Dark Side of the Ring 3x5

1. If you could take a bolt of electricity,

2. and somehow morph that into a living cartoon character

3. that would be Warrior.

4. The Ultimate Warrior was a righteous gladiator

5. that rose faster than anybody to the top of the wrestling world.

6. Very few people in wrestling have gone from start to pinnacle,

7. as fast as The Ultimate Warrior did.

8. History has been made here!

9. He had a phenomenal 8 x 10. He looked great.

10. Vince was about these bodies.

11. Warrior caught onto that, and he took it to a whole different level.

12. He had dreams, he had an intensity.

13. Absolutely nothing would stop him from becoming something.

14. But the real man behind the face paint, Jim Hellwig,

15. contradicted the ideals of his heroic alter ego,

16. becoming one of wrestling's most contentious figures.

17. When Jim would get in the ring, he thought he became Warrior.

18. I was waiting for the next spaceship to a higher place!

19. For quite a while there, he was absolutely batshit insane.

20. He thought he was better.

21. He didn't want to learn the business, he didn't like it.

22. I sensed that chronic paranoia. When's it all gonna end?

23. Hellwig's divisive behavior behind the scenes

24. would cut his range short

25. and leave behind a complicated legacy, steeped in controversy.

26. And now, a sad note to pass along.

27. The death of one of the biggest pro wrestling stars.

28. When I heard that he had died, the way that he had died it hurt.

29. He was a moment in time.

30. He was a very colorful, powerful character for a brief moment in time.

31. It's been very well documented about how he was difficult to work with.

32. That the arrogance, and the fame, and the ego,

33. and all of that was growing as his popularity grew.

34. But, he would come home and I would see the sadness,

35. and the insecurity, and the self-doubt.

36. So, people aren't always what they seem to be.

37. People only share their true selves with the people they're closest to.

38. Sometimes they're troubled and it's not fair to judge them

39. just by one or two things that you saw.

40. My name is Shari Tyree, and I was married to Jim Hellwig,

41. The Ultimate Warrior, from 1982 to 1991.

42. This picture was us backstage.

43. It was nice to have fans give us pictures and just walk up to you

44. and say, "I took this great picture of you both,"

45. and it was a very, very happy time then.

46. Somebody gave me a picture, a fan gave me this picture.

47. He has a little boy in his lap, with his face painted

48. and then, the little doll's face painted.

49. This is a picture after he won Mr. Georgia.

50. He's a beast there. Oh, my God, he's so big.

51. When I first met him, he was just massive.

52. Absolutely massive.

53. He literally had the largest shoulders I've ever seen on a man.

54. And the next competitor is Jim Hellwig.

55. At that time, body building was huge.

56. And he had been doing some amateur shows

57. and I thought this guy is amazing.

58. Like, he really has got it going on. This guy has big dreams, big plans.

59. Our first date, he said pick me up from the bar that he was bouncing at.

60. So, I go, and then, all of a sudden, I see the doors fly open.

61. And he's got this guy by the neck and he drops him in the parking lot.

62. And then, he went back inside,

63. and then he took the trash out from the bar.

64. I was just in shock, and I started laughing.

65. He said, "You saw me take the trash out." I was like, "Yeah, both times."

66. Should I just run now?

67. I mean, should I just, go? Should I just leave?

68. But he rest of the night was wonderful.

69. We just literally sat on his couch and just talked for hours.

70. He told me he was a chiropractic student.

71. I took up weight training and body building,

72. I thought after I saw the changes in my scrawny little body

73. that I could make changes in other ways,

74. so I set a goal for myself to get an education,

75. become a doctor of chiropractic.

76. So those were my goals.

77. During that time in school, they had discussed genetics.

78. And he had told me about his grandfathers,

79. that they had died in their early 50s.

80. One of the teachers had said to him,

81. "If you have that in your family, that doesn't look so great for you."

82. There was something about that, that just woke him up and scared him.

83. But he tried to kind of play it off like, "I gotta get it all in now

84. because I may not be around that long."

85. His whole drive since the beginning, since the first night I ever met him,

86. was to be somebody and to be something.

