Rate The Gimmick: Ultimate Warrior - Crazed Madman

[Ferbian]

It's time for another installment of Rate The Gimmick. The purpose of this thread series is for me to find a gimmick, and for you to rate it between 1 and 10. 1 being awful and 10 being awesome. Pretty simple.

This week we'll look into, well a guy I had a hard time putting a name on his gimmick. But ultimately, this was the thought I simply had about him. Watching a few of his promos, I couldn't think of anything but a crazed madman.

Can you blame me? Look at him!

Either way. Ultimate Warrior debuted in back in 87 in WWF as, well this monster of a thing. He went on to be pretty much going undefeated for about 4 years of the time, before getting pinned by Sgt. Slaugther.

During these 4 years he defeated the longest reigning Intercontinental champion in The Honky Tonk Man in pretty much a squash match. Which is what a lot of his matches turned out to be, squash matches. He would dominate his opponent and win rather easily, proving to become incredibly popular.

This eventually turned into a title match between the WWF champion Hulk Hogan and Warrior himself. The match, we pretty much all know, Wrestlemania 6 main event, Hogan's first defeat at Wrestlemania. The match went on to be regarded as one of the greatest Wrestlemania matches of all time.

The Ultimate Warrior held a small, yet noticeable handful of championships. 2 Intercontinental championships and one WWF championship. Both which had his share of memorable moments (I'm sure). As well as he has numerous awards from Wrestling Observers Newsletter. However, hardly any worth bragging about.

Pretty much there's not a lot else to say about The Ultimate Warrior's gimmick. It was crazed, and it was pretty god damn hard to understand. He was horrific on the microphone, and I'll let this video prove it.

[YOUTUBE]laiZgrIpbcA[/YOUTUBE]​

Yeah, I'll leave you to translate that, or at least try.

Other than that, I'll also leave you to rate this gimmick. Was it a 10? Or was it a 1? Remember to give reasons to your opinions.

 

[FunKay the Inevitable]

I'm in two minds about this.

On one hand I absolutely HATE the Ultimate Warrior. I mean, I despise him. I found him to be terrible in the ring nine times out of ten (His Mania Matches with Hogan & Savage are epic but the rest are mostly atrocious). He had barely any talent. He looked intense...and that was it. His promos were equally stupid. He couldn't cut one. FACT. All he could do was ramble for two & a half minutes.

BUT the fact is, Warrior was over with the crowd, because of that damn gimmick. He was over BECAUSE he was a raving lunatic. He would literally scream, grunt and snort his way through a promo, but people would love it. To this day I have no idea why but people enjoyed his nonsensical, bullshit promos. And it's because of that that I give his gimmick a 7/10.

(I was taking 2 points away just for my hatred of the guy and I don't believe it deserved a 10 anyway).

 

[The Bearded One]

I used to love love love the Ultimate Warrior. He was my favorite wrestler back in the day. I didn't care about how he was in the ring. I didn't care that I didn't understand what he was talking about. I loved the colorful face paint and how he ran out and just destroyed people. For a 5 year old, it couldn't get any better than the Ultimate Warrior. So for that, I'll call it a smashing success. 9/10 at least.

On a side note, I've been watching some old wrestling videos and I actually understand what the Ultimate Warrior is talking about a good portion of the time. He is basically saying the same message as Hulk Hogan, but in a crazier way.

 

[ScruffDog]

Warrior = 10

He is one of the main reasons I am a wrestling fan today. He is the man. He had so much energy; you couldn't help but be entertained by him.

Also the whole "From Parts Unknown" was great.

 

[neildittmar]

In its time, the Ultimate Warrior gimmick was easily a 10/10... simple as that. Now the detractors will instantly raise points regarding his "shoddy" in-ring work, his inability to cut focused (or even coherent) promos, and even his horrific ring attire. Individually speaking, none of these things really mattered though.

What Utlimate Warrior was to late 80's, early 90's WWF was much MUCH greater than the sum of the characters parts. I can't think of anyone (save for maybe Hogan) whose entrance theme elicited the kind of reaction Warriors did. I mean, it was a generic guitar riff at its core, but people (including me) loved it. From the moment the first few notes came out from the speakers, you knew you were in for something big.

Sure, he was completely gassed by the time he hit the ring, but his entrance was absolutely integral to the character. He couldn't simply walk to the ring... the few times he did (WM7 vs. Macho Man springs to mind) looked silly and out of character. Warriors entrance was a huge part of the match, eliciting much of the entertainment value that was to be had.

