All language subtitles for Biography WWE Legends S01 E06 (Biography.Wwe.Legends.S01e06.720P.Web.H264-Dirt.m4v) (ENGLISH)

Slowly, halfway
through, widen out a little

bit and go right back
to that extreme close-up.

Remember what's
going on in the ring.

I can smell it!

It's in the air!

I feel the cosmic
powers of Mars!

The clouds of Jupiter!

The boiling heat of Mercury!

I can feel it!

My dad taught my sister and I a
creed and he would make us write it out.

Live strong.

Act bold.

Be brave.

History has been made here!

Nothing's too hard to do.

Always believe.

I walk as the general
of a legion of warriors!

The Ultimate Warrior was
just... He was a moment in my life.

A moment in time.

And the Ultimate Warrior, the guy that we
grew up watching, the guy that fought Hulk

Hogan and beat him, was
separate from Jim Hellway.

Don't let the tin come by kicking
you in the mouth and not your feet!

The complicated
layers of his own psyche

created a man who at times
was very difficult to get a grasp on.

F**k!

You're on me.

He probably wouldn't have been
driven to be the Ultimate Warrior

if he hadn't had the pain he
experienced in his early life.

Fire!

Fire!

You've got to have some kind of
an explanation, Ultimate Warrior!

He might not have gone on to be the person
that he was afterwards if it hadn't been

for the disappointment he was experiencing
while we were all cheering for him.

You have seen very small snippets
of the man that I knew personally.

You think of the guy who's,
you know, big and tough.

But he'd tuck us in at night so
gently and read us our books.

And if there was something really sad
or really rough, like, he'd leave it out.

And that was a beautiful
thing for when we were little.

But there's not that
privilege anymore.

You have to tell the full story.

And with the past seven
years that's gone on,

there's no more... you don't
want to censor anything.

Like, this is the story
of the Ultimate Warrior.

Read the full book.

He was skinny.

He was real skinny.

You know, I had a picture, I couldn't
find it, of him in a football outfit.

Poor, beanpole, skinny
legs, cute as a button.

Jim Hellwig was the
oldest of five siblings.

He has two
brothers, two sisters.

This is a picture of the four
kids before I had my last one.

Here is the place that I understood Jim to
tell me he grew up in this mobile home and

said that he lifted weights
on that front porch right there.

Crawfordsville seemed
like 18,000 people.

Very rural.

Demographics of this area.

Blue-collar.

Everybody knows or has an idea
of everybody in the community.

No, I don't think he was
real popular with the girls.

Deep down, I think he was shy.

Insecure.

Insecure, yes.

He always worshipped his mom
for her efforts and was always

very complimentary of his
mom and loved her very much.

His father departing their family
was a pivotal moment for him.

I just think, and it's not
just Jim, but all three of my

boys, they had such shame
that their dad could leave them.

He'd come back and
go mushroom hunting.

He'd come back and go to ball
games and never come to see his kids.

Jim's dad leaving seems
to have been at least a

beginning point of major
trust issues in his life.

He had a lot of insecurities due to the
fact that he was 10 when his father left.

I think it devastated him.

I think, if I would be honest, having
five kids and having to work so

much, that the kids didn't always
get the reassurance they needed.

He didn't get all the
attention he needed.

Growing up in a town
like Jim Helwig did,

there's sort of the
haves and the have-nots.

And when his dad left and wasn't
contributing financially to the family,

suddenly Jim finds himself
as one of the have-nots.

Jim felt that a lot of people in the
community looked down on him.

He also very definitively said,
I'm going to show these people.

I'm going to do
something with my life.

Which, you think about it, this is a
17-year-old who has embraced this I'm

going to conquer the world attitude
because of the way he feels that the

people of his community had
rejected him and his family.

He also then goes searching
for an identity beyond his father.

And that's what ends
up leading him to sports.

And Jim ends up
meeting Gary Pate.

The first time I ever met Jim
would be at football practice.

Back in 1975.

The first time I ever saw Jim
was in this classroom right here.

All the team members
were sitting in here.

Well, when you saw some of these kids,
those guys were all about 6'2 and 220, 225.

And Jim looked to be about,
at that time, 5'10 and 125.

I'm sure he probably might have
weighed more, but he didn't look like it.

As the year went
on, he found out that I

would be in the weight
room when I had time.

He'd ask if he could come in
with me, and I'd say, sure, yeah.

Come in and lift all you want.

And we would lift, and he
would be intense about his lifting.

You have Jim and Gary, who for about three
years end up lifting together on sort of a

cruddy old lifting machine
in their high school.

This is how he learned to bond with
people, especially with paternal figures,

working out with them
and lifting with them.

By his senior year, Jim was utterly
fascinated with bodybuilding, and he was

constantly trying to get his hands on
bodybuilding magazines and materials.

He would apparently be looking at
these magazines and say things like,

I can't wait till
I'm this massive.

He had the Arnold Schwarzenegger poster
in his room, you know, he'd have his easy

curl bar in there, and we'd be pumping iron
facing the Arnold Schwarzenegger poster.

You know, and like, get it.

You know?

He knew that he needed to seek his
own ambitions, so he wasn't stuck in that

rural area because we were either
going to a farm or working in a factory.

But he didn't have no desire to
do either one of them for a living.

Jim's pursuit of a
bodybuilding career

seems to have manifested
in the early 1980s.

But he makes a move over to
Georgia because he feels like there is,

you know, a better opportunity for
the professional bodybuilding scene.

During that time in Georgia,
he meets his future wife, Sherry.

They get married.

You know, he gets
married pretty young.

He goes down to Atlanta
to try to start this career.

You know, he's sort of
going through the stations of,

like, what growing up and
entering adulthood looks like.

And by 1984, he's made
the move to definitively

try to get himself into
competition shape.

And he does so and manages to win
a pretty significant competition in 1984.

He wins Mr. Georgia.

I knew that it would serve me well to
make my body different from everybody else,

like a comic book character
who just walked off the pages.

He was dedicated, and he had a goal
where he wanted to go with this lifting.

He never said, I'm going to be
the world champion WWE and

I'm going to pick up Andre
the Giant and body slam him.

But he did say, I will one of these days
be a person that people will remember.

He said, I'll guarantee you
that people will remember me.

Today I'm boxing with my coach.

I love boxing.

I feel like my dad.

I feel strong and
powerful when I do it.

I love the intensity
that comes out.

The release from
it feels like him.

I would hear him
screaming out in the gym.

I'm like, I'm a little bit like
him when I'm in the gym.

Coming from my background,
growing up in a town of 600

people, I stumbled into the
weight room we had at our school.

Run of a kid.

Scared of my own shadow.

And I started gaining
weight really quick.

And when I started gaining weight
and putting size on my body, I thought to

myself, well, I can change
my life in other ways.

It's something that I
can strive to get better at.

And I can look back at
my younger self and think

like, oh, I thought I
was so good back then.

And then you climb the wall
and you get better and better.

Well, in terms of becoming
a wrestler, never say never.

So I scheduled an appointment
with the high school counselor.

15 seconds after I started
telling her what I wanted to do,

she put her hand up to my face
about 10 inches away from it.

And she said, put that silly stuff away
and let me tell you what you need to do.

This summer, you need
to get a job at the factory.

