The Ultimate Warrior: Incredible Secrets & Facts About His Career

2. Warrior Was Uniquely Protected Throughout His WWF Career

Warrior wrestled well over a thousand WWF matches. From the start, Vince McMahon saw the potential for a big star, and protected him. In 1990, when WWF went to Japan for the joint Tokyo Dome show with AJPW/NJPW, Vince McMahon's only major demands were that Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior would be protected.

Unsurprisingly, Warrior rarely worked extremely long matches. While accurate statistics don't exist, I'd wager that his ring entrances and promos often exceeded his match's actual length. On average, an Ultimate Warrior match was 5 minutes 15 seconds but that represents a broad spectrum:

During his WWF career, he won an astounding 90% of his matches. His losses were rare. Clean losses were even rarer. On 28 December 1987, Rick Rude pinned the Ultimate Warrior, and it wasn't until a 25 April 1988 edition of Prime Time Wrestling that he lost in a tag match via DQ when One Man Gang & Ron Bass defeated Don Muraco & Ultimate Warrior, after Junkyard Dog interfered and attacked Outlaw Ron Bass.

That April in Italy, Andre the Giant pinned the Ultimate Warrior after kicking him in the face. In June, in Quebec, Dino Bravo pinned the Ultimate Warrior by grabbing the ring ropes for extra leverage. Throughout September 1988, Honky Tonk Man was able to beat the newly crowned IC Champion via count-out, usually through the antics of Jimmy Hart (including climbing on Warrior's back). From 1989 through 1991, his only losses came to Randy Savage and Rick Rude. He lost his WWF Title to Sgt. Slaughter in 1991 and in August 1992 the Nasty Boys defeated Randy Savage and the Ultimate Warrior.

He did not lose during his 1996 comeback (final match was beating Vader by count-out) and in 1998 Hogan got his win back when he defeated Warrior at Halloween Havoc. He wrestled in 45 of the 50 states (missing Arkansas, Delaware, Montana, Vermont , Wyoming) and several countries (Canada, US, Japan, Italy, UK and Switzerland). Despite being a constant presences in the company for over four years, wrestling for 50 months straight, Ultimate Warrior almost never tasted the pain of defeat.

And his departures were not due to injuries but rather conflicts with McMahon, drug suspensions, missing house shows and pay disagreements.