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James Brian Hellwig (born 16 June 1962), is an American professional wrestler known by many as The Ultimate Warrior, who legally changed his name to Warrior in 1991.
As a WWF superstar from the mid-80's to the early 90's, the Ultimate Warrior was known for his high-energy and high-risk wrestling style, and his "Gorilla Press Slam," in which he would lift his opponent over his head like a barbell, and then drop him to the mat face-first.
Before his WWF career, Jim Hellwig was "Justice" Hellwig of Power Team USA, a group of bodybuilders that Red Bastien and Rick Bassman formed in 1985, but the gimmick went under when they discovered that none of the team had wrestling potential. Of the four members of Power Team USA, only Hellwig and Steve "Flash" Borden had subsequent wrestling careers (Borden went on to become WCW's Sting). They even formed a tag team called "The Blade Runners" when they wrestled in independent federations, but the group ended and Hellwig became "the Dingo Warrior" for a brief period before he got the "Ultimate Warrior" gimmick.
Warrior temporarily left the WWF in 1991 after they took him out of the running for the World Title, and upon returning, received creative control over his bookings. Many fans may remember the Papa Shango angle, in which the "witch doctor" cast a spell over Warrior, causing him to convulse and vomit.
In 1992, Warrior temporarily left the WWF again, rather than engage in a potentially long-running feud with Nailz(in which Warrior wanted to be in the WWF Title hunt at that time instead), and then returned briefly in 1996, squashing future WWF-E Champion Jean-Paul 'Triple H' Levesque in 1:38 at WrestleMania XII in Anaheim, California.(Triple H only refers to his match against Warrior as 'not my best event', and has never talked much about Warrior himself.). WWF later terminated his contract, claiming that he wasn't pulling his weight, while Warrior claimed he took some time off to grieve the death of his father.
WCW picked him up and gave him creative control over his matches, considered by some to be a foolish move. He created an angle where he formed a stable opposing Hulk Hogan's "New World Order": the "One Warrior Nation." Highlights of the unpopular angle included Warrior "converting" the Disciple, frequent instances of "magic smoke" knocking out all of the nWo members except for Hogan (and covering Warrior's movement through a trapdoor in the ring), and backstage "apparitions" that only Hogan could see. Despite a terrible match at Halloween Havoc, WCW thought they could salvage the angle, but an arm injury sidelined Warrior, and WCW let his contract expire.
Due to his apparent obsession with the Warrior gimmick, most people (including many fans) consider him "dropped on his head too many times."
Warrior officially retired in 1998, and now runs a youth center called Warrior University. He has also made speeches and commentaries denouncing left-wing politics.
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