How Good Was Ultimate Warrior Actually?

10. Presence/Look/Presentation

In the 1980s, only Hulk Hogan was more popular than Ultimate Warrior. During wrestling’s first national and international boom period, Jim Hellwig’s madcap antics were as over with fans as it was possible to be on one of the most personality-laden WWE rosters of all time. Whilst Dusty Rhodes had the gift of the gab and Ric Flair was the era’s best in-ring main eventer, The Ultimate Warrior’s presentation was second only to all-conquering red and yellow of Hulk.

His explosive entrance, however, was one area where the Warrior was second to nobody. Sprinting to the ring like Usain Bolt after a night at Tony Montana’s house, crowds would go ballistic for Warrior’s signature entrance. He'd run across the ring apron, one hand on the ropes and the other pumping like he was pulling invisible oranges from a tree. Then, he would shake the ropes like an enraged gorilla. It was absolute nonsense, but it worked like a charm. Adrenaline-filled, nitro-fueled mayhem that was perfect for hyperactive children everywhere; everything about The Ultimate Warrior was perfect (until the bell rang).

His look was memorable too. The iconic war paint on Warrior's face would change colours from week-to-week. Sometimes he'd paint his face makeup onto his entire chest area just to make sure the audience had fully grasped the point. As his stature within wrestling grew and he claimed WWE titles, he changed the colour of his belts to match. That seems like a small detail, but it made a big impact on the audience of the time and his young fans. 

Warrior would wear a long coat for PPVs with an airbrush-painted image on it, and the colours used were so striking that it looked like someone had been drinking every variety of Buzzball and thrown up on him. Again, it was cartoonish drivel on the surface, but over is over, and The Ultimate Warrior was as over as anyone (including Hogan) for a short time in the late 80s.

Perhaps an element of the Warrior’s presentation that has held up best of all is Jim Johnson’s excellent entrance theme. Sure, the chugging guitar riff and Metallica-esque cymbal crashes are also as 80’s as The Outrunners’ fashion sense, but put Lamb Of God or Malevolence’s guitar tone on Warrior’s entrance theme and it still rips ten tons of awesome by modern heavy metal standards.

If everything is judged through the lens of its era, then Ultimate Warrior embodied the 80s perfectly. Neon colored, big-haired, fist-pumping excess that the kids from Stranger Things would have loved.

8/10