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Running Time: 186 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 1
Studio: Clear Vision Ltd/Silver Vision
Released: October 17 2005
This DVD was and is one of the most fascinating ever released by WWE, largely because of the decidedly negative tone towards The Ultimate Warrior and his career. It is perhaps more intriguing to watch this years later because of how much WWE has changed its attitude towards Warrior's legacy in recent times.
The 90-minute documentary covers Warrior's in-ring career - but with a twist. Around 80-90% of the comments by a pretty star-studded cast of talking heads (Vince McMahon, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Triple H and many more) are negative, at times almost cruel. After covering his early years in various territories (during which Jim Ross suggests that Warrior couldn't cope in Bill Watts' Mid-South group), it jumps to his first WWF run (1987-1991), with chapters on his name change (he was previously known as The Dingo Warrior), his iconic theme tune, his Parts Unknown hometown and his unique interview style (this section is hilarious, by the way), as well as his in-ring adventures.
They include Warrior's initial feud with Hercules (which are slated), his memorable Intercontinental Title win over The Honky Tonk Man at SummerSlam 1988, his feud with Rick Rude (Rude is praised), his battles with Andre The Giant (slated; Andre isn't held accountable) and his career-making WWF Title win over Hulk Hogan from WrestleMania VI (the significance of which is acknowledged in full, although the breakdown of Hogan "passing the torch" is questioned by those who know the inner workings of the business and who realise how Hogan operates; hell, even Hulk explains his true motives about this moment in his autobiography).
Warrior's WWF Title reign is only briefly covered, as is his incredible Career match with Randy Savage from WrestleMania VII, before we tackle the circumstances of Warrior's firing after the Hogan/Warrior vs. Triangle Of Terror main event from SummerSlam 1991. In short, Warrior supposedly demanded a certain amount of money or he wouldn't compete; Vince complied, but fired him after the bout (I'll refer back to this later).
Then, we jump to Warrior's surprise return at WrestleMania VIII (one of the best returns ever in my opinion) and his bizarre feud with Papa Shango (Mean Gene Okerlund praises the storyline but slams the resultant matches), before his second firing in late 1992 is explained simply by Vince: "We had a stringent drug-testing policy, and there was a violation." Beforehand, the confusion over whether the "real" Warrior was back due to his muscle shrinkage is discussed superficially, but this provides the true reason for Warrior's drastic change in appearance.
After covering Jim Hellwig changing his name to Warrior in a condescending fashion (I assume that Warrior did this so that he could use the Warrior name for merchandising and other projects), we come to his third and final WWF run from 1996, which didn't last long. After HHH and Jerry Lawler explain their difficulties with Warrior (I'll come back to this, too), we're told that Warrior was fired again because he no-showed several dates, although the graphic used to illustrate this was apparently doctored to suit WWE's point of view. Hmm ...
Then, it's onto his best-forgotten WCW run, beginning with a counterproductive and lengthy Nitro interview and culminating in a comically bad match with Hogan from Halloween Havoc 1998 (Hulk refreshingly takes the heat for this), which existed solely for Hogan to get revenge for WrestleMania VI (seriously). After covering his lawsuit win over the WWF concerning the Warrior trademark, and his work as a public speaker (again condescendingly), the main feature closes by examining his legacy, with some running him down a bit more (Ric Flair comes across as abrupt and rude here), whereas others do praise him for his good qualities.
The DVD has some bonus segments, as well as five complete matches: an early WWF squash win, his IC Title win over Honky, his WM VI main event with Hogan, his Steel Cage battle with Rude from SummerSlam 1990, and his Career match with Savage from WM VII (disappointingly, the post-match scenes which elevated the impact of this moment aren't shown here).
This DVD essentially exists to inform people of what The Ultimate Warrior was really like, at least according to WWE. The tone is almost always negative, from The Brooklyn Brawler counting his concussions to Bobby Heenan repeatedly slating Warrior as if he had committed a murder. Nevertheless, it is presented in an entertaining and often light-hearted manner, and at least when it came to his firings, the documentary is telling the truth. Yes it may be negative, but the content is truthful.
However, the impact of this DVD would take an unexpected turn.
Warrior was (understandably) unhappy with this DVD and after some controversial remarks about some past and present WWE personalities, he sued WWE once again. Details of the settlement are unknown, but needless to say Warrior remained angry, turning down an offer to be the star inductee in the 2010 Hall Of Fame class. But after extended communication with HHH and Vince, following his appearance in the WWE 2K14 game (which came after other videogame appearances, by the way), Warrior would end up accepting a 2014 HOF induction, thus returning to the "WWE Family". Sadly, as most will know, Warrior shockingly passed away just days later.
It is nevertheless fascinating to watch this DVD after Warrior ultimately returned to WWE (one condition of his comeback was for a new DVD to cover his true legacy, which I will review in the near future). For instance, Vince McMahon says he "couldn't wait to fire" Warrior in 1991, and HHH called him the most unprofessional person he ever worked with. Plus, the DVD essentially portrays Warrior as a negative influence, almost a cancer, on the company. Now, though, Warrior has a Hall Of Fame award named in his honour and is presented as an all-time great? Not to mention that WWE never disclosed on the DVD why they kept bringing him back despite their troubles with him (in a nutshell: business was struggling).
Overall, this DVD is undoubtedly fun to watch, and is largely an honest account of how difficult Warrior could be. However, its rating drops due to WWE changing tack once Warrior "came home" and presented an alternative history of his career, with the negativity trimmed way down. (Would the DVD have been so negative if Warrior hasn't been at odds with the company?) What is The Ultimate Warrior's true legacy? I guess it's up to the fans to decide that.
Overall Rating: 7/10 - Respectable
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