Wednesday, July 27, 2005

credit: www.warriorcentral.net

Never Again!
The Ultimate Warrior Vows Never Again To Lose His Title
WWF Magazine
October 1989

You could see rage building in the Ultimate Warrior from the moment he lost his WWF Intercontinental Title to Ravishing Rick Rude at Wrestlemania V. As weeks, then months passed, you could see the rage mounting to an eruption of titanic fury. The Warrior's eyes blazed hotter and hotter. His massive muscles seemed ready to burst out of his mighty body. He roared his battle lust louder and louder in the ring.

When the fearless and ruthless Viking warriors raided the coasts of England, Ireland and France in the early Middle Ages, the fear they inspired was so great that the people of those countries prayed, "Deliver us, O Lord, from the fury of the Northman." Wrestlers in the WWF were asking for deliverance from the fury of the Warrior.

Frustration over the way he lost to Rude - with the help of interference by his manager, Bobby "The Brain Heenan - fueled the Ultimate Warrior's anger. And his opponents paid a heavy price. And with each match, the price increased with the Warrior's terrifying frenzy.

Barry Horowitz, for instance, thought he had a good deal when he managed to get a match with the Warrior. Horowitz had little hope of winning, unless he got lucky and landed some sort of damaging cheap shot - but he thought a good showing would earn him some respect. Horowitz was trampled.

The Warrior roared into the ring like a rogue bull elephant. Storming about, he pounded his own chest with blows that would cave in the ribs of an ordinary man, but which he didn't feel. The Ultimate Warrior hardly seemed to know or care - who his adversary was, just that he was there to be crushed as thoroughly and quickly as possible.

Horowitz summoned up his courage and threw several hard punches at the Warrior. They had no effect. The Warrior didn't even blink. Then he tore into Horowitz, tossing him around the ring like a rag doll and pounding him to jelly. Horowitz didn't have a chance. Mercifully for Barry the affair was over quickly. But Horowitz was so trashed he had to be carried from the ring on a stretcher.

All of this pent - up rage on the part of the Ultimate Warrior was targeted at one man - Ravishing Rick Rude, whom the Warrior would meet in a title match at SummerSlam. As SummerSlam approached, the Warrior voiced his determination not only to regain his title but also never to lose it again.

"The world must know that once I have the Intercontinental Title back," trumpeted the Warrior, "I will never again let it be stolen from me. Ravishing Rick Rude won't have a chance to take it, if he can still wrestle after I tear him apart. No one Bobby Heenan can throw at me - not Rude, not Andre the Giant, nobody - will stand before the Ultimate Warrior once I have my belt again. By all the great warriors of the past and future, I promise it."

The Ultimate Warrior has always been focused on nothing but the joy he experiences in the fray. Combat has been his only reason for living. Never, however has he been so furious as after the loss of his title. All of this brings up a question. Once he has the title back, will his rage that has made him such a terror subside?

"Never," says the Ultimate Warrior, "I will never forget the humiliation of losing the title. Of watching Rick Rude flaunting the belt that rightfully belonged to me. Of watching that sniveling weasel parading around like he was the manager of a real champion, when all he had was a fraud. The memory will haunt the Ultimate Warrior for all time. It will set his mind on fire. It will ignite his battle lust. It will make the Ultimate Warrior the most feared man in the WWF. No one will ever stand before the Ultimate Warrior."

Listening to the Ultimate Warrior and watching him as he speaks, you can feel the tension and energy that fill every powerful fiber of his being. You have to believe that this unusual man is speaking the truth.

So, what would the Warrior be like as a second-time Intercontinental Champion? The odds are that he would be even more devastating, more awesome than the first time around. If you know anything about the Ultimate Warrior, you know that he is not the kind of man who will allow himself to be burned twice. He will be more intent on absolute destruction of opponents, more thunderous and - most important - much more wary of trickery than ever before. And should someone try trickery against him, if anyone is so foolish, then, indeed, he will find himself begging in terror for someone to deliver him from the fury of the Ultimate Warrior.