Do a good job.

Come back and
finish your senior year.

And when you graduate, you
should be able to get a full-time job.

Now, what else
can I help you with?

For any bodybuilder, when you build
your body, it's like putting on your armor.

You know, you're building
your muscle, which is your

armor, to protect yourself
from who you are really inside.

You can be this insecure person,
but now you're, you know, 240,

250 pounds, you know, muscle.

It totally makes sense that someone
without a male role model who's in search

of what masculinity means
to them, it makes sense

that they would look at
this world of bodybuilding.

In the 80s, I mean, it's kind of
hard to imagine if you weren't there.

But bodybuilding
was a huge deal.

There was really only
one person everyone was

talking about, and that
was Arnold Schwarzenegger.

He was in the movie Pumping Iron,
and those images became iconic.

Arnold Schwarzenegger
becomes a huge star.

I mean, arguably the
biggest star in Hollywood.

How did he get there?

It wasn't just, hey, let me go to acting
school and become this movie star.

It was, oh, he goes to the gym
all the time, and he never quits.

Jim says, I can do that.

But if you really want to make it,
you've got to move to California.

Gold's Gym Venice in
the 80s became the mecca.

Gold's Gym became the standard for
anyone who wanted to become a bodybuilder.

I contacted Jim, and I invited him out to
California to train for his next contest,

because I thought he
had a lot of potential.

Ed introduced me to
Jim, saying, here's a young

guy who's trying to
win the national team.

My first house in Venice was just two
blocks from the gym, so the guys would

stay at the house and they
would learn from each other.

You knew how they trained or what
they ate or what they took for supplements.

Ed one day came into
this gym, and he wanted

me to let this big
dude come in and train.

This guy was a giant, you know?

He wasn't just big,
he was kind of freaky.

He had a freaky build,
a freaky physique.

And when he walked
through the room or through

the gym or anywhere
else, people went...

He was a giant.

Performance enhancing drugs
and steroids were definitely

in fashion when it came
to the world of bodybuilding.

Steroids were part of the regiment of
what you took to be a pro bodybuilder.

What it did is it gave you the ability
to basically be in an anabolic state.

You can train hours in the
gym and not break down.

But the thing was, is
they were legal back then.

You can actually have access to go to a
pharmacy and just buy them on your own.

I think if people were
to open my refrigerator,

they would have
probably been shocked.

You know, most of the
steroids have to be refrigerated.

So some of my family members would visit,
and so when they pulled out the fruit

drawer, they got
something other than fruit.

Then you can get it done, right?

So I got up the courage one day.

I weighed about 175 pounds.

I go up to this guy as he's
leaving the gym, and I tapped him

on the shoulder, and I said,
can I ask you about steroids?

Before I even got the word
steroid out of my mouth,

he turned around, the
guy just towered over me.

He said, before I ever
heard about steroids,

I was number three
in the whole world.

But when you get
up there in that upper

epsilon, there may be
a different set of rules.

And what he was telling me as a young punk
kid of only 18 years old, he was saying,

you get there, you do
what it takes to get there,

and then you worry
about making that decision.

I weighed 295 pounds
before I ever touched them.

That's the story about steroids.

And you better
get that story right.

And the next
competitor is Jim Helwig.

You know, guys like Jim, who, you know,
I saw as this big guy, you would think he

would become a, you
know, a great pro bodybuilder.

Jim's goals back then was basically, I
think, to make money and have a great job.

You only made money
when you were a top pro.

But if you didn't place and win the
nationals or you didn't win the Mr.

USAs, you really weren't
gonna make money.

On some level, he had to come to
the realization that just being a great

bodybuilder in and of itself was not
going to make him rich and famous.

I guess his path was to go more
towards becoming a professional wrestler,

you know, where he
saw money to be made.

In the early 80s,
wrestling was a big deal.

It was on TV a lot.

The wrestlers were trained
at Gold's Gym Venice.

So we actually formed
our own then Gold's Gym

team, which was
composed of two tag teams.

Out of the four, we had, you know, a
big monster that just disappeared one day.

And I said, hey, I remember
meeting this guy, Jim Hellwig.

He had just won a
bodybuilding competition.

He's huge.

We should call him.

When I talked with Jim, I explained that
we had lost the big member of our team,

and he'd be perfect for it.

He said, what does it pay?

And when I told him
$100 a night, he said,

well, that's more money
than I'm making now.

We sent out press kits.

We got one phone call back.

It was about three days later, but we
got a phone call back from Jerry Jarrett.

He said, yeah, I'm looking at
a picture, and I got four guys

in this picture, but he says,
I can only use two of them.

Well, which two do you want?

He goes, I want the two guys to the
far left in this picture I'm looking at.

So we got in the car,
my 83 T-bird, and we left

California, and we drove
out to Nashville, Tennessee.

And that's where it started.

Right now, we would like to welcome in a
couple of brand-new faces to championship

wrestling, a couple of guys you're
gonna get to know and know well, too.

We're talking about the
Freedom Fighters, Jim Hellwig.

Jim, glad to have you
here, and Steve Borden.

Steve, glad to
have you guys here.

This is your first
time out here.

We want to get a little
background on you.

How about you guys married?

Have families or what?

No, we're single.

We're looking forward
to meeting y'all.

You're both single?

Yeah, we're single.

You hear that, girls?

You're both single here.

I want to get that around.

My first reaction was, wow.

I saw two good-looking guys that were
gonna draw the girls into the matches,

and that's what it was
all about for us back then.

Back in the day, we never told anybody
they were married or you were engaged or

anything else because it would hurt
the girls from coming to the buildings.

They're young.

They still got a lot to learn in
wrestling, but, boy, they're young.

They sure have got the
physical attributes, baby.

There was no sort
of gracefulness.

There was no slow
and poetic storytelling.

It was just, boom, energy,
and I'm coming, and

I'm hitting you as hard
as I can, and I'm leaving.

It doesn't necessarily
connect with the audience.

Like, why are we cheering
for these good guys, just

beating the snot out of
these much smaller guys?

And so they had to make a
shift because it wasn't working.

Our thought was, yeah, let's change,
let's go heel, let's change our look,

and let's come up with something
real, you know, kind of freaky-looking.

Ladies and gentlemen, the most awesome tag
team in professional wrestling, the Pro.

Before long, Steve Borden and Jim Hellwig
were repackaged into the Blade Runners.

I think that they realized that
intensity was what they had to offer.

So the promos that you would
see were just guys working out.

They weren't saying anything, but it
was just, we're super intense dudes,

and we can lift super heavy things,
and sometimes we wear mascara.

The matches were horrible with those guys,
and it was one of those situations where

at the time, we could have taken
them and maybe spent a lot of time and,

you know, put them in opening matches
and tried to train them, but these guys

already thought that they were ready for
the big time just because of their look.

As Hellwig and Borden,
working on Phil Higgerson,

and now Buddy Wayne
sluts him with that shoe.

Jim Hellwig had sort of reached
this peak of physical perfection, right?

He goes to pro wrestling
in search of fame and

fortune, and then he sort
of has to start over, right?

He has to start paying his dues.

He's not making any money.

He's traveling.

He's on the road all the time.

Ladies and gentlemen, the most
awesome tag team in professional wrestling!