87. His drive was to be rich, to be famous.

88. And he was so driven and dedicated,

89. like nobody I have ever seen in my life.

90. And he told me what every woman wants to hear,

91. he told me he'd protect me for the rest of my life.

92. Jim and Shari were married on October 2nd, 1982.

93. And shortly after, Jim put his chiropractic career on hold

94. to pursue body building dreams in Los Angeles.

95. Sting has arrived!

96. It was there Jim befriended a young Steve Borden,

97. better known today as wrestler, Sting.

98. Steve convinces Jim they can make money together in wrestling,

99. and they send out promotional packages across the country.

100. The first to call is Memphis promoter, Jerry Jarrett.

101. Jerry Jarrett, in Memphis, was known as a promoter

102. who would take chances on unknown talent.

103. From Atlanta, Georgia, and from California, The Freedom Fighters!

104. I'm Jim Cornette. I've been a promoter, match maker, announcer,

105. and manager in pro wrestling for 40 years.

106. And I was not a fan of The Ultimate Warrior.

107. They're gonna be involved in a single fall match.

108. When Borden and Hellwig got to Memphis

109. to the TV studio, it was rotten.

110. But you could tell that they had some physical charisma.

111. You wanted to look at them.

112. You just didn't want to see what they did.

113. Look at these men, look at them.

114. Well, there's a lot more to it than just being big.

115. So, the promoters decided, these guys may make it,

116. but we don't have time to do on the job training.

117. They looked for a place to send them to get rid of them.

118. So Hellwig and Borden go to Mid-South.

119. And, that's where the future of professional wrestling was shaped

120. without anybody knowing it.

121. The most awesome tag team in professional wrestling,

122. The Blade Runners!

123. When The Blade Runners came to UWF, I was a broadcaster.

124. I'm Jim Ross, the voice of AEW Wrestling.

125. I've never met or seen a wrestler with less ability

126. than The Ultimate Warrior.

127. Hellwig was very narcissistic.

128. "I look this good. I got a great smile. I have wonderful teeth.

129. What more could a promoter want?"

130. I don't know, maybe, could you wrestle?

131. This man gets a body slam.

132. The wrestlers liked Steve a bit more, and he was more trainable.

133. Whereas Jim was hard headed.

134. I didn't have the personality to take it. I didn't like being handled.

135. Steve was more that he liked to have his hand held.

136. This is where I started seeing Jim change.

137. Where I saw this kind of side of him that was more selfish.

138. I didn't give much thought to what he's going to do

139. or how he'd succeed in the business.

140. I concentrated more on what I needed to do.

141. They were different people with a different idea of what they wanted.

142. Steve was all in.

143. But Jim, on the inside, he wanted to do something on his own,

144. that his size and all of that would get more attention.

145. Despite his limited in-ring ability, Jim's physique is undeniable.

146. After parting ways with Sting, he looks to gain stardom

147. in one of wrestling's most ground breaking territories.

148. World Class had the hottest syndication in the country.

149. So, if you could get on World Class,

150. every promoter in the country wanted you.

151. My name is David Manning. I was the referee, promoter, booker,

152. with World Class Wrestling, in the heydays.

153. This is the third controversial finish.

154. The World Class fans had never seen him.

155. So we just built a story we wanted and we created the star we wanted.

156. Weighing an excess of 300 pounds, The Dingo Warrior.

157. I forget exactly who came up with The Dingo Warrior.

158. Their pitch was, "Wild dog. Wild warrior," he was a heel.

159. I thought he was Australian when I saw his name.

160. But what is a Dingo Warrior?

161. I have no idea, and nobody else did either.

162. It was just the name,

163. and then I remember us going to Hancock Fabrics or something,

164. and cutting the streamers.

165. Cheap trunks, the paint was cheap.

166. It was what we could afford at the time.

167. And, there you go, you have the Dingo Warrior.

168. This guy is a monster. A muscle monster.

169. His first matches, we gave him people to slaughter.

170. Whoa, there goes one!

171. And here's Dingo hammering away on Perry.

172. The more the fans cheered, the bigger the Dingo Warrior's ego got.

173. The bigger the Dingo Warrior's ego got,

174. the harder it was to work with him in the ring.

