Credit: WGDWeekly
Diamond Dallas Page, Kevin Sullivan and many more recently spoke
about the passing of Warrior. Here are some
highlights…
DDP: “…On his first day in WCW, when he
came to the arena, at some point, he had someone grab me and Goldberg and
brought us to meet him. He wanted to meet us…so, we go over to his locker room,
and he gives us a big hug and he says, ‘guys, I just want you to know, I’ve been
watching, and I’m loving your energy and you two guys are the reason why I want
to get back in the ring.’ So, for me, I don’t know about Bill, but for me,
that’s a pretty big deal…that was pretty cool, and if you followed all the way
through, when I was the driver ( at WrestleMania 6), Diamond Dallas Page,
chauffeur, I hadn’t even made it to WCW as a manager yet…I’m there when he is
going for the World title against Hogan, and then the match that he ends up
going against Hogan again at Halloween Havoc, I’m going for the World title
against Goldberg, it was pretty crazy…then I saw Jim again, last year at
WrestleCon…and he just started talking about me doing gods work, with Jake and
Scott and he talked about it for a while, it was very cool. So, then his
induction speech, my god, when he slid in DDP Yoga… I was sitting with Kimberly,
my ex wife and my girlfriend…and he said it like three or four times…Jim ain’t
doing that unless he is busting your chops…it just made me feel so good. I was
actually bummed out because I couldn’t find him after, I was looking for him,
and I actually got his number, and I was going to call him yesterday and thank
him for doing that! but I never got the opportunity to do that. So, that memory
will stay with me for a while…as hard as it it is on the family and his poor
little girls, at least their dad, whatever the hurt and the pain was with WWE,
at least pain was, with the WWE, at least he got to go out the way he should go
out. Because when he said that last DVD was wrong, he is right, I couldn’t even
watch it…when you get the reaction he got eighteen years later, for him to have
that kind of impact, on people, you know, WWE did the right thing…I’m just glad
that if the Warrior was going to be taken to the next level, whatever that is,
that his time here, that things I won’t say mixed, but were justified…he will be
remembered fondly, as he should be…”
Kevin Sullivan:
“…I knew him before he was in the wrestling business. I knew him when I was
bodybuilding and he was Mr. Georgia…I watched him perform, he electrified the
crowd…He was up in the WWF the next thing I knew and he was getting a huge
reaction…Vince McMahon promoted the Warrior right behind Hulk and they ended up
drawing a huge gate for WrestleMania…baby face versus baby face and it drew
huge…All these people that knock the Warrior’s work…well people who knock guys
work have never put on a pair of tights. Not all of us could work like Ric
Flair, or Shawn Michaels, or Ray Stevens or guys of that caliber, but the
Warrior did something that people don’t understand. He put asses every eighteen
inches. He had to be over to sell out and the Warrior sold places out, time and
time again…He was a great performer and an icon in this business…He will remain
an icon in this business fifty years from now when people Google his name, or
whatever they got then, there will be a picture of the Ultimate Warrior. The sad
thing is his family isn’t going to grow old with him…when I saw his children and
him walk on that stage, that really upset me, because I know how hard it must be
to grow up without a father. He must’ve been a great human being because you
could look at those kids and see that they were loved, you could look at his
wife and see that she was loved. You could look at him and see that he was loved
by them. So, it’s a sad day in the wrestling business, and it’s a sad day for
his family…all I can say is I hope everything works well for his family, because
they were loved, and I hope the Warrior will rest in peace…”
Ken
Shamrock: “…I was impressed with his physique and his character…I
remember shaking his hand and talking to him, just a really nice guy. He didn’t
really talk a whole lot, but when he did, he only had kind things to say to
me…once I got to talking to him, wow, what a tremendous person, and a tremendous
work ethic for him to achieve what he achieved in the style that he did it in.
He was always in shape, he always looked good, and wow, what a loss. People
always talk about when someone passes away, we always think about them, but if
there is one thing that I think we need to understand! it’s that they have moved
on and we are the ones left here on earth to sort through the pain and hurt. So,
I think that our prayers and our thoughts need to go out to the family and
friends to help them through these times, because, when we move on, we move on
to something better. So, god bless to the people who are still around and are
trying to fight through their loss still. God bless them, and
Godspeed…”
Bill Apter: “…One of the most catastrophic
moments in the universe, is what has happened to the Ultimate Warrior, on what
was probably one of the greatest weekends of his life. But, we want to remember
the good times, and people ask me, what is it that you remember most about the
Ultimate Warrior. It wasn’t really anything that he did in the ring. It was this
past weekend, when he became the ultimate Warrior again and he got back in
character on Monday Night Raw and also the awesome speech that he made where he
made peace with himself and everyone else and showed how much his family meant
to him. That was the quality behind the Ultimate a Warrior. Man, they must be
having a heck of a battle royal, welcoming him into heaven, with “Ravishing
“Rick Rude and Curt Hennig and all those guys…”
JJ
Dillon: “…There are outsiders often who look and who are critical of
people, who aren’t maybe the best technicians in the ring. They seem to be
critical of them as though that’s the most important thing, and I am not in
judgement of how great he was in the ring in the course of a match, but I can
tell you, that when the music hit and he came through that curtain like a
freight train, huffing and puffing, and running to the ring, and shaking the
ropes, he electrified a crowd. It wasn’t like it was a phenomenon that lasted
just one or two times, like a lot of things in life that are successful, there
is a test of time involved and he consistently really was a superstar in our
profession…at the end of the day, you have to look at what he accomplished and
what he meant to the business and I for one know the feeling of someone who
loved the business, who was grateful for how kind the business was to me and
then to receive the acknowledgement of being inducted into the WWE Hall of
Fame….it really is very, very gratifying, and I know it had to be for Warrior at
this stage with all that has happened…I went to bed, not knowing the news, and
traditionally, when I get up in the morning! the first thing I do is turn on my
computer and I saw it just full screen, the Ultimate Warrior has died, and I
gasped, I’m sitting there alone, just collecting my thoughts, and I see fifty
four years old…it causes you to think about your own mortality, if only for that
instant. I guess you have to look at the positive side, which is what I try to
do, in that he had the same experience I had in that he went to the Hall of Fame
ceremony, got the approval of everybody in the business. He got the chance to
meet one on one with people who he may have had issues from in the past and as
they say, the hatchet was buried with a lot of these people, including Vince
McMahon and the WWE. Then the next day, to be introduced at WrestleMania, the
event itself, and he got an individual introduction and came out and again, the
response from the crowd. Again, I watched Monday, when he came out on Raw and I
had not seen him in seven years…I went to one of these small wrestling
conventions in New Jersey…I hadn’t seen him in a while and there was just a line
of people out the door, to see him and have that moment with him…I didn’t want
to leave without stopping by and saying hello to him, because he was somebody
who I did respect and did admire. he saw me and as always was very gracious. He
paused everything for a moment and had me come around the table and gave me a
big hug. We had a limited few seconds together to say hello…I am happy for that
moment and it’s hard to believe seven years have passed. I saw him when he
walked out on Raw…it’s good that he had a chance to get in front of a live
audience and say what was in his heart and much the way I feel is that the final
comment that he made. He pointed out in all directions of the audience and
thanked the fans because basically without them, there would’ve been no Warrior.
So it was good that he gets the recognition to be in the Hall of Fame, he had a
chance to put to rest a lot of feelings that maybe festered for a long time that
shouldn’t have still been there…he got the chance to get in front of the people
and say thank you and then the next day, I just really feel sad for his widow
and his two daughters that walked out with him when he was introduced. It’s just
hard to put into words, it is just very, very sad…”