We were on, you know, the 4th of July,
you know, a matinee show, evening show.

New Year's Eve, New
Year's Day, Christmas Eve,

Christmas Day, Easter
Sunday, it didn't matter.

We were doing two shows a day.

This man is just so powerful.

Punishing kicks.

Things get tough.

Things were so bad.

I was driving used
taxi cabs that had like

four or five hundred
thousand miles on them.

It was just incredible.

Nice move by Brett.

Drop kick.

He was very much so, you know,
opinionated kind of a guy, and,

you know, and he was not
shy about sharing his opinion.

It didn't matter what
the topic was, you know.

We actually walked
away at one time.

We walked out on our main event,
and the next day I got a phone call.

You need to come up
to Little Rock tonight.

Bill's holding a couple
of your paychecks.

You'll never get them unless you
come and put a notice in and finish out.

So I said, okay, you
know, let me try to get a

hold of Jim and see if
we can make this happen.

I couldn't get Jim anywhere.

So I went and did the show and came
back, and the next day Jim was pretty hot.

You know, like, what'd you do?

What are you doing?

How could you do that to me?

I said, Jim, what are
you talking about?

He was real pissed.

And that ultimately
ended up, you know,

leading to, you know,
us parting ways as well.

The Blade Runners, no
doubt about it, are big, strong

individuals, but I don't think
they've got what it takes inside.

And I'm speaking
of intestinal fortitude.

I think he just wanted
to kind of go off on

his own, and it ended
up he was probably right.

Hellwig decides he's
going to leave, and he has

an opening with WCCW
over in the Dallas area.

Welcome to World Class Championship
Wrestling, the major league of

professional wrestling, seen around
the world and across this great nation.

WCCW had really an international
following of sorts because

the Von Eriks were like
a first family of wrestling.

They had an audience that was very unique
in the history of wrestling, and a large

percentage of the audience
was women, and it was all

about really good-looking
guys with great bodies.

So Jim comes in, and, I mean, Jim is,
like, perfect for that specific audience.

I remember the first night I drove in
there, they came up to me and said,

Warrior, he's got a warrior thing
about him or something like that.

Then somebody came in.

He had a little puppy,
a new puppy, and they

were asking him
what kind of dog it was.

He said, Dingo.

And somebody just, you know, somebody that
was, you know, not quite sober yet said,

Dingo, Dingo
Warrior, that'll work.

We'll do that tonight.

So that was the beginning
of the Dingo Warrior thing.

From Queens, New York,
287 pounds, the Dingo Warrior.

He was billed as being
from Queens, New York.

So there's no dingoes in Queens.

Dingoes are Australian.

And the word dingo is
just a ridiculous, silly word.

It just sounds hilarious
and not intimidating.

Look at the awesome physical
beauty of the Dingo Warrior.

I'll tell you, Brian, this
crowd's behind him, too, 100%.

So you bring any freaking
nature you want to to world class.

Because believe me, brother, I've
looked in the eyes of darkness before.

And I'm not scared of it.

And I never will be with
the warriors behind my back.

As the Dingo Warrior, Jim Hellwig
gets a noticeable following in WCCW.

Follow the Dingo Man.

It was very obvious to me that the
business, it was going in a direction

where it wasn't so much like Dick the
Bruiser and the Crusher, those kinds of

wrestlers that I remembered as
a kid growing up with in Indiana.

And that something
different was going on with it.

You know, I was painting
the logo on my face.

Dingo Warrior, to me, was the
poor version of the Ultimate Warrior.

I didn't really have much money
to spend on that kind of stuff.

But it just grew, man.

It really turned into
something really fantastic.

And here's a man of awesome proportions
who has to be counted on to be one of the

major influences in
professional wrestling today.

Duke has won Dingo!

So Jim returns to the Fountain
Central 10-year reunion.

He has not only won Mr. Georgia, but
he has also become the Dingo Warrior.

He's enormous.

280 pounds, solid muscle.

This was not a coming
back to sort of mend fences

or to connect with people
he didn't connect with.

His whole take was, if
you had been his friend in

his youth, come sit with
me, we're going to hang out.

And for those people who tried to be more
chummy with him, that had not given him

the time of day in his
youth, he had no interest.

He won a couple bottles of
champagne for the person that

had changed the most and the
person that drove the furthest.

And I remember him opening
the champagne and having us

all drink a little bit of it,
you know, celebrating.

Just our reunion
together as friends.

He didn't forget where
he came from, okay?

Jim was a loyal friend.

If you hung in there with
him, he hung in there with you.

Now with the pin, two,
three, the Devo Jack Victory.

Jim Hellwig was a remarkably
creative human being.

Part of it is the look,
and I think part of it

as well is the fact
that he's just different.

When Vince McMahon sees
Jim Hellwig in 1987, he sees the

picture-perfect mold for
what he's putting out there.

He sees there's definitely something there,
but I'm going to make this thing my own.

The power of the ultimate...

In the territory days, the WWE
was just the New York territory.

The recognized symbol of
excellence in sports entertainment.

By the time people of my age bracket were
invested, the WWE had become the territory.

They were hitting cable TV,
being seen all over the world.

Vince McMahon is as
responsible for the success of

the WWE as anyone is
for the success of anything.

This is this guy who took everything
his father started and said, that's great,

I like what you're doing here, but
what if we took over the world with it?

And Dingo is the winner!

So Jim Hellwig as the Dingo Warrior is in
WCCW, and Vince McMahon takes one look at

him and he says, okay,
I'll give that guy a shot.

The ultimate warrior.

The ultimate warrior
was a Vince McMahon.

Vince McMahon creation.

His first attempt to
create a star once he

already had all the
eyeballs on his company.

He's a strong, powerful man.

There's something Vince told me at
one time, and I'll always remember this,

but he sat down with me
and he said, you know,

Jimmy, I'm looking
for my next attraction.

Somebody bigger than life.

Somebody that can walk
through any airport in the world and

even a casual wrestling fan
will go, oh my God, look who it is.

The power of the warrior flowing
through those... Oh, what a clothesline!

He was the only person that would run, and
I mean top speed, all the way to the ring.

You had the Hulkamania with the red
and yellow, the bright colors, the tan,

and all of a sudden you
got a guy come in, but

instead of red and
yellow, he's got neon on.

Except for Hulk Hogan, he was
the most popular guy they had.

Very quickly.

The audience would react
to him, they started reacting

to him very well, and I
thought, hmm, okay then.

Maybe we do have something here.

What an impressive
showing he is by the way.

The ultimate warrior.

You can see that he's
on a clear trajectory.

That Vince is like
writing this script that will

put him following in the
footsteps of Hulk Hogan.

Ladies and gentlemen, this contest is
for the Intercontinental Championship.

Honky Tonk Man's gonna defend
the Intercontinental Championship.

Get me somebody out of here!

Against an unnamed opponent.

And you're waiting to
hear who it's gonna be.

And that music hits.

I mean, as Gorilla Monsoon
says, pandemonium.

Here at the
CineGram, we include...

It's the ultimate warrior!

I remember what
it felt like, man.

It was f***ing
awesome, you know.

Ultimate warrior exploding!

It was just non-stop energy
for less than 30 seconds.

And there was a new
Intercontinental Champion.

