Downloaded from YTS.MX
‐ Ready for another take, Kerwin?
‐ We're only halfway through.
Widen out a little bit
and go right back to that extreme closeup.
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
‐ Okay. Kerwin, here.
‐ Remember what's going on in the ring.
‐ [grunting]
I can smell it!
It's in the air!
I feel the cosmic powers of Mars!
The clouds of Jupiter!
The boiling heat of Mercury!
I can feel it.
[soft music]
♪ ♪
‐ My dad taught my sister and I a creed,
and he would make us write it out.
Live strong. Act bold. Be brave.
‐ History has been made here.
‐ Nothing's too hard to do.
‐ Just stop me dead.
‐ Always believe.
‐ I walk as the general of a legion of warriors!
[cheers and applause]
‐ Ultimate Warrior was just‐‐ he was a moment in time.
And the Ultimate Warrior,
the guy that we grew up watching,
the guy that fought Hulk Hogan and beat him,
was separate from Jim Hellwig.
‐ Don't let the tin cup I kick
hit you in the mouth and knock your teeth out.
[laughter]
‐ The complicated layers of his own psyche...
♪ ♪
Created a man who at times was very difficult
to get a grasp on.
‐ [bleep] me.
‐ He probably wouldn't have been driven to be
The Ultimate Warrior if he hadn't had,
like, the pain he experienced in his early life.
[shouting]
‐ You've got to have some kind of an explanation,
Ultimate Warrior.
‐ He might not have gone on
to be the person that he was afterwards,
if it hadn't been for the disappointment
he was experiencing while we were all cheering for him.
‐ You have seen very small snippets of the man
that I‐I knew personally .
You think of the guy who's, you know, big and tough.
But he'd tuck us in at night, so gently,
and read us our books.
And if there was something really sad or really rough,
like, he'd leave it out.
And that was a beautiful thing for when we were little.
But there's not that privilege anymore.
You have to tell the full story.
And with the past seven years that's gone on,
there's no more‐‐you don't want to censor anything.
Like, this is the story of The Ultimate Warrior.
[cheers and applause]
Read the full book.
♪ ♪
[soft music]
‐ He was skinny. He was real skinny.
You know, I had a picture‐‐I couldn't find it‐‐of him
in a football outfit.
Poor‐‐beanpole. Skinny legs. Cute as a button.
♪ ♪
‐ Jim Hellwig was the oldest of five siblings.
He has two brothers, two sisters.
‐ This is a picture of the four kids before I had my last one.
♪ ♪
‐ Here's the place that I understood Jim
to tell me his wife grew up, in this mobile home.
And said that he lifted weights on that front porch
right there.
‐ Crawfordsville was, I think, like 18,000 people.
Very rural.
‐ Demographics of this area: blue‐collar.
Everybody knows or has an idea of everybody in the community.
♪ ♪
‐ No, I don't think he was real popular with the girls.
Deep down, I think he was shy. Insecure. Insecure. Yes.
‐ He always worshiped his mom, for her efforts,
and was always very complimentary of his mom,
and loved her very much.
‐ His father departing their family
was a pivotal moment for him.
‐ I just think‐‐and it's not just Jim,
but all three of my boys‐‐they had such shame
that their dad could leave them.
He'd come back and go mushroom hunting.
He'd come back and go to ball games.
And never come to see his kids.
‐ Jim's dad leaving seems to have been at least
a beginning point of major trust issues in his life.
‐ He had a lot of insecurities due to the fact that he was ten
when his father left. I think devastated him.
[tense music]
I think, if I be honest, having five kids
and having to work so much,
that the kids didn't always get the reassurance they needed.
He didn't get all the attention he needed.
♪ ♪
‐ Growing up in a town like Jim Hellwig did,
there's sort of the haves and the have‐nots.
And when his dad left,
and wasn't contributing financially to the family,
suddenly Jim finds himself as one of the have‐nots.
‐ Jim felt that a lot of people in the community
looked down on him. He also very definitively said,
"I'm going to show these people.
I'm going to do something with my life."
Which, you think about it, this is a 17‐year‐old
who has embraced this
"I'm going to conquer the world" attitude
because of the way he feels
that the people of his community
had rejected him and his family.
♪ ♪
He also then goes searching for an identity beyond his father,
and that's what ends up leading him to sports.
And Jim ends up meeting Gary Pate.
‐ The first time I ever met Jim would be
at football practice back in 1975.
The first time I ever saw Jim
was in this classroom right here.
All the team members were sitting in here.
Well, when you saw some of these kids,
those guys were all about 6'2" and 220 and 225.
And Jim looked to be about, at that time,
5'10" and 125.
I'm sure he probably might have weighed more,
but he didn't look like it.
As the year went on, he found out that I would be
in the weight room when I had time.
He'd ask if he could come in with me, and I'd say,
"Sure. Yeah. Come in and lift all you want."
And we would lift, and he would be intense about his lifting.
‐ You have Jim and Gary, who, for about three years,
end up lifting together on sort of a cruddy old lifting machine
in their high school.
This is how he learned to bond with people,
especially with paternal figures‐‐working out with them
and lifting with them.
By his senior year,
Jim was utterly fascinated with bodybuilding,
and he was constantly trying to get his hands
on bodybuilding magazines and materials.
He would apparently be looking at these magazines
and say things like,
"I can't wait till I'm this massive."
‐ He had the Arnold Schwarzenegger
poster in his room, you know.
He'd have his EZ Curl bar in there,
and would be pumping iron
facing the Arnold Schwarzenegger poster,
you know, and, like‐‐you know.
He knew that he needed to seek his own ambitions,
so he wasn't stuck in that rural area,
being your own farmer, working a factory,
when he didn't have no desire
to do either one of them for a living.
‐ Jim's pursuit of a bodybuilding career
seems to have manifested in the early 1980s.
But he makes a move over to Georgia,
because he feels like there is a better opportunity
for the professional bodybuilding scene.
During that time in Georgia,
he meets his future wife, Shari.
They get married.
‐ You know, he gets married pretty young.
He goes down to Atlanta to try to start this career.
You know, he's sort of going through the stations of, like,
what growing up and entering adulthood looks like.
‐ And by 1984, he's made the move
to definitively try to get himself into competition shape.
And he does so and manages to win
a pretty significant competition in 1984.
He wins Mr. Georgia.
‐ I knew that it would serve me well
to make my body different from everybody else,
like a comic book character just walked off the pages.
‐ He was dedicated, and he had a goal
where he wanted to go with this lifting.
‐ He never said, "I'm gonna be the world champion WWE,
and I'm gonna pick up Andre the Giant and body slam him."
But he did say, "I will,
one of these days, be a person that people will remember."
He said, "I'll guarantee that people will remember me."
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
‐ Today, I'm boxing with my coach.
I love boxing. I feel like my dad.
I feel strong and powerful when I do it.
I love the intensity that comes out.
The release from it feels like him.
I would hear him screaming out in the gym,
and I'm like‐‐I'm a little bit like him when I'm in the gym.
‐ Coming from my background,
growing up in a town of 600 people,
I stumbled into the weight room we had at our school.
Runt of a kid. Scared of my own shadow.
And I started gaining weight really quick.
And when I started gaining weight
and putting size on my body, I thought to myself,
"Well, I can change my life in other ways."
♪ ♪
‐ It's something that I can strive to get better at,
and I can look back at my younger self
and think, like, "Oh, I thought I was so good back then,"
and then you climb the wall and you get better and better.
♪ ♪
Well, in terms of becoming a wrestler, never say never.
♪ ♪
‐ So, I scheduled
an appointment with the high school counselor.
15 seconds after I started telling he what I wanted to do,
she put her hand up to my face, about ten inches away from it,
and she said, "Put that silly stuff away,
and let me tell you what you need to do.
This summer, you need to get a job at the factory.
Do a good job. Come back and finish your senior year.
And when you graduate,
you should be able to get a full‐time job.
Now, what else can I help you with?"
