Ultimate Warrior's WCW Run Was A Disaster On-Screen & Backstage
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WrestleMania 6 saw two of the biggest stars in pro wrestling collide. The Ultimate Warrior faced off against Hulk Hogan. Sixty-seven thousand fans watched in awe as these two larger-than-life figures engaged in a drama-fueled battle. After The Ultimate Warrior pinned the long-reigning champion, Hogan handed Warrior the WWE Title and raised his hand. It was a massive moment.
Cut to eight years later. WWE was now in the throes of a rating war with their competitor, World Championship Wrestling. Nearly all of McMahon's stars from the Golden Era of WWE had jumped ship to WCW. Although the product was hot and making money, WCW's creative was crap.
Eric Bischoff found an opportunity that was too lucrative to pass up. The chance to recreate history. If Bischoff could snag The Ultimate Warrior, he would have the rematch of the decade on his hands. The Warrior versus Hogan 2. What could go wrong? Everything.
RELATED: Ultimate Warrior & Hulk Hogan's Complicated Real-Life Relationship, Explained
Ultimate Warrior's WCW Debut Goes Off The Rails
On the August 17th episode of WCW Nitro, Hulk Hogan claimed he would run through everybody to regain the WCW Championship. "There's not a warrior in the locker room who could stop me." The lights went out. A silhouetted figure ominously strode towards the ring. Amidst the lights and smoke effects, it took a while for the fans to realize that figure was The Warrior (formerly The Ultimate Warrior), but once they did - they went berserk! The ovation was massive. It was an incredible moment for WCW.
Unfortunately, the segment didn't end there.
In what was supposed to be a six-minute promo, The Warrior went over his time. Way over. He rambled incoherent nonsense for nearly eighteen minutes, throwing ice-cold water on the red-hot crowd. The timing snafu sent the production team into hysterics. Due to Warrior's bloated promo, the rest of the live show had to be restructured entirely on the spot.
The Warrior's WCW Run Was Plagued With Supernatural Silliness
It didn't take long for fans' excitement for The Warrior to vanish, in part, because The Warrior himself kept vanishing in one of the silliest tropes pro wrestling has to offer. For most of his short WCW run, the Warrior would appear and disappear in clouds of smoke.
WCW fans got a smoke-filled ring every week, and it became less cool each time. The announce team would consistently play it off as "mind games." The mind games may have worked on Hulk Hogan (who came off as naive as a four-year-old), but the gimmick wasn't working for fans.
RELATED: Bobby Heenan's Hatred Of The Ultimate Warrior, ExplainedThe silly smoke stunt even caused a severe injury. At the Fall Brawl PPV, The Warrior was booked to appear in the middle of the War Games match, disappear in a cloud of smoke, and magically emerge running down the aisle. The gag was accomplished with a Warrior double in the middle of the ring, who'd escape through a trap door when the cage filled with smoke.
Unfortunately, Davey Boy Smith took a bump earlier in the night and landed squarely on the trap door. Smith suffered a spinal cord infarction. He would have to be hospitalized for six long months.
A Lot Of Smoke And Mirrors Hurt Warrior's WCW Run
There's one segment that was so nonsensical it will never leave the minds of those who witnessed it live. Hulk Hogan was in shambles in the build to Halloween Havoc as The Warrior continued to play his mind games. In a dressing room backstage, through the mirror, Hogan saw the spirit, or a reflection of The Warrior, staring back at him. The reflection of The Warrior laughed as Hogan was in a full-fledged panic. Eric Bischoff couldn't see The Warrior's reflection and thought Hogan was losing it.
The only issue with this segment (well, not the only issue) was that the fans could also see Warrior in the reflection. Were fans crazy like Hogan? Was Bischoff the one who was crazy? What we do know is, we all got a little dumber for watching it.
Ultimate Warrior Vs. Hulk Hogan 2 At Halloween Havoc Was Awful
The mere image of Hogan and Warrior locking up in the ring was enough to get the blood pumping. Not two minutes later, fans realized they were in store for an all-time dud. The tedious battle was clunky as hell. Both wrestlers looked painfully slow. The results, of course, were an utterly dead crowd.
In what was supposed to be a vital moment of the match, Hogan was meant to throw a fireball in the Warrior's face, but the Hulkster couldn't get the damn thing lit! When he finally sparked up the paper, it flamed out long before reaching Warrior's face. You can actually see fans in attendance laughing at the botched spot.
The match mercifully ended when Hogan pinned Warrior after a chair shot from Horace Hogan. Yes, the Ultimate Warrior versus Hulk Hogan rematch ended with interference from Horace Hogan. Let that sink in. Halloween Havoc was a far cry from the red-hot battle at WrestleMania eight years earlier.
In the short time that Warrior spent in WCW - which included three matches and a hell of a lot of smoke - he made $2 million. Naturally, many hard-working wrestlers in the locker room were upset by the pay discrepancy.
As Warrior's time in WCW concluded, the locker room morale was spiraling. WCW was left with a major black eye, and Warrior's legacy also took a massive hit. What once felt like a no-lose situation ended in complete catastrophe.
