WWE’s Ultimate Warrior Dead at 54 — Three Days After Being Inducted Into Hall of Fame

I learned on Wednesday, April 8th 2014, that the Ultimate Warrior has passed away. Like so many people who have been following professional wrestling for a long time, his untimely death at the young age of 54 was a very big surprise.

Whenever I hear about many individuals, who have help shape the person I am today, have passed away; I cannot help but feel an overwhelming sense of sadness. Not too long ago a great Icon in bodybuilding, Larry Scott, passed away as well at 75 years of age.

Warrior was recently inducted into the WWE Hall of fame, which means that all the bad blood Warrior had with the McMahan family was squashed and over with. To Vince McMahan’s credit, it seems that he really respects many of the superstars that he may have done wrong by in some form or another and feels the need to give them some sort of restitution. This brings to mind Bret “hit Man” Hart, Bruno Sarmartino, and superstar Bill Graham to name a few.

I know that there are many loser candy asses out there probably saying the typical uninformed stupid special Ed crap like “he died from steroids duuuhh…” or some idiotic statement like that. First of all, it has not been concluded of what he died from and what caused his heart failure. The last time I checked anyone can die from heart failure; both athletes and non athletes. Heart Failure happens all the time to the young and the old and in a sudden fashion.

The Warrior has been out of wresting for less than twenty years. The last time he wrestled was back in 2008 against Orlando Jordon in a wrestling federation in Spain and that was just one match out of retirement and then after the match went back into retirement.

I remember reading the wrestling magazines like one of my favorites, “Pro Wrestling Illustrated,” an issue from 1985; I was seventeen, which had this massive bodybuilder wrestler on the corner cover reporting on “What will the Dingo Warrior do next?” Dingo Warrior was the Warriors name when he was in the independent wrestling circuit in Florida and before he came to the WWF which is now called WWE. When the Warrior arrived at the WWF in the mid to late 1980’s, he immediately gained fame. I later came to realize the Warrior, former known as Jim Helwig, was an accomplished top armature bodybuilder. I saw him on the cover of Dr. Ellington Darden’s book, “Super High Intensity Bodybuilding,” which is so proper for the Warrior being that he is so intense both in the gym and in the ring.

Super High Intensity with Warrior on the cover

I always gravitate towards size and strength. When I read comic books, I naturally gravitated towards the Hulk, the Thing and monsters like Godzilla and many of those who exalt strength, power and big muscles as well as great character. It’s was and is the same with sports like MMA, wrestling, bodybuilding, power lifting, Olympic lifting and strong man along with pro wrestling.

Pro Wrestling in the mid to late 1980’s was like a comic book come to life in the ring with super heroes fighting off the villains. This appealed to many fans but what appealed to me most was the use of bodybuilding in helping many of these superstars develop their bodies. Warrior made full use of bodybuilding to develop the character of the Ultimate Warrior.

I remember watching the famous wrestlemania 6 match of the Ultimate Warrior vs. Hulk Hogan. That was a great match with each athlete performing at their best and giving the fans a great show.

Again, I can hear all of those who are of low IQ and mentally bank rupt saying, But, But wrestling is fake. All I can say to those mindless idiots is shut up; movies are fake too and many of you are brained washed by the crap Hollywood, the public school system, the news channels and the news papers seem to be pumping out, which affect our lives daily. All of that crap is fake too. Man made global warming if fake, evolution is a fake science and yet many people believe this crap. Idiots!!!

The Ultimate Warrior had a positive effect on my life and his message and that is to always believe in yourself and your abilities and to be the best you, you can be.

In closing, I would like to express my deepest condolences to the Warriors family; May God have mercy on Warriors soul and may God Bless Warriors family.

ALWAYS BELIEVE

God Bless all

I.A.A.M.

P.S. Here are some news articles discussing the untimely death of Warrior.

James Hellwig, Wrestling’s Ultimate Warrior, Dies at 54

James Hellwig, a professional wrestler known in the 1990s as the Ultimate Warrior a frenzied mountain of muscle and face paint who was billed as the heir apparent to Hulk Hogan, but who then fell out of favor died on Tuesday in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 54.

He and his wife, Dana, had just arrived in Scottsdale when he collapsed in the parking lot of their hotel. He died at a nearby hospital, a spokesman for the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office said, adding that an autopsy would be conducted on Thursday.

Mr. Hellwig had been inducted into the World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame on Saturday in New Orleans. His induction ended a long personal feud with W.W.E.’s founder, Vincent McMahon, that had made him an industry pariah for most of the last dozen years.

Mr. Hellwig joined Mr. McMahon’s organization, then known as the World Wrestling Federation, in 1987 and quickly rose in fans esteem with his feats of strength, his dervish energy, his orange tan and his quasi-mystical interview style. (Answering a ringside interviewer’s question about tactics, he gestured toward a fan in the crowd wearing face paint like his and said, I know that that warrior is ready to make that sacrifice so that I shall live.)

Measured in ticket, merchandise and closed-circuit sales, he was considered Hulk Hogan’s equal in popularity by 1990, when the two faced each other in a championship match before a crowd of 68,000 in Toronto.

The match, unusual because it pitted two wrestlers regarded as good guys against each other, came to be regarded as a classic moment in pro wrestling. The choreography was rehearsed only once, the night before the match, which may have helped give it an aura of suspense it never really had. Mr. Hellwig emerged victorious.

In the mid-1990s, Mr. Hellwig and Mr. McMahon became embroiled in a contract dispute, and as a result his appearances were intermittent through the rest of the decade. Like many of the marquee names in the business, Mr. Hellwig also admitted to having taken anabolic steroids throughout the 70s and 80s, before they became illegal.

James Brian Hellwig was born in Crawfordsville, Ind., on June 16, 1959, the oldest of five children. He attended Indiana State University for a year and was attending chiropractic school in Atlanta, studying to become a fitness trainer and therapist, when he won the 1984 Mr. Georgia weight-lifting competition. The victory earned Mr. Hellwig an invitation to become a pro wrestler.

Besides his wife, he is survived by two daughters, his mother and a brother.

Mr. Hellwig’s reconciliation with W.W.E. and his triumphal return, like something out of a pro wrestling melodrama resulted in part from the resolution of the dispute, and in part from a broad consensus in the industry that Mr. Hellwig was one of its biggest stars.

In the past decade Mr. Hellwig, who legally changed his name to Warrior in 1999, had become a conservative speaker on the political lecture circuit.

At the award ceremony in New Orleans on Saturday, Mr. Hellwig addressed his fans exuberantly, shouting an old battle cry (Speak to me, warriors!) before resorting to his signature quasi-mystical styles of old.

“No W.W.E. talent becomes a legend on their own, Mr. Hellwig said at his induction. Every man’s heart one day beats its final beat. His lungs breathe their final breath. And if what that man did in his life makes the blood pulse through the body of others, it makes them bleed deeper and something larger than life, then his essence, his spirit, will be immortalized.”