[tense music]
♪ ♪
‐ For any bodybuilder, when you build your body,
it's like putting on your armor.
You know, you're building your muscle,
which is your armor, to protect yourself
from who you are, really, inside.
You could be this insecure person, but now you're,
you know, 240, 250 pounds, you know, of muscle.
‐ It totally makes sense
that someone without a male role model,
who's in search of what masculinity means to them‐‐it
make sense that they would look at this world of bodybuilding.
[upbeat music]
In the '80s, I mean, it's kind of hard to imagine,
if you weren't there,
but bodybuilding was a huge deal.
‐ There was really only one person
everyone was talking about,
and that was Arnold Schwarzenegger.
He was in the moving "Pumping Iron,"
and those images became iconic.
‐ Arnold Schwarzenegger becomes a huge star.
I mean, arguably the biggest star in Hollywood.
‐ How did he get there? It wasn't just, "Hey,
let me go to acting school and become this movie star."
It was, oh, he goes to the gym all the time,
and he never quits. Jim says, "I can do that."
‐ If you really want to make it,
you gotta move to California.
‐ Gold's Gym Venice, in the '80s,
became the mecca.
‐ Gold's Gym became the standard for anyone
who wanted to become a bodybuilder.
♪ ♪
‐ I contacted Jim, and I invited him
out to California to train for his next contest.
'Cause I thought he had a lot of potential.
‐ Ed introduced me to Jim, saying,
"Here's a young guy who's trying to win the nationals."
‐ My first house in Venice was just two blocks from the gym,
so the guys would stay at the house
and they would learn from each other.
We knew how they trained or what they ate
or what they took for supplements.
‐ Ed one day came in to this gym,
and he wanted me to let this big dude come in and train.
This guy was a giant, you know.
He wasn't just big, he was kind of freaky.
He had a freaky build, a freaky physique.
And when he walked through the room or through the gym
or anywhere else, people went‐‐
[tense music]
‐ Performance‐enhancing drugs and steroids
were definitely in fashion
when it came to the world of bodybuilding.
‐ Steroids were part of the regiment of what you took
to be a pro bodybuilder.
What it did is it gave you the ability
to basically be in an anabolic state.
You can train hours in the gym and not break down.
But the thing was‐‐is they were legal back then.
You can actually have access to go to a pharmacy
and just buy them on your own.
‐ I think, if people were to open my refrigerator,
they would have probably been shocked.
You know, most of the steroids have to be refrigerated,
so some of my family members would visit,
and so when they pulled out the fruit door,
they could something other than fruit.
‐ If I'm gonna take the time to talk to you about this,
then you need to get it down right.
So, I got up the courage one day‐‐I weight
about 175 pounds.
I go up to this guy as he's leaving the gym,
and I tap him on the shoulder.
I said, "Can I ask you about ster‐‐"
Before I even got the word "steroid" out in my mouth,
he turned around. Guy just towered over me.
He said, "Before I ever heard about steroids,
I was number three in the whole world.
But when you get up there in that upper echelon,
there may be a different set of rules."
And what he was telling me, as a young punk kid
of only 18 years old‐‐ he was saying,
"You get there. You do what it takes to get there.
And then you worry about making that decision."
I weighed 295 pounds before I ever touched them.
That's the story about steroids.
And you better get that story right.
‐ And the next competitor is Jim Hellwig.
‐ You know, guys like Jim,
who, you know, I saw as this big guy,
you would think he would become a‐‐you know,
a great pro bodybuilder.
‐ [laughs]
Jim's goals back then was basically,
I think, to make money and have a great job.
‐ You only made money when you were a top pro.
But if you didn't place and win the nationals,
or you didn't win the Mr. USAs,
you really weren't gonna make money.
‐ On some level, he had to come to the realization
that just being a great bodybuilder, in and of itself,
was not going to make him rich and famous.
‐ I guess his path was to go more towards
becoming a professional wrestler,
you know, where he saw money to be made.
‐ In the early '80s, wrestling was a big deal.
Was on TV a lot.
The wrestlers would train at Gold's Gym Venice.
So, we actually formed our own, then, Gold's Gym team,
which was composed of two tag teams.
‐ Out of the four, we had,
you know, a big monster that just disappeared one day.
And I said, "Hey, I remember meeting this guy, Jim Hellwig.
He just won a bodybuilding competition.
He's huge. We should call him."
‐ When I talked with Jim, I explained
that we had lost the big member of our team,
and he'd be perfect for it. He said, "What does it pay?"
And when I told him $100 a night, he said,
"Well, that's more money than I'm making now."
‐ We sent out press kits. We got one phone call back.
It was about three days later,
but we got a phone call back from Jerry Jarrett.
He said, "Yeah, I'm looking at a picture,
and I got four guys in this picture,"
but he says, "I can only use two of you."
"Well, which two do you want?" He goes, "I want the two guys
to the far left in this picture I'm looking at."
So we got in the car, my '83 T‐bird,
and we left California,
and we drove out to Nashville, Tennessee.
And that's where it started.
‐ Right now, we would like to welcome
in a couple of brand new faces to Championship Wrestling,
a couple of guys you're gonna get to know and know well, too.
We're talking about the Freedom Fighters.
Jim Hellwig. Jim, glad to have you here.
And Steve Borden.
Steve, glad to have you guys here.
This is your first time out here.
We want to get a little background on you.
How about‐‐are you guys married,
have families, or what?
‐ No, we're single. We're looking forward
to meeting all those pretty girls.
‐ You're both single? ‐ Yeah. We're single.
‐ You hear that, girls? They're both single here.
I want to get that right.
[cheers and applause]
‐ My first reaction was, "Wow." I saw two good‐looking guys
that were gonna draw the girls into the matches,
and that's what it was all about for us back then.
Back in the day, we never told anybody they were married
or you were engaged or anything else,
because it would hurt the girls from coming to the building.
‐ They're young. They still got a lot to learn in wrestling.
But boy, they sure got the physical attributes, baby.
‐ There was no sort of gracefulness.
There was no slow and poetic storytelling.
It was just boom, energy, and "I'm coming,
and I'm hitting you as hard as I can, and I'm leaving."
‐ It doesn't necessarily connect with the audience.
Like, "Why are we cheering for these good guys
just beating the snot out of these much smaller guys?"
And so they had to make a shift,
because it wasn't working.
‐ Our thought was, "Yeah. Let's change. Let's go heel.
Let's change our look. And let's come up
with something real, you know, kind of freaky looking."
‐ Ladies and gentlemen, the most awesome tag team
in professional wrestling, the Blade Runners!
♪ ♪
‐ The greatest, most [inaudible]
tag team in professional wrestling today,
the Blade Runners!
‐ Before long, Steve Borden and Jim Hellwig
were repackaged into the Blade Runners.
♪ ♪
‐ I think that they realized
that intensity was what they had to offer.
So the promos that you would see were just guys working out.
They weren't saying anything.
But it was just, "We're super intense dudes,
and we can lift super heavy things.
And sometimes we wear mascara."
[cheers and applause]
‐ Blade Runners. Uh‐oh.
‐ The matches were horrible with those guys.
And it was one of those situations where, at the time,
we could have taken them and maybe spent a lot of time
and, you know, put them in opening matches
and tried to train them, but these guys already thought
that they were ready for the big time,
just because of their look.
‐ As Hellwig and Borden working on Phil Hickerson,
and now, Buddy Wayne slugs him with that shoe.
‐ Jill Hellwig has sort of reached this peak
of physical perfection, right?
He goes to pro wrestling in search of fame and fortune.
And then he sort of has to start over, right?
He has to start paying his dues.
He's not making any money. He's traveling.
He's on the road all the time.
‐ Ladies and gentlemen, the most awesome tag team
in professional wrestling, the Blade Runners!
‐ We were on, you know, the 4th of July, you know,
matinee show, evening show, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day,
Christmas Eve, Christmas Day,
Easter Sunday‐‐ it didn't matter,
we were doing two shows a day.
‐ This man is just so powerful. Punishing kicks.
