Ultimate Warrior interview

[Addy 0]

See part one here and part two here

 

Part 3 will be online tomorrow and part four on thursday.

[caboose 0]

Not being a technical wrestler is kind of a silly bad wrap I get all the time from guys like Bret Hart and industry pundits. My response is, look, you guys were in the business for a dozen years before I even got there. A dozen years and you never figured it out that wrestling skills per se were not where it was at. It was about being a gimmick. I got there and in two years I figured it out. I’d also busted my ass in painful ways they never had—years of training in the gym, self-discipline in working out and dieting. If they want to criticize anybody they should criticize the promoters who were, in effect, telling them, your little bag of fancy wrestling moves don’t sell tickets t-shirts, posters, dolls, etc.—so leave them and your tears at home, instead show up with some muscle and some energy.

 

Strangely truthful yet massively self-deluding.

[Detox 0]

"Warrior" only referred to himself in the third person once correct me if I am wrong. actually a great read im guessing that goldberg went to the school of warrior and used the business for all he could get out and then curse the people that made them famous

[TheOriginalOrangeGoblin 0]

Surprisingly decent read. As much as I don't like the guy, I can't really argue with success. He got everything for doing nothing in little to no time. Sad really.

[Guest Choken One]

man...first Savage cuts a coherant interview and now Warrior?

 

What is this world coming too?

 

As long as I have Sid...

[1234-5678 0]

Sid's shoot for RF Video is pretty coherant.

[Addy 0]

Part 3 is up:

 

http://www.flynnfiles.com/blog/warrior/warrior3.htm

[1234-5678 0]

FLYNN: Ultimately, obviously, WCW gets absorbed by WWF. It fails.

 

WARRIOR: Yeah, as soon as I got there I realized it was falling apart. It was inevitable.

 

FLYNN: Why did it fail?

 

WARRIOR: Bottom line is nobody was in charge. Bischoff—as much as he was credited for rebuilding and reinvigorating WCW when they were happening—while I was there, he literally ran from the responsibilities of the job. I don’t know if it was anxiety or what. But he had this thing about “spontaneity” as he would say, and there was no advance preparation. You couldn’t reach him all week. About an hour and a half before live show-time, Bischoff and his “yes” guys—all of them playing favorites for their own buddies—would get together and start deciding, then, what to do. It was erratic and destructive, shooting from the hip like that. Somebody has to be in charge overall. At WCW, at that time, every talent did whatever they wanted to. There has to be a chief in charge of sorts. Someone who makes it clear what the hierarchy of talent is—who goes over, who shines, how talent is going to come off in the programs, on the TV.

 

In WWF, that happened. In WCW, everybody went out and did what they wanted to do regardless of their ability to sell tickets or where they stood on the talent roster. If I’m in the ring and I’m punching at a guy and he doesn’t want to sell or take bumps, yet in the next segment he’s selling for his bottom-of-the-card buddy, like he’s trying to stand on banana peels, it looks ridiculous. A guy has to know his spot and work it. Too many there that were middle-card guys didn’t know they were—nobody acting with authority told them. In the end it’s about making money and in the beginning someone with authority has to lay it out about how a talent is getting used, let others know, in an essence, the investment being made and how that investment is to be treated—come off, be portrayed in the ring.

 

Say what you want, and others can think whatever they will—and naturally the business has changed in so many ways since then, but when I went over there in ’98, Ultimate Warrior was a Main-Eventer and I can assure that is the kind of investment they made. My first 15 minutes in the ring, after another long, long absence, proved that beyond any reasonable doubt. It was a launching pad WCW could have used to take Ultimate Warrior to a whole other level. But they didn’t want to do the work, put the time in. They were already convinced reaching for the lowest, degenerate level of creativity was where it was at. And as much as I was willing to give it whatever it would have took, you need a whole team of people behind you.

 

FLYNN: You haven’t wrestled since then. Has anyone approached you to come back since then, like the Jarrett outfit?

 

WARRIOR: Yeah, when they first started up they did—others too, mostly dreamers. I spoke with both Jeff and his dad. They, the Jarretts and others, always present themselves like they think I’m sitting at home drooling for a chance to charge at the ring and that I should be grateful that they called, like, allowing me an opportunity to do so. Blows me away. Of course, that is how most other guys still working, outside WWE, are. They don’t know anything else, are afraid to go out and attempt anything else and get all their self worth from being in a ring, staying part of the circus of it all. They don’t have any other means of making a living for themselves so when anybody calls and says jump they say how high and when their feet hit they ask about how far to bend over.

