The Ultimate Warrior was only in the WWE for a comparatively brief time, but during his run he established himself as one of the most popular wrestlers to ever hit the ring. While his matches weren’t the most technical, and he never seemed to get the hang of the whole “wrestling” part of his job, there’s no denying his matches were wonderfully fun to watch.
We’ve scoured our archives to pull out the best Ultimate Warrior matches of his career. We used an incredibly scientific rating system, namely the number of crazy Gary Busey thumbs up each match received.
#5. The Honky Tonk Man vs. Ultimate Warrior for the Intercontinental Belt – Summerslam 1988
Much like you would start any Hogan list with his legendary match against the Iron Sheik to capture the belt, we had to start with Ultimate’s match against the Honkey Tonk Man for the Intercontinental title.
This match perfectly captures what was so great about the Warrior. Prior to the start, they had teased that Honkey Tonk was going to fight a mystery opponent. The crowd wasn’t sure who they were going to get, until they heard the music.
DUHN.
DUHN. DUN DUN DUHN.
DUHN. DUN DUN DUHN.
DUNDUNDUNDUNDUNDUN
Say what you will about the Warrior, his entrance was fantastic for getting the crowd going. This match is over in 30 seconds, the Warrior runs in like a complete lunatic, does a few simple moves and gets the pin. The most entertaining part of the match is the Ref trying to get out of his way
Overall: A great introduction to the Ultimate Warrior. We gave this one 3 Gary Buseys
#4. Rick Rude vs. Ultimate Warrior for the Heavyweight Championship Belt at Summerslam 1990 – Cage Match
Rick Rude had a series of matches against the Ultimate Warrior between 1989 / 1990 that started with their meeting in Wrestlemania V and then again in SummerSlam ’89. Rick Rude was one of the few people that could make the Ultimate Warrior look like an actual wrestler. While all three of the matches are really entertaining, this one was the best.
Rude and Warrior get into it right away and spend the first 5 minutes throwing each other into the cage. Rude gets busted open almost immediately. I re-watched, but I couldn’t see the cut. The Warrior follows right after with a cut of his own.
I feel like Rick Rude was trying to prove something in this match, but I don’t know what. For example, here he is jumping off the top of the cage, which is a level of acrobatics somewhat out of character for him
Warrior unsurprisingly pulls out the win after beating up Heenan for awhile and then climbing out of the cage.
Overall: I remain very impressed by Rude’s ability to pull an actual wrestling match out of the Ultimate Warrior. We gave this one 3.5 Gary Buseys
#3. Macho Man vs. Ultimate Warrior for the Heavyweight Championship Belt at SummerSlam 1992
Heading into this match, Ultimate Warrior and Macho Man had some relationship problems they needed to work through. Although both guys were faces at the time, through a series of incredibly unlikely series of events, (all of which included unconscious referees) neither Macho Man or Ultimate Warrior trusted each other. They thought the other one hired Mr. Perfect to be in their corner.
Macho and Warrior immediately set the pace to “fucking awesome”. It’s a very aggressive, fast paced match. Not a single arm bar or chin lock. Just non stop body slams and big impact moves. Within 10 minutes both guys seem exhausted. As it continues, Macho seems to have injured his back and Warrior seems to have hurt his neck. Both guys are at the end of their energy when Mr. Perfect finally comes out and everyone is wondering which guy hired him.
Macho goes to do a move off the ropes and Mr. Perfect trips him. So now everyone thinks Perfect is in Warriors corner. Macho man is understandably upset
During the action, the ref gets knocked out and when Warrior goes for the pin, the ref doesn’t see it. When the ref groggily gets back to his feet, he gets knocked out again by Savage.
The match ends when Ric Flair hits Warrior with a chair. Savage ends up going after Flair and then Perfect and Flair beat him up for awhile and Macho Man is counted out of the ring. Warrior them chases off and then celebrates with Macho Man
Overall: A really great, high energy match with just enough ringside shenanigans to elevate it. We gave this one 4 Gary Buseys
#2. Hulk Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior for the Heavyweight Championship Belt at Wrestlemania VI
Here’s what you need to know about this match. Hogan wasn’t convinced that Warrior should get the belt and that Warrior “possessed even less wrestling ability than Hogan”. Glass houses much Hogan? Most importantly, a very young Adam Copeland was live in the Skydome to watch this unfold
This is entertaining purely on the strength of their personalities. The early match is all posturing – tests of strength, pushing, etc. They really get the crowd fired up. The match is designed to play to each of their talents. Lots of big, high impact power moves, coupled with a ton of rest holds – reverse chin locks, bear hugs, etc. Hogan’s Charisma mostly keeps this one entertaining – on the wrestling alone it’s a pretty dull match. It’s a 22 minute match and about 12 minutes are holds.
Interestingly, both men were technically “faces” at the time and the crowd started pretty evenly split between the two. While Warrior was getting his cheers, as the match progressed, the crowd was cheering louder and louder for Hogan
The match culminates with a series of near pins and no-counts after the ref was knocked out. The most surprising part is the ending where Hogan lost clean. No tricks, no cheats, no interference, just a clean pin for the Warrior
Overall: One of the all time great Wrestlemania matches and one of Warrior’s best. This one ranks 4 Gary Busey’s
#1. Macho Man vs. Ultimate Warrior – Career Match – Wrestlemania VII
The gist of this match is that both guys put their careers on the line and the loser needed to retire. I think the story is that Macho legitimately wanted to quit (or at least take some extended time off) and this was supposed to be his swan song.
This match reminds me of Hogan / Andre or Hogan / Macho. The crowd is screaming through the whole thing and the entire match has this fantastic, epic feel to it.
Closer to the end, Macho hits Warrior with five straight flying elbows and it’s fantastic.
When Warrior kicks out you basically can’t hear anything, the crowd is screaming so loud. It’s easily equivalent to Hogan slamming Andre in terms of crowd reaction.
The ending is a bit odd – Warrior looks like he’s going to quit because he can’t seem to pin Macho, but then he changes his mind (for no apparent reason) and hits him with three shoulder blocks and pins him with one foot.
What makes this match especially memorable are the events after it’s over. Queen Sherri (who was in Macho’s corner) starts attacking him and who should come to his defense? Elizabeth!!! The crowd collectively looses their minds as Macho and Elizabeth are reunited, the culmination of one of the greatest storylines in WWE history.
Overall: Easily one of the top 3 Wrestlemania matches of all time, easily Warriors best match and easily worthy of 10 crazy Gary Buseys
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