175. And I think that history followed him everywhere.

176. You the master! You're the king! You the king!

177. It was basically, "I've got the best body. I should beat everyone.

178. I'm not going to spend time learning this craft, I don't care about it.

179. I just want to be a TV star."

180. The only place that a wrestler with that kind of attitude

181. could find a home in the '80s was in the WWF.

182. In 1987, there was no grander stage in wrestling than the WWF.

183. Wrestler Jim Hellwig is now one step closer to achieving his dreams

184. of being in the spotlight,

185. and his life with his wife Shari is also about to change forever.

186. So this is the letter asking Jim to come to the WWF.

187. He knew everything would change when he got this.

188. He was so happy.

189. No matter the territory you were in, you knew to make money

190. and be on top, that is where you had to go.

191. And I knew that this would change the entire dynamic of our marriage.

192. I knew he'd be on the road 20, 25 days a month.

193. It was basically gonna be a long distance relationship.

194. He had assured me "Once I start making some money,

195. I want you to come on the road at least seven days."

196. And so, I did go to some of these beginning matches.

197. And, they had him working with some of the job guys,

198. Barry Horowitz, those guys.

199. And those matches were pretty rough.

200. The Dingo Warrior!

201. His big thing with me was, "I want you to sit in the crowd.

202. I want you to watch the matches,

203. and give me feedback on what the people's reactions are."

204. People were up getting popcorn, going to the concession stand.

205. They looked at him, but it wasn't like,

206. "Wow, this guy's amazing. Who is he?"

207. The guy's got the looks, he's got the body—

208. He knew that if he was gonna make it there,

209. that he was going to have to figure out his gimmick,

210. and where he was gonna go with the character.

211. Vince saw a lot in him and they had this great connection and friendship,

212. and I think he really looked up to Vince.

213. And I know Vince did not like the name Dingo Warrior. Who would?

214. The Ultimate Warrior!

215. Vince said, "We want you to do Warrior, but we don't want Dingo."

216. The first time I wrestled Terry Gibbs they put screen up in the corner.

217. To all you WWF fans out there looking for some type of direction,

218. you came to the right place.

219. You're looking at The Ultimate Warrior!

220. His energy, his mannerisms, his jargon, began to come together there.

221. the only thing that blows through bags is the power of the Warrior!

222. He's not the great wrestler, but Vince saw the intensity.

223. Oh, what a clothesline!

224. If he could get their attention then he'd turn that into something.

225. That's when the shaking of the ropes started.

226. "I've gotta go out there and grab the attention."

227. And then, he's gotta be a mystery.

228. People have to kind of figure out, "Who is this guy? Where is he from?"

229. And that's where the, "Where is he from?"

230. "Oh, he's from parts unknown."

231. I was sitting in parts unknown waiting for the next spaceship!

232. Warrior's promo style was unique, irreverent.

233. Sometimes had to be interpreted.

234. - What did he say? - His promos were nonsensical.

235. At best. They made no sense.

236. Just seeing that—

237. have already continued to worsen...

238. across these weak planets.

239. We'd get in the car and crack himself up.

240. And he'd go, "What did I say? What was that?"

241. Everybody looked at him as this intense, serious,

242. aggressive Ultimate Warrior.

243. And he was those things. But he could also be extremely funny.

244. But his entrance music was the thing that really was the catalyst.

245. Somebody's music!

246. You hear that music, you stop.

247. They've exploded! Here they are!

248. He flies to the ring, shaking the ropes, he's got all the colors on.

249. Wow! It was game over from that point on.

250. Oh, no! It's the Ultimate Warrior!

251. You take a guy that looks that good, give him music.

252. You put every big star in the ring with him and tell them to lay down.

253. He's gotta win decisively.

254. You smash him over. It's called a push, a big push,

255. and you make this guy the biggest star

256. that you can by disguising his weaknesses.

257. And, exposing his strengths.

258. That's a living cartoon character coming to life.

259. It comes to your home town.

260. You can get that cartoon character's autograph.

261. And the merchandising became a huge thing.

262. - Hey, what's going on? - Nothing, Dad.

