10 Things About The Ultimate Warrior's Career That Made No Sense

One of the great icons of early 1990s professional wrestling -- especially for kids who grew up in that era -- The Ultimate Warrior debuted in 1985 as a tag team specialist alongside the future Sting, in teams like The Freedom Fighters and The Blade Runners. However, he’d head out on his own in World Class Championship Wrestling as The Dingo Warrior before signing to WWE and evolving into his most famous form.

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Despite his popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s, The Ultimate Warrior is a figure of controversy for many fans, as he had a tumultuous relationship with WWE, and some consider him to be a poor wrestler. There’s a lot about Warrior’s career that doesn’t make sense, so let’s take a look at 10 of those things.

10 His Promos

While fans may debate Ultimate Warrior’s worth as an in-ring competitor, if there’s one undeniable thing about him, it’s how completely insane his promos were. They were almost always completely stream of consciousness, with bizarre mythological trappings and Warrior basically stating that he was a being from another world.

Given how much control WWE has over presentation of wrestlers -- especially these days where promos are heavily scripted -- it’s downright shocking how much The Ultimate Warrior was allowed to seemingly just say whatever.

9 Beating Hogan Clean

For the better part of the 1980s, Hulk Hogan was the World Champion of WWE and the face not only of WWE, but wrestling as a whole. But by the end of the decade Ultimate Warrior was a rising star, a two-time IC Champ who was ready for the main event.

Normally any wrestling company would book the heroic Warrior against a heel for the top title, but WWE broke tradition by having Ultimate Warrior take on Hulk Hogan in a Winner-Take-All match for both the Intercontinental and WWE Championships. If that wasn't enough, The Ultimate Warrior beat Hulk Hogan clean, which was unheard of for a huge babyface star.

8 His Unfinished Storyline With Jake Roberts

After a near-death experience at the hands of The Undertaker, The Ultimate Warrior sought guidance from Jake “The Snake” Roberts, a villain-turned-face who knew a thing or two about the darkness lurking within. As a result, Roberts subjected Warrior to a series of traumatic “tests,” including being buried alive and being bitten by snakes, ultimately turning heel and siding with ‘Taker.

RELATED: The 10 Worst Things Jake "The Snake" Roberts Ever Did (In Wrestling)

It was great stuff, but wouldn’t ever amount to anything because Warrior would be fired by the company in 1991, leaving the storyline dangling.

7 His Third WWE Run

After a failed return for seven months or so in 1992 to fill in the power vacuum left by Hulk Hogan’s imminent departure, The Ultimate Warrior made a third return to WWE in 1996, where he’d infamously squash Triple H at WrestleMania XII.

This run would last even shorter at four months, and some fans view it as an attempt to bring more star power to the company, which was in a rough patch thanks to competition from WCW. But the return of a cartoonish star from the early ‘90s wasn’t exactly the best move in the mid-to-late ‘90s, and yet another backstage dispute would result in Warrior’s departure.

6 His WCW Run

At its apex, WCW had a lot of money to blow, and thus blew a lot of it to sign The Ultimate Warrior, now simply called Warrior, to feud with the now-heel Hollywood Hogan and his nWo stable.

Despite WCW’s usual approach to realistic storylines, this one had Warrior displaying magical powers to terrorize Hogan and his goons. One of the baffling lowlights of this storyline had Warrior magically appearing in a mirror in front of Hogan, an image the other characters in the scene couldn’t see -- but the camera could.

5 Halloween Havoc ‘98

Warrior’s feud with Hogan would culminate at Halloween Havoc ‘98 in a big singles match that took place second-to-last on the card, before the World Title match. The result would be considered one of the worst matches of all time, a poorly worked match that would end with Hogan getting a win thanks to his nephew Horace bashing Warrior with a chair.

What’s worse is that many fans believe that the only reason that Warrior’s WCW run even happened was so Hogan could get his win back from WrestleMania VI.

4 His Actual Last Appearance for WCW

Despite his devastating loss to Hollywood Hogan at Halloween Havoc, Warrior actually made one final appearance for WCW. During his feud with Hogan, Warrior ended up abducting The Disciple, indoctrinating the former Brutus Beefcake into the ways of the One Warrior Nation and turning him against the nWo.

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Two weeks after the pay-per-view, the nWo attacked their former compatriot, with Warrior intervening to rescue The Disciple. The segment should have led somewhere, but Warrior was never seen again in the company.

3 Burial Via DVD

Despite Warrior’s early stardom, his tumultuous relationship with WWE prompted the company to release a DVD in 2005 titled The Self-Destruction of The Ultimate Warrior. While the disc features a handful of his classic matches, the centerpiece was a documentary seemingly dedicated to portraying Warrior in a negative light, laying bare the backstage disputes resulting in several departures from WWE, not to mention colleagues trashing his in-ring skills and wrestlers doing impressions of him.

Considering the ever-growing nostalgia for the “Golden Era” at the time, it’s wild that WWE went as far as producing a widely distributed DVD dedicated to trashing one of its stars.

2 The Build To His Final Match

While one might assume that Warrior wrestled all over the indie circuit following his disappearance from WCW, he actually didn’t compete for nearly an entire decade. While making an appearance for the now-defunct European promotion New Wrestling Entertainment to receive a lifetime achievement award, he entered a feud with former WWE star Orlando Jordan, who was NWE’s World Champion.

This may come as a surprise to many fans, as Warrior had drawn controversy for his comments on same-sex relationships, and Jordan was openly bisexual.

1 His Final Match

Ultimate Warrior’s challenge to Orlando Jordan would come to fruition in June of 2008 at a big NWE show in Barcelona. Rather than a quick squash for one last rush of adulation, Warrior ended up wrestling a near-18-minute match against Jordan, during which Jordan kisses Warrior who -- shockingly -- responds in kind.

The match ended bafflingly, with 49-year-old Warrior defeating the younger Jordan with a shoulder tackle rather than his signature Running Splash to win the NWE World Heavyweight Championship. However, Warrior cut a goodbye promo after the match, putting over his opponent and vacating the title.

NEXT: 5 Things From WWE's Golden Era That Have Aged Well (& 5 That Haven't)