James Hellwig: AKA The Ultimate Warrior 1959-2014

I am a child of the 80's and I think it was probably the best time to grow up in this country, but most people probably say that about their childhoods.  If you are a generation X person like myself, you grew up on GI:JOE, Transformers, He-Man, and Pro Wrestling.  Every Saturday morning, your schedule consisted of your standard Saturday morning cartoons, followed by Pro-Wrestling, followed by Kung-Fu theater and then we went out and did chores and played to work off our sugary cereal.

What you played depended on what we saw that day, and one of the most highly motivating figures of that time was The Ultimate Warrior.  This is the guy that took down the seemingly invincible Hulk Hogan at one of the Wrestlemania shows and if you remember his ring entrance, his music, and his persona it made you feel like you could sprint around your block a few times and not be tired.  His matches were fast and furious and it was on par with the way Mike Tyson knocked people out when he was the top heavyweight in boxing.  He seemed to disappear, then re-appear in WCW and disappear again in the 90's but if you were only a fan of pro wrestling for a little while, you saw this guys matches.

There's a documentary out there produced by the WWE called, The Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior which chronicled his rise in popularity to his departure from the squared circle.  In my opinion it was made to make him look bad, and he probably did that all by himself but there was no denying his impact on wrestling entertainment and the legacy he left behind.