BatStarIndyFreak Review of The Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior

The Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior (2005 Video)

There are things in this Doc you can't ignore.

[7/10 · 22 February 2012]

Make no mistake, Vince McMahon has an ego that would fill 20 Donald Trumps. Still, I can't imagine that he'd have this many people from the Warrior's era in his pocket; many of whom had been distanced from him for many years. I was a big fan of Warrior when he first came out. Any wrestling fan from that era would tell that he brought a unique and intense energy to the (then) WWF. I predicted that he would 'legitimately' pin Hulk Hogan for the World title in Wrestlemania 6, and was actually excited to see what he would give us with it. I can remember how the producers did everything they could to get everybody into excitement by practically merging the Ultimate Warrior's image with their big emblem -- right down to starting the "Superstars of Wrestling" TV show with a sequence showing an animated Warrior in a dark rocky place, but energized with all kinds of lightning and shockwaves. But it was around that time that The Ultimate Warrior suddenly changed in his demeanor. He went from consistent raging powerful dialogue (and I will give him that I had no problem following it) to an annoying softspeak, coupled with a lame snarl. When I watched this documentary, and recollected my viewing experiences, so many things fit together perfectly. Shortly after Warrior lost the World title he suddenly disappeared (of the many things that bothered me about Vince McMahon was that he never said anything about any wrestler's departure. You had find out from some other source after going months asking, "when are we going to see '___' again?"). Then in Wrestlemania 7 we see a big dramatic comeback. After that we saw Warrior go through gimmick after gimmick in revving up his appearance. I stopped watching wrestling shortly after that (not really because of the Warrior's changes, it just faded from me). And Eric Bischoff (WCW owner) and all others in the WCW made a solid case for how problematic Warrior was for them. The title is a bit extreme, and I do see that as a product of Vince's ego, but even before I watched it, I had the sense that the Warrior had much the same problem.