WNS Fans View: Wilds' War Cry: Not Even Penultimate

I am going to need you guys to calm down a little bit about this Royal Rumble upset. I feel you on it, but that will all work itself out in time. What has been really leaving me with a nervous twitch were these conversations that we had not long ago about the WWE Hall of Fame induction, specifically concerning The Ultimate Warrior.

I know that the Hall of Fame thing for WWE means nothing. It has no weight except inside of the company. It is not a legitimate sports Hall of Fame or even something recognized by all wrestling companies. It is another celebration, another way to make money by selling tickets, a way for Vince to pat himself on the back and stroke off whoever he wants to put up there, so no one should care who gets put in. It should not matter, positively or negatively, who is placed into this near-fictional pantheon, but something about Ultimate Warrior being picked irks me.

I know a good number of fans agree with me actually, that Warrior really does not deserve this honor, especially ahead of so many other athletes that should have earned such an accolade, no matter how legitimate outside of wrestling it may be. There are a lot of fans that are happy with this though, claiming how Warrior deserves this, discussing their memories of his glory days. I think that Is the problem though, a lingering sense of nostalgia affecting many of these people. Perhaps some of them are not even fully aware of Hellwig’s past with the company, and only know the glory days of the following he once had.

Do not get me wrong, I remember watching the Ultimate Warrior when I was younger, and as a kid, he was entertaining: big muscles, flashy colors, face paint, and fast-paced matches, with some of the best entrance music at the time. That is it though. There was nothing else to him. The man is a horrible wrestling technician who I am not sure ever learned how to sell at any point in his career, and his work made Ryback look like a safe worker. Warrior’s promos were entertaining for sure, but that was because they were crazy, lacking in any real skill. The man who legally changed his name to Warrior was in fact crazy as well by several accounts, but that may have been one of his more endearing qualities.

There are several stories from WWE DVD’s, shoot interviews, as well as personal accounts over the years as to how hard it was to work with Hellwig, and those stories continued from WWE to his time in WCW. Not only was he just bad in the ring, but he attempted to hold up the company for money, and was hated by much of the wrestlers and staff in the back. I have not touched on everything, or even begun to mention the lawsuits, but I recommend The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior DVD that WWE put out for a deeper look. Also, watch it for nothing else other that after watching it, the documentary will put into perspective how much Vince cares about money, knowing that a Warrior introduction is what is best for business. All of this after he spent so much time trying to distance himself from the WWE.

WWE convinced me to tune into the Hall of Fame special for Jake “The Snake” Roberts, but the only thing I am expecting from Warrior’s speech is some crazy. This is just another example of why revisiting something that was cool from childhood is a bad idea, because now it is easy to see the cracks and the insane in the face paint.