Bruce Prichard shoots on why Ultimate Warrior didn't draw well as champion 

"I don't know what he's looking at, but this is the drizzling fucking shits!" I have listened to this part on repeat at least 30 times and it keeps getting better. I'm dying.

I'm hypnotized by the beer.

Conrad “Meltzer’s gonna freestyle here” Thompson

He's good with impressions Bruce is spot on!!!

I was a Warrior fan as a kid and him beating Hogan was a great moment, but once the wild unstoppable force gets to the top there isn’t really anywhere else to go. Hogan was a giant muscle bound freak but he still found a way to make his opponents seem like dangerous monsters and serious threats. It created drama even though everyone knew Hulk would win in the end. Warrior on the other hand didn’t have any great intimidating opponents so it seemed like the champion was punching down. They put him with Rude again because he was so damn good that he could actually make the Warrior seem competent in the ring. But there was still no chance of him winning.

I just love Bruce's Dusty Rhodes impersonation.. I wish Conrad to an omnibus of Bruce impersonation.

Having him destroy the entire heel roster before winning the WWF Championship didn't help.

Imo they were having warrior wrestle the same opponents again and again which becomes repetitive.

Warrior was misused. The Rick Rude feud had already been done, and Warrior was treated like a tag team wrestler going into Survivor Series. Meanwhile Hulk is battling the monster heel of the time, Earthquake. A 5 year old can accurately predict which of those will sell more tickets.

Anything to dis warrior, it was Bobby heenan who actually said warrior is selling more merch than hogan

This comment section is deeply reassuring for the future of mankind's capacity to think. Bruce is blatantly and demonstrably bullshitting to cover for the company's failings, and it's heartening to see most people can spot his spin from space.

Hogan connected with fans on a personal level to the point to where fans wanted to pay to go see him specifically. Warrior was a shot of adrenaline and in the moment while you were already in the seat. So both got loud cheers but the reason for the cheers was different.

They put Warrior as the 6th wheel in the LOD vs Demolition feud and it felt like his addition was an afterthought. He was put with Rude, whom he had already beaten many times by then. It just didn't feel like the company revolved around him the way it did around Hogan or even Macho when he main evented Wrestlemania with Dibiase.

Warrior and Savage headlined Mania 7 and 30 years later every old school fan knows that.

The Ultimate Warrior had no angle after defeating Hogan for at least a month or so, then they fed him Rick Rude again. Rude definitely worked his ass off against the Warrior but it was a case of been there, done that from the fans perspective. I believe Conrad mentioned it before, but having Mr Perfect beat Brutus Beefcake at Wrestlemania VI allowing him to maintain his perfect record would've been a proper set up for a fresh feud of Warrior & Perfect (title vs undefeated streak). Would that have prevented the numbers from going down? Probably not, but at least nobody could say it was a result of repetitive booking.

STUNNING to hear Warrior didnt draw well (?) with the title. I LOVED him! Bought all his stuff. Including the foam "hand". Anyone remember that? :-)

I would love a call from Vince saying in the Vince voice.... "Congratulations pal, you drew the worst house in history"....That be a a career defining moment.

Didn't draw ? Fuck we all loved him here in Australia. Warrior was a lunatic of pure intensity. Loved it

That dusty and savage impression was legendary and funny as shit

I remember when warrior was champion as a kid I went to the shows to see him and it was always packed !!!

