How Good Was Ultimate Warrior Actually?

This is possibly the most subjective element of The Ultimate Warrior. His promos made about as much sense as putting pineapple on a pizza, but millions of weirdos all over the world love that taste of madness.

Just listening to a Warrior promo is enough to make the audience fail a drugs test. With his veins bulging like power cables, Warrior would literally snarl like a beast, whisper like a serial killer and roar like a grizzly bear in the space of 10 seconds. His words would fly at the speed of Andre 3000.

Sure, his promos made next to no sense, but they always felt captivating anyway. He was anti-cinema in the Roman Reigns sense of drama and storytelling, but totally box office as he demanded that we load up the spaceship with "the rocket fuel" and give our skeletons to sacrifice to the gods of combat for reasons only known to him.

One of his famous promos (on the road to his career-defining match with Hulk at WrestleMania VI) suggested that Hogan commit an act of terrorism by commandeering an aircraft, sacrificing the pilots in the cockpit, and putting the plane into a nose-dive.

Put on literally any promo he ever delivered, and his level of intensity made even the likes of Randy Savage and Hulk sound like a quaint Great British Bake Off contestant. This brings us back around to the point that Jim Hellwig’s promo style was/is an entirely acquired taste.

If there's a Warrior promo that demands a level of seriousness, it is his final words in a wrestling ring on the 7 April 2014 episode of Raw. Even at 54, he barked with the ferocity of a rabid dog after donning a mask with his face paint on to talk in character. His final words included this monologue: “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 bodies of others and makes them believe deeper in something larger than life, then his essence, his spirit, will be immortalised”.

For all of the laughs that can be had at Warrior’s insane promos, these words came 24 hours before he passed. They carry weight and should inspire anyone into believing they can overcome life’s insurmountable odds by becoming something larger than themselves. Is the Warrior a maniac or a genius? That is truly in the eyes and ears of the beholder.

7/10