10 Wrestlers Who Ditched Their Terrible Ring Names

Though the origin of the name Ultimate Warrior has been disputed over the years, one thing is at least a little more certain—it was a vast improvement on Warrior’s first alias.

Performing for World Class Championship Wrestling in 1986 and ’87, the Ultimate Warrior that we’ve since come to know was originally named the Dingo Warrior. On top of sounding entirely lame, this presented a couple of issues.

First-off, it’s unclear what exactly a Dingo Warrior is - a very valid point raised by Vince McMahon and Bruce Prichard upon Warrior’s arrival in the then-WWF. Moreover, the wrestling world already had its fair share of warriors, including the "Modern Day Warrior" Kerry von Erich and the Road Warriors, Hawk and Animal.

So, killing two birds with one stone, Warrior allegedly declared that he wasn’t this warrior or that warrior, he was in fact the Ultimate Warrior.

That simple shift set up a Hall of Fame career, the pinnacle of which saw him pin Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania VI to become the first man in history to hold both the Intercontinental and World Heavyweight Championships at the very same time. And to think, in another universe that show could have been headlined by Sterling Golden vs. Dingo Warrior.

Thankfully, smarter heads prevailed.