This week for That's My Story and I'm Sticking To It I'll be telling you what I think of the return of The Ultimate Warrior.

The Ultimate Warrior, formerly known as Jim Hellwig is certainly one of the most unique and complex individuals in the history of pro wrestling, who is as goofy outside of the ring as he is when he is inside the squared circle. Warrior started his wrestling career in the mid 80s under the ring name "Dingo Warrior" and had made appearances in the UWF, Mid South Wrestling, and World Class Championship Wrestling. It was during that time that Warrior formed a tag team with Sting and they were known as The Blade Runners. Warrior is most well known for his run in the then WWF during the late 80s into the early 90s and his run included a Wrestlemania 6 title match against Hulk Hogan. Warrior brought a unique intensity to the WWF and he had a title reign as WWF champion. After obtaining a top level spot in the WWF, Warrior made what some would consider some poor business choices when he threatened not to wrestle at the Survivor Series 1992 unless demands of more money and name rights were agreed upon by the WWF. Vince Mcmahon had made some type of deal with Warrior to get him to wrestle the PPV match but soon after the Warrior was fired from the company. After leaving on obviously less then good terms, it wasn't really expected that the Warrior would return to the WWF but in 1996 when WCW had the WWF against the ropes in the wrestling wars, the WWF decided to resign the Warrior to return at Wrestlemania 12 to wrestle Triple H. Both the match and Warrior's return in general were very lack luster. It wasn't long before the Warrior's unprofessional conduct led to him being released again. It was in 1998 that WCW signed Warrior to a contract and his WCW run had a total of three matches. One of those matches included a PPV match against Hulk Hogan, which is considered by many to be one of the worst matches ever shown on PPV. Needless to say, the Warrior made his exit from WCW and announced his retirement in 1999 after an epic and ridiculous career. The Warrior's incoherent rants would continue though as he has become a public speaker the past few years and if you search it on Youtube you will probably see the speech where the Warrior managed to offend a few hundred people during a speech. Okay now that we have discussed the history of the Warrior, let's make a few observations here. First of all, The Warrior has to be a few cards short of a full deck because he legally changed his name to "Warrior." Yes, that means his actual legal name is "Warrior" so technically when you send a christmas card to him you will address it "Mr. Warrior." Secondly, for the Warrior to judge or degrade someone based on their race or religion is more ridiculous then all of his rambling promos combined, which were highlighted in WWE's "The Self Destruction of The Ultimate Warrior" DVD release a few years ago.

So what could the Warrior possibly be doing today? Well, he is actually preparing to step back into the ring after nearly a ten year absence to wrestle for Nu Wrestling Evolution, which is based in Spain. NWE hasn't really had too much exposure in the United States but they have really been able to capture a market in Spain, selling out major arenas with thousands of fans there to see the action. NWE has really made a start business move because they use alot of former WWE and United States stars that the wrestling audiences in Spain don't get too see that often because the WWE only has two or three shows there a year so NWE can draw based on the logic that they bring the stars to Spain on a regular basis. It's been reported that part of the reason that NWE decided to pay the mega amount of money that it cost to book the Warrior is because they are trying to secure a T.V. deal, which would increase their exposure and help the company. It seems as though signing Warrior for a match is serving it's purpose because NWE is getting more exposure now then it ever has and with the Warrior setting up an online PPV showcase of the event, NWE will also get more distribution then ever before for an event. NWE could be an indicator as to why the WWE has been developing plans to expand overseas and it would seem to be a very profitable market for pro wrestling. It will be interesting to see if the WWE actually pulls the trigger with the overseas expansion because it would appear to have the potential to be as profitable if not more profitable then the wrestling markets in the United States.

The Warrior return takes place on June 25th in Barcelona when he wrestles NWE champion, Orlando Jordan. Now the only thing I have to disagree with about this whole "Ultimate Return" scenario is you have The Ultimate Warrior, a star that will undoubtedly draw major publicity and money, why would you have a WWE reject such as Orlando Jordan wrestle him? It's been rumored that Jordan is booking some of NWE so that might be the reason why he is the current champion and why he is wrestling The Warrior. There's been alot of rumors on the internet about Warrior possibly signing with TNA and considering 90% of their show is a joke, why not sign the Warrior? Atleast it would be a joke that would draw money. Maybe they could actually use Sting in a constructive way and have him have a match with the Warrior to build off of the history of the two as a team. I doubt it would happen but if TNA does sign the Warrior, it should only be a one time appearance for a PPV because I don't think TNA or really any company for that matter could effectively use Warrior for a long period of time considering his track record.

Until next week
That's My Story and I'm Sticking To It
Dr. Wrestling

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