10 Superstars Who Burned WWE Bridges… But Still Returned

1. The Ultimate Warrior

Ultimate Warrior Hall of Fame
WWE

He may have been explosive. He may have been an in-ring powerhouse. He may have been responsible for so many fantastic childhood memories. When it comes down to it, sadly The Ultimate Warrior was an absolute piece of sh*t.

To those of us who adored Warrior in our younger days, it came as a gut-punch to years later hear him make such vile racist, homophobic, and generally xenophobic comments. And not just as a one-off error of judgement – which would still be inexcusable. Warrior embarked on vitriolic rants on a scarily regular basis.

In amongst these chilling remarks about anyone and everyone, Warrior also put WWE on blast at several points over the years. His behaviour when employed by WWE was erratic at best, yet that was nothing when compared to the lawsuits and public shots Warrior threw WWE’s way.

So burned was this particular bridge, WWE even made the childish, yet hugely entertaining move to release an entire DVD designed purely to mock Warrior at every possible turn.

Having not appeared on WWE programming since 1996, Ultimate Warrior returned to WWE in 2014 and received a spot in the WWE Hall of Fame the night before WrestleMania XXX.

All bridges were seemingly mended, hugs were shared around, Warrior was once again revered as an all-time great… yet the sad truth was WWE did its best to shine up a truly hateful man who went as low as to wish cancer on Bobby Heenan and to deride the victims of Hurricane Katrina as being no great loss to the world.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.