‐ Things we're so bad, I was driving used taxi cabs
that had, like, 400,000 or 500,000 miles on them.
It was just incredible.
‐ Nice move by Brett. Dropkick.
‐ He was very much so, you know,
opiniated kind of a guy.
And, you know‐‐and he was not shy about sharing his opinion.
Didn't matter what the topic was, you know?
We actually walked away at one time.
We walked out on‐‐we were main event.
And the next day, I got a phone call.
"You need to come up to Little Rock tonight.
Bill's holding a couple of your paychecks.
You'll never get them unless you come
and put a notice in and finish out."
So I said okay. You know, "Let me try to get ahold of Jim
and see if we can make this happen."
I couldn't get Jim anywhere. So I went and did the show.
And came back.
And the next day, Jim was pretty hot.
You know, "What'd you do? What are you doing?
How could you do that to me?"
I said, "Jim, what are you talking about?"
He was real pissed.
And that ultimately ended up, you know,
leading to, you know, us parting ways as well.
[cheers and applause]
‐ Blade Runners, no doubt about it,
are big, strong individuals.
But I don't think they've got what it takes inside.
I'm speaking of intestinal fortitude.
‐ I think he just wanted to kind of go off on his own.
And it ended up he was probably right.
♪ ♪
‐ Hellwig decides he's going to leave.
And he has an opening with WCCW over in the Dallas area.
‐ Welcome to World Class Championship Wrestling,
the Major League of Professional Wrestling
seen around the world and across this great nation.
‐ WCCW had really an international
following of sorts, because the Von Erichs
were like a first family of wrestling.
[rock music]
‐ They had an audience that was very unique
in the history of wrestling,
and a large percentage of the audience was women,
and it was all about really good‐looking guys
with great bodies.
So Jim comes in, and I mean,
Jim is, like, perfect for that specific audience.
[cheers and applause]
‐ I remember the first night,
I drove in there, they came up to me and said,
"Warrior. He's got a warrior thing about him,"
or something like that.
Then somebody came in. He had a little puppy, a new puppy.
And they were asking him what kind of dog it was.
He says, "A dingo."
And somebody just‐‐you know, somebody that was, you know,
not quite sober yet, said, "Dingo‐Dingo Warrior.
That'll work. We'll do that tonight."
So, that was the beginning of the Dingo Warrior thing.
‐ From Queens, New York, 287 pounds, the Dingo Warrior.
[cheers and applause]
‐ He was billed as being from Queens, New York.
So, there's no dingoes in Queens.
Dingoes are Australian.
And the word "dingo" is just a ridiculous, silly word.
It just sounds hilarious and not intimidating.
[cheers and applause]
‐ Look at the awesome physical beauty of the Dingo Warrior.
‐ I'll tell you, Brian,
this crowd's behind him, too, 100 percent.
‐ So, you bring any freak of nature you want to World Class,
because believe me, brother,
I've looked in the eyes of darkness before.
And I'm not scared of it, and I never will be,
with the warriors behind my back.
‐ As the Dingo Warrior, Jim Hellwig
gets a noticeable following in WCCW.
all: Dingo. Dingo. Dingo.
‐ Listen to the crowd, wound up for the Dingo man.
all: Dingo. Dingo. Dingo.
‐ It was very obvious to me that the business‐‐
it was going a direction where it wasn't so much like
Dick the Bruiser and the Crusher,
those kind of wrestlers that I remember as a kid,
growing up with, in Indiana,
and that something different was going on with it.
You know, I was painting the logo on my face.
Dingo Warrior, to me,
was the poor version of the Ultimate Warrior.
I didn't really have much money to spend on that kind of stuff.
But it just grew, man.
It really turned into something really fantastic.
‐ And here's a man of awesome proportions,
who has to be counted on to be one of the major
influences in professional wrestling today.
‐ [inaudible] Dingo!
[tense music]
♪ ♪
‐ So, Jim returns
to the Fountain Central Ten‐Year Reunion.
He has not only won Mr. Georgia,
but he has also become the Dingo Warrior.
He's enormous. 280 pounds, solid muscle.
This was not a coming back to sort of mend fences
or to connect with people he didn't connect with.
His whole take was, if you had been his friend in his youth,
"Come sit with me. We're gonna hang out."
And for those people who tried to be more chummy with him,
that had not given him the time of day in his youth,
he had no interest.
‐ He won a couple bottles of champagne for the person
that had changed the most
and the person that drove the furthest.
And I remember him opening the champagne
and having us all drink a little bit of it,
you know, celebrating just our reunion together as friends.
‐ He didn't forget where he came from. Okay?
Jim was a loyal friend.
If you hung in there with him, he hung in there with you.
‐ Now, with a pin. Two. Three.
The Dingo Warrior subdues Jack Victory.
‐ Jim Hellwig was a remarkably creative human being.
Part of it is the look, and I think part of it,
as well, is the fact that he's just different.
‐ When Vince McMahon sees Jim Hellwig in 1987,
he sees the picture‐perfect mold
for what he's putting out there.
He sees, "There's definitely something there.
But I'm gonna make this thing my own."
‐ And look at the power of the Ultimate Warrior.
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
‐ In the territory days,
the WWE was just the New York territory .
‐ The recognized symbol
of excellence in sports entertainment.
[cheers and applause]
‐ By the time people of my age bracket were invested,
the WWE had become the territory.
[dramatic music]
‐ They were hitting cable TV, being seen all over the world.
♪ ♪
‐ Vince McMahon is as responsible
for the success of the WWE
as anyone is for the success of anything.
This is this guy who took everything his father started
and said, "That's great. I like what you're doing here.
But what if we took over the world with it?"
‐ And Dingo is the winner. ‐ So, Jim Hellwig,
as the Dingo Warrior, is in WCCW,
and Vince McMahon takes one look at him
and he says, "Okay, I'll give that guy a shot."
‐ The Ultimate Warrior.
‐ The Ultimate Warrior was a Vince McMahon creation.
His first attempt to create a star,
once he already had all the eyeballs on his company.
‐ He's a strong, powerful man.
‐ There's something Vince told me at one time,
and I'll always remember this.
But he sat down with me and he said, "You know,
Jimmy, I'm looking for my next attraction.
Somebody bigger than life.
Somebody that can walk through any airport in the world,
and even a casual wrestling fan would go,
"Oh my God. Look who it is.'"
‐ The power of the warrior flowing through those veins.
‐ Oh!
‐ Oh! What a clothesline!
‐ He was the only person that would run‐‐and I mean
top speed‐‐all the way to the ring.
‐ Introducing first, weighing 275 pounds,
from parts unknown, the Ultimate Warrior.
[rock music]
‐ You had the Hulkamania, with the red and yellow,
the bright colors, the tee,
and all of a sudden you got a guy come in,
but instead of red and yellow, he's got neon on.
‐ Look at this. ‐ What a display of strength
as the Warrior has him high over his head.
‐ Except for Hulk Hogan, he was the most popular guy they had.
Very quickly.
‐ The audience would react to him.
They started reacting very well.
And I thought, "Hmm. Okay then.
Maybe we do have something here."
‐ What an impressive showing here by the Ultimate Warrior.
‐ You can see that he's on a clear trajectory.
That Vince is, like, writing this script
that will put him following in the footsteps of Hulk Hogan.
[cheers and applause]
‐ Ladies and gentlemen,
this contest is for the Intercontinental Championship.
‐ Honky Tonk Man is gonna
defend the Intercontinental Championship...
‐ Get me somebody out here to wrestle.
I don't care who it is.
‐ Against an unnamed opponent.
And you're waiting to hear who it's gonna be.
And that music hits.
[rock music]
‐ Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
Somebody's music.
‐ I mean, as Gorilla Monsoon says, pandemonium.
‐ Here's is the challenger [inaudible].
‐ It's the Ultimate Warrior!
[cheers and applause]
This place has gone bananas!
‐ I remember what it felt like, man.
It was [bleep] awesome, you know.
It...