And yes, the high majority of his matches were squashes and most of the ones that weren't typically range somewhere between "meh" and unwatchable. His in-ring work was almost an afterthought though. No matter how sloppy Warrior was or how bad he was outclassed, fans didn't care. They wanted to see a shoulder block, gorilla press, splash and a 1-2-3.

None of the "bad parts" of Warrior mattered when the bigger picture was taken into consideration. Warrior was larger than life. When he came to the ring, wrestling fans got a taste of whats normally intangible... a real connection to the character through his performance and showmanship. Not many wrestlers can do that nowadays, but the Warrior did it night after night. He probably would've done much longer than he did had it not been for his own undoing.

Not many wrestlers before the Warrior truly attained that "bigger than the business" stature that Jim Helwig was able to grasp. Sadly, not many wrestlers afterward have been capable either. For me, Ultimate Warrior (the gimmick) ranks right up there with Hogan, Austin, the Rock, and other over the top, larger than life characters that represent the epitome of the most successful pro-wrestlers.

 

[Joe's Gonna Kill You]

10/10

Growing up Ultimate Warrior was by far my favorite wrestler. I loved his entrance and I loved his music, and his attire to. I didn't mind that he was pretty bad on the mic or in the ring. For Me Ultimate Warrior was the best and thats why I'd give him a 10/10

 

[Judah's Lion]

this is tough for me. like the other posters, i'd have to say that this guy helped get me involved in wrestling in the first place. my very first wrestling anything was a Warrior action figure and one of those blow-up dolls (yeah i know, i can see the jokes coming from this already, but seriously i don't know what else to call them) that you punch and it rocks back and forth... besides the very obvious sex jokes that anyone could make about me for having a Warrior blow-up doll, does anyone remember what these things were called? or even have a clue what in the world i'm talking about?

anyway, as a kid, this guy was freaking gold. and dynamite. and everything in between. i loved his look and his power and how he screamed and ran and dominated everything in sight. he was awesome. i loved the fringe and streamers and his hair. his matches against Savage and Hogan were amazing. i was devastated when he lost the belt to Slaughter and Rude, but applauded when he did win those titles in the first place.

i about crapped my pants when he returned because i was so happy. his feud with Goldust and his Mania match against a heel Hunter. i couldn't have been more thrilled that he dominated a snobby heel so quickly on the biggest stage of all.

and even when he returned to WCW i was super excited because i was just a young teen his mystique and aura were still with him. that is, until he did anything after that initial interview. his OWN faction was garbage, as were the backstage segments, as were his matches.

and now, i read his blogs and hear him rant about how he was the greatest thing ever in wrestling. he just seems so full of himself and so ungrateful, etc.

so as a kid, i'd give this guy an easy 9/10, bare minimum. but now, as an adult, looking back and keeping up with him now, i gotta say a disappointing 5/10, tops.

whenever i think of Warrior today, i'll always think of "wasted potential" and i'll always be sad for that. he could have been great. his mic work may have sucked and his matches may have sucked, but with time and the right work ethic and attitude, if he'd stayed around more than 5 years total, he could have made a more positive impression in the world of pro wrestling.

between the 5 and 9 scores, i guess i'll just take the average and rate the gimmick at a 7/10.

 

[Whatsinaname696]

9/10 in it's time it worked like a charm, a completely bat-shit wacko charm, but a charm none-the-less, and as many people have posted def one of the reasons I loved wrestling

 

[cbear47]

First, I think you misunderstand the situation. "Ultimate Warrior" is in itself a gimmick. It had a whole bizarre backstory of some pagan gods that formed a superhuman Ultimate Warrior to do their bidding, and had run amok. It's not a "crazed madman" gimmick; the man born Jim Hellwig WAS a crazed madman, to be sure, but the UW was something more. One of the great comic-book hero types of the 80s WWF.

Ironically, of course, his comic book sucked. C'est la vie.

But, nomenclature aside, how would I rate the Warrior gimmick? 10.

For the kind of reasons already stated--it was so over, it never mattered how bizarre he was, how much people understood his promos, how his ring work looked (sell? what do you mean by this word?)--he was OVER, OVER, and MORE OVER.

Seriously, even with a hiatus, the rumor of his death and replacement (twice over--I heard the death rumor right before/after WM6, and then again after his hiatus) and even was able to garner a reaction in WCW years later.

The gimmick? FABULOUS. Imagine a real worker... Macho, maybe? Doing the same bit... We'd have forgotten Hogan by now, he'd have been so over. Hellwig contributed a great physique, which made the squashes believable, and the manic rambling with just a thread of sanity (the man is a mad genius IRL--emphasis on MAD) which gave him the mystical vibe, the superhuman/comic book character vibe, that was the Ultimate Warrior.

