The Ultimate Warrior: 10 Most Shocking Controversies

2. The Name Change

A constant source of bemusement about Warrior is the fact he legally changed his name from Jim Hellwig to Warrior. This extends to his family, his wife goes by Dana Warrior and his two young girls are Mattigan Warrior and Indiana Warrior. The name change came in 1993, but despite reports that the controversial choice was down to ego, it was actually down to legal implications. Basically the WWE owned the Ultimate Warrior name for marketing purposes. This didn't sit too well for Hellwig who knew his fame was connected to the name, so he decided to legally change his name to plain Warrior. This bamboozled the WWF hopes of stopping him using the Warrior brand, now that it was his name, he was free and able to market himself with the term. Still, a sense of ego does come into the story. He could easily have still gone by Jim in public, but by all accounts, he quite happily started going by the Warrior name. It sounds like a classic case of a wrestler believing their own hype and becoming lost in their character.