OT: The Ultimate Warrior Passes Away

Submitted by MGoVoldemort on
Haven't followed anything wrestling related in years, but it looks like the Ultimate Warrior died according to a RT that was on my timeline. I was always more of a Hogan fan as a kid, but a bunch of my friends growing up went ape shit over the guy. @StephMcMahon: #RIPUltimateWarrior Your strength of character is to be admired. There will never be anyone like you. Your spirit lives on in your family.

randyfloyd

April 9th, 2014 at 7:52 AM ^

I can also remember listening to Reds games on the radio and hearing Macho Man call in. He was a HUGE reds fan and whenever they had a rain delay, they would take phone calls from fans. They called it the banana phone, up until a couple years ago, because the owner of the team owned Chiquita Bananas.

Anyway, whenever I heard "randy from St. Pete, you're on the banana phone", I knew it was Macho Man. He still had that same rough sounding voice and he always threw in the occasional "Oooooh Yeeaaah" and "Dig it"...

*sigh*

I know, cool story bro.....

OMG Shirtless

April 9th, 2014 at 12:16 AM ^

Didn't he just resurface this weekend at Wrestlemania? I have a whole bunch of childhood memories of tying tassles around my arms and body slamming my brother off the couch.

TheNema

April 9th, 2014 at 1:24 AM ^

Rumor out there that it was a drug overdose. Would make a lot of sense.

Totally speculating, but the guy probably did a lot of drugs as a star wrestler, gets a huge weekend thrown for him that makes him feel like a star wrestler again, and to make the throwback complete ... does drugs.

Swazi

April 9th, 2014 at 12:14 PM ^

He collapsed leaving his Arizona hotel walking to his car with his wife. Ambulance picked him up and was pronounced dead on arrival.

I highly doubt it was a drug overdose, however, I wouldn't be surprised if drugs played a role in it. Eddie Guerrero died of heart failure because he used to be a big drug abuser back in WCW and in Mexico. But he was deemed clean in WWF/E.

Louie C

April 9th, 2014 at 1:46 AM ^

I know it's been said on here before, but when your childhood idols pass, not only does it make you feel old, but you question your own mortality. Especially when they were larger than life and seemed invincible.

Pro wrestling just seems to chew people up and spit them out. I saw a documentary on the dark side of wrestling, and that was just with the amateurs. I know its exponentially worse with the big time. There's a pretty long list of names of the wrestlers that have passed on to prove it.

BRBLUE

April 9th, 2014 at 5:18 AM ^

I just watched the ultimate warrior's hall of fame speech a few days ago. He spoke about his days wrestling but said his best accomplishment in his life was being a father to his two young daughters. It was a great speech. RIP Warrior.

LSAClassOf2000

April 9th, 2014 at 6:16 AM ^

He was only 54 too, which is not old by any means. Very tragic. 

I remember watching his matches as a kid, including his defeat of Honkey Tonk Man, which I believe was his first Intercontinental Title. As I recall, he lost it the very next year to Ravishing Rick, but those were some pretty entertaining times for the 11-12 year old me. Yeah, my friends and I would try the off-the-furniture slams a la Warrior too.

In his retirement, he was a motivational speaker, and from what I have heard, a very good one too. RIP Warrior. 

bronxblue

April 9th, 2014 at 8:00 AM ^

Saw this yesterday.

Extremeply sad end to a star-crossed life.  Obviously, when a young girl dies after battling cancer we should all be struck by the unpredictability of life; when a 54-year-old former bodybuilder/wrestler with a history of drug usage and a pretty cranky/borderline-racist demeanor you can have a bit more levity.

That said, he apparently died walking to his car with his family, leaving the hotel in NO where he stayed after celebrating his acceptance into the WWE HOF.  He wasn't the greatest wrestler, but his end came far too soon, and my condolensces go out to his family.

Tater

April 9th, 2014 at 8:56 AM ^

Though he used steroids during his prime, "Warrior" was an anti-drug guy, supposedly into living a healthy lifestyle.  A YouTube search for "Ultimate Warior Shoots" will yield a collection of videos where he rails against the partying lifestyle prevalent in the WWE when he was there.

Professional wrestlers dying young have become a sad cliche in the business, but it's usually drug-related, starting with injuries, painkillers and a "downward spiral."  Warrior was one of the last people one would expect to drop dead.  

The good: he reconciled with a lot of people in the business over the last three months, most notably VKM, and he got to stand in the ring and soak up the cheers one more time. 

RIP and condolences to his family. 

NorthSideBlueFan

April 9th, 2014 at 10:13 AM ^

Warrior just had his long awaited return and moments in the sun over the weekend and Monday night that many thought might never happen. Then a day later he drops dead. His last promo on Raw is really chilling to watch now.

RIP Warrior, I wish strength for your family.



My somewhat selfish take on being an avid WWE fan is that it sure can be hard to be a big fan of wrestling at times, but thankfully not as often as it used to be. The last 3-4 days were some of the WWE's best and most positive/forward looking that they have had in a long while and now one of the major icons of their history that they just honored and brought back to the front stage of this little corner of pop culture dies. Life is really strange sometimes...

STW P. Brabbs

April 9th, 2014 at 10:21 AM ^

I really liked the Warrior as a kid, but when he and his wackadoo website came across my radar as an adult a few years back, it became clear that he was some combination of not very bright, mentally unstable, or just an asshole. It's strange to see everyone here talk in reverential tones about what is essentially the passing of a fictional character from their childhood.

For those who are actually interested in berating me for ignoring the real man behind the face paint, I'll say this: while I'm sure it was a scintillating speech, nothing says 'I really care about my family' quite like abusing drugs to the point of fatal overdose.

MGoRusty

April 9th, 2014 at 10:37 AM ^

I grew up in the late 90s/early 2000s so i didn't get to watch him while he wrestled. However as a huge WWF fan growing up, i had great appreciation for all of the legends.

I dont watch wresting anymore, but Wrestlemania being Sunday, I tuned into RAW on Monday to see what was happening in the wrestling world. Hearing the Ultimate Warrior's speech, it sounded like he was giving his own eulogy.

umfan720

April 9th, 2014 at 11:03 AM ^

"Every man's heart one day beats its final beat, his lungs breath their final breath. And if what that man did in his life, makes the blood pulse through the body of others, and makes them believe deeper in something larger than life, then his essence, his spirit, will be immortalized by the storytellers, by the loyalty, by the memory, of those who honor him and make whatever the man did live forever." Kind of eerie now