263. Wrestling buddies want to be your buddy!

264. His favorite merchandising was his wrestling buddy.

265. A picture of him and his wrestling buddy.

266. People didn't understand how excited he was about the wrestling buddy.

267. There was just something about it.

268. It just made him feel like he had arrived.

269. We were able to buy our first house on the lake.

270. The original part of the house we bought was $100,000.

271. We added $100,000 addition.

272. It was a crazy add, his home gym.

273. The house was just amazing.

274. He's getting these huge checks, we're happy,

275. and he's getting a push to the top.

276. Then friction came in between he and the other wrestlers.

277. I'm Jake "The Snake" Roberts.

278. And, well, he debuted while I was in the WWF.

279. He would fly off the handle very quickly.

280. Very hard to get along with. Impossible to talk to.

281. And he was a complete jerk in the ring.

282. Bobby Heenan was not a fan.

283. Oh, hit him with a big right hand!

284. Bobby had a bad neck from his years in wrestling.

285. And he always told guys to take care of his neck.

286. He walked up to him, said, "Hey, you broke my neck."

287. "Oh." He didn't care.

288. The barney's bell is ringing right now.

289. There's an unwritten rule in wrestling

290. that is you take care of your opponent.

291. He threw that one out the window.

292. I'm not trying to be a prick

293. but literally, he couldn't wrestle, he couldn't talk.

294. He looked like a million dollars

295. and the most successful promoter in the world pushed him to the moon.

296. And it there's nothing else to say.

297. Those guys talking about how bad of a wrestler he was

298. really affected him.

299. And then it kind of made him second guess himself a lot.

300. I think they were spot on about him, in some occasions,

301. but I don't think they really understood

302. that there was more to him than that.

303. And that he did have a sensitive and a very insecure side.

304. He kind of grew up just a really scrawny, insecure little kid.

305. I mean, he weighed like 140 pounds.

306. His dad left home when he was 12. That was very traumatic for him.

307. He told me that, his dad was cheating with one of the neighbors.

308. It did something to him. It caused him a lot of pain.

309. And when he started working out and he saw changes in his body,

310. he got excited about that

311. and it made him realize that he could be more.

312. I think that all of us carry around that really insecure inner child,

313. and all the trauma that we have as children,

314. sometimes we take with us.

315. And, in his case, he had a very severe anxiety disorder.

316. He had had it for years. He was always very anxious.

317. How would he show that sadness and insecurity?

318. He was a human being. I mean, he had insecurities.

319. He cried, he got frustrated. He wanted to be the best.

320. He put a lot of pressure on himself to be the best.

321. He did not want to be that scrawny kid anymore

322. so he had to make this work.

323. By 1990, the Ultimate Warrior is the biggest star in the WWF,

324. aside from one man, the immortal, Hulk Hogan.

325. The final piece of Vince McMahon's plan to crystalize a new megastar

326. takes hold at WrestleMania 6.

327. WrestleMania 6, it was in the Sky Dome in Toronto,

328. one of the great North American cities for wrestling.

329. Besides Hulk Hogan, the Ultimate Warrior

330. was the biggest box office attraction in wrestling.

331. He found out a few months before

332. that he was gonna be taking Hulk's spot.

333. It was the greatest joy of his life.

334. He thought, "Wow, this will be amazing," and he was very pumped.

335. And then, it came, and WrestleMania 6 was there.

336. Champion against champion! Title for title!

337. This is what it's all about!

338. He was the most nervous I've ever seen.

339. He had severe anxiety.

340. Take a look at this! Look at the intensity!

341. Eye to eye right here, face to face.

342. I literally could physically feel the match.

343. Like, I was like feeling it.

344. It was just the emotion of it, the excitement.

345. I've just never felt anything like that.

346. And here we go!

347. It's deafening here in the Sky Dome!

348. Vince felt that 7 years of Hulk Hogan steadily on top was enough.

349. He thought that the Warrior was ready to take it.

350. Caught him with the clothesline! Onto the floor goes Hogan!

351. Hogan had gone on a breakneck schedule,

352. he was tired and was ready to take a break.

