WWE: 10 Most Shocking Moments In Wrestling

3. The Death Of The Ultimate Warrior

Wrestlers have a horrible mortality rate. Anyone who has followed wrestling for any length of time will be aware of this. While the WWE have introduced their Wellness policy in recent years, and will pay for a programme of rehabilitation for anyone who has ever been under contract to them, wrestlers whose heyday was in the 1980s or early 1990s were not afforded such care in their prime. During the 80s boom, Vince McMahon had a €˜bigger is better€™ mentality that epitomised the attitude of the western world as a whole at the time. A rippling physique was the best way to get yourself high up the card. A Greek god style physique was Rick Rude€™s gimmick. The power and strength of Hercules was his gimmick. And one man with facepaint, tassles and high-octane guitar riffs called The Ultimate Warrior was almost bursting out of his skin. His physique was his calling card, but, as Mick Foley says in his autobiography Have A Nice Day, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. It was only after McMahon was indicted on steroid trafficking charges (which he was later cleared of) that the superhuman physiques at the top of the card disappeared: Warrior and Davey Boy Smith were fired, Randy Savage retired, and Hulk Hogan went off to make films instead. When Savage came back, he wore a top to hide his unassisted physique. A much smaller Warrior returned, wearing a singlet to distract attention from his smaller body. Rude, Savage, Hercules, Smith and many many others have all prematurely passed away from heart related issues. The fact that Warrior has been added to that sad list should not be a surprise. But it was the timing of his death that shocked the world. Warrior had three runs in the WWE, the last one in 1996 where he left under very acrimonious circumstances. His name was mud around Titan Towers after that, to the point that McMahon released a hugely controversial DVD entitled €œThe Self Destruction of The Ultimate Warrior€ which saw WWE talent laying into Warrior verbally. In 2013, Bruno Sammartino, who had had a long running feud with McMahon for decades, was finally given his rightful place in the WWE Hall of Fame. It appeared that Triple H, in his executive role, was trying to bury the hatchet with a number of iconic former stars. After Bruno, the 2014 Hall had a similarly shocking inductee when the Warrior was announced as the headliner. Hell had seemingly frozen over. After years of hostile comments directed at one another, the two sides had made peace. Warrior walked onto the stage at the Hall of Fame ceremony with his beloved daughters at his side. Finally, they could see what their father had been before they were ever around and how much it meant to the fans who lived through his time as an active wrestler. As Warrior took in the appreciation of the fans in attendance at both the Hall of Fame and at WrestleMania itself, it appeared that the man was finally at peace with the wrestling world. A photo then circulated on Twitter of Warrior and McMahon embracing, both with beaming smiles on their faces. At Raw the next day, Warrior came out and delivered a promo, wearing a mask depicting his famous facepaint. He left the ring to a great reception. Less than 24 hours later, he was dead. The news seemed unbelievable. We€™d all just seen him the night before on our screens. It was a shocking reminder of how sudden death can be, as well as being a reminder of the sheer finality of death. Mere hours after being all over the wrestling world€™s consciousness, he was gone forever. The only thing that softened the blow was knowing that he had made his peace with his former enemies. Had Warrior never been inducted into the Hall of Fame, and had never appeared on our screens over WrestleMania weekend, his death would have been a sad shock, but not the earth-shattering shock that it was. It was the timing that compounded everything. He was literally there one day and gone the next.