10 Next Big Things In Wrestling That Totally Flopped
4. The Ultimate Warrior
"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, and makes them believe deeper in something larger than life, then his essence, his spirit, will be immortalised."
As prescient and fitting as the Warrior's last onscreen words were - his legacy is etched, if not into the Mount Rushmore of WWE, then somewhere into stone - Warrior's sole reign with the WWF Heavyweight title flopped critically and commercially. The former wasn't of great concern to the Federation at the time; if it were, there's no way McMahon would have chosen a worker of his clumsy and basic ilk to carry it in the first instance. The all-important box office figures floundered in parallel, despite the best efforts of an Atlas-like Rick Rude in terms of both physique and the ability to carry immense leaden weight across his rippling shoulders. House show gates plummeted, and pay-per-view buy rates followed the same pattern.
Many factors converged to create this implosion, which caught the company itself in its backdraft. Hulk Hogan reacted to Warrior's title victory at WrestleMania VI as if God himself had failed him, and that Warrior's 2.9 count was not so much a fluke but a sporting disgrace. His "magnanimity" cast Warrior as a little brother, too - and this cartoonish facsimile had few genuine title challengers with which to spike fan enthusiasm. They were almost invariably superb or legendary (Mr. Perfect, André) but had long since been exposed as impotent kayfabe threats.
It's a testament to how absolutely indelible Warrior was as a performer, with his intensity and insanity, that his legacy obscures the numbers.