Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
After reading the title, some of you may be asking…’When did the Ultimate Warrior turn heel?’ The truth is, he never did. Sure, Warrior was a heel back in his days wrestling in World Class Championship Wrestling as ‘The Dingo Warrior’….but never played a heel after joining the WWF/WWE. So what’s the deal with the title of this piece? There was an actual plan in place to have The Ultimate Warrior go bad.
It almost seemed like from day one, The Ultimate Warrior was someone that was going to become a huge star within the WWF. With his muscular frame, long hair, face paint and tassels…the Warrior had a unique look that fans gravitated to. His energetic entrance music coupled with him running down to the ring making quick work of his opponents also helped solidify him as a star. Vince McMahon was taking notice and soon, the rocket ship was strapped to the Warrior’s back so to speak.
The Ultimate Warrior was beating some of the company’s bigger names. He went on to defeat the longest reigning Intercontinental champion of all time, The Honky Tonk Man at SummerSlam 1988 in a mere 27 seconds. He was the sole survivor for his team at Survivor Series that same year. The Warrior would lose the IC title and regain it back from Ravishing Rick Rude and once again be the sole survivor for his Survivor Series team the following year in 1989. It all led up to the Warrior getting his main event push to face the WWF’s biggest star Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania 6.
The Warrior defeated Hogan cleanly for the WWF title and it seemed that this was a “passing of the torch” moment for both men. The thing was, the Warrior wasn’t exactly the world champion that Hulk was as far as popularity and acceptance. He would lose the WWF title in 1991 against Sgt. Slaughter and move to feuds with Macho Man Randy Savage and the Undertaker. Then, the Warrior and McMahon began to clash over money and that eventually led to Warrior getting suspended and Warrior quitting the company.
Despite his resignation, Vince refused to accept it, as he still legally had the Warrior under contract until September of 1992. The two sides ultimately patched up their differences and resumed their working relationship. The Warrior would return to the company at Wrestlemania 8 in 1992. Reportedly, McMahon wanted to continue to push the Warrior as a top babyface and have him beat Ric Flair for the world title. A series of house show matches between the two were booked which were negatively received from both fans and WWF management. In one such match, Flair got injured so badly…that he was forced to lose the title.
The title plans for the Ultimate Warrior were scrapped due to the poor reception of his house show matches with Flair and also due to the growing steroid scandal within the company. It wasn’t going to be the wisest decision to put the WWF championship back around the waist of one of the poster boys of the steroid era. The WWF championship eventually landed on the lap of Bret Hart in an unadvertised match in Canada. As for the Ultimate Warrior, Vince had plans for him as well.
The idea was to have the Ultimate Warrior turn heel and feud with Bret Hart over the WWF title. The Warrior would supposedly going get an entire new look. Rumors had it that he was going to ditch the face paint, receive new entrance music and wear black outfits. The idea of the heel turn was pitched to Warrior and it was met with a counter offer.
The Warrior who considered himself to be a brand, would agree to turning heel for a higher pay day and working little to no house show dates. In addition, the Warrior wanted more time off to concentrate on him trying to land more acting roles in Hollywood. This proposal that McMahon would reject and the planned heel turn never occurred. What did happen was Warrior failing a drug test, as he tested positive for steroid use.
Vince McMahon….still under scrutiny by the FBI for steroid distribution….had no choice but to fire the Ultimate Warrior. The Warrior would later claim that he was nothing more than a scapegoat for the WWF during the steroid scandal. Vince always loved the muscular freaks and pushed them as the main event talent, when things got hot with the Federal government….McMahon fired and/or de-pushed anybody with an over muscular frame.
So if the steroid scandal did not happen in the WWF and if Warrior was willing to turn heel without putting such a heavy price tag on it…who knows if it would have worked or not. We never got to see it happen due to money, egos and fear.
David Fullam
If Flair could not get a good match out of warrior, I doubt Bret Hart could,
Joe perfect
If Randy Savage and Rick rude, got great matches out of warrior and Brett Hart got great matches out of everyone else he wrestled. I would believe Brett would’ve got a good match out of them just because Ric Flair had an off night doesn’t mean nobody else could do it.