The Ultimate Warrior documentary that aired on the WWE Network last week was almost universally praised by people in the industry for the production, the quick turnaround and the story telling. However, there were some that privately were critical.
A couple of things that the documentary didn’t touch on was his health and how the Hall of Fame might not have happened if it wasn’t for the 2K Sports deal. That deal opened up the doors for discussions with WWE and even then the negotiations were difficult to get Warrior in the game. During that time was when Warrior was finally willing to talk to Vince McMahon. Vince tried to get Warrior in the Hall of Fame in 2010 but Warrior declined.
Regardign his health, people that saw him at the 2013 Wrestlecon convention noted how huge he was. However, at the Hall of Fame he was much smaller and he never took of his long sleeve dress shirt. You could tell even in his dress shirt that he had gotten a lot smaller in recent months.
No one knows for sure what happened but it could be that he finally realized that he needed to get off the stuff that he was on to look huge or it could be injuries. Warrior tore his bicep in 1996 and in 2012 and had surgery on his left biceps in 2012. Warrior also told people in the last year that he was aware that the things he had done to look like he did probably took years off his life.
People that had been around him noted that although he’s been limping for years that his limp had gotten worse in the last couple of months. WWE production was told to try and shoot him in a way so that people didn’t know how badly he was limping on Raw.
News from the Wrestling Observer newsletter was used in this post. Please visit WrestlingObserver.com for subscription information.