Why didn't Warrior draw well as champion? This is an interesting question to me because I was a middle-schooler in my prime wrasslin'-watching years when this was going on and I remember having thoughts on this even then. But here's my two cents' worth in retrospect: (1) By the time they gave Warrior the belt, he had been the Intercontinental champion for quite awhile and I think a lot of people just came to see him as that and couldn't get it out of their heads. One example: when Warrior did eventually lose the main belt, I remember a buddy of mine telling me "I think he was better as the Intercontinental champion" and I agreed. (2) There was really no "story" behind the Warrior and/or characteristics about him that people could relate to on any kind of pragmatic level. Not really, anyway. He was basically a jacked, adrenaline-laced wildman who sprinted into the ring, shook the ropes, etc. and whose microphone skills were famously lacking (he would generally just ramble on about random things that didn't really mean anything to anyone). And don't get me wrong; he was obviously IMMENSELY popular so no one could say he wasn't doing something right. I'm just saying that I'm not sure what he brought to the table was ever going to bode well for him as "the" guy. But with Hogan, on the other hand, you had the classic all-American boy (there's the relatability part), great mic skills involving messages of "saying your prayers and taking your vitamins" (there's the pragmatic part), etc. Again, just my two cents' worth on an interesting topic.

No one drew well as champion in that time frame, but because Bruce has a bias against the Warrior (not saying it is justified or unjustified but just pointing out that it is there) he loves to hang this albatross around the Warrior's neck. Wrestling in-general for EVERYBODY started to take a downturn in 1990. The 80's gravy-train had derailed by this time. When Hogan got the title back at Wrestlemania VII, numbers didn't go up. They continued to decrease. Every time they throw shade at the Warrior I'll keep bringing this up. Anytime you can have 'The Immortal' Hulk Hogan vs 'Nature Boy' Ric Flair in f'n MADISON SQUARE GARDEN and it *DOESN'T* sell-out, you have a serious-problem. If Warrior was such a terrible-draw, why was he brought back in 1992 after being fired after SummerSlam '91? Why was he in the main-event at SummerSlam '92? Warrior, Hogan, Flair, nor Savage drew well in that time. Think about what I just said here. THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR HULK HOGAN 'NATURE BOY' RIC FLAIR 'MACHO MAN' RANDY SAVAGE These are four of the greatest of ALL-TIME and yet during this time each had a run with the belt and business steadily-declined...........yet the Warrior gets blamed for it. At some point you have to learn to deprogram-yourself and learn to _think_ for yourself folks.

I would love to see someone's list of the top ten most imitated wrestling voices. Bruce's Dusty and Randy are very good... and those voices are done by many people.

I think the Ultimate Warrior or even Hogan is a perfect example of when the higher-ups put merchandising over the wrestler. But those were damn good times I will admit.

Still talking about him Hopefully I create an impact this powerful

When someone as out of touch as Bruce Pritchard says something, I remember why I turned off my Tivo recordings of Raw and SD.

Omg ...his impressions are spot on.....Dusty impression is indistinguishable from the real thing. And Randy impression is a classic.

They should have done Hogan Warrior 2 at Wrestlemania 7 that would have been awesome.

There were several reasons. 1. The Ultimate Warrior beat a popular babyface and not a heel 2. The industry was down as a whole 3. There was a recession. This was the last time a sitting US president lost reelection. 4. They gave the Ultimate Warrior, the WWF Champion, no feud. His first match on PPV as champion was against Rick Rude, a guy he beat in a blow off match 1 year prior and who hadn't had any feud since that time. No one was interested in a rehash of a feud the Ultimate Warrior had already won. 5. They gave Hulk Hogan the major WWF feud against the top heel -- Earthquake. He even got the injury angle. That should have been the Ultimate Warrior's feud and injury angle. 6. Suburban Commando got bad reviews and flopped. That pretty much closed the door on Hogan's movie review and he was now available to be a full time wrestler again so he lobbied to get the belt back.

I think one thing that might've shot Ultimate Warrior in the foot in his presentation was how they tried to have Warrior doing a "Hulk Up" just like Hulk Hogan did. Looking back at that I always thought they were trying to make Warrior basically a rip-off of Hogan rather than allowing him to continue to be a unique entity.

I will always say I loved Hogan and I loved Warrior... but when warrior won.. as a kid i felt the wrong guy won... and i never knew why.... guess i was always a hulkamaniac

Conrad's "Learn a new word a day from the thesaurus" is: Freestyle. 😉

Wasn’t the US in a recession at this point? Families didn’t have the disposable income to go to events or buy pay per views?

