WCW Region, Lexington Subregion, First Round: (7) Ultimate Warrior vs. (26) Goldust

[FitFinlay4Life]

Goldy couldn't beat the Warrior when he returned to the WWF in the mid-nineties so he'd have had absolutely no chance during the height of his 80s popularity.

 

[Miko]

No it's not about Warrior the person. It has everything to do with Warrior the wrestler. I understand how successful he was and how over he was at one point in time, but I never liked Ultimate Warrior. Even as I child I would watch his matches and promos disappointed, because even then, I understood how awful he was. I'll never forget when he showed up on Nitro and cut that epic fail of a promo on Hulk Hogan. Hell, even Hulk was looking at him like, "what the hell is he on about".

No you didn't, if you had watch him as a child you'd have been sucked in just like everybody else.

That promo on Nitro was a little long, that is all, you taking comments directly from the DVD and they were almost certainly hyperbowl. You had Hogan and HHH saying stupid things like "he was mentioning matches from the past, you don't do that while building a new feud." Talk about grasping at straws, how many feuds have those two put over by mentioning the past. Ridiculous. You watched that DVD and you were fooled.

Why should I, as a wrestling fan, vote for one of the most absolute worst performers in the history of the business? Why should any of us as wrestling fans vote for him? I mean seriously, the only thing the guy had going for him was his look. If it hadn't have been for that, he never would've amounted to much of anything.

I just can't stand the Ultimate Warrior!

Look, charisma, mic skills and ring skills, the guy had it all. I've yet to see a poor Warrior match from the 80's or early 90's. None of you ***** that claim he was bad can fucking find one.

This is a crime of conscience.

On one side we have a guy who was never really a fan of the business, never really had to prove himself and got a direct path to the big time, babbled incoherently to the camera about absolutely nonesense that sounded good at the time, but poorly on reflection, was able to no-sell about half the offence he ever took and essentially was able to coast on having a great body and a lot of energy.

Great, if you want to be like that about it then he was the same as any other big star at the time, actually better than most. Hogan, Undertaker, these guys were all the same mold, except Warrior and Hogan eclipsed the others. It helps that he was good at what he did of course.

Anyway, he just wasn't an idiot, he knew wrestling chews people up and spits them out, he wanted his fair shake.

Conversely, we have a guy who had a gimmick that seemed like it was destined to fail, had the weight of his father on his shoulders and worked for 'the other company' when his Dad was at WCW, someone who was methodical and considerate about what he did and was very good at it, was able to work well in the ring and make people care about him not long after his début, someone who had longevity and a good career because he had the nouse not to let himself implode, a guy that you could still book to this day and have him get reactions almost 20 years on and someone that has maintained the same gimmick, on and off, for the same length of time.

Goldusts gimmick was always going to work, playing against the extreme homophobia of wrestling fans has worked for decades. Dustin Runnels was given a peach and fair enough he ran with it. Now people are generally more progressive we can have it work as a face, but someone half decent can make it work, look at Rico, he got Charlie Haas over.

No matter what I try to detract from Warrior or add to Goldust for the undeserved gap in the quality of their two careers, I can't think of enough good reasons to vote a career midcarder over the first and only man to beat Hulk Hogan clean at Wrestlemania in his prime, no matter where the rub rubbed off after it happened. Warrior short idiotic years in wrestling were much more impactful than Goldust's and so to Dustin Runnels, I am sorry.

Short, idiotic, fun as hell. I'll take another of his mold.