It just shocked
the wrestling world.

Nobody expected it, right?

Because we'd had
the belt for over a year.

And I think that's what really gave
him the little rocket that he needed.

It is unbelievable!

A newly crowned
Intercontinental Champion!

It was just another critical step in him
becoming the biggest wrestler in WWE.

Take the safe robbery!

I'm gonna take it.

There you go.

Thanks a lot, man.

This is WWE letting the
world know this is the next guy.

This is this guy that
you think might be a star.

He is a superstar.

Please welcome the man
known as the ultimate warrior.

I think the ultimate warrior was a
great match for the late 80s, early 90s.

Everything was about
being as big and strong

and bombastic as a
character as possible.

He was a cartoon
character come to life.

So my earliest memories of the ultimate
warrior are of this, like, madman covered

in tassels and of a doll that I wanted
to cuddle and take to bed with me.

Now because he is successful,
now he's got that target on his back.

This guy's only been in
the business for five years.

I've been in this
business for 20 years.

What dues did he pay?

There's all that going
on in the locker room.

I got the sense that
he really was a loner.

Warrior was very much
at times an overgrown kid.

Having known a lot of his personal
life, he never really got to be a kid.

You know, came
from a broken home.

Had to grow up
and mature quickly.

So I do think that the warrior
character, that's why he fell

in love with it so much because
it was an extension of him.

And he got to escape
and do those things and

live probably a lot of
things he never got to do.

We were in town.

I mean, it only made sense that they look,
you know, come home and let's have dinner,

you know.

And my wife would fix dinner and it was
a breath of fresh air to have him there.

It was so different, you know.

And he really wanted
that environment.

You could tell he was
attracted to that environment.

There was very few people that were
invited to come over to my parents' house.

Would he help do the dishes?

You know what?

If he was asked, he would have.

He would definitely
do the dishes.

He was just that type of guy.

My dad was a father figure to
many and definitely was to Warrior.

And I think it was just that family
dynamic that Jim always aspired to have.

They end up having Warrior feud with Andre
the Giant, who had previously been the

most beloved wrestler,
maybe, on the planet.

You see, the ultimate maniac has
felt these large hands around his neck.

He is feeling right
now the Intercontinental

Championship
slipping off his waist.

One of the big values of Andre the
Giant was that if somebody beats him or if

somebody can slam him,
they're a household name.

And Hulk Hogan body
slamming Andre the Giant at

WrestleMania III is the thing
that set Hulkamania in motion.

Look at this!

He slammed the Giant!

And you, Andre the Giant,
will realize that the power will

become the eighth one in
the world as we eat you alive!

Andre never did anything
he didn't want to do.

It was frightening the first
time he told me to slam him.

I knew what it meant to the character,
Ultimate Warrior, and how much over that

character would be by
being allowed to do that.

So now you're able to really
think of, like, Ultimate Warrior.

He's on the same
level as Hulk Hogan.

Because up until that
moment, the greatest thing Hulk

Hogan had ever achieved
was beating Andre the Giant.

Well, now Ultimate Warrior's
beating Andre the Giant.

You slammed Andre.

I slammed Andre.

You can beat everybody else on the
roster, but after you slam Andre the Giant,

there's only one place left
to go, and that's Hulk Hogan.

There, you didn't cry for Santa.

You were too little.

It's been seven years since we lost
Warrior, and now we're actually able to

look at the memories and enjoy
them and revel in them and laugh.

Warrior's role at Christmastime was,
like, the biggest elf you've ever met.

And he'd negotiate.

Didn't he?

Negotiate.

He would negotiate.

There was a lot of
negotiation on Christmas.

Absolutely.

About what you guys deserved.

Yes.

Every morning on Christmas,
we'd wake up with a note

about what we should
improve on for the next year.

Yep.

Because next year
it might be cold.

And it was detailed.

It was scary, but then you had to
get over it and you'd get present.

And I was like, wait,
this is dad's hair now.

I'm glad.

For me and the girls, it's
about his legacy as a father.

But for millions of
fans, it will always be

about what he did in
the ring with Hulk Hogan.

I think it's pretty incredible to imagine
he only had five years in the business and

he was tasked with the job
of replacing a veritable legend.

Hulk Hogan in the 80s
literally was wrestling.

He was just a And just remember
Hulkamania was running wild.

Crazy.

Thank you, Hulk.

He ushered in a new,
larger than life, almost

cartoonish era of
professional wrestling.

Hulk Hogan over the six
years leading to WrestleMania

VI had turned Hulkamania
into a phenomenon.

I am a real American Remember
what's going on in the ring?

Hulk is posing.

We're in a celebration We
want a celebration mood.

We want the
opposite of that, okay?

Hulk Hogan and the
Ultimate Warrior at the

time, they're your top
good guys in the WWE.

So when they start to flirt with this idea
that there may be some animosity between

Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate
Warrior, you're going, wait a minute.

Balea and Helwig had a
rivalry with one another, and they

had a mutual professional
jealousy, which made sense.

How could there not
be professional envy and

jealousy between Hulk Hogan
and the Ultimate Warrior?

Another elbow into
the Hulkster's chest!

Ultimate Warrior was
designed to replace Hulk Hogan.

How could Hulk
Hogan not resent that?

Why don't my
eyes run to the ring?

The Ultimate Warrior!

Why don't I understand the
Warrior's thinking on this?

Why should he run to
the ring and save Hogan?

How could Warrior
not resent that?

Why should he not
resent Hulk Hogan?

If you're gonna compete with somebody
for the number one spot, by design,

you have to think, here's
why I'm better than that person.

Wait a minute.

What's going on?

The very nature of that
competition between the two is

going to breed envy and
jealousy between the two of them.

Both champions, Hulk Hogan and
the Ultimate Warrior, want to be sure the

other is healthy for Sunday afternoon,
April 1st, the World Wrestling Federation

Champion against the
Intercontinental Champion.

This was a big topic of
conversation among 11-year-olds.

Who's gonna win Ultimate
Warrior to Hulk Hogan?

I mean, for us, this was
like, you know, Magic vs.

Bird.

At the end of WrestleMania, it'll be
the Hulkster and God they still trust.

The official signing of the
match at WrestleMania.

Look into my eyes, Hulk Hogan!

You see nothingness!

Jim, always give me
a little pause there.

I think when you finish off, you
know, count to two before you...

Warrior not only has to step into the ring
with Hogan, has to carry the main event

with Hogan, has to live up to the
box office expectations with Hogan.

It's gonna beat Hogan?

The pressure on
Warrior to deliver.

It's mind-boggling to think
that pressure didn't crush him.

The Ultimate Warrior!

Listen to the ovation!

You

can't build to a match like this
and then go for five minutes.

So this became a test of, okay, now
that we've got Hulk Hogan and the

Ultimate Warrior together, can we
have these guys do a 25-minute match?

Can we do a match where
a real story is being told?

You can bet the adrenaline
is already floating.

And here we go.

Warrior

learned a lot from Hulk Hogan.

But there's always that little
piece, you want to be the top dog.

And Warrior was hungry for it.

They both get
their time to shine.

Unbelievable!

Hogan has never
had anyone do that!

And they both get that
moment where, as a fan, you're

like, well, this is the
moment where Hulk wins.