 

This type of attitude they have though, these promoters, like the Jarretts had when they called, creates a problem when it comes to negotiating with me. This has contributed to many mischaracterizations. They get offended when they realize I know how valuable the Ultimate Warrior is and if they want him he isn’t going to come cheaply. They don’t get away without discussing those details with me like they do with others, which is to say they don’t really discuss them in detail at all with others. It’s like, “Hey, we have a ring set up and are going to put your face on TV for a little while, come on down and we’ll figure what we’ll pay you afterwards.” That’s enough for most guys looking for work not doing anything else. That doesn’t work for me.

 

Another thing with the Jarretts, in the initial conversations, was that they told me they were going to go in a different creative direction, not so heavy on the degenerate, shock-value provocativeness. It became clear the more I paid attention to what was going on through the grapevine that they weren’t being honest about that. So, I pulled back after that too. And it also became clear very soon into discussions that Jerry was really getting involved sorta to get Jeff his own little clubhouse, where he could play and be king. So that Jeff could have a place to live out his own “get-over” dream.

 

 

 

Despite his oddball reputation, the guy really does know what he is talking about.

[Guest whitemilesdavis]

I was totally with him until this sentence:

 

My first 15 minutes in the ring, after another long, long absence, proved that beyond any reasonable doubt.

 

See, I completely remember his showing up in WCW. True enough, his first appearance got a HUGE reaction, but then he rambled on incoherently for about 15 minutes, and the crowd just died. I really think that is when management pulled the plug on his main event program.

[1234-5678 0]

The interview was rambling, but that was Warrior's style. He still got big ass pops for every nonsensical sentence he said.

 

There was still money to be made with Warrior/Goldberg, Warrior/Bret, Warrior/Sting, and about ten other combinations I don't feel like typing out.

[Guest whitemilesdavis]

I pretty much agree with you, and I never really had the hate for UW that some have. I just remember sitting in front of the TV that night thinking, this just isn't gonna fly in today's wrestling.

[haVoc 0]

He needs to leave Bret Hart's name out of his mouth. Acting like Bret didn't draw, sell merchandise or make any money in the business.

[1234-5678 0]

Yeah but Warrior is right once again. How much longer did it take Bret to make the kind of money Warrior made after what? Like 3-4 years in the business?

[Black Lushus 0]

when Warrior FIRST came to the scene and was huge for that 4 or 5 year span, I was a total mark as I'm sure most were...every time he would dissappear and reappear, i would mark out...i can't see where he'd fit in today, but i'm sure i'd mark out again...now what i really want to read is his explanation for that abortion of a comic he came out with. I couldn't understand that book for shit!

[Guest whitemilesdavis]

I didn't really see him as disrespecting Bret at all. There's no question that Warrior's rise to the top was quicker, and that he did it without thenical wrestling. I think that was his point more than dogging Bret.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

First off, I understand that UW made money quicker and easier in the business than Bret did. But what does that prove? That he has absolutly no loyalty to a business that has made it possible for the Warrior to live a great life(at least financially). That to me not only shows his own ignorance but for him to badmouth Bret(someone who actually put everything he had into the business instead of halfassing it like UW) is really out of line.

[Guest whitemilesdavis]

First off, I understand that UW made money quicker and easier in the business than Bret did. But what does that prove?

 

 

Foley covers it really well in his first book. Remember when he's talking about how the number of cool wrestling holds he used became proportionate to how small of a crowd reaction he would get? I actually have a lot more respect for a guy that figures out the game, makes the big dollars quick and gets out, than I do for a guy like Tommy Dreamer who was killing himself ever night in ECW, and wouldn't even take a WCW contract at the time because he was such a big mark for "the business."

Bret is kind of a different story because he did make the big money, while keeping his integrity, but you can't blame Warrior for finding a formula that works and going with it. And I didn't really get where he was slamming Bret. I mean he mentioned that Bret had bad things to say about him, and then defended himself, but I didn't see anything really out of the way towards Bret. Hogan and Vince? Yes, but not Bret.

[OldSchoolWrestling 0]

Why does it only have to be about money? Are you saying a musician who loves what he does and stays true to himself but doesn't make a lot of money should be less respected than a cookie cutter pop artist who dances and lip syncs because they make less money?

 

What if Tommy Dreamer didn't care about money but liked what he did?

[Guest whitemilesdavis]

Why does it only have to be about money? Are you saying a musician who loves what he does and stays true to himself but doesn't make a lot of money should be less respected than a cookie cutter pop artist who dances and lip syncs because they make less money?

 

Did I say That? And, No, that's rediculous. The two situations don't really relate, but it's not like Tommy was creating deep life-changing art in ECW. Wrestling is a work. He should have taken the money.

