Ultimate Warrior In WWE: How It Started, How It Ended

It'd be unfair to say the Ultimate Warrior's 1996 return felt doomed from the start, but there was certainly something off about his comeback vignettes on Raw sharing airtime with caustic takedowns of Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage during the Billionaire Ted skits.

For all that Warrior was - a bonafide star from the seemingly lost days of massive audience, a mainstream go-to and a name that hadn't been overexposed since his acrimonious 1992 departure - it was very apparent what he wasn't.

Those anti-WCW skits lampooned the "Huckster" and "Nacho Man" for not being able to do what Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels could. But if those supposedly weathered old coots couldn't get a New Generation membership card, how was the Warrior allowed one?

Nobody cared about that for exactly one night. WrestleMania XII, for all Triple H must have been understandably aggrieved, was pretty f*cking cool. Warrior got the biggest pop of the night, had a slightly updated presentation, and the future 'Game' may as well have have been Terry Gibbs with nicer hair the way he was put to the sword.

It wasn't to last.

Feuds with Jerry Lawler and Goldust collapsed thanks to rotten matches and promos that didn't meet audience expectations of what or who they remembered behind the paint. 'The Show Of Shows' had been a smoke and mirrors job, and when the smoke cleared and the mirror - or more specifically in 'The King's case, a picture frame - cracked, Hellwig's same old same old was proving the Ted skits right.

CONT'D...