That moment that
we've all seen before.

Hulk Hogan is hitting the ropes.

He's dropping a leg.

He... Oh!

He moved out of the way!

Look out, the big splash!

One, two!

He got him!

Hulk Hogan was
still hot in 90, okay?

When he takes that Warrior pin right in
the middle of the ring, no funny business,

and loses outright to the
Warrior and makes Warrior king.

This is not the same
as doing that for

someone when you are
clearly on the way down.

Oh, look at this!

Hulk presented the belt and
raised the hand of the Warrior!

That was both Hogan and the
company anointing somebody new.

And it was a major deal to
be able to beat Hulk Hogan.

I think Jim was idolized.

That filled something up
inside of him that he needed.

Other people, you know, that have said, you
know, Warrior never respected the business.

You know, he just wanted to
get in, make a paycheck, get out.

That was not true.

Warrior came back
through the curtain after

that match with Hogan
and completely broke down.

You know, emotionally.

He was finally at the very pinnacle of the
business that he worked so hard to get to.

The fact that I took the belt from Hulk in
the way that I did with the clean finish,

I mean, the weight of that.

You know, that saying about it's
not the destination, it's the journey.

It's true for me.

I was so emotional
after it happened.

But within a day or two, I
was thinking, what's next?

At WrestleMania, Warrior, you
lived up to the ultimate challenge.

And then some.

But now, you face a
challenge of a different kind.

The Ultimate Warrior title
reign as World Champion

was in some ways actually
the beginning of the end.

I can feel it!

I can feel that I
have been chosen.

He was pure
kinetic energy, right?

And the story that they told was
a missile being shot into space.

The climb is exhilarating.

But once you get there,
the story just sort of fizzles.

They didn't set up
the right guys for him.

And it did not get him
off on the right track.

The first thing they do is
they brought in Rick Rude.

He was a retread.

Warrior had already
beaten him before.

He had matches
with The Undertaker.

You're scared!

And you're going to be scared!

Oh, wait a minute!

You're going to be scared!

Not in there!

Not in the casket!

And it ends up going into
Jake the Snake Roberts.

What do you think
about that, Warrior?

Just a few friends of mine, huh?

What if I tap the flexing glass?

Strike.

Here it comes.

Tapping counter.

Warrior's walking around in that locker
room with eyes in the back of his head.

You got guys that
are jealous of him.

In front of the cameras, in front of
the fans, that was Warrior's safe haven.

That was never the issue.

But when he had to
walk back into that locker

room, he knew exactly
what he was dealing with.

That's where the pressure came.

Hang on.

Hang on.

Keep his attention, folks.

Keep his attention.

There you go.

We see him now.

I don't think you really
know if somebody's

up to the job until
they get there, right?

I don't know what
expectations Vince had set and

what the Ultimate
Warrior wasn't living up to.

Something had to be telling
Vince McMahon that this project

wasn't succeeding to the degree
that he had hoped that it would.

Immediately, it was like, okay, the
decision is to get the belt back on

Hogan because Warrior
didn't draw good enough.

But at the time, I think everybody figured
that Warrior was gonna be champion for

three or four years,
and it was less than a

full year before they
took it away from him.

Warrior is not
going to fall into line.

This is not somebody you are going
to control, and they have to know this.

Jim Hellwig went to
the beat of his own drum.

Whatever that beat was telling him,
whether it was good for him or detrimental

to him, he went and walked
to the beat of his own drum.

There were times where,
you know, he was completely

isolated, and sometimes
he was just really on edge.

So there's a story that a kid
approaches Ultimate Warrior at an airport,

as most people do.

You know, that's half the reason Vince
grabs these guys, is because when they

walk through an airport, you
can't look away from them.

He's got his sunglasses on, and this
kid comes up to him, and he's asking,

you know, if he's
the Ultimate Warrior.

And, like, he snaps
on this little kid.

I was like, whoa.

This kid's parents were
pretty connected to the WWE.

That posed a problem for Jim
when Vince heard about this.

So Vince is so upset that he makes Jim
actually record a video apology to the kid.

It's Vince's apology.

But not in the
Warrior's character.

I mean, I'm humbly apologizing, but I'm
not saying what I'm humbly apologizing for.

That's right.

I know what the gimmick's
for, but I mean, what's it for?

In three, two...

I understand that there comes times
in everyone's life when they may regret

certain things... regret certain
things that they should... This...

Yeah, I know.

I don't know what the to say.

I didn't say nothing
to the goddamn kid.

You don't have to say anything.

I understand that.

Well, no, you don't, because I'm making
a videotape to some kid... It's a work.

...about an apology.

It's a work.

That's all it is.

It's a work.

We're working here.

That's it.

I'm working here.

There's two matches left.

I'm working here making an
apology for something I didn't do.

This guy's really...
Whatever I should have...

Whatever I was supposed to have said
to the guy, I wish I had said to the guy.

There shall never come a time that any one
of the WWF that I shall take revenge upon

that person and vanquish them
from this universe and sue me.

No one that walks within the World
Wrestling Federation shall ever,

never offend you without answering
to the power of the ultimate warrior.

But then the very next day, he sits
down and he writes Vince a letter.

It's as if years of
frustration and anger have

just boiled over and
he can't take it anymore.

1991 was a definitive
moment in Jim Hellwig's life.

Around January of 1991, he
and his wife filed divorce papers.

At the same time, the WWE decided that they
were going to go in a different direction.

And so that same month
that he's filing divorce

papers, he also loses
his status as champion.

Going through the divorce, needing
the money, all of those things sort of work

together to reignite some of that
financial anxiety that he had as a child.

You know, a lot of the scars
throughout Jim Hellwig's life

are definitely like coming
It's coming to the surface now.

The Ultimate Warrior!

You realize that, sure,
Ultimate Warrior looked like he

had never been better, but
Jim is going through a divorce.

And Jim is having arguments with Vince,
and he's blowing up on fans at the airport.

And you realize that
there's more to it than that.

Ultimate Warrior seemed like he was just
sort of at his wit's end with Vince, right?

He's like, I've
tried to talk to you.

I've tried to
bring this stuff up.

Let me try something else.

I'm going to write a letter.

Vince, writing this is
a different approach.

I have been from day one
different from the others.

I have sacrificed myself enough both in
my personal life and physical well-being.

What Hellwig says to
McMahon is, I know what

Hogan has gotten,
and that's what I want.

I have sacrificed more than $500,000,
more than a million dollars even,

in monies that I should have been paid
to me in receiving equal treatment as Hulk.

I And he proceeds to give a list of
demands about the things that he wants.

About equal pay for Hogan,
equal royalties for Hogan.

He wants all of the same
benefits that Hulk Hogan gets.

The videotaped apology
was the icing on the cake.

You see it as a business, so whether
I like it or not I must do the same.

Whatever your decision,
I can and will live with it.

Till then, I remain at
home with one who cares.

Hellwig appears to be
saying to Vince, I'm not

going to show up until
you meet these demands.

That's a cardinal sin in the
world of professional wrestling.

WWE have not only, in the micro sense,
spent all this time marketing SummerSlam,

but in the macro sense, all this time
marketing the Ultimate Warrior character.

Like, they can't just say, alright, we'll
go home, we'll just do it without you.

