The Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior

I just watched the DVD and thought it was pretty good.

I was a young teenager in the late 80's when I first saw the Ultimate Warrior on TV in Australia. Like many people, I thought he was cool and his wrestling "theme" music was awesome.

This Doco/interview tells the unknown story of the Ultimate Warrior from his humble beginnings into wrestling to the end of his career. There is lots of actual match footage shown which is good and brought back fond memories. It's a shame that we never get to hear from Jim Hellwig (The Ultimate Warrior) himself, and his version of the story.

All the interviews from other wrestlers and associates are insightful and some are just plain funny.

In my opinion of this DVD, it does reveal that The Ultimate Warrior was a pretty weird guy and probably not the most talented TV Wrestler. But I also believe there is a lot of sour grapes coming from Vince McMahon and other wrestlers. It appears to me that Jim Hellwig was unhappy with his salary and thought he should be making more money than what he was being paid.

In summary, this was a good watch, with lots of great footage and some funny interviews. I would recommend this to everyone including non-wrestling fans.

A great documentary, showing who Jim Hellwig really was behind the curtain. The remarks by those appearing in the documentary are neither defamatory, nor are they in any way disrespectful...quite the contrary, in fact.

You know, Vince McMahon continues to try and hide the fact that despite his steroid-aided muscles, wealth and power walk that he is a despicable, ruthless, uncaring rogue with very low self-esteem and who is uncomfortable with his bisexuality. That he has an army of 50-somethings who will do his bidding and serve as yes-men is even sadder but this is the truth of what pro wrestling today is all about. In the WWE, kissing butt and not crossing the boss and his shrunken manhood is the way to get ahead. Or marrying his daughter.

As for the Warrior, he is a nutcase. He doesn't have both oars in the water. He may have had a history of questionable actions. However, "The Self-Destruction Of The Ultimate Warrior" was made without his participation and while the younger wrestlers who appear here still get a kick out of seeing him when they were young, the aged who appear here (McMahon, Steve Lombardi, Jim Ross, Bobby Heenan, Mean Gene, The Orange Goblin, Ric Flair, etc.) use this DVD documentary to constructively criticize Warrior.

The Ultimate Warrior's career in the ring, his successes, feuds, controversies and infamously hilarious interviews are all documented. We see the rise and fall of one of the most recognized wrestlers ever. The Warrior was a wildman with a massive physique and little wrestling skill but he was all the rage in the late 80's. The music, the running to the ring, the rope shaking and his colorful outfits and face paint made him a star in that era. Many of the aged call him reckless and uncaring to his opponents and that he wouldn't attempt to be better in the ring; instead relying on his clothesline-heavy offense.

While the younger wrestlers featured (including two wrestlers no longer in the WWE in NWA World Champion Christian Cage and the on-hiatus Chris Jericho) still respect the Warrior and are just having fun with his persona, the aged pretty much take the Warrior to task and some are outright brutal in their assessment. They even go so far as to make up lies and falsehoods about Warrior.

Vince appearing this documentary is pretty much proof that this is a one-sided documentary AGAINST the Warrior. Vince has had a long history of lawsuits with Warrior and I felt the story of what led to his first dismissal from the WWE is a blatant made-up lie. That Vince is sore for losing a trademark to him is even sadder. Vince has these useless trademarks that he will never use. Are we ever going to see another Nailz, Papa Shango, Repo Man, Sable or anyone else? This is the same man who tried to pawn off another Razor Ramon and Diesel, though.

Another lie comes from Gene Okerlund when he said the ratings for Warrior's debut segment in WCW were the lowest on that show. Wrong.

How about Hulk Hogan blaming the Warrior for their horrid but hilarious 1998 bout? Hogan only blamed himself for the fireball gone awry. According to Warrior's shoot DVD, Hogan didn't want to get a game plan set for the bout and it was performed on the fly.

Jim Ross, who has very little experience calling Warrior's matches, blasts him early on for leaving Bill Watts and Mid-South Wrestling for World Class because "he couldn't handle it." For years, MSW and World Class have despised each other the way the WWE and WCW did. Why is he even in this documentary? To anger those WCCW alumni? Why is Steve Lombardi here? Just because he jobbed to him 20-25 times? What would a jobber know about him? How about Ric Flair calling him a flash in the pan? That's a little too strong but this is from someone who should be retired and not losing to nobodies as well as being in trouble with the law. Take it as you may.

It goes on but you get the picture. However, the documentary is still worth seeing. The bad wrestling, the incoherent interviews, the friendly ribbing from the younger wrestlers and seeing the aged gang up on Warrior is absolutely funny stuff. It's proof that just like how Don Zimmer has drawn a paycheque from only baseball, you can, after a fashion, draw a paycheque from Vince just as long as you like the taste of GM on your lips.

For the other side of the story, well, the Warrior has that available.

Some of the reviews on here warned of lots of bias, and the very title of the video suggests that it's negative. Having read the reviews first, I was pleasantly surprised at how it wasn't too negative or way too biased.

This was just a story of a guy who hit the big time and then gradually fizzled out, which happens all the time. A lot of the criticisms people made of the Warrior could have been made of the people criticizing him, and have been. Basically it's a must see, and then go watch random videos by the Warrior on Youtube to hear his side of the story, heheh

Ultimately, they do give him credit for his role in his success, but on the downside, they give too much credit to the WWE for his success. Anyone who knows anything knows that only a very few people can be lucky and gifted enough to ascend to the top of the WWE. Thus, if he did it, he deserve a lot of the credit and his achievements shouldn't be taken away from him like that.

Furthermore, elite-level pro wrestling is a very tough sport which breaks people down on every level imaginable, so it shouldn't be surprising that he gradually got tired and retired a little younger than some of his peers.

I was huge wrestling fan from about 1984 to 1995. I got bored over the idea that I was being told who to cheer for and who to boo at. Do you want to be a bad guy? Just slap Hulk Hogan and there you go! Just ask Andre the Giant. As well as really dumb characters such as Doink the Clown, or Papashango. How about when Demolition Smash disappeared and six or eight months later we are introduced to Repo-Man! Between Brett Hart, and The Ultimate Warrior I stuck by them because they didn't sell out to the fluff.

I really liked The Ultimate Warrior because he was fun to watch. Intense, out of control, totally unique for the day. I always wondered what happened to him and why the WWF/WWE didn't do much with him when he was champion. This video answered many of those questions, although most of the answers really made him look like a total jerk. Maybe he was, I don't know.

The trouble is Vince McMahon is not the most honest person himself. He screwed over many wrestlers including Bruno Sammartino, Dusty Rhodes, Brett Hart, and even Hulk Hogan just to name a few. See for yourself. Just watch 'Brett Hart:Wrestling With Shadows', or the Biography on Hulk Hogan and find out the real reason why he went to the WCW. Add to that, his company men like Bobby Heenan, and Gene Orkerlund backing up everything. In all fairness however, Hulk Hogan didn't have a bad word to say about him.

Maybe this is all true. However I find it interesting this came out after the Warrior sued the WWE, and now that Vince has the only game in town without nobody to challenge him, I have my doubts. Is there more to the story here? I'll let you make up your own mind.