[1234-5678 0]

I didn't really see him as disrespecting Bret at all. There's no question that Warrior's rise to the top was quicker, and that he did it without thenical wrestling. I think that was his point more than dogging Bret.

Exactly. If anything, they've always respected each other, except for a little spat a couple years ago when Bret praised Hogan and Warrior took offense.

[Guest Deebo]

I can't fucking believe his legal name is "Warrior".

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

Foley covers it really well in his first book. Remember when he's talking about how the number of cool wrestling holds he used became proportionate to how small of a crowd reaction he would get? I actually have a lot more respect for a guy that figures out the game, makes the big dollars quick and gets out, than I do for a guy like Tommy Dreamer who was killing himself ever night in ECW, and wouldn't even take a WCW contract at the time because he was such a big mark for "the business."

Bret is kind of a different story because he did make the big money, while keeping his integrity, but you can't blame Warrior for finding a formula that works and going with it. And I didn't really get where he was slamming Bret. I mean he mentioned that Bret had bad things to say about him, and then defended himself, but I didn't see anything really out of the way towards Bret. Hogan and Vince? Yes, but not Bret.

This is the kind of attitude that I really get upset with. How could you say something like that as a wrestling fan? You figure as a wrestling fan that you would hate someone that would come into the business(that you apparently love?)take everything they can from it, and not give a damn thing back to it. UW decides to pick on Bret this time and it's a ridiculous thing for him to do. Considering Bret put people over for years by making guys look like gold in the ring, losing titles to people, just generally pulling people up to his level(for the most part). On the other side of the spectrum there is UW, who was in the business only for money(it's been stated many times before he has "no love" for the business), and did nothing but take from it. Did Warrior ever put ANYONE over? The only two people that come to mind on even defeating the Warrior was Sgt. Slaughter and Rick Rude....and they weren't clean, and both guys had an established career before Warrior was even in the WWF. So this shows that he has been nothing but a selfish fuck the whole time he was in the business. Also if you watch the Bobby Heenan shoot he talks about how the Warrior didn't know how to work and didn't even want to learn because of his lack of respect for wrestling in general. I'm sorry if I can't stand a guy that has gotten everything he has today through wrestling but it's too much to ask to give a little respect to the what got it all for him......................professional wrestling.

[Guest whitemilesdavis]

First of all, my comparison wasn't between the UW and Bret, I said Bret is a different story. You're right Bret is a legend, complete different class than UW.

 

I compared UW to a guy like Dreamer. (In my opinion) Neither has great wretling skill. One guy did it a couple of years, got rich, is still healthy, and retired. The other has wrestled in Bingo huts his whole life, is darn near crippled, and when released from WWE, will probably have to work indies into his 60's. Which one do you think is smarter?

[1234-5678 0]

As much as I agreed with Warrior's interview, I think Dreamer was leaps and bounds ahead of him in terms of in ring ability, psychology and interview skills.

[Guest whitemilesdavis]

Ah, to each his own I guess, but I saw most of Dreamer's ECW work, and if you traded his and Sandman's entrance music, I wouldn't know who was who.

[TheOriginalOrangeGoblin 0]

I don't like Warrior but his matches with Savage, Rude and Hogan are LEAPS AND BOUNDS ahead of anything Dreamer's ever done.

 

So yes Warrior is right when it comes to Dreamer.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

Ah, to each his own I guess, but I saw most of Dreamer's ECW work, and if you traded his and Sandman's entrance music, I wouldn't know who was who.

Well then that's sad, because as limited a worker as Tommy Dreamer is, I always thought he was easily twice as good as Sandman.

[Guest whitemilesdavis]

Actually in ECW, I found Sandman more entertaining than Dreamer. I wouldn't rate either of them as workers, and as far as UW goes, I'll refer to another book, Pure Dynamite.

 

I love the part where DK says for running to the ring and shaking the ropes, he gives him 10 out of 10, but for wrestling, 0. I just thought that was hilarious when I read that, and so true.

Come to think of it though, You complain because UW got out of the business and never looked back, but do you really want him around? I mean, a 55 year-old Flair is bad enough, but UW wasn't even on that level in his prime. So yeah, I appreciate that he's gone, respect that he was over and made money, and will be glad if I never see him again.

[Guest DVD Spree]

Ultimate Warrior = Brock Lesnar.

[1234-5678 0]

Yeah right. Lesnar was light years ahead of Warrior in terms of ring ability.

 

Now......

 

Bill Goldberg=Ultimate Warrior is a lot closer to accurate.