How Good Was Ultimate Warrior Actually?

Ultimate Warrior was famously clunky and inadequate in the ring. Understanding his presentation and promos is critical to comprehending his success, because if you go back and watch Warrior’s in-ring performances then his popularity will make no sense whatsoever.

Hogan’s matches may have been formulaic, but he at least understood in-ring psychology and how to feel an audience. The Ultimate Warrior had the most limited set of skills it's possible to have, and he didn’t seem to care about his opponent or the sanctity of wrestling. Much like the approach WCW adopted with Goldberg, Warrior’s first few years involved matches less than 5 minutes because that was how you got the most out of him.

As his popularity grew, it was largely the responsibility of his opponent to carry the match itself when he had to be put in longer matches.

At the very base level of being a wrestler, the aim is to make fans buy into the choreographed combat playing out in front of them. That was impossible to do with Ultimate Warrior. His art of...not selling his opponent’s offence was insulting to the audience as well as his opponents. Watching the Warrior run on the spot whilst Randy Savage laid a top rope double-ax handle into him, or popping up to his feet to emphatically bench press thin air after Hulk hit him with a scoop slam in the main event of WrestleMania? Childish nonsense.

Most egregious of all, his no-sell of Triple H’s Pedigree at WrestleMania XII was so abysmal that it made a mockery of wrestling itself.

Bill Goldberg was a questionable in-ring performer, but at least his spear and Jackhammer are impressive to see. Warrior's Gorilla Press and Ultimate Splash were the pits. There is literally not a single thing about The Ultimate Warrior’s in-ring performance that warrants praise.

1/10