Totally unreal news. Just a few days ago he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, then even appeared on RAW... and a few hours later he's gone, at this of all times.
I was very young when Warrior had his high time, but still I knew the guy and loved the intensity of his character as much as the next guy. I guess when I first saw the Hogan/Warrior match at WM6 (which certainly was a few years after the event happened and I was more or less gobbling up all I could find in terms of wrestling VHS tapes), I was definitely a Hogan guy - pretty much by default.
Still, Warrior was a unique character, and even though he was always a bit on the crazy side, and a lot of his positions as a motivational speaker were a bit too conservative or even right-wing for my personal taste, I always appreciated him doing that kind of work, and also appreciated him being a good speaker and writer.
And even if some of his stuff was a bit "out there" from time to time, I was always psyched whenever he made a return, be it to WCW or WWF, regardless of the fact that ultimately, those last returns were rather wasted opportunities.
It's really sad to see him go out now at this point in his life, where it seems he's made peace with a lot of things that appeared to have bothered him in the past ten, fifteen years; when he seemed to be in a good place with his family and life in general. 54 certainly isn't an age to go, and most certainly not for the Ultimate Warrior.
My condolences to his family and especially his daughters, who I think very painfully had to find out this weekend that sometimes, great joy and great pain lie very closely together.
So here's to WWE legend and Hall of Famer, the man formerly known as Jim Hellwig, who has now returned to "Parts Unknown", and who will forever remain - Warrior.
Godspeed.