Greetings and salutations everyone.
A somber blog entry, if you will. It's taken me a couple of days to write about this, since I wasn't sure quite what I was feeling. Obviously, shock and saddness. Shock because I had just seen him the night before on Monday Night RAW. Saddness because of the family he left behind. However, the thing that struck me the most about the Ultimate Warrior's death was the parallel I noticed with me. No, I am no where near the shape he was in. No, I have never been anywhere near as successful or famous as he was. However (and this is speculation for the time being, as the official cause of death has not been given yet), my heart can go out just as quickly as his did.
The Ultimate Warrior was a known steroid user. That is a given. He had the absolute most impressive physique in wrestling. There were wrestlers who were bigger then he was, like your Hulk Hogans and Road Warriors, and there were wrestlers who were more ripped, like Rick Rude. However, Warrior's was a unique combination of size AND vascularity. He was big AND shredded. He was an amazing physical specimen. However, he was always exhausted, or "blown up" when he got to the ring. Granted, his entrance included him sprinting to the ring, around the ring, and shaking the ring ropes. That would tire ANYONE out. Yet he never seemed to catch his breath. In all the years of watching him wrestle, I never saw him not blown up. This probably means that for all his bulging muscles, he never did a lot of cardio work. In other words, his heart was not fully exercised. Like Warrior, cardiovascular wise, I am in HORRID shape. I used to be an alligator wrestler, and strong as an ox, but I never had a lot of stamina. My heart is not in the best shape.
Now, in the Warrior's case, you had a dangerous combination of a weak heart and a body full of steroids, which put MORE pressure on that very same weak heart. In my case, it is a weak heart and a body full of fat from eating too much crappy food. At 41 years old, I really need to watch what I eat, and exercise my heart more. Dropping dead at any moment, as the Warrior did in an Arizona parking lot while walking with his wife, is a very scary, and real, possibility for me.
Now, I am not going to sit here and talk about what a wonderful man the Warrior was, because I personally did not know him, and can only rely on the testimonies of his fellow wrestlers, many of which I have met and worked with in person. Very very few ever had anything nice to say about the man. They all claimed fame came too soon for him and went right to his head. There are stories of him stiffing people in the ring (hitting them too hard), and of him just being an all around curmudgeon. An extremely hard to work with grouch. And for years he waged legal war against the WWF/WWE for a variety of reasons. He also had a history of returning, only to leave the company without notice, leaving us fans in a lurch.
However, the wrestling fan in me longed for the day he would return. He was my childhood hero, a real life superhero. A larger then life hero who fought insurmountable odds and came out on top every time. He had the heart of the Warrior, and let me know I could be a warrior too. Having him return to the WWE, get inducted into the Hall of Fame, and hearing him cut a promo on RAW was amazingly nostalgic. For all the history and bad blood that went down, it was definitely good to see him back.
And now he is gone again.
This time forever.
As a Catholic, I can only pray for his soul. I pray he has returned to the source, and I hope that one day, on top of some thunderhead far up in the sky, I will be standing in a ring, surrounded by angels cheering, as that unmistakable guitar riff hits. From out of the fog, there he will come, running at full speed, blown up as always, charging the ring for our main event match. The Geek vs. The Warrior.
RIP Ultimate Warrior. Thanks for the memories.
EXCELSIOR........ and God Bless.
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