353. And so, Vince made the decision to pass the torch.

354. He's got him up!

355. It's the only time in that decade run with the WWF,

356. that Hulk Hogan actually legitimately got beaten, 1, 2, 3 in the ring

357. by an opponent, and it was the Ultimate Warrior.

358. Here it is!

359. Oh! He moved out of the way!

360. Look at the big splash! 1, 2—! He got him! He got him!

361. Unbelievable!

362. For Hogan to do what Hogan did for Ultimate Warrior is a miracle.

363. He carried the Warrior to immortality at WrestleMania 6.

364. And they did it live, which is even more astonishing.

365. After the match, he kind of went off on his own for a little bit.

366. Just to take it all in.

367. And to give himself a big pat on the back and say,

368. "Wow, nobody believed in me, but I did it."

369. He was rich and now he was the world champion.

370. But that was short lived.

371. Because literally, like two months after,

372. Jim Hellwig left and the Ultimate Warrior came home.

373. He became really erratic.

374. He started staying on the road, which he never did before.

375. He was disconnected. Something was off.

376. You call his behavior erratic, what do you mean by that?

377. He seemed altered.

378. I mean, I didn't see anything, but he definitely was not—

379. He was not well.

380. He was on the road, and I tried to call his room.

381. And he didn't answer. So I had them do a wellness check on him.

382. You ask any wrestling wife out there,

383. when you don't hear from your husband, you get scared.

384. And when I called back, the guys, "He's there. He was asleep."

385. And that was the end of it.

386. I thought back to something somebody told me a long time ago.

387. "Women will always want to sleep with your husband,

388. but ones that want to steal your life are the worry."

389. So I called the room. He answered the phone.

390. And I heard a girl's voice.

391. And I immediately thought, oh, my gosh. I was devastated.

392. I started going through his things, and I found this day planner.

393. And I looked at page 1, and page 2, and page 3,

394. and it would be a girl's name and the town.

395. And I told him, I said,

396. "When you come home, you're gonna be served papers.

397. And I'm divorcing you."

398. I didn't wait for a response.

399. My worst fear had come true.

400. I had just lost my husband.

401. By 1991, Jim Hellwig's 9-year marriage to Shari comes to an end.

402. And to make matters worse, he loses the WWF Championship.

403. No! Wait a second, no!

404. Feeling betrayed, his relationship with his boss, Vince McMahon,

405. begins to deteriorate.

406. I was in Orlando, and Vince came to me and said,

407. "We want to put you and Warrior together

408. and give you your championship run,"

409. which I had been waiting for, for years.

410. "But before we can, you need to go and get the okay from him."

411. I'm like, "What? What do you mean? You're the f'ing boss, man."

412. He goes, "Jake, it's just the way we have to do these things."

413. So I went to his private dressing room

414. and knocked on the door.

415. "What? Come in."

416. He got right in my face and says, "Let me tell you something.

417. I don't care anything about your family,

418. I don't care anything about you.

419. I don't care about wrestling. I just want to do my shit.

420. Here's the deal. You better not miss a show.

421. Because then you're messing with my money.

422. If you mess with my money, I'm gonna get ya.

423. End of story. Get out."

424. I walked out and I was in shock.

425. For this jackass to come to me like that was like pissing in my mouth.

426. But I had to do it if I wanted that championship run.

427. After Summer Slam it'll be me and Warrior.

428. Head to head. Making more money than I ever thought I'd make.

429. Plans for Jake "The Snake" Roberts would soon be derailed

430. as tensions between McMahon and Hellwig begin to boil over.

431. Desperate to remain at the top of the card,

432. Jim plans a drastic move.

433. At this point, he moved into his home that he bought in Arizona.

434. He decided he wanted to live the big life,

435. so he bought himself a million dollar mansion in Scottsdale.

436. He called me up, because of our history

437. and he needed somebody that he could trust,

438. somebody that he could talk to.

439. He wanted me to come out.

440. He had decided, in his mind, in his paranoid way,

441. that he wanted everything that Hulk had.

442. He wanted the same money,

443. he wanted the same cut of the merchandising,

444. he wanted it all.