‐ Ultimate Warrior exploding here on Honky Tonk Man.
Beautiful flying tackle.
‐ It was just nonstop energy for less than 30 seconds,
and there was a new Intercontinental Champion.
‐ [inaudible] hooks the leg!
‐ That's it! ‐ He's got it!
History has been made here!
‐ Just shocked the wrestling world.
Nobody expected it, right?
He had the belt for over a year.
And I think that's what really gave him
the little rocket that he needed.
‐ It is unbelievable.
A newly‐crowned Intercontinental Champion.
‐ It was just another critical step
in him becoming the biggest wrestler in WWE.
[indistinct chatter]
‐ There you go. Thanks a lot, man.
‐ This is WWE letting the world know
this is the next guy.
This guy that you think might be a star, he is a superstar.
‐ Please welcome the man known as the Ultimate Warrior.
[cheers and applause]
‐ I think the Ultimate Warrior
was a great match for the late '80s,
early '90s.
Everything was about being as big and strong and bombastic
as a character as possible.
He was a cartoon character come to life.
So, my earliest memories of the Ultimate Warrior are of this,
like, mad man covered in tassels and of a doll
that I wanted to cuddle and take to bed with me.
♪ ♪
‐ Hey. Yo. Yo.
‐ Now, because he is successful,
now he's got that target on his back.
‐ Ah! ‐ Ah. Ah.
‐ "This guy's only been in the business for five years.
I've been in this business for 20 years.
What dues did he pay?"
There's all that going on in the locker room.
I got the sense that he really was a loner.
‐ Warrior was very much, at times, an overgrown kid.
Having known a lot of his personal life,
he never really got to be a kid.
You know? Came from a broken home.
Had to grow him and mature quickly.
So, I do think that the Warrior character‐‐that's why he fell
in love with it so much,
because it was an extension of him,
and he got to escape and do those things
and live probably a lot of things he never got to do.
‐ The Ultimate Warrior.
If we were in town, I mean, it only made sense to say,
"Look, you know, come home and let's have dinner,"
you know, and my wife would fix dinner.
And it was a breath of fresh air to have him there.
He was so different, you know,
and he really wanted that environment.
You could tell he was attracted to that environment.
‐ There was very few people that were invited to come over
to my parents' house.
[both laughing]
‐ You know what, if he was asked, he would have.
He would definitely do the dishes.
He was just that type of guy.
My dad was a father figure to many,
and definitely was to Warrior.
I think it was just that family dynamic
that Jim always aspired to have.
[cheers and applause]
‐ Coming up from behind. Look out from behind.
‐ Ah!
‐ They end up having Warrior feud with Andre the Giant,
who had previously been the most beloved wrestler
maybe on the planet.
‐ You see the ultimate maniac has felt these large hands
around his neck.
He is feeling, right now, the Intercontinental Championship
slipping off his waist.
‐ One of the big values of Andre the Giant
was that if somebody beats him, or somebody can slam him,
they're a household name, and Hulk Hogan
body slamming Andre the Giant at WrestleMania III
is the thing that set Hulkamania in motion.
‐ Look at this. He slammed him! ‐ And you, Andre the Giant,
will realize that the power will become
the Eighth Wonder of the World, as we eat you alive!
[cheers and applause]
‐ Andre never did anything he didn't want to do.
It was frightening the first time he told me to slam him.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
I knew what it meant to the character Ultimate Warrior,
and how much over that character would be
by being allowed to do that.
‐ Is he gonna pick him up? Wow.
‐ So now, you're able
to really think of like Ultimate Warrior.
He's on the same level as Hulk Hogan.
Because up until that moment, the greatest thing Hulk Hogan
had ever achieved was beating Andre the Giant.
Well now, Ultimate Warrior's beaten Andre the Giant.
"You slammed Andre. I slammed Andre."
‐ You can beat everybody else on the roster.
But after you slam Andre the Giant,
there's only one place left to go,
and that's Hulk Hogan.
[indistinct shouting]
♪ ♪
[birds chirping]
‐ There, you didn't cry for Santa.
You were too little.
It's been seven years since we lost Warrior,
and now we're actually able to look at the memories
and enjoy them and revel in them and laugh.
Warrior's role at Christmastime was, like,
the biggest elf you've ever met.
And he'd negotiate.
‐ Negotiate‐‐ he would negotiate.
‐ There was a lot of negotiation on Christmas.
‐ Absolutely. ‐ About what you guys deserved.
‐ Yes. ‐ Yeah.
‐ Every morning, on Christmas,
we'd wake up with a note about what we should improve on...
‐ Yeah.
‐ For the next year. ‐ Yep.
‐ 'Cause next year, it might be coal.
‐ And it was detailed.
‐ It was scary.
But then you had to get over it and you'd get presents.
‐ Like, "Wait, this is Dad's handwriting."
[laughter]
‐ For me and the girls, it's about his legacy as a father.
But for millions of fans, it will always be about
what he did in the ring with Hulk Hogan.
I think it's pretty incredible to imagine he only had
five years in the business, and he was tasked
with the job of replacing a veritable legend.
‐ Hulk Hogan in the '80s literally was wrestling.
[rock music]
‐ And just remember, Hulkamania is running wild.
‐ Crazy. Thank you, Hulk.
‐ He ushered in a new, larger‐than‐life,
almost cartoonish era of professional wrestling.
‐ Hulk Hogan, over the six years
leading to WrestleMania VI,
had turned Hulkamania into a phenomenal.
♪ ♪
‐ Remember what's going on in the ring.
Hulk is posing. We're in the celebration mood.
We want the opposite of that.
‐ Okay. ‐ Okay?
Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior‐‐at the time,
they're you're top good guys in the WWE.
So, when they start to flirt with this idea
that there may be some animosity
between Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior,
you're going, "Wait a minute."
‐ Bollea and Hellwig had a rivalry with one another,
and they had a mutual professional jealousy.
Which made sense.
[cheers and applause]
‐ How could there not be professional envy
and jealousy between Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior?
‐ Another elbow into the Hulkster's chest.
‐ Ultimate Warrior was designed to replace Hulk Hogan.
How could Hulk Hogan not resent that?
‐ [inaudible] the Ultimate Warrior
[inaudible].
‐ I don't understand the Warrior's thinking on this.
Why should he run to the ring and save Hogan?
‐ How could Warrior not resent Hulk Hogan?
If you're gonna compete with somebody
for the number one spot, by design, you have to think,
"Here's why I'm better than that person."
‐ Wait a minute. Clothesline. Here it comes from behind.
He stopped. Wait. What's going on?
‐ Very nature of that competition between the two
is going to breed envy
and jealousy between the two of them.
‐ Both champions, Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior,
want to be sure the other is healthy
for Sunday afternoon, April 1.
The World Wrestling Entertainment champion
against the Intercontinental Champion.
‐ This was a big topic of conversation
among 11‐year‐olds:
who's gonna win, Ultimate Warrior or Hulk Hogan?
I mean, for us, this was, like, you know, Magic versus Bird.
‐ At the end of WrestleMania, it'll be the Hulkster.
In God, they still trust.
‐ Look into my eyes, Hulk Hogan.
You see nothingness.
‐ Warrior not only has to step into the ring with Hogan,
has to carry the main event with Hogan,
has to live up to the box office expectations with Hogan.
Is he gonna beat Hogan?
The pressure on Warrior to deliver‐‐it's mind‐boggling
to think that pressure didn't crush him.
‐ The Ultimate Warrior!
‐ Listen to the ovation [inaudible]
for the Ultimate Warrior! Here he comes! He's running.
‐ You can't build to a match like this
and then go for five minutes.
So this became a test of, "Okay, now that
we've got Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior together,
can we have these go do a 25‐minute match?
Can we do a match where a real story is being told?"
‐ You can be the adrenaline is already flowing...
‐ And here we go [inaudible].
‐ In those bodies.
It's deafening here in the Skydome.
‐ Warrior learned a lot from Hulk.
But there's always that little piece‐‐you
want to be the top dog. And Warrior was hungry for it.
