Ultimate Warrior going into WWE Hall of Fame
Warrior talks about his career as the Ultimate Warrior, a playable WWE Legend on the WWE 2K14 video game on Aug. 18, 2013. Warrior's return after years of discord with the WWE culminated with his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame in April 2014. Warrior died three days later of a heart attack at the age of 54. Credit: AP
WWE once produced a DVD titled “The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior,” chronicling the wrestler’s meteoric rise and fall.
The Warrior is now back on the rise.
Eighteen years removed from the Warrior leaving WWE for the last time, he will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 5 in New Orleans, the night before WrestleMania 30.
“The Ultimate Warrior was the most intense, colorful, competitive and outspoken Superstar in sports entertainment history, and his contributions to WWE were extraordinary,” said WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon in a news release distributed by email just as the announcement was made on Monday Night Raw. “We are thrilled to induct The Ultimate Warrior into the WWE Hall of Fame.”
McMahon was once sued by Warrior so the grappler could acquire the rights to his name. But McMahon has made amends with many a wrestler he sparred with for the good of business, and Warrior made an appearance last year during SummerSlam week to promote the WWE 2K14 game, in which his character appears.
The Ultimate Warrior's signature moment came at WrestleMania VI in Toronto at the SkyDome, where he defeated Hulk Hogan to win the WWE title. He was supposed to be the company's flagship in the '90s, but was fired after the 1991 Royal Rumble, with McMahon claiming Warrior refused to go to the ring unless McMahon agreed to a pay Warrior a certain purse.
Warrior returned in 1992, but was later fired due to what McMahon said on the DVD was a violation of the company's drug policy. Warrior denied that was the reason during a 2012 interview with MLW radio.
The wrestler returned one more time in 1996, but McMahon fired him "for good," as the chairman said on the DVD, for failing to appear at multiple WWE live events in which he was advertised.
Warrior moved on to WWE's then-competitor, WCW, to renew his rivalry with Hogan.
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