445. So, he's like, "I'm gonna give Vince this letter

446. and if he fires me, he fires me."

447. I was like, "You can't do this." I go, "You can't hold up TV."

448. He's like, "Well, I've lost my whole life

449. and I feel like I deserve what he has."

450. And at that point, there's absolutely no getting through to him.

451. And I knew that this was gonna end really bad for him.

452. Leading up to the Summer Slam Pay Per View in 1991,

453. with 20,000 fans in attendance and millions more watching at home,

454. Jim delivers a letter to Vince laying out a list of demands.

455. He threatens that unless he is treated creatively

456. and financially in line with Hulk Hogan

457. he would refuse to show up.

458. His relationship with Vince is the most complicated thing.

459. He loved Vince.

460. And I think that he looked at him like a father figure in a way.

461. I actually believe that he just wanted more attention from him.

462. Ay time he asked Vince for something, Vince gave it to him.

463. "I want my own locker room. I want a limousine all the time.

464. I want the Lear jets." So I mean, he wanted it all.

465. And I think at that point,

466. Vince had grown tired and weary of the demands,

467. and it came to the point where, I mean, what do you do?

468. It's a business, and you don't hold up a show.

469. Vince is infuriated, but he has one rule:

470. get the match in the ring at all costs.

471. Vince temporarily placates Warrior's demands,

472. but he has no intention of honoring them after the event.

473. I was at Summer Slam. It was in Madison Square Garden.

474. I'm so amped up.

475. I am gonna start making thousands and thousands of dollars

476. every time I go through that curtain.

477. I was standing next to Vince when Warrior came out of the ring.

478. And Vince put his hand out and stopped him

479. and he goes, "By the way, you're fired.

480. Now get the **** out of my building."

481. Vince looked at me and said,

482. "You got the worst luck of any human being I've ever met."

483. To say that I wanted to kill that son of a bitch

484. would be putting it lightly.

485. I carried that anger for years.

486. This is the letter from Vince McMahon to the Warrior.

487. "As you know, on September 23rd, 1987,

488. you signed a booking contract with Titan Sports.

489. At the time you signed the contract,

490. you were relatively obscure with an enthusiastic desire to succeed.

491. It now appears the fame that you have obtained

492. through the efforts of Titan Sports has gone to your head.

493. You've become impossible to work with.

494. You have become a legend in your own mind.

495. You are entitled to your own opinion,

496. you are not entitled to vent your feelings

497. by threatening to breech your contract.

498. This was a serious mistake on your part."

499. Jim's greatest downfall of all time,

500. was his inability to see things from somebody else's perspective.

501. He just always thought that his way was the right way.

502. After threatening to no-show Summer Slam,

503. Jim Hellwig gets suspended by Vince McMahon.

504. Over the next 18 months, both engage in several legal battles,

505. leading to Jim's eventual firing.

506. Feeling powerless,

507. Jim makes a bold move to regain control of his life,

508. and the character he left behind.

509. Warrior's run with the WWF came to an end in 1992.

510. He changed his legal name to Warrior

511. because they owned Ultimate Warrior.

512. They were mad at each other for several years.

513. Warrior became Warrior.

514. Not "The Warrior". Not Jim 'The Warrior' Hellwig.

515. He changed his name, legally, to Warrior.

516. I changed my name because they said,

517. "What you did for the last 15 years, we own.

518. You can't even refer to it."

519. So I started using my character that I spent all those years

520. developing and creating in entrepreneurial projects.

521. Why do you think he legally changed his name to Warrior?

522. This is just my opinion, because I was not his wife then.

523. He had to reinvent himself. You have to make a living.

524. He'd built the character

525. and probably felt that that was what he had to do.

526. By 1996, Hulk Hogan and other WWF wrestlers

527. have jumped ship to their arch competitor, WCW.

528. One! Two! Three!

529. In order to recapture WWF's former success,

530. Vince decides to approach Warrior for a second chance.

531. Along with members of his executive team,

532. Vince flies to Warrior's new home in Arizona to make amends.

533. During this talk and during this lunch,

534. all that Warrior talked about was his concepts, and his visions,

535. and his ideas for spreading "destrucity".

