The line between characters and human beings in pro wrestling is often very fine, as the most popular wrestlers are arguably always similar to their characters. Sometimes, like in the case of The Ultimate Warrior, the man and the character are miles apart.
“Say what you want about Jim Hellwig – and I did not like the human being, okay? The character of The Ultimate Warrior? Man, had charisma, and he just like… Oozed charisma. And the guy had intensity and was frenetic and exciting,” he noted during an episode of his “Something To Wrestle” podcast, while discussing the 1996 Royal Rumble, noting that WWE Chairman Vince McMahon did his best to hide Warrior’s negatives. “And Vince [McMahon]? Vince, just honed in on the positives of what he saw, and, you know, that was that.”
Interestingly, Bruce Prichard claimed that back in 1996, nobody wanted The Ultimate Warrior back in WWE besides McMahon. Despite this, McMahon and Warrior had several fallouts over the years, leading Prichard to speculate that it was the connection between the two men that led to McMahon bringing Warrior back despite being disappointed with him.Â
“They got along when they got along,” Prichard hedged, noting that business has a way to come between people. Prichard believes that McMahon saw the good in people, generally, even people like Hellwig.
“[Warrior] was not a good person. He was difficult to work with, thought he knew it all, and he was just a real jerk,” Prichard continued, pointing out that Warrior left the territories when Bill Watts hit him over the head with a baseball bat, which was Prichard’s first experience with him. “When he was calling in the Summer of ’87 to come in for WWE at the time, and I was asked, ‘Have you ever worked with him?’ I said, ‘Yes, didn’t have a good experience.'”Â
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “Something To Wrestle” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
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