‐ Look at that! A slam by the Warrior!
‐ They both get their time to shine.
‐ Unbelievable!
Hogan has never had anyone do that!
‐ And they both get that moment where, as a fan, you're like,
"Well, this is the moment where Hulk wins."
‐ Got him with the [inaudible]. ‐ Oh, [inaudible].
‐ That moment that we've all seen before.
Hulk Hogan is hitting the ropes.
He's dropping a leg.
‐ Here it is. ‐ Oh!
He moved out of the way! Look out [inaudible].
‐ Two. ‐ It's over!
‐ Unbelievable!
‐ The Warrior has won the title!
‐ Hulk Hogan was still hot [inaudible]. Okay?
When he takes that Warrior pin right in the middle fill out
the ring‐‐no funny business‐‐and loses,
outright, to the Warrior, and makes Warrior king‐‐this
is not the same as doing that for someone
when you are clearly on the way down.
‐ Oh, look at this!
Hulk presented the belt and raised the hand of the Warrior!
‐ That was both Hogan and the company anointing somebody new.
And it was a major deal to be able to beat Hulk Hogan.
[cheers and applause]
‐ I think Jim was idolized.
That filled something up inside of him that he needed.
‐ Other people, you know, that have said,
you know, Warrior never respected the business,
you know, he just wanted to get in, make a paycheck,
get out‐‐that was not true.
Warrior came back to the curtain
after that match with Hogan,
and completely broke down, you know, emotionally.
He was finally at the very pinnacle of the business
that he worked so hard to get to.
‐ The fact that I took the belt from Hulk
in the way that I did,
with the clean finish‐‐I mean,
the weight of that‐‐you know,
that saying about "It's not the designation.
It's the journey"‐‐it's true for me.
I was so emotional after it happened,
but within a day or two, I was thinking, "What's next?"
[cheers and applause]
‐ At WrestleMania, Warrior, you lived up
the ultimate challenge, and then some.
But now, you face a challenge of a different kind.
‐ The Ultimate Warrior title reign as World Champion
was in some ways actually the beginning of the end.
‐ I can feel it!
I can feel that I have been chosen.
‐ He was pure kinetic energy, right?
And the story that they told was a missile
being shot into space.
The climb is exhilarating.
But once you get there, the story just sort of fizzles.
‐ They didn't set up the right guys for him.
And it did not get him off on the right foot.
The first thing they do is they brought in Rick Rude.
He was a retread.
Warrior had already beaten him before.
‐ He had matches with the Undertaker.
‐ You're scared, and you're going to be scared.
‐ Wait a minute. ‐ Not in there.
Not in‐‐not in a casket.
‐ And it ends up going into Jake the Snake Roberts.
‐ Huh? What do you think about that, Warrior?
Just a few friends of mine, huh?
‐ What if I tap the plexiglass? ‐ Here comes a strike.
Here it comes. [inaudible].
‐ Warrior's walking around in that locker room
with eyes in the back of his head.
You got guys that are jealous of him.
In front of the cameras, in front of the fans,
that was Warrior's safe haven. That was never the issue.
But when he had to walk back into that locker room,
he knew exactly what he was dealing with.
That's where the pressure came.
‐ Hang on. Hang on. ‐ Keep your attention.
Keep his attention.
‐ Keep his attention. Here we go. We see him now.
‐ I don't think you really know if somebody's up to the job
until they get there, right?
I don't know what expectations Vince had set,
and what the Ultimate Warrior wasn't living up to.
Something had to be telling Vince McMahon
that this project wasn't succeeding to the degree
that he had hoped that it would.
[cheers and applause]
‐ With the scepter right between the eyes!
‐ Come on!
‐ Everyone in the entire building saw
what the Macho King did.
‐ Immediately, it was like,
okay the decision is to get the belt back on Hogan,
because Warrior didn't draw good enough.
But at the time, I‐‐you know,
I think everybody figured that Warrior
was gonna be champion for three or four years,
and it was, you know, less than a full year
before they took it away from him.
[crowd chanting]
‐ Warrior is not going to fall into line.
This is not somebody you are going to control,
and they have to know this.
‐ Jim Hellwig went to the beat of his own drum.
Whatever that beat was telling him,
whether it was good for him or detrimental to him,
he went and walked to the beat of his own drum.
‐ There were times where,
you know, he was completely isolated.
Sometimes he was just really on edge.
‐ So, there's a story that a kid approaches
Ultimate Warrior in an airport, as most people do.
You know, that's half the reason
Vince grabs these guys, is 'cause when they walk
through an airport, you can't look away from him.
‐ He's got his sunglasses on,
and this little kid comes up to him,
and he asks, you know, if he's the Ultimate Warrior.
And, like, he snaps on this little kid.
I was like, "Whoa."
‐ This kid's parents were pretty connected to the WWE.
That posed a problem for Jim when Vince heard about this.
So, Vince is so upset that he makes Jim actually record
a video apology to the kid.
‐ It's Vince Apology.
‐ What‐‐I mean, I'm humbly apologizing,
but I'm not saying what I'm humbly apologizing for.
‐ That's right. ‐ We know what
the gimmick's for, but I mean, what's it for?
‐ In three, two...
‐ I understand that there comes times in everyone's life
when they may regret certain things‐‐[bleep].
Regret certain things that they should‐‐this [bleep]‐‐
Yeah, I know. I don't know what the [bleep] to say.
I didn't say nothing to the goddamn kid.
‐ Well, no you don't,
because I'm [bleep] making a videotape to some kid
about an apology.
‐ I'm working here. There's two matches left.
I'm [bleep] working here, making an apology for something
I didn't [bleep] do.
This guy's really‐‐whatever I should have‐‐whatever
I‐‐supposed to have said to the guy,
I wish I had said to the guy.
‐ Me too. ‐ Three. Two.
‐ There shall never come a time that any one of the WWF‐‐
[sighs] Go again.
That I shall take revenge upon that person,
and vanquish them from this universe.
And you‐‐[bleep]. Me. [sighs]
No one that walks within the World Wrestling Federation
shall ever‐‐never offend you
without answering to the power of the Ultimate Warrior.
‐ But then the very next day,
he sits down, and he writes Vince a letter.
♪ ♪
‐ It's as if years of frustration and anger
have just boiled over, and he can't take it anymore.
‐ 1991 was a definitive moment in Jim Hellwig's life.
[solemn music]
Around January of 1991, he and his wife filed divorce papers.
At the same time, the WWE decided
that they were going to go in a different direction.
And so that same month that he's filing divorce papers,
he also loses his status as champion.
[cheers and applause]
‐ Where's he going?
‐ Going through the divorce, needing the money,
all of those things sort of worked together
to reignite some of that financial anxiety
that he had as a child.
A lot of the scars throughout Jim Hellwig's life
are definitely, like, coming to the surface now.
‐ The Ultimate Warrior!
‐ You realize that, sure,
Ultimate Warrior looked like he had never been better,
but Jim is going through a divorce,
and Jim is having arguments with Vince,
and he's blowing up on fans at the airport.
And you realize that there's more to it than that.
‐ Ultimate Warrior seemed like he was just sort of
at his wit's end with Vince, right?
He's, like, "I've tried to talk to you.
I've tried to bring this stuff up.
Let me try something else. I'm gonna write a letter."
"Vince, writing this is a different approach.
I have been, from day one, different from the others.
I have sacrificed myself enough both in personal life
and physical well‐being."
‐ What Hellwig says to McMahon is,
"I know what Hogan has gotten, and that's what I want."
‐ "I have sacrificed more than $500,000,
more than a million dollars, even,
in monies that I should have been paid to me
in receiving equal treatment as Hulk."
‐ And he proceeds to give a list of demands
about the things that he wants,
about equal pay for Hogan, equal royalties for Hogan.
He wants all of the same benefits that Hulk Hogan gets.
‐ "The videotaped apology was the icing on the cake.
You see it as a business, so whether I like it or not,
I must do the same.