No one would take kindly to them,
but of all the people in the world who

would not take kindly to essentially
being bullied, it would be Vince McMahon.

When I get this
letter, it's a shock.

It's like, oh, it's
kicking the guts.

It felt like I was
burned, so to speak.

I told Jim we would work it out,
indicating that we might do this deal.

That he was looking for, oh,
okay, we'll talk at the Garden.

And I couldn't wait to fire him.

What an ovation for
the Ultimate Warrior!

Can he be trusted?

Vince McMahon came into my locker room
and he said, well, the Ultimate Warrior is

holding me up for $500,000 and he
wants to be paid before he wrestles.

Then, through the locker
room door comes Hulk Hogan.

And he said, Sarge, you throw the Warrior
out on the floor and I'll come into the

ring and I'll jump on you and you
and I will head off to the corner.

And while we're doing that, Cheeky,
you jump down and you break his leg.

And Vince went, no,
whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

I don't need a lawsuit
on top of all this.

There's a spot at the end of the match
where Hellwig grabs a chair and chases

Mustafa and Adnan out
of the ring and backstage.

Warrior's got a chair!

As he comes back through,
he's told, Vince wants to see you.

At which point, Vince gives
him a several-page letter.

Talking about how Hulk
Hogan is a living legend.

He is more popular than
you, has more years in

the ring than you, is in
greater demand than you.

And then he hits
Jim very personally.

He says, you have become a
living legend in your own mind.

Probably everything that Jim
Hellwig would not have wanted to hear.

He then details the fact that, Jim, you
are suspended for no fewer than 19 years.

I think that Vince
wrote something that

cutting, because I
think Vince felt insulted.

It was so outrageous,
the demand was.

And just so far overreached, it told
me, obviously, he really didn't understand.

Often, our performers will start believing
in themselves more than they should and

can't separate Jim Hellwig
from the Ultimate Warrior.

And that happens to
a lot of our performers.

A lot of superstars...

want his approval.

And they want to please him.

And they want to be his guy the way
you want your father to accept you.

That's what I feel, I guess,
with Vince McMahon.

It's like, when he tells
you, you did a good

job, it's the greatest
feeling in the world.

Jim and I had this unusual
relationship, you know, personally.

And we both were on
the same wavelength.

He was nuts.

I was at the time, I'm not now.

There was this
great relationship.

No one really knew that.

I'm sure he was out there
looking for acceptance.

And he might have looked at
him as a mother and a father figure.

And there's nothing
wrong with that.

Did you think of him as a son?

Not as a son.

I have only one son.

You know, I can see how someone
would look at me as a father figure.

But I don't look
at him as a son.

You know, I've never done that.

You know, but I've looked at him
as a relationship that would be sort of

mirroring somewhat,
you know, of a father-son.

If you look at somebody like the Warrior
that maybe was missing some male role

models early in his life,
I think Vince McMahon

could have easily
filled that role for him.

And I don't know if Vince realized when he
wrote that that the Ultimate Warrior would

not take that as his
boss being mad at him.

He may take that as a paternal
figure being disappointed in him.

Your boss being mad
at you, you get over.

Somebody that you look at like a father
saying, I like him more than I like you.

You don't get over that.

Good morning, guys.

The entire world of
wrestling changed in 1992.

The federal government
has leveled charges

against the leader of the
WWF, Vince McMahon.

Steroid use, steroid distribution
is now deemed not only

illegal, but is being presented
as inauthentic and immoral.

A Hulk of a hero named Hogan
is the biggest to take a fall.

First cue up.

This is take one.

It makes a certain sort of sense that
when Hulk Hogan has to take some time off,

you go back in the well and find the
guy who used to be the next Hulk Hogan.

There have been those
that have been taken.

I'm going to sit up on many a throne
and promise to rule the entire universe,

the entire world.

McMahon decides to bring the
ultimate warrior back into the WWE.

And they begin the process
of trying to mend the fences.

Look at this.

Hulk, Hulk, Hulk.

The insane Sid Justice.

Hulkamania could all end
here today in the Hoosier Dome.

And when that music hit...
He don't have a friend left.

Wait a minute!

You could hear that stadium
full of people going nuts for it.

They couldn't believe it.

It is!

It

was still a moment.

And you're still like, oh
my God, Warrior's back.

But when he comes
back, right in the midst of

the steroid scandal, he
looks noticeably smaller.

He's still jacked.

I mean, he's still by
normal standards.

He's still like, I'm never going to
get a body like 1992 Ultimate Warrior.

But 1992 Ultimate Warrior does not
have a body like 1992 Ultimate Warrior.

1990 Ultimate Warrior.

He had not been quite as dedicated as
he was to the gym, probably because he's

coping with an
extraordinary amount of loss.

And going through a divorce...

And I remember thinking, man, you've got
to get your shit together real quick here.

Let's try one more
with more intensity.

Okay.

Hang on a second.

In 1992, a package is intercepted,
addressed to the Ultimate Warrior's

driver, and it contains HGH,
human growth hormone.

Explosiveness that can
never ever be recreated.

A chemical combustion that
forms a bond forever and ever.

He did fail some tests in 1992.

Yep.

Hellwig did fail tests, and Hellwig
also admitted to it, to taking steroids.

I think it was more than
anything in his head that

if I don't have this, I'll
never be the same guy.

Every time he takes a
drug test, he has to list

the kinds of medications
that he's taking already.

And at the beginning of this
process in May, he writes Motrin.

Pretty simple.

The next test, it's Tylenol
with codeine in a nasal spray.

By the time we get to late
October, he's taking multiple

medicines for anxiety, for
depression, for insomnia.

As

soon as they start to work.

Slam jam the
Ultimate Warrior away.

In November of that year,
the WWE will fire him again.

On the grounds that he
has violated the drug policy.

Shit, I don't know.

It just sort of unraveled in a way where I
remember having a conversation with Vince

and he was afraid of certain things
that were going to happen to him.

It just got so bad that he
needed a couple of scapegoats.

Was it implied that you should use steroids
to make yourself... No, never to me.

I think the whole thing is weak.

It was a bad optic to have huge
muscle-bound guys on top as you're

fighting off these
accusations of steroid use.

People like Hulk Hogan
and the Ultimate Warrior.

Faded to the background.

And Bret Hartz and Shawn Michaels and other
guys sort of stepped in to the spotlight.

Because their look
didn't sort of remind

people of what was going
on behind the scenes.

He arrives in
Scottsdale, Arizona.

Hellwig will legally
change his name to Warrior.

He lived the Ultimate Warrior.

He breathed the
Ultimate Warrior.

So he believed he owned
the Ultimate Warrior.

So all you can really do is
try to come up with ways to...

stick it to your
former employer.

The Mad Men's back!

The Mad Men's back!

We know

what it takes to
be a pro wrestler.

He launched a gym and wrestling
school called Warrior University.

Warrior University!

He wanted to do workout
videos and Warrior workout kits.

And I saw a new gym
was coming to town.

And it was owned by
the Ultimate Warrior.

I had a pink resume
before Elle Woods ever did.

And when I walked
in the door, all I could

see was the eye line
to this huge, giant man.

And I walked with
purpose straight up to him.