536. You're probably wondering out there in TV land.

537. What the fuck is "destrucity"?

538. "Destrucity" was the truth in between destiny and reality,

539. where you could stay true to yourself while achieving your goals

540. because he thought, in his demented mind,

541. he was gonna be some kind of motivational person

542. for children and beleaguered people across America.

543. I got on with the entrepreneurial projects,

544. started thinking about public speaking, reading and writing.

545. Ultimate Warrior always represented a superhero comic book character.

546. So I wrote the story around this graphically created

547. Ultimate Warrior comic book character.

548. Now he wants to be a motivational speaker. He wants comic books.

549. There's nothing wrong with any of that, if you're qualified to do it.

550. This is time in my life I could never get back.

551. It was a total waste of a trip.

552. Although his staff has major apprehensions,

553. McMahon takes a risk by hiring Warrior once again,

554. and his big return is scheduled for WrestleMania 12.

555. WrestleMania!

556. Warrior's opponent is rising star Hunter Hearst Helmsley,

557. better known today as Triple H.

558. - He basically sold nothing... - Coming right about— Yeah!

559. It's over!

560. Took Triple H's finish and stood right back up and looked at him.

561. Beat him up and beat him in a minute and a half, flat.

562. Just trashed him, just destroyed him because he was the Warrior

563. and he was the most important thing in the world.

564. The pop was huge, but only for a few weeks.

565. When the 1996 WWF fan

566. saw the guy that he remembered as being the big star from 1990,

567. "He wasn't as good as I remember him."

568. Things had changed.

569. He wouldn't sell lots of merchandise.

570. Destrucity won't become a household word.

571. The comic book was not gonna sell.

572. Things were not gonna be going his way.

573. Vince made the decision, "We don't need him on our roster."

574. Warrior's career in the WWF is over,

575. and it isn't the story book ending everyone was hoping for.

576. Defeated and disappointed, Warrior retreats back to Arizona.

577. Years later, he goes back to his body building roots

578. and opens his own gym.

579. It was there he would cross paths again with his ex-wife, Shari.

580. That's probably one of the times where he was very, very, very happy.

581. He had built this from the ground, up, and—

582. I just saw like a new energy in him that I hadn't seen in a long time.

583. He and I were friends at that point.

584. And he was dating, and I was dating, and it wasn't like weird or anything.

585. It was just nice just to have him in my life and have him as a friend.

586. And then I met my now husband there.

587. And he met his wife.

588. And then, when I got pregnant with my daughter,

589. it got to the point where he and I decided

590. that it was not a good idea for me to be in the gym anymore

591. because I had fallen in love

592. and he had fallen in love with somebody else,

593. and it was gonna make our significant others very uncomfortable

594. if we're around each other.

595. And he stood in front of me, and he took my hands, and said

596. "I want to thank you for all these years, of being my wife."

597. I'm so sorry for all the pain that I've ever caused you."

598. And I wish I could have been a faithful husband,"

599. and just the fact that he acknowledged that meant a lot to me.

600. "And know that I always loved you,

601. and I wish you nothing but happiness and the best,

602. and I know you're gonna be a great mom."

603. And that conversation ended our relationship.

604. And that was the last time that I saw him.

605. With Warrior's wrestling career in the rearview mirror,

606. and his relationship with Shari officially over,

607. he was not done creating controversy

608. and would spend the next decade using his fleeting celebrity status

609. to become a conservative motivational speaker.

610. The woman who'd become my wife

611. walked into my life, she was conservative.

612. And through her I realized I had been, without knowing directly,

613. all along living by a conservative philosophy life.

614. I was in my mid 30s. I wasn't gonna retire and just not do anything.

615. So I started with the real simple idea of just going out,

616. talking to young people.

617. I don't pull my punches about anything.

618. He wanted to be a motivational speaker and a coach.

619. He was actually a far right-wing nutcase who hated gay people.

620. Let me come down off my politically correct horse.

621. Because queering doesn't make the world work.

622. And he said really horrible things

623. about a variety of cultures and peoples—

624. His political rants or his anti gay rants or his right wing rants,

625. or his homophobia,

626. I've never yet understood the first fucking thing

627. about how this guy's head worked.

