade Runners reunion as they defeated Hogan and Hart by disqualification on WCW Monday Nitro. On October 25 at the Halloween Havoc PPV, Warrior faced off against Hogan one-on-one for the first time since WrestleMania VI, but lost to Hogan due to the interference of Hogan's nephew Horace Hogan. After a final appearance on Nitro on November 9, Warrior retired from wrestling.
Death
Warrior died on April 8, 2014 in Scottsdale, Arizona at age 54 due to a heart attack caused by atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
