There were a number of legal battles between The Ultimate Warrior and WWE in the last twenty years. Most of the battles had to do with Warrior's name. They had legal issues because both sides felt that they owned the Warrior and Ultimate Warrior characters. From WWE's perspective, they created the gimmick. From Warrior's side of it, he's the one that was the Ultimate Warrior so he felt like he owned the rights to it. Warrior ended up winning and the courts said that Warrior was legally entitled to use the gimmick, costuming, face paint designs, and mannerisms of the "Warrior" character. He ended up legally changing his name to Warrior too. Warrior also sued WWE in 2006 after their DVD release titled The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior criticized him heavily to the point that they made fun of him for a lot of things that he did. Three years later the lawsuit was dismissed probably because WWE could argue it was just part of the show. The Ultimate Warrior returned to WWE in 2013 as part of the WWE 2K14 video game. He was also inducted into WWE's Hall of Fame in 2014. The next night he appeared on Raw and day after that he died of a heart attack. It's a sad story although it was nice to know that he had mended fences with WWE.
John wrote at WhatCulture from December 2013 to December 2015. It was fun, but it's over for now. Follow him on Twitter @johnreport. You can also send an email to mrjohncanton@gmail.com with any questions or comments as well.