Whatever your decision, I can and will live with it.
Till then, I remain at home with one who cares."
‐ Hellwig appears to be saying to Vince,
"I'm not going to show up
until you meet these demands."
That's a cardinal sin
in the world of professional wrestling.
‐ WWE have not only, in the micro‐sense,
spent all this time marketing SummerSlam,
but in the macro‐sense, all this time,
marketing the Ultimate Warrior character.
Like, they can't just say, "All right, we'll go home.
We'll just do it without you."
‐ No one would take kindly to that.
But of all the people in the world
who would not take kindly to essentially being bullied,
it would be Vince McMahon.
‐ When I get this letter, it's‐it's a shock.
It's like, oh. It's a kick in the guts.
Felt like I was burned, to so speak.
I told Jim we would work it out,
indicating that we might do this deal
that he was looking for.
"Oh, okay. We'll talk at the Garden."
And I couldn't wait to fire him.
‐ What an ovation for the Ultimate Warrior!
Is he ready? Yes.
‐ Yes, but can he be trusted?
‐ Vince McMahon came into my locker room, and he said,
"Well, the Ultimate Warrior is holding me up for $500,000,
and he wants to be paid before he wrestles."
[cheers and applause]
Then, through the locker room door comes Hulk Hogan,
and he said, "Sarge, you throw the Warrior out on the floor,
and I'll come into the ring, and I'll jump on you,
and you and I will head off to the corner.
And while we're doing that cheeky, you jump down,
and you break his leg."
And Vince went, "No. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.
I don't need a lawsuit on top of all this."
‐ There's a spot at the end of the match
where Hellwig grabs a chair and chases Mustafa
and Adnan out of the ring and backstage.
‐ Warrior's got a chair. ‐ As he comes back through,
he's told, "Vince wants to see you,"
at which point Vince gives him a several‐page letter,
talking about how Hulk Hogan is a living legend.
"He is more popular than you, has more years in the ring
than you, is in greater demand than you."
And then he hits Jim very personally.
He says, "You have become a living legend
in your own mind." Probably everything
that Jim Hellwig would not have wanted to hear.
He then details the fact that‐‐"Jim,
you are suspended for no fewer than 90 days."
‐ I think that Vince wrote something that cutting
because I think Vince felt insulted.
‐ It was so, you know, outrageous‐‐
the demand was, and just so far overreached,
it told me, obviously, he really didn't understand.
Often, our performers will start believing in themselves
more than they should,
and just can't separate Jim Hellwig
from the Ultimate Warrior,
and that happens to a lot of our performers.
‐ A lot of superstars want his approval,
and they want to please him, and they want to be his guy,
the way you want your father to accept you.
‐ That's what I feel, I guess, with Vince McMahon.
It's like, when he tells you you did a good job,
it's the greatest feeling in the world.
‐ Jim and I had this unusual relationship,
you know, personally.
And we both were on the same wavelength.
He was nuts, and I was at the time.
I'm not now. But there was this great relationship we had.
No one really knew that.
‐ I'm sure he was out there looking for acceptance.
And he might have looked at him
as a mother and a father figure.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
‐ Not as a son. I have only one son.
You know, I can see how someone would look at me
as a father figure.
But I don't look at him as a son.
You know, I've never done that, you know.
But I've looked at him as a relationship that would be
sort of mirroring somewhat, you know, of father‐son.
‐ If you look at somebody like the Warrior,
that maybe was missing some male role models early
in his life, I think Vince McMahon
could have easily filled that role for him.
And I don't know if Vince realized when he wrote that
that the Ultimate Warrior would not take that
as his boss being mad at him.
He may take that as a paternal figure
being disappointed in him.
Your boss being mad at you, you get over.
Somebody that you look at like a father saying,
"I like him more than I like you,"
you don't get over that.
♪ ♪
‐ Good morning, guys. ‐ The entire world of wrestling
changed in 1992.
‐ The federal government has leveled charges
against the leader of the WWF, Vince McMahon.
‐ Steroid use, steroid distribution
is now deemed not only illegal,
but is being presented as inauthentic and immoral.
‐ A hulk of a hero named Hogan is the biggest
to take a fall.
‐ First queue up.
This is take one.
‐ It makes a certain sort of sense that,
when Hulk Hogan has to take some time off,
you go back in the well and find the guy
who used to be the next Hulk Hogan.
‐ There have been those
that have sit upon many a throne
and promised to rule the entire universe, the entire world.
‐ McMahon decides to bring the Ultimate Warrior
back into the WWE,
and they begin the process of trying to mend the fences.
‐ Look at this! Hulk, Hulk, Hulk!
The insane Sid Justice‐‐ Hulkamania
could all end here today in the Hoosier Dome.
‐ And when that music hit...
‐ He don't have a friend left.
‐ Wait a minute!
‐ You could hear that stadium full of people
going forward nuts for it; they couldn't believe it.
‐ Can you believe this?
The Ultimate Warrior has [inaudible].
‐ It was still a moment, and you were still, like,
"Oh my God, Warrior's back."
[cheers and applause]
But when he comes back,
right in the midst of the steroid scandal,
he looks noticeably smaller. He's still jacked.
I mean, he's still‐‐by normal standards, he's still‐‐like,
I'm never gonna get a body like 1992 Ultimate Warrior.
But he‐‐1992 Ultimate Warrior
does not have a body like 1990 Ultimate Warrior.
[tense music]
‐ He had not been quite as dedicated, as he was,
to the gym, probably because he's coping
with an extraordinary amount of loss,
and going through a divorce.
‐ Ahh!
And I remember thinking, "Man, you gotta get
your [bleep] together real quick here."
[cheers and applause]
♪ ♪
Ahh!
‐ Okay.
‐ In 1992, a package is intercepted addressed
to the Ultimate Warrior's driver,
and it contains HGH, human growth hormone.
‐ Explosiveness that can never, ever be recreated.
A chemical combustion that forms a bond forever and ever.
‐ Yep. Hellwig did fail tests.
And Hellwig also admitted to it, to taking steroids.
♪ ♪
I think it was, more than anything, in his head,
that "If I don't have this, I'll never be the same guy."
♪ ♪
‐ Every time he takes a drug test,
he has to list the kinds of medications
that he's taking already.
And at the beginning of this process,
in May, he writes Motrin. Pretty simple.
The next test, it's Tylenol with codeine and a nasal spray.
By the time we get to late October,
he's taking multiple medicines for anxiety,
for depression, for insomnia.
♪ ♪
[upbeat rock music]
♪ ♪
‐ Slam, jam, the Ultimate Warrior.
‐ In November of that year, the WWE will fire him again,
on the grounds that he has violated the drug policy.
♪ ♪
‐ [bleep], I don't know.
It just sort of unraveled, in a way,
where I remember having a conversation with Vince,
and he was afraid of certain things
that were gonna happen to him.
It just got so bad that he needed a couple scapegoats.
‐ Was it implied that you should use steroids
to make yourself‐‐ ‐ No. Never to me.
I think the whole thing is weak.
‐ It was a bad optic to have huge,
muscle‐bound guys on top,
as you're fighting off these accusations of steroid use.
People like Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior
faded to the background.
And Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels
and other guys sort of stepped into the spotlight,
because their look didn't sort of remind people
of what was going on behind the scenes.
‐ He arrives in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Hellwig will legally change his name to Warrior.
‐ He lived the Ultimate Warrior,
he breathed the Ultimate Warrior,
so he believed he owned Ultimate Warrior.
So, all you can really do is try to come up with ways
to stick it to your former employer.
‐ [inaudible] the mad man's back.
I'm the Warrior. You know who I am.
The rumor has it,
you think you've got what it takes to be a pro wrestler.
‐ He launched a gym
and wrestling school called Warrior University.
‐ Warrior University.
‐ He wanted to do workout videos
and Warrior workout kits.
‐ And I saw a new gym was coming to town,
and it was owned by the Ultimate Warrior.
I had a pink résumé before Elle Woods ever did.