There was definitely a lack of booking paired with kind of a limited amount of places they could go with Warrior. People had suggested putting him with Earthquake, instead of Hogan, but from what I have seen with Warrior, he didn't really like to sell for anybody. Hogan was about the comeback. He could do injury angles and then come back as the sympathetic hero or let the monster heel beat him down for the majority of the match then do the superhero comeback at the end. Warrior seemed to like steamrolling through guys, which made his list of challengers, kind of small. The Rude feud when he was world champ in 1990 kind of went on for way too long and lacked any real meat to it beyond Rude being able to say he was the only guy to beat Warrior. There was never any real reason to think he would do it again or care if he did. If you look at all the top matches at Summer Slam, it was one of the longest built but had no real build to it as. By comparison, Demolition and Hart Foundation had gone on from the road into WrestleMania and had incorporated a Demolition heel turn, added third member, beatdown ambush on the Harts, and the added storyline aspect of the LOD arriving in the company. It was a feud that came naturally of the last one Demolition was in and built up into a strong segue into the feud they were going to be in after. Oddly, enough they ended up putting Warrior into THAT feud in the fall as a third guy joining forces with Legion of Doom on house shows, Saturday Night's Main Event, and Survivor Series. As champ, it was a little odd that they had nothing else for him to do. They really didn't give him any feuds with meat to them until Savage and he really didn't go the vulnerable route until they put him with Taker and had him tossed into that coffin.

Prichard is good at doing impersonations. I loved his impersonation of Roddy Piper at Wrestlemania 5.

Vince panicked and as mentioned no one was going to draw like Hogan. Hogan perfected the baby face persona. Warrior was never going to work long term due to his personality and stubbornness, and attitude. You have to play ball to be the figure head of the company. Warrior just didn’t have the personality to do all the outside the ring stuff Hogan was great at. The Warrior made a shit ton of money for the WWE and still does. A lot of things wrong and flawed in regards to the Warrior. However His drawing power was not one of those

Bruce's Dusty impersonation is on point!!! 😂

He still draws better than anyone today

I think the reason why he didn't draw as much as he did is because when he was the champion he fought against people he's already beaten. And he's also fought against people Hulk Hogan already beaten. With the exception of Sergeant Slaughter at that point. Warrior could have been great if Hogan was a heel and they had a program. But I don't think Vince or Hogan went with that. But I'm just speculating.

Is bruce gonna shoot on why he can't write a competent show

How hypnotic is that lager tap and hotdog

I was at 1 of those spot shown in Methuen MA in 88 or 89 . .. They were at the Boston Garden that same Saturday night...

Warrior was just there to make a big pop, a one time spectacular and that was what he was

Saying Ultimate Warrior didn't draw well as champion because he didn't draw like Hulk Hogan is basically saying he drew better than everyone else at the time. It's like saying LeBron James is no Michael Jordan, but you're admitting he's better than every other player basically.

Man that is probably the best Dusty impersonation yet! That was great

Take a shot everytime Conrad says "freestyling."

So if he didn’t draw as much as Hogan it’s a failure? I’m pretty sure he drew more than Bret and Shawn

Credibility challenge: Can Conrad produce ONE podcast without mentioning Dave Meltzer?

