How Good Was Ultimate Warrior Actually?

7. Time’s Test

Warrior’s body of work has aged like Cyndi Lauper’s wardrobe. To see any merit in it, you have to view it as a relic of the 80’s, because it is nearly impossible to imagine a scenario in which Ultimate Warrior would work in today’s wrestling climate (or any other for that matter).

Jey Uso is derided for gassing during his matches, but he’s like a triathlon athlete compared to the Warrior. Jim Hellwig would be unemployable as an in-ring performer in today’s landscape. This isn’t insulting him because he isn’t AJ Styles, this is saying that Warrior is very literally below the standards of anything you will see at your local wrestling event, let alone the bright lights of WWE or AEW.

Take an act like FTR. Their look, style, and entrance music owes much to the past, be it Smoky Mountain Wrestling, The Steiner Brothers or The Brain Busters, but they are exemplary performers who would be an asset to any wrestling company in any era. Retro but contemporary. There is nothing about the Warrior that would work in any era but his period of dominance in the 80s. Even by the time he returned to WCW in 1998, he felt like selling a cassette Walkman to the iPod generation.

As for mic work, imagine Ultimate Warrior being faced with MJF or Paul Heyman. Imagine trying to convince the IWC that you were raised on the smell of combat, or the concept of your “Little Warriors”. Picture him having to put on a match after Konosuke Takeshita or Je’von Evans had been in the ring. There isn’t a single scenario in which the Warrior could thrive in today’s world, or in which his body of work stands up to scrutiny.

1/10