The Ultimate Warrior’s WWE career is remembered in two different lights. Any fan who wants a positive approach to his legacy will see the incredible start during the Golden Age. Warrior bested a character unlike any other at the time and won the WWE Championship from Hulk Hogan in a career-defining moment for him.
The other way to look at Warrior’s career is to look at his falls from everything that will happen after his title reign. warrior left WWE and had a second unsuccessful stint in the years before they built with the New Generation Era. Vince McMahon felt that Warrior could add a big name to the young roster when he brought him back in 1996. Unfortunately, the return was an all-time disaster and warrants a deeper look at what went wrong.
The Supreme Warrior returns to WWE
WWE didn’t think hard enough about reintroducing Ultimate Warrior in 1996 to make his return exciting from the start. It was announced that Warrior would return a few weeks before wrestling 12 for his first match against Triple H. Hunter Hearst Helmsley’s badass character saw him struggling to get the better of him with a generic gimmick that fans had seen many times before.
wrestling 12 should have been a good night for Triple H having his first W.M. match, but it was a shame. Triple H was crushed by Warrior in 99 seconds with no real heat. Warrior did nothing on the build beyond getting his name announced for the big event. WWE thought that a former legend coming back and decimating a heel in the middle of the card would be exciting enough to create a buzz.
The show ended that night with Warrior moving on to other things immediately after. WWE timed Warrior’s interview after his return match on the following Raw with a promo time that missed the mark. Warrior always had mixed promotions in its heyday, but they became less endearing when it was no longer a beloved headlining act.
The Ultimate Warrior was put into horrible fights
Goldust ended up being Ultimate Warrior’s first fight when he returned to WWE and he began to become a part of the show full-time again. Warrior talked about how the voices of the fans inspired his comeback and made some weird comments that were hard to follow. Goldust interrupting Warrior led them to start the match between two of WWE’s weirdest characters.
Warrior challenged Goldust for the Intercontinental Championship at in your house 7 in a terrifying game. The DQ ending saw Warrior win the match but not the belt as a title cannot change hands via DQ. A rematch on Raw ended in a double countout to eliminate them both from the King of the Ring tournament, but ended their rivalry without a proper conclusion.
WWE then placed Warrior in a feud with color commentator Jerry Lawler. This rivalry featured the infamous segment of Lawler painting a part for Warrior and hitting him over the head with the frame, but Warrior bizarrely telegraphed it by wearing a baseball cap. Both wrestlers had terrible chemistry and their short story ended with a relatively weak match at King of the Ring 1996.
Vince McMahon got tired of The Ultimate Warrior’s behavior
Ultimate Warrior was only given two actual fights with Jerry Lawler and Goldust, which exposed his weaknesses right away. A lot had changed since the Golden Era with fans having higher expectations and falling in love with the new style of artists like Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. WWE went for a home run once again by putting Warrior at an angle to some of the main entrants in a six-man tag.
The announced match of Warrior, Michaels and Ahmed Johnson against heels Owen Hart, British Bulldog and Vader was Warrior’s first taste of the main event upon return. Unfortunately, things that started to go wrong for both sides showed that WWE lost any remaining faith in Warrior. WWE was upset that Warrior missed appearances advertised prior to this event and fired him. Warrior claimed that he was taking care of his sick father, but Vince McMahon felt that he was lying after similar moments in the past with similar excuses.
In most cases where a wrestler is advertised for a match and is on the block, the promotion would wait until after the match is complete to fire them. WWE was sick enough to dump Warrior before the match and replaced him with a returning Sycho Sid. things ended so ugly that Ultimate Warrior Self Destruct DVD saw WWE trying to bury him years later. WWE finally made amends when they inducted Warrior into the Hall of Fame, but this horrible 1996 run was almost a legacy killer.