12:10 OMG had a tears in my eyes lol when Randy spoke later and Vince too😆👀

Also, theaters used to sell tickets for ppv. That's how I saw ultimate warrior vs hulk. That ended when ppv became an at home theater and we didn't have to buy tickets

The Warrior worked as the the underdog, outsider figure, WWE didn't master how to use that with their main guy until Stone Cold

The Ultimate Warrior (aka James Hellwig) was mostly a visual character in the same vein as a comic book superhero, and was very limited from a verbal standpoint, and also from an in-ring skill standpoint. As a result, it would be difficult to sell any kind of long-term angle given those limitations, so high-energy, quick squash matches were the ideal type of booking for his particular character and look. And squash matches can only get so much mileage with the fans, and only so much buy-in from all the other in-ring talent on the roster. On top of all that, he wasn't an easy guy to deal with business or personality-wise, either. That said, however, he was a phenomenal character and his entrance theme music is still the best ever for any character in my opinion. A long term rivalry between the Warrior and the Undertaker would have been interesting to see evolve over time, as someone of Undertaker's maturity, professionalism and business sense, could have potentially been leveraged to great success between those two bigger-than-life characters.

The WWF ( At the time ) Totally botched Warriors run. Now, Warrior didn’t do himself any favors with his every swelling ego. But, Andre, The Million Dollar Man ( Japan Tour Title Defense ) Rude, Slaughter... He mowed through heel after heel prior to defeating Hogan. WWF totally botched his booking after winning the Title.

Warrior should have faced Randy Savage at Summerslam ...Than Sgt . Slaughter after words ...

Who was heading up the C shows / 3rd shows?

A flop would’ve been hogan winning at wrestlemania six. He was a huge draw but it gets boring when the belt is on the same person for a long time. I liked that warrior had a chance to shine even though it was for less than a year

Conrad looking older than Bruce these days

Warrior was a perfect character for kids, because of the bright colors, the music and the general craziness. BUT there wasn't much to connect with from a personality perspective, and the gimmick never really evolved. If anything, his opponents would have to change their character a little bit just to work an angle with him so he could do his stuff. Hogan's hero booking was much different as he was always positioned to lose, but somehow won. Warrior's character was more of a Tazmanian Devil where you never thought he could lose and they didn't often put him in a position where you thought that it was even 50/50. If you book Warrior to struggle against an opponent, it took away what was special about him -- being a buzz saw. Goldberg had the same image, if you make him struggle, the flaws begin to appear. It was fun, but it would never be able to carry the entire company for longer than the run he had. Really the only thing (from a writing perspective) that would have extended Warriors career would have been a year long heel turn where he plows through babyfaces, almost wins the title and then flips back to a face.

It makes you wonder on days where this example with Dusty Rhodes out Drew Hogan at Madison Square Garden, if there was something going on other than wrestling. Maybe a World Series game at Yankee Stadium or two baseball games going on with the Mets and the Yankees or two NFL game possibly or Knicks

I remember Warrior & Kerry Von Erich vs. Rick Rude & Mr. Perfect coming to MN for a house show. And Mr. Perfect & Rick Rude (being from here) did a promo for that house show that mentioned Minnesota by name. It was great.

Never liked the Ultimate Warrior as much as the rest of the champions. Even as a young kid, something felt like it was missing, Hogan was just more relatable. Warrior seemed to be totally unaware oh how cartoonish he actually was. All spectacle no substance.

The impressions that start around the 13 min mark fuckin kill me!!LMFAO!!!

I was only four years old in 1990 but was already a die-hard fan, primarily of the great heels like the great Rick Martel and Rick Rude, as well as Randy Savage who hadn't gone back to being a face just yet. My faces were Hulk, Sting, the Road Warriors, and My biggest of all was of Ricky Steamboat. I know he had that run with Flair in '89 but it was simply not long enough for my young eyes. Martel was over big-time in '89-'90 as the Model. You can't tell me that he wouldn't have made a better IC champ then Kerry von Erich and the by then HWChamp Warrior. I know Rick had just gotten into his new real-estate venture but I bet if Vince had went to him with a proposition to make him the IC champ, the 2nd most important title at the time for awhile as well as a significant pay raise for awhile that he would've denied the opportunity. The Ultimate Warrior, even to my young eyes was lame. Does anybody else agree with me here?

