How Good Was Ultimate Warrior Actually?

At his best, Ultimate Warrior was unpredictable and volatile, but he was ultimately (ahem) a one-trick pony. That's why he shone so brightly for his first 2 years as a top name then struggled for much of the rest of his career. There wasn't much to be found beyond a flashy arrival, a kick-ass entrance theme, and a hyperactive squash match style.

Asking the Warrior to tell a nuanced and elaborate story was virtually impossible. His gibberish promos did a lot to sell the Warrior as a force of nature, but it’s very difficult to build storylines around a man dedicated to talking absolute nonsense at every given opportunity.

Take Warrior’s feud in early-1991 with Sgt Slaughter for the WWF Title, for example. Slaughter was telling a controversial story involving Saddam Hussein, a pair of boots that had been gifted courtesy of the Saudi Arabian war criminal, and building heat around himself as an Iraqi sympathiser during the height of the Gulf War (albeit being offset by calling his adversary “Ultimate Puke”).

All Warrior could add to this Royal Rumble build was blabbering about sand and adding military innuendos about minefields, foxholes and different army ranks to his usual inane ramblings.

1/10