They Were First Dubbed The Freedom Fighters
A keen bodybuilder before turning his eye to the squared circle, The Ultimate Warrior partnered with Steve Borden, who oozed success in WCW as Sting. Together, they competed under two aliases: The Freedom Fighters as Justice and Flash, respectively, and as Blade Runner Rock and Blade Runner Sting in The Blade Runners.
In his 2011 autobiography, The Road Warriors: Danger, Death, and The Rush of Wrestling, Road Warrior Animal wrote that ‘Cowboy’ Bill Watts, the proprietor of the Universal Wrestling Federation where Warrior and Sting started their careers, blatantly ripped off Animal and Hawk’s likeness to create a Road Warriors parody.
The Ultimate Warrior Defeated Hulk Hogan In A WrestleMania Main Event
No Other Wrestler Achieved The Feat
With eight WrestleMania main events to his name – all but two of which were contested for the WWE Championship – Hulk Hogan was, for a time, the original ‘Mr WrestleMania’. Given Hogan’s near-perfect win-loss record under the pen of Vince McMahon, it will come as no surprise that ‘The Hulkster’ won all bar one of his ‘Mania headliners, his sole loss coming vs. The Ultimate Warrior in 1990.
Dubbed ‘The Ultimate Challenge’, Warrior felled Hogan to become WWE Champion at the crux of WrestleMania 6, with his Intercontinental Championship also being defended in what was also Hulk’s longest WrestleMania main event.
The Ultimate Warrior Was Short, But Packed A Punch
He Barely Cracked Six Feet Fall
Despite his hulking physique and impactful repertoire, The Ultimate Warrior was surprisingly short for what may be classed as the ideal Vince McMahon wrestler.
He stood at just six feet two inches, though he made up for his smaller stature with a billed weight of 280 pounds.
