For the past several months, the big buzz on the Internet has been the impending debut in WCW of the Ultimate Warrior. While those of us who were wrestling fans in the late 80's, early 90's know of the man's credentials, a lot of the newer fans to pro wrestling may not know much about the Warrior. Here is a part one of a three part bio on one of the most electrifying professional wrestlers of all time. The Ultimate Warrior started out in professional wrestling as a member of Power Team USA along with Sting and wrestled under the monicker "Rock". From there, he moved to World Class Championship Wrestling and was known as the Dingo Warrior. He finally got his big break in late 1987 when he was signed by the WWF. Vince McMahon originally wanted the Ultimate Warrior to be known just as Warrior, but the Warrior chose to add "Ultimate" with it. When Paul Orndorff left the WWF in early 1988, it gave the Warrior his first major push as he filled in for Orndorff and feuded with Hercules. This led to a WrestleMania IV match pitting the Ultimate Warrior against Hercules, which the Warrior won. Promoters began to take notice of the Warrior's immense popularity (similar to Goldberg's popularity today) and gave him and Intercontinental title shot at SummerSlam '88, filling in for an "injured" Brutus Beefcake. The Warrior took full advantage of the opportunity and won the Intercontinental title from the Honky Tonk Man in a record breaking 91 seconds (to this day, no one has been able to win the Intercontinental title in that time). The Warrior would continue to feud with the Honky Tonk Man after SummerSlam and dominated the Elvis Presley clone in subsequent rematches. The WWF decided to push "Ravishing" Rick Rude and set up a "super posedown" match between Rude and the Warrior at the 1989 Royal Rumble, a match where both participants would flex and the fans would determine who had the better body. When the fans were going nuts for the Warrior, Rude attacked the wild man and set up an encounter at WrestleMania V between he and the Warrior. To everyone's surprise, Rude took the Intercontinental strap from the Ultimate One after outside interference from Bobby Heenan. After the Ultimate Warrior dropped the Intercontinental title to "Ravishing" Ricky Rude in 1989 at WrestleMania V, he began a summer long quest to regain the title. Before he could do so, he found himself being attacked by Andre the Giant on an episode of WWF Superstars. The Warrior went on to SummerSlam and, with the help of "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, regained the Intercontinental for his second and last time. His victory of the Intercontinental title set him into a feud with the late Andre the Giant. To everyone's surprise, the Warrior dominated the feud and often won their matches in less than 90 seconds. These feats didn't go unnoticed as The Ultimate Warrior got a title shot at WrestleMania VI against WWF Champion Hulk Hogan. However, it wasn't only Hogan's title that was on the line as it was declared a title vs. title match. Once again to the surprise of many people in the industry, the Warrior cleanly defeated the champion. The next year was no easy one for the Warrior as he was faced with the challenge of Randy "Macho Man" Savage. The Warrior and Savage's feud ultimately cost the Warrior the world title at the 1991 Royal Rumble as Savage's interference in the world title match resulted in Sgt. Slaughter wrestling the title from the face painted grappler. The Warrior went on to defeat Randy Savage at WrestleMania VII in a "retirement match". Before the Warrior had time to rest, he foud himself in a feud with the Undertaker, his last WWF feud for his first WWF reign. The Warrior dominated the feud in a series of "bodybag" matches, however never defeated the "grim reaper". Sid Vicious entered the WWF that summer and found himself as the special referee for SummerSlam '91 as the Warrior teamed with Hulk Hogan to face Sgt. Slaughter, Gen. Adnan and Col. Mustafa. Hogan's team won the match after the Warrior chased Adnan and Mustafa back to the dressing room leaving Hogan to pin Slaughter. To everyone's surprise, Hogan posed after the match with Vicious with no mention of the Ultimate Warrior whatsoever. Until eight months later. After eight months of silence, WWF fans found themselves cheering for the Ultimate Warrior once again. At WrestleMania VIII, Hulk Hogan met Sid Justice (the same man he snubbed the Warrior for at SummerSlam '91) and won by disqualification after interference from Papa Shango (now known as Kama Mustafa) and Harvey Wippleman. While Justice and Shango beat on Hogan, a much slimmer Warrior burst from the dressing room to clean house and subsequently pose with the former five time WWF Champion. After WrestleMania VIII, both Hogan and Justice found themselves leaving the WWF which left the Warrior feuding with Papa Shango (which he thoroughly dominated) and by the end of the summer received a title shot at Randy Savage at SummerSlam '92. The Warrior won the match by count out after interference from Curt Hennig and Ric Flair, which set a showdown between Savage and the Warrior against Flair and newcomer Razor Ramon (now known by his real name, Scott Hall) at the Survivor Series. However, two weeks before the Survivor Series the Warrior suddenly disappeared and Curt Hennig was named as his replacement in the tag match. It turned out later that the Warrior was fired from the WWF for wanting to pursue personal interests that were not favored by the company. The Warrior would then have discussions with both Vince McMahon and Eric Bischoff for the next three years before finally returning to the WWF in 1996 at WrestleMania XII. The Warrior returned with a vengeance, defeating Hunter Hearst Helmsley in under two minutes. He continued over the summer to defeat some of the WWF's elite, including Goldust, Jerry Lawler, Owen Hart and Vader. The Warrior was supposed to take part in a six man tag team match along with Shawn Michaels and Ahmed Johnson to face Vader, Owen Hart and The British Bulldog. However, weeks before the event the Warrior missed several house shows because his father was ill. The Warrior did not contact the WWF offices to let them know that he would be missing the shows, which angered WWF officials who suspended the Warrior until the Warrior signed an appearance bond, which he refused. The night the suspension was announced was a taped edition of Raw, which featured the Warrior grappling Owen Hart. The WWF decided to show the match anyway, and that was the last anyone saw of the Warrior. Until now............................You must show no mercy......Nor have any belief whatsoeverIn how others judge you......For your greatness Will silence them all
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