8 Wrestlers WWE Regret Making World Champion

3. Ultimate Warrior

Finn Balor
WWE.com

For a period of time, there's no denying that The Ultimate Warrior was the most explosive and energetic personality in the wrestling industry. But while we fans got to see an electric, frenetic ball of vibrant energy, WWE brass got to see the other more unsavoury side of Warrior.

The Ultimate One did the unthinkable and toppled Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania VI to become WWE Champion and the new face of the company in a passing of the torch. Skipping ahead to SummerSlam 1991 - Warrior having dropped the title to Sgt. Slaughter at the '91 Royal Rumble PPV - and that's when Vince McMahon had his first serious problems with the Parts Unknown native.

It was at SummerSlam '91 that Warrior famously held McMahon up, as he refused to perform unless Vince agreed to pay him $550,000 for that year's WrestleMania VII. At the risk of losing his SummerSlam main event, McMahon agreed - but then fired Warrior directly after the PPV.

The '90s featured a few problematic returns to the then-WWF for Warrior, with lawsuits never far away. Yet it was years later when Ultimate Warrior really showed his true colours, as he'd write plentiful blogs and post various videos in which he made racist, homophobic, and generally xenophobic comments - to the point that he mocked Bobby Heenan for being diagnosed with cancer, and he claimed that those killed in the atrocities of Hurricane Katrina would not be missed.

Even after all of this WWE inducted The Ultimate Warrior into their Hall of Fame... but thankfully the heinous acts of Jim Hellwig have begun to be thrown back at WWE as Warrior's past has been discovered by more and more people.

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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.