628. And he would say a variety of things about guys in the business

629. that may or may not have been true,

630. but coming from him was the most unpalatable of all.

631. Hulkamania is entwined in society.

632. By the example you've set of how to fuck up a life.

633. I mean, you didn't care if your wife slept with other guys.

634. I mean, you're a real piece of shit, Terry.

635. Here was the most unprofessional, argumentative, hard to work with,

636. egotistical, untalented guy

637. that all these people had a hand in making a star,

638. and then all he did afterwards was trash them.

639. After spending years publicly disparaging his contemporaries

640. and embroiled in lawsuits with the WWE,

641. it was unlikely that Warrior would ever find himself face to face

642. with any of his former opponents.

643. That would all change in 2014

644. in a move that shocked the wrestling world

645. when it was announced that The Ultimate Warrior

646. would be headlining the Hall of Fame ceremony

647. at WrestleMania 30.

648. One of his longtime enemies

649. would be lying in wait for his return.

650. I had a roll of quarters in my pocket.

651. I was gonna beat his ass.

652. And I'm waiting on him, looking for him.

653. Of course, Warrior being Warrior,

654. they had him in a private area and security guards and all that.

655. I had to wait, and I had to wait, and I had to wait.

656. And I'm boiling, I'm boiling, I'm boiling.

657. And then, all of a sudden, somebody tapped me on the back.

658. Turned around and it was Warrior.

659. He put his hands up and he goes, "Please, just let me do this.

660. I need to apologize to you and your family.

661. That's who I was then, but that wasn't me.

662. But, if it means anything, just know that I'm sorry."

663. He disarmed me.

664. Another lesson in life, man.

665. That's what I got, a lesson.

666. At the Hall of Fame weekend,

667. Warrior made amends with some of the talent that was there.

668. It probably warmed Vince's heart more than anyone

669. because he just always likes to bring people back into the fold.

670. - Congratulations. - You always look great.

671. He was on his best behavior

672. and he did what everyone considered to be a fine speech.

673. I've never interacted with anybody in this business

674. that hasn't taught me something.

675. The inductions were made and his family was there.

676. And it seemed like an improbable story book ending

677. for this multi-decade contentious relationship.

678. Warrior!

679. The next night, he comes out on Monday Night Raw,

680. live on television, and cuts another promo.

681. It's an inspirational speech that people actually understood.

682. I am Ultimate Warrior!

683. You are the Ultimate Warrior fans!

684. And the spirit of Ultimate Warrior will run forever!

685. Warrior didn't look healthy that night.

686. Like he had really got fatigued or hadn't been able to sleep.

687. Something was off.

688. My sister called me, and she's like, "I'm so sorry about Jim."

689. And I'm like, "What are you talking about? What do you mean?"

690. Somewhere around 12 hours after

691. that final Monday Night Raw appearance,

692. he was leaving his hotel room, walking to the car the next morning,

693. had a heart attack and died.

694. One of the biggest pro wrestling stars of the 1990s.

695. We learned overnight that the Ultimate Warrior has died.

696. It's probably one of the most startling things

697. that ever happened in wrestling

698. after almost 20 years, the guy finally comes back

699. has a chance to at least resurrect his legacy,

700. if not his career, gets started, drops over dead.

701. He does his promo and he gets a standing ovation,

702. and he goes home. And he dies.

703. You couldn't write that story. So it was sad, it was sad.

704. I was sad for his family.

705. The children weren't gonna have a father.

706. I mean, just everything about it, and just so bad.

707. Nobody should ever have to see their loved one die like that.

708. I mean, I was sad for the fans.

709. I was sad that people had lost something

710. that meant so much to them,

711. this character, this gimmick, the Ultimate Warrior.

712. Everything about it was horrible.

713. I would say that Warrior never said anything anymore truthful

714. than his last words on Raw.

715. Every man's heart one day beats its final beat.

716. His lungs breath their final breath.

717. You're gonna breathe your last breath.

718. Your heart will beat its last time.

719. We never suspected it'd be that quick, that soon for him.

720. Rest in peace.