I put the resume down and I said, I
need to run your aerobics program.

And he said, you
need to marry me.

And I said, I won't
even date you.

And that man followed me around
like a puppy until I finally broke down.

And I dated him and then,
you know, I married him.

So it worked out okay.

I had my own demons
from a difficult childhood.

And so my husband used to always
say to me, like, you tamed the beast.

I met my counterpart.

I met the person that I
was able to do that for.

And he was able to do it for me.

I

look back at the innocence of
who we were when we first met.

And what my husband really
wanted was to be successful.

He had all these
goals and aspirations.

And what success was, was in his
mind what Vince McMahon had created.

He wanted to make the Ultimate Warrior
into a full-blown comic book venture.

To launch the
Warrior mainstream.

But he seems to realize that it's not
going to happen without a bigger platform.

And because of that, once
again, Vince McMahon and Jim

Hellwig somehow find their
way back to one another.

When you look back now,
the Warrior's career is sort of

more about, like, returns
than it is about the matches.

Around June of 1996,
Hellwig's father Thomas dies.

The two had not had
much of a relationship at all.

But it seems to
have hit him hard.

In this period of time, he
doesn't attend a few shows.

But of course, with the
WWE, you don't miss shows.

As I recall, he had not
seen his dad in over

ten years and could
care less about him.

And that was
like, wait a minute.

You're going to use
this as an excuse?

That's the straw that breaks
the camel's back with me.

I can't deal with
anybody like that.

He was terminated.

Audience that was five, ten, fifteen
years old, when Warrior was at his hottest,

had moved on to be
obsessed with other things.

Besides the Ultimate Warrior.

So when that love and that adulation
wasn't there, he went back to being an

11-year-old boy in the trailer in
Indiana whose father just left him.

He starts traveling around
to college campuses.

One that really stood out, it
made major headlines at the

time, was a speech he gave
at the University of Connecticut.

I'm going to get up for these
things just like I used to wrestle.

You have to tell the story with
the same passion and intensity.

I knew something was wrong.

Hey guys, how you doing?

And I said, what did you say?

We'll talk when you get home.

You know, young kids,
they get their philosophy

of life from people that
are older than them.

And today that's just not
happening in any place.

He's accepted the fact that the Ultimate
Warrior is not going to be mainstream,

but it's almost like he needed
something to fill the void.

What's up?

I just wanted to show you
what they're passing out outside.

Just so you're prepared
for what's going to happen.

Oh, good.

They're all prepared with the
racist, with the racism, um, jeers.

He finds this new identity
in conservative ideology.

And he becomes a
conservative blogger.

I would argue for the Warrior and
his career, his persona, his business.

It was not good that we
got to see behind the curtain.

Every few weeks or
whatever is like another

thing that Warrior is
saying that is offensive.

Where do you think his strong political
views came from around that time?

Most people think I'm
heavy metal or something.

On the radio, typically,
um, I do talk radio.

That's it.

Turn on talk radio was a
really big thing at the time.

Um, and, and, you
know something?

Rush Limbaugh is
a great showman.

So, my husband's like, well,
Kendrick, we get each other, you know.

So, like, the talk radio thing
became a big thing in our house.

And, you know, a certain
news channel is on all the time.

I think he was just looking
for a new brotherhood.

It's never been the vision
that people have in their

heads that it's just ultimate
warrior as an identity.

A painted face pro wrestler
with strings around his arms

and colorful characters and
physique and a body and stuff.

It's about, it represents more, um,
on a fundamental level, something or

somebody that's willing to stand
up and fight for what they believe in.

Even if they die doing so.

And when he came back from that
speech, I knew something was wrong.

And I said, what did you say?

Now, I'm a conservative.

Liberals believe in a utopian
society where everything is equal.

That Kwanzaa is just as legitimate
as Santa Claus and Christmas.

That a terrorist is just
as legitimate as Santa.

As one of this country's
revolution freedom fighters.

That we are as legitimate
as heterosexuals.

How are they not?

That the anarchists because
doesn't make the world work.

What's wrong with homosexuality?

What are you talking about?

And from this moment, the speech
has just become a straight dog fight.

No, no.

Apologize for that
right now, you guys.

As an Ultimate Warrior
fan, you're like, bro,

like, I didn't, I didn't
sign up for that.

Like, you're starting to make
me think that the warrior might

believe in some stuff that I
don't necessarily believe in.

There's all people of all different types
of races and colors that look up to you.

Because I, you know, I
grew up, my dad wasn't there.

But as the warrior is telling
me, just don't worry about things.

Just be that little warrior
that you are inside.

So, when you are acting that way and you
believe that in your heart, you can do a

lot of damage to those
people that looked up for you.

Has anything like UConn
ever happened before?

No.

I was really disappointed.

I was really disappointed.

And I let him know that.

And, um, he knew it was different
and he knew he'd messed up.

And I don't even
think, he didn't

understand the breadth
of it until later on.

But he knew it was bad.

So, WWE puts out this DVD, The
Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior.

And this, I think, was kind
of a self-serving mission.

We're done making money
off this guy or from this guy.

And he's off hurting himself, his own
brand, and by extension, our brand.

If we can limit his importance
in our legacy, that's a win for us.

If we can charge 30 bucks for it and
put a cool title on it and essentially,

you know, make as much money
as we would off of a WrestleMania,

off of Jim without even
having his consent, even better.

And Vince wants these to
kind of be shoot deals, right?

Yeah, he really does.

He wants to tell the truth.

He wants everybody to know.

A little controversy?

Self-Destruction of Ultimate Warrior
was not so much a documentary.

It was more of a hit piece.

You watched it and
thought, at the very

least, this guy is not
beloved by his peers.

I don't know that he was
really born to be in this business.

To me, the man had
no idea about wrestling.

Do I think the Ultimate
Warrior was a flash in the pan?

Enough said.

I knew when the Ultimate Warrior won the
match and 68,000 people watched me leave

the building instead of watching
the new champ in the ring, I knew that,

okay, you know, I don't want to
be the one to say I told you so.

I never watched that DVD.

People would not be alive
if I'd watched that DVD.

My husband wanted to watch
it and I said, you shouldn't.

He doesn't trust anyone in life.

And look, if you don't enjoy
coming to work, then you're

going to bound to self-destruct
somewhere along the line.

He watched that DVD and that broke a part
of my husband that I was never able to fix.

Nobody is going to hand you

the fulfillment of the
dream you have in your

mind about a great life
you want to f***ing live.

In later years, it's almost as if he will
be frustrated with himself, but he will

project out onto others the
frustration he feels with his own life.

I think you're f***ing pathetic.

Don't fail.

Take back yourself.

And don't take any
back talk from yourself.

I think he was trying to
reinvigorate his own identity because

when we fall down a hole,
nobody can really get you back out.

You have to climb
rung by rung yourself.

And he did that.

That's so inspiring
because he wasn't perfect.

Other people in the
world aren't perfect.

We all mess up.

And sometimes we're ignorant.

But ignorance is educable and we can
change and we can grow and we can evolve.

I was very oblivious to his
life before he was a father.

He was my dad.

I was daddy's little girl.

And he doted on my sister and
I like any other dad that I knew.

He was so gentle
with his warrior babies.

That's what he'd call us.