To be fair to Warrior immediately after WM 6 they put him back in with Rude. In 1989 they shoved these matches down our throats WM5, Summerslam 89 and Saturday Night's Main Even and on the house shows where no wanted to see this match again as everyone was sick of it. Right before WM 6 they should have planted the seeds for a new Warrior feud such as Dibiase, Perfect, Bad News Brown, maybe even Rick Martel.

Hogan didn't leave right after Wrestlemania 6 (which was on April 1, 1990) as he wrestled Mr. Perfect in late April and wrestled the Earthquake in May before Earthquake kayfabe injured him. Hogan was really only gone for two months.

I think Hogan was pushed so hard in the 80s that there was nobody that could have wrestled The Warrior to make it a believable Feud With any other wrestler..

As someone who watched it all back then I’d say Hogan was done in 1992. That’s why Bret Hart was a good idea to be the champion. It was a really good breath of fresh air.

oh please Warrior was just as big as Hogan and their match together proved it. It was just after his title win, he was fed people he had already faced. There was no buildup in anticipation or obstacles to overcome whereas Hogan literally had every heel on the roster fed to him like a machine. It was almost impossible for Hogan to fail. So by the time they get to Warrior, it's like if you can't beat Hogan's leftovers, how are you champ after beating Hogan? Ugh.

Both companies loved their angles that got old quick in that era. WCW loved the DQ/CO to save Flair which frustrated fans & VInce loved the "Hogan must pose" angle crushing every heel. Their was nothing else but those main event finishes & fans just finally quit paying to see the same endings

Another thing I’ve seen other people point out, is that with Warrior he didn’t really face down anyone Hogan didn’t already beat. Yes, they had Rick Rude cut his hair, and start training but Warrior already had more wins over Rude than losses, so no one saw him as a legitimate threat. I almost wonder if in the months leading to Mania VI, they would’ve been better off building up several heels, but keeping them away from Hogan.

I was there

I really want big soft pretzels and deli mustard...

Ha ha impressions are on point Miss those guys

I call bullshit. In 1990, Warrior toys were by far the most popular, so was his wrestling buddy, he was the character EVERYONE went for in both WWF Wrestlefest and Wrestlemania Challenge on NES. Warrior in the minds of the fans who were mostly kids was the guy. Now did he draw as much as Hogan. No primarily because of bookings and push factor. Plus he quit in 91 and then again in 92. Had he been booked like Hogan to squash monsters and such of course he would have been a huge draw but he didn’t get those opportunities, Ric Rude then Macho Man non title and I think some tags was all he got after his title win in 90.

Funny thing was Warrior couldn't draw in 1990 but keep in mind in 1988 with Randy Savage as champion he could draw big as he always sold out MSG, Boston Garden and all the rest of the house shows. With him as a face and as the champion he was so over. Myself and others thought they should have kept the belt on him for at least 4 years as by 1988 people were sick of Hogan as he peaked at WM 3.

I think Warrior was perfect for the time given his look. He might not have been the greatest technical wrestler but Hogan wasn't exactly Lance Storm either. As bad as his promos were in terms of making sense we still talk about them nearly 40 years later. I mean who here can tell me one memorable thing Don Muraco said in a promo? And I'm a fan of his but just using him as an example.

One big issue with that era is they rarely did face vs face or heel vs heel so the amount of talent to go vs warrior was limited with the heels and people saw that already when he steamed rolled through the entire heel roster so people grew bored easily

The Oktoberfest segments reminded me of the next town over from where I live Frankenmuth MI...hate that place. If I remember correctly the main event was Warrior & L.O.D. vs Demolition which as a 5th grader I thought was AWESOME!

The impersonations were on point.

About testing the mainstream- I’m a sucker for mainstream shit and I always hated Hogan. Long live the Macho King.

Conrad's podcast starting off with a Klondike bar commercial!