And when I walked in the door, all I could see
was the eyeline to this huge, giant man.
And I walked with purpose, straight up to him,
and put the resume down, and I said,
"I need to run your aerobics program."
And he said, "You need to marry me."
And I said, "I won't even date you."
[soft music]
And that man followed me around like a puppy,
until I finally broke down and I dated him,
and then, you know, I married him.
So it worked out okay.
I had my own demons that‐‐from a difficult childhood.
And so my husband used to always say to me,
like, "You tamed the beast."
I met my counterpart and met the person
that I was able to do that for,
and he was able to do it for me.
‐ Ah! ‐ Ultimate Warrior!
‐ Warrior. ‐ Warrior!
[cheers and applause]
‐ I look back at the innocence
of who we were when we first met,
and what my husband really wanted was to be successful.
‐ 6:30. 6:30.
‐ 6:30 in the morning?
‐ Where are the pens?
‐ Right there.
‐ What's up, buddy? How you doing?
‐ He had all these goals and aspirations.
And what success was
was, in his mind, what Vince McMahon had created.
[indistinct chatter]
‐ He wanted to make the Ultimate Warrior
into a full‐blown comic book venture,
to launch the Warrior mainstream.
But he seems to realize that it's not going to happen
without a bigger platform.
And because of that, once again,
Vince McMahon and Jim Hellwig
somehow find their way back to one another.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
‐ When you look back now,
the Warrior's career is sort of more about, like,
returns than it is about the matches.
[cheers and applause]
♪ ♪
‐ Around June of 1996, Hellwig's father, Thomas, dies.
The two had not had much of a relationship at all.
But it seems to have hit him hard.
In this period of time, he doesn't attend a few shows.
But of course, with the WWE, you don't miss shows.
‐ As I recall, he had not seen his dad in over ten years,
and could care less about him.
And that was, like, "Wait a minute.
You're gonna use this as an excuse?"
That's the straw that breaks the camel's back with me.
I can't deal with anybody like that.
He was terminated.
[cheers and applause]
‐ The audience that was 5, 10, 15 years old
when Warrior was at his hottest had moved on to be obsessed
with other things besides the Ultimate Warrior.
So, when that love and that adulation wasn't there,
he went back to being an 11‐year‐old boy
in the trailer in Indiana, whose father just left him.
[solemn music]
‐ He starts traveling around to college campuses.
One that really stood out‐‐ it made major headlines
at the time‐‐was a speech
he gave at the University of Connecticut.
‐ I knew something was wrong. ‐ Hey, guys. How you doing?
‐ And I said, "What did you say?"
"We'll talk when you get home."
[indistinct chatter]
‐ You know, young kids,
they get their philosophy of life
from people that are older than them.
And today, that's just not happening in any place.
‐ He's accepted the fact that the Ultimate Warrior
is not going to be mainstream.
But it's almost like he needed something to fill the void.
‐ He finds this new identity in conservative ideology.
And he becomes a conservative blogger.
‐ I would argue, for the Warrior, in his career,
his persona, his business,
it was not good that we got to see behind the curtain.
Every few weeks or whatever is like another thing
that Warrior is saying that is offensive.
♪ ♪
‐ Most people think I'm heavy metal or something.
On the radio, typically, I do talk radio.
And that's it.
‐ Turning on talk radio was a really big thing at the time.
And, you know something, Rush Limbaugh is a great showman.
So my husband's like, "Kindreds‐‐we get each other.
You know"‐‐so, like,
the talk radio thing became a big thing in our house.
And, you know, certain news channels on all the time.
I think he was just looking for a new brotherhood.
‐ It's never been the vision
that people have in their heads‐‐is that
it's just Ultimate Warrior as an identity,
a painted face pro wrestler with strings
around his arms and colorful characters
and a physique and the body and stuff.
It's about‐‐it represents more, on a fundamental level,
something or somebody that's willing to stand up
and fight for what they believe in, even if they die doing so.
‐ And when he came back from that speech,
I knew something was wrong. And I said, "What did you say?"
‐ Now, I'm conservative.
Liberals believe in a utopian society,
where everything is equal.
That Kwanzaa is just as legitimate
as Santa Claus and Christmas.
[audience exclaiming]
That a terrorist‐‐ that a terrorist
is just as legitimate
as what of this country's revolution freedom fighters.
‐ How are they not? ‐ That the anarchists‐‐
[laughter]
‐ What's wrong with homosexuality?
‐ What are you talking about?
‐ And from this moment,
the speech has just become a straight dogfight.
‐ [bleep] you. No. No.
Apologize for that right now, you [bleep] piece of [bleep].
No. Apologize.
‐ As an Ultimate Warrior fan, you're like, "Bro, like,
I didn't‐I didn't sign up for that.
Like, you're starting to make me think
that the Warrior might believe in some stuff
that I don't necessarily believe in."
‐ There's all people of all different type of races
and colors that look up to you,
because I‐‐you know, I grew up, and my dad wasn't there.
Well, the Warrior's telling me, "Just don't worry about things.
Just be that little Warrior that you are inside."
So, when you are acting that way and you believe
that in your heart, it can do a lot of damage
to those people that looked up for you.
‐ Has anything like UConn ever happened before?
‐ No. Mm‐mm.
‐ I was really disappointed. I was really disappointed.
And I let him know that.
And he knew it was different, and he knew he'd messed up.
And I don't even think‐‐ he didn't understand
the breadth of it until later on.
But he knew it was bad.
‐ "The Self‐Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior."
‐ So, WWE puts out this DVD,
"The Self‐Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior."
And this, I think, was kind of a self‐serving mission.
"We're done making money off this guy,
or from this guy,
and he's off hurting himself, his own brand,
and by extension, our brand.
If we can limit his importance in our legacy,
that's a win for us.
If we can charge $30 for it and put a cool title on it,
and essentially, you know, make as much money
as we would off of a WrestleMania, off of Jim,
without even having his consent, even better."
‐ And Vince wants these to kind
of be a shoot deals, right?
‐ Yeah, he really does.
He wants to tell the truth.
He wants everybody to know.
‐ A little controversy?
[dramatic music]
‐ "Self‐Destruction of Ultimate Warrior"
was not so much a documentary.
It was more of a hit piece.
You watched it and thought,
at the very least,
this guy is not beloved by his peers.
‐ I don't know that he was really born
to be in this business.
‐ To me, the man had no idea about wrestling.
‐ Do I think Ultimate Warrior was merely a flash in the pan?
Enough said.
‐ I knew, when the Ultimate Warrior won the match,
and 68,000 people watched me leave the building
instead of watching the new champ in the ring‐‐
I knew that‐‐okay, you know.
I don't want to be the one to say "I told you so."
‐ I never watched that DVD.
People would not be alive if I had watched that DVD.
My husband wanted to watch it, and I said, "You shouldn't."
‐ He has‐‐doesn't trust anyone in life.
And look, if you don't enjoy coming to work,
and then you're gonna‐‐bound to self‐destruct
somewhere along the line.
[solemn music]
♪ ♪
‐ He watched that DVD, and that‐that broke
a part of my husband that I was never able to fix.
‐ Nobody is gonna hand you
the fulfillment of the dream you have in your mind
about a great live you want to [bleep] live.
‐ In later years, it's almost
as if he will be frustrated with himself.
But he will project out on to others the frustration
he feels with his own life.
‐ I think you're [bleep] pathetic.
Don't fail. Take back yourself.
And don't take any backtalk from yourself.
‐ I think he was trying to reinvigorate his own identity,
because when we fall down a hole,
nobody can really get you back out.
You have to climb, rung by rung, yourself.
And he did that.
♪ ♪
That's so inspiring, because he wasn't perfect.
Other people in the world aren't perfect.
We all mess up.
And sometimes we're ignorant.
But it's ignorance is educable, and we can change,
and we can grow, and we can evolve.
♪ ♪
‐ I was very oblivious to his life
before he was a father.
He was my dad. I was daddy's little girl.
And he doted on my sister and I like any other dad that I knew.