I know that his father
wasn't incredibly involved.

And so he didn't really
have that figure there.

But you don't necessarily need a role
model to become the man you want to become.

Very few people can
overcome what they

lived through and not
feel victimized by it.

But instead chart a new course.

And that's what we
did with our family.

We charted a new course.

What you saw in his character used
to translate a lot into his workouts.

But, you know, most of the time here
we got to know a different character.

We got to know Warrior.

And Warrior was a
complete different personality.

He made everybody feel special.

He made me feel special.

I think that Warrior
found himself in Santa Fe.

I think he found a calmer setting
for him to really think, to paint.

Art became a really
big part of his life when

he wasn't putting on
his face paint every day.

You know, the face paint became
the paint on the canvas instead.

He had his daughters.

He had Dana.

Oh my gosh, it's
so good to see you.

You're our first husband
since all of us started.

Our friendship was
about just enjoying life.

Have fun.

You are who you are.

I think that my husband needed
hypermasculinity in order to feel safe.

But with the friends that he made in
our town of Santa Fe, he was able to

experience grown adult men
who had no vendetta against him.

And so I think when my husband was finally
ready to be inducted in the Hall of Fame,

he was becoming somebody
that was actually worthy of

that honor in his own
mind, but also for the fans.

Ladies and gentlemen,
accompanied to the ring by

two young ladies who
were so special in his life.

May I present, Warrior.

For several years, the
WWE had tried to find

ways of getting Warrior
into the Hall of Fame.

And he had repeatedly said no.

This particular year, for whatever
reason, Warrior was able to trust.

And I said, I apologize for anything
I've ever said, anything I've ever done.

That was then.

Let's just bury the
hatchet and move on.

I just can't believe it's
been as long as it has been.

He enters into an agreement
with the WWE to become

an ambassador for a
period of several years.

Obviously, there was a tension with the
relationship with WWE throughout the years.

You know what I mean?

What does it mean to kind of be back
in the fold and kind of repair things?

Well, it means a lot.

Well, it means a lot.

You know, it was purposeful
that they put the DVD out.

It hurt my feelings a lot, man.

It hurt me that they did that.

You know, I have a lot of
emotion about coming back.

It's well known that the
Hellwig men had a short lifespan.

His grandfather died in his 50s.

His father died in his 50s.

And knowing that most of
the Hellwig boys died at a

young age definitely has to
color how you live your life.

You either face it or
you live in fear of it.

I think it was calculated on his part
because he knew that by reigniting this

relationship with the WWE, he can be
the man that his father never was for him.

This was his moment to set
aside the hurt, the ego, the

pride, all of the things that
had kept him estranged.

And to say, I'm going
to do this for my family.

You build a brand.

These are the graphics
that support the brand.

There are a few legitimately
tough guys in our business.

Most of us aren't.

So we get to go out there and
we get to act like tough guys.

And people look up to you
and you're larger than life.

There's responsibility
that comes with that.

Responsibility is that if you get to do
that, you get that opportunity to do that,

then you should be
able to go out into the

real world and handle
a simple thing like life.

I'm sorry for all the bad
stuff that happened to me.

It's tough, man.

It's all good, brother.

It's all good.

You're right.

The tape never should
have been made.

It's hard for me because when
you get disrespected like that, you...

You know, I got kids
and I got family and I...

It just was so wrong
in so many ways.

I love you very much.

I want you to know that.

Thanks a lot, man.

I really want you to know that.

I've been dying to see you.

I really do.

I really do.

No matter what.

I think he was just
really excited to go home.

And absolutely he
wanted that reconciliation

with Vince because
Vince mattered to him.

But he also wanted to show
Vince, I have family now, too.

And now you're part of it.

I don't need
you to be all of it.

Ladies and gentlemen, accompanied to
the ring by two young ladies who were so

special in his life,
may I present Warrior.

In 1991, Vince
wrote me a letter.

He said, you think you're
a legend in your own mind.

But I didn't think that I
was a legend in my mind.

But I will tell you this, Vince.

The Ultimate Warrior
is a legend today.

And he will continue to
run into the hearts and

minds of fans throughout
generations to come.

And I'm proud of that.

I'm proud of you for supporting
me and fighting for the

Ultimate Warrior to be
inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Regardless of personal stuff, regardless
of what you see on the internet or

anything, just like,
we're now all grownups.

We're nostalgically looking at this
guy like, yes, this is when I was six.

This is the guy I was watching.

I'm so happy he's back.

From the moment he ran onto WWE television
until he, you know, took the belt from

Hogan, you hold that up against
any wrestler in the history of wrestling.

That's what we were celebrating.

I mean, I was there on Monday
Night Raw when he came out.

And I've never been in
a crowd that felt like that.

Every man's heart one
day beats its final beat.

His lungs breathe
their final breath.

And if what that man did in his life
makes the blood pulse through the body of

others, it makes them bleed
deeper into something larger than

life, then his essence, his
spirit, will be immortalized.

You, you, you, you are the
legend makers of Ultimate Warrior.

Finally, Jim, he understood
how it all worked then.

And that may be, as
far as I know, about the

only time he's ever been
at peace with himself.

He so appreciated the
honor and what have you.

And unfortunately...

A couple days later, he died.

It's just, everything
felt so good.

My kids are so
proud of their dad.

We were gonna go to
Arizona and have spring break.

And we got on a
plane to go to Phoenix.

And we get to the hotel, and he said,
I don't, I don't feel, I don't feel good.

I said, I know,
babe, neither do I.

Like, it's been
a, this is hectic.

It's gonna be fine.

You just rest.

What do you need?

I'll go get it for you.

Like, he's like, no,
I don't feel good.

And he said, I think I
need to go to the hospital.

And that's where I was like...

And I didn't, I didn't
want the girls to

come, because I didn't
want them to be scared.

So they were old
enough to lock the door.

It was one second before
we were out the door.

And I couldn't catch them.

So we get to the hospital,
and they wheel him back there.

And they said,
he didn't make it.

And I also knew, like, I was
gonna have to tell my kids.

And I left them at the hotel at the
last, thinking I was protecting them,

but then did I rob them at
the last moment with their dad?

What he built at home was
far greater than anything the

ultimate warrior achieved in
front of the television cameras.

That's the tragedy
of the man's life.

When he finally found the love that
he couldn't find as a child, and he had

nothing left to hate, that's
when his heart gave up.

You know, I mean, I can
remember back when I was a young

kid, being a kid in the wrong
place at the wrong time.

My dad leaving when I
was 12, 13 years old, having

self-doubts about myself
like any young kid does.

You create your own sort of
fantasy protector, in a sense.

You know, the thing that
you connect with to make you

strong, to get you through
the self-doubts that you have.

His daughters are
definitely his lasting legacy.

He was never more proud of
anything in his life than his girls.

And he wanted both of them, which
they do, to have that warrior spirit.

There's nothing simple
about Jim Helwig.

He was a flawed and complicated human being
who made some serious mistakes in his life.

But it's a human story.

Having done Ultimate Warrior
as a sports entertainment

identity, why I think the
way I do, it's built into us.

It's a part of our nature.

It's a part of our human nature.

To grow.

I think redemption is a heavy burden to
place on any one human being because we're

all on a journey to find
out who it is that we are.