 

[Strife3]

The overall Gimmick of the Ultimate Warrior was great.
If he as the man and wrestler would have tried harder he would be an icon where people like The Undertaker, Hulk Hogan, Rick Flair, Andre the Giant are. if you watch the DvD of the Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior it says alot about him.

 

[robertg316]

As a gimmick for the time period it was in i have to give it 7/10!

My reason is pretty simple.I think the idea of a powerfull crazed character that you cant read and that the fans cant predict what there gona do is a fantastic addition to a roster. Almost a loose cannon,you can never predict what they will do and i think the Warrior did this well.

 

[fenfool]

Yeah, the guy either lived his gimmick, or turned into it. He was a phenom...kind of an early, insane version of Goldberg. He was very over for a few years, and he put on some good, entertaining matches. I remember watching WWF on Saturday mornings...they almost never had anything but squash matches, so anything different was awesome, and Warrior sure was different. It was bell, about a minute and a half of being a human blender, then a three-count. And as painful as that sounds now, it was always fun to watch! The WCW version, I will have to ignore...I remember really looking forward to it, then he slowly walks down the aisle and gives a measured, very long and pointless promo. If he had run out of nowhere and just beat the crap out of Hogan or some unsuspecting NWO-er, I think it would have been a lot more successful.

But back to the gimmick rating. I have changed my mind several times while I'm writing this, remembering how it came across to me as a kid, and trying to separate that from what has happened since. I can't really think of another far-out gimmick that ever went over as much and for as long as the Ultimate Warrior, with the exception of The Undertaker. That is some pretty good company!

I give it a 9 out of 10, with the understanding that the gimmick may have gone on to make the man, but the man really made the gimmick a success.

 

[daddyJ_t]

first i gtta say, its cool to actually finally see some good stuff said bout the warrior. now i give it the highest marks for it was the tops when it came to gimmicks. he played it to a tee. even his whacked out promos were part of it, cause if you watch hogans promos and how he actually speaks when oout of the ring, same difference, gimmick.the way he jus detroyed his oppisitions and sometimes even carreid them limp to the back was jus out there and insane. his matches with rude, savage and hogan were tops and proved when matched up with the right guy, he could put on 5 star matches. even his music said it all "unstable" vince created a monster and it took life and became bigger then he ever imagined. 10 out of 10 my friends except for the wcw shit that russo scripted cause we all know his work(see tna) id say that the gimmick jus because of the way it was done, would still get over even today because its not dated with things like say your prayers and soforth. this gimmisk played by him is timeless

 

[GameOver]

Jessie Ventura summed him up well

"A million dollar body and a 10cent brain"

At the time it worked, i marked out to it and as a character love creating it in wrestling games.
the gimick was entertaining in that he was weird and could be funny with the rediculous promo's he use to come up with
He also had the look of a champion, noone can deny that, That body was made to be a fighting champion

But reality sets in with the person behind the gimmick that we find out later
When he won the world title from Hogan, the person behind the face paint started to show through and it went downhill fast.
The guy is a self confessed frequent roid user, but it has no impact on him apparently. YEAH RIGHT!!! and it was obvious he wasn't naturally pumped except maybe to kids
He was unprofessional, a moron and thought the world should only revolve around him and still does.
Really the only good matches he had were with Randy Savage and that was because Savage was the consumate pro and could make anyone look good, not Warrior's ability
hell even Andre looked coordinated compared to Warrior.

Warrior vs Hogan was only good because of the story, the match was awfull....
Savage vs Warrior was epic because of Savage
Warrior vs Rick Rude were entertaining but only cause it was fun to see Rude get his ass handed to him. I feel sorry for him now though, probably took a huge toll on his body having to work regularly with that moron
Batista had a similar gimmick but atleast he had some talent in all areas, Ultimate Warrior was a cartoon character, nothing else

 

[ThePh3nomonal1]

8, maybe higher. His wrestling skills were terrible but he could have a great match when he needed to. Much like John Cena, but the thing I remember about the Ultimate Warrior is that there has never been a superstar whos success had so much to do with his music. It pumped the crowd and that was the main thing that got him over in the first place.

 

[holdingholder]

I can't understand how people say the warriors promos mad know sense, if you can understand English (which the promos were delivered in) you should be able to comprehend them. They always followed the central theme of a warrior who was handed great powers by the gods and the powers and history of warriors past, and the power he derived from all his little warriors, mixed in with the fact that he was somewhat of a deranged lunatic that was not used to normal society since he walks the path of the warrior. I give the gimmick a 10/10 because it was unique and if you ask me he played it perfectly