& Randy Savage & Bret Hart both put forward amazing runs as champion. The rest were so so

The problem with warrior was he could only wrestle one type of match. It was the same with hogan but he could have many different stories and he had a different type of charisma. Savage could work many different matche types had the charisma but needed a partner to dance with. When savage had the right opponents he was THE BEST hands down.

Conrad definitely has a new favorite word!

Isn’t it a coincidence that Sting and Warrior both won their titles in 1990 and both lost their titles in January of 1991 after both underdelivered? I remember seeing the top stars in both companies and were both face paint wearing babyface. It was too similar. Neither had super strong contenders

Hogan was so much bigger than everyone else that I never thought about how Vince was positioning Warrior to take over when I was a kid. No one was going to take over for Hogan. I didn't even like him that much, but even my grandma knew who he was and could siing his theme song.

By 1990, Hogan had been WWF Champion for 5 out of 6 years (1984-1990) so it's not as if the WWF had any sort of experience on how to push anyone BUT Hogan as champion. Warrior was there to see how the WWF booked the ONE guy who got the top spot (Savage 88-89) other than Hogan and Savage was basically holding the title for another Hogan WrestleMania moment. It should also be pointed that, unlike Hogan and Savage, Warrior actually defended the WWF title on PPV. Warrior defended the title at SummerSlam 1990 and Royal Rumble 1991, which Hogan and Savage never did. Hogan and Savage were always in tag matches at SummerSlam or competed in the Rumble itself. Meaning that Warrior didn't have the luxury of hiding behind a stacked PPV tag team match, which is ironic because if he was so bad in the ring, then Warrior would be the perfect candidate for a tag match in order to hide the lack of in-ring skills.

“How can I miss you when you won’t go away?” definitely rings true in Hogan’s case here. He should have taken six months to a year off after dropping the belt to Warrior, instead he stuck around and his continued presence seemed to undermine Warrior’s claim on being the “top guy, top babyface and even the rightful WWE Champion.” It was almost as though Hogan was presented as being “bigger than both the Warrior and the WWE Championship combined.”

Pritchard's Dusty impersonation is AMAZING

I’m getting triggered by the beer tap

We use to backyard wrestle as kids and I use to run out to the rink to the ultimate warriors song with my moms dirty panties on my head. Ahhh the good old days 😢

Heh: Conrad: "I don't know how to feel about that!" The first thing the ad says when it kicks in immediately after Conrad says that: "Bipolar Depression..."

Conrad looks like he already drank the boot in that thumbnail.

Too god damn many commercials

I think the biggest problem with Warrior is that, unlike Hogan, who made literally everyone that wrestled him look good, Warrior just wasn't a great World Champ performer. When you are World Champ, the champ himself has to be able to tell a compelling story with anyone, both in and out of the ring. You can't have to line up people that needed to carry him. When you think back, outside of Hogan, Savage, and Undertaker, I can't think of anyone else he ever told a Main Event level story with.

I think dream talking about outdrawing Hogan in MSG is more of a shot towards Vince than it is Hulk

Warrior's style made it more difficult to fit him in the WWF system. He seemed like one of those stars whose very nature would make it difficult for him to be a long term star like Hogan or Flair.

One thought is that Savage and Hogan shouldn’t have split up when they did. Maybe keep the Mega Powers together for another year. I don’t think people were ready to see Savage lose the belt and turn heel. Breaking up the Mega Powers when they did and putting the strap back on Hogan maybe started the decline…maybe people were getting tired of Hogan as champion but Ultimate Warrior wasn’t quite ready to become the face of the company. Also, another thought is that Warrior as champion in 1990 didn’t work because he didn’t have a monster heel to face. Should have been the first to take on Earthquake at Summerslam rather than another Rick Rude match - who Warrior beat the week before on Saturday Night’s Main Event. Warrior seemed like he was playing second fiddle to Hogan even as champion this whole run.

Yo Conrad I'm a big fan would love more info on comic con s and stuff like that

That beer shit on the right is fuckin with me.