♪ ♪
‐ He was so gentle with his Warrior babies.
That's what he'd call us.
I know that his father wasn't
incredibly involved in his life,
and so he didn't really have that figure there.
But you don't necessarily need a role model
to become the man you want to become.
‐ Very few people can overcome what they lived through
and not feel victimized by it, but instead chart a new course.
And that's what we did with our family.
We charted a new course.
‐ What you saw in his character used to translate
a lot into his workouts.
But, you know, most of the time here,
we got to know a different character.
We got to know Warrior.
And Warrior was a complete different personality.
He made everybody feel special. He made me feel special.
‐ I think that Warrior found himself in Santa Fe.
I think he found a calmer setting for him
to really think, to paint.
‐ Art became a really big part of his life.
When he wasn't putting on his face paint every day,
you know, the face paint
became the paint on the canvas instead.
[soft music]
♪ ♪
‐ He had his daughters. He had Dana.
‐ Oh my gosh, it's so good to see you.
‐ You're our first hug since all this started.
‐ Our friendship was about just enjoying life.
Have fun. You are who you are.
‐ I think that my husband needed hypermasculinity
in order to feel safe.
But, with the friends that he made in our town of Santa Fe,
he was able to experience grown, adult men,
who had no vendetta against him.
And so I think when my husband was finally ready to be
inducted in the Hall of Fame, he was becoming somebody
that was actually worthy of that honor in his own mind,
but also for the fans.
♪ ♪
‐ Ladies and gentlemen, accompanied to the ring
by two yeah ladies who are special in his life,
may I present: Warrior.
[cheers and applause]
♪ ♪
[soft music]
♪ ♪
‐ For several years,
the WWE had tried to find ways of getting Warrior
into the Hall of Fame, and he had repeatedly said no.
‐ This particular year, for whatever reason,
Warrior was able to trust.
And I said, "I apologize for anything I've ever said,
anything I've ever done.
That was then. Let's just bury the hatchet and move on."
‐ I just can't believe it's been as long as it has been.
‐ He enters into an agreement with the WWE
to become an ambassador for a period of several years.
‐ Obviously, there was some tension
with the relationship with WWE through the years, you know.
I mean, what does it mean to kind of be back
into the fold and kind of repair those?
‐ Well, it means a‐‐well, it means a lot.
You know, it was purposeful that they put the DVD out.
It hurt my feelings a lot, man. It hurt me that they did that.
♪ ♪
You know, I have a lot of emotion about coming back.
‐ It's well‐known that the Hellwig men
had a short life span.
His grandfather died in his 50s.
His father died in his 50s.
And knowing that most of the Hellwig boys died a young age
definitely has to color how you live your life.
You either face it or you live in fear of it.
‐ Great. Get that down... [indistinct]
‐ I think it was calculated, on his part, because he knew
that by reigniting this relationship with the WWE,
he can be the man that his father never was for him.
This was his moment to set aside the hurt,
the ego, the pride,
all of the things that had kept him estranged, and to say,
"I'm going to do this for my family."
♪ ♪
‐ You built a brand.
These are the graphics that support the brand.
‐ There are few legitimately tough guys in our business.
Most of us aren't. So we get to go out there
and we get to act like tough guys.
And people look to you, and you're larger than life.
There's responsibility that comes with that.
Responsibility is that, if you get to do that,
you get that opportunity to do that,
then you should be able to go out in the real world
and handle a simple thing like life.
‐ Yeah.
‐ Really want you to know I've been dying to see you.
I really do. I really do. No matter what.
‐ I think he was just really excited to go home.
And absolutely, he wanted that reconciliation with Vince,
because Vince mattered to him.
But he also wanted to show Vince,
"I have family now, too. And now you're part of it.
I don't need you to be all of it."
‐ Ladies and gentlemen, accompanied to the ring
by two young ladies who are so special in his life,
may I present: Warrior.
[cheers and applause]
[soft music]
♪ ♪
‐ In 1991, Vince wrote me a letter.
He said, "You think you're a legend in your own mind."
But I didn't think that I was a legend in my mind.
But I will tell you this, Vince,
the Ultimate Warrior is a legend today,
and he will continue to run into the hearts
and minds of fans throughout generations to come.
And I'm proud of that.
I'm proud of you for supporting me
and fighting for the Ultimate Warrior
to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
[cheers and applause]
♪ ♪
‐ Regardless of personal stuff,
regardless of what you see on the internet of anything,
just, like, we're now all grownups.
We're nostalgically looking at this guy like, "Yes.
This is‐‐when I was six, this is the guy I was watching.
I'm so happy he's back."
‐ From the moment he ran on to WWE television
till he, you know, took the belt from Hogan,
hold that up against any wrestler
in the history of wrestling.
That's what we were celebrating.
I mean, I was there on Monday Night Raw, when he came out.
And I've never been in a crowd that felt like that.
♪ ♪
‐ There you go. There's the Warrior.
[cheers and applause]
all: Warrior! Warrior! Warrior! Warrior! Warrior!
‐ This is gonna be great.
[cheers and applause]
‐ 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 believe deeper
in something than larger than life,
then his essence, his spirit, will be immortalized.
You. You. You.
You are the legend‐makers of Ultimate Warrior.
[cheers and applause]
‐ Finally, Jim had understood how it all worked then.
And that may be, as far as I know,
about the only time he's ever been peace with himself.
He so appreciated the honor, and what have you.
And unfortunately, uh...
[solemn music]
A couple days later, he died.
♪ ♪
‐ Just, everything felt so good.
My kids are so proud of their dad.
We were gonna go to Arizona and have spring break.
And we got on a plane to go to Phoenix,
and we get to the hotel, and he said,
"I don't‐I don't feel‐I don't feel good."
I said, "I know, babe. Neither do I.
Like, it's been a‐‐this is hectic.
It's gonna be fine. You just rest.
What do you need? I'll go get it for you?"
Like, he's like, "No. I don't feel good."
And he said, "I think I need to go to the hospital."
And that's where I was like, "Oh no."
♪ ♪
And I didn't‐‐I didn't want the girls to come,
'cause I didn't want them to be scared.
So, they were old enough to lock the door.
♪ ♪
It was one second before we were out the door.
♪ ♪
And he just...
[sighs]
Like‐‐like an oak tree.
[somber music]
And I couldn't catch him.
♪ ♪
So, we get to the hospital, and they wheel him back there.
And they said, "He didn't make it."
♪ ♪
And I also knew, like, I was gonna have to tell my kids.
And I left them at the hotel,
at the last‐‐thinking I was protecting them.
But then, did I rob them of the last moment with their dad?
[sobbing]
♪ ♪
‐ What he built at home was far greater
than anything the Ultimate Warrior
achieved in front of the television cameras.
That's the tragedy of the man's life.
When he finally found the love
that he couldn't find as a child,
and he had nothing left to hate,
that's when his heart gave up.
‐ You know, I mean, I can remember back
when I was a young kid,
being the kid in the wrong place at the wrong time,
my dad leaving when I was 12, 13 years old,
having self‐doubts about myself,
like any young kid does.
You create your own sort of fantasy‐‐protector,
in a sense, you know?
The thing that you connect with to make you strong,
to‐to get you through the self‐doubts that you have.
‐ His daughters are definitely his lasting legacy.
He was never more proud of anything in his life
than his girls.
And he wanted both of them‐‐which they do‐‐
to have that warrior spirit.
‐ There's nothing simple about Jim Hellwig.
He was a flawed and complicated human being,
who made some serious mistakes in his life.
♪ ♪
But it's a human story.
‐ Having done Ultimate Warrior
as a sports entertainment identity,
why I think the way I do, it's built into us.
It's a part of our nature.
It's a part of our human nature to grow.
[soft music]
‐ I think redemption is a heavy burden
to place on any one human being,
because we're all on a journey to find out
who it is that we are.
I don't believe that my husband's story
ends with his passing.
I believe that that spirit of the warrior lives on
in each and every one of us who decides to do better.
♪ ♪