Original subtitles

Ready for another take, Kerwin? Slowly, halfway through, widen out a little bit,

and go right back to that extreme close -up. Okay, Kerwin, here. Remember what's

going on in the ring.

I can smell it!

It's in the air!

I feel the cosmic powers of Mars!

The clouds of Jupiter!

The boiling heat of Mercury!

I can feel...

My dad taught my sister and I a creed and he would make us write it out.

Live strong.

Act bold.

Be brave.

History has been made here!

Nothing's too hard to do.

Start with that.

Always believe.

I walked as the general of a legion of warriors!

Ultimate Warrior was just...

He was a moment in time.

And the ultimate warrior, the guy that we grew up watching, the guy that fought

Hulk Hogan and beat him, was separate from Jim Hellwee. Don't let the tin cup

kick hit you in the mouth and knock your teeth out.

The complicated layers of his own psyche.

created a man who at times was very difficult to get a grasp on.

You're me.

He probably wouldn't have been driven to be the ultimate warrior if he hadn't

had the pain he experienced in his early life.

You've got to have some kind of an explanation, ultimate warrior.

He might not have gone on to be the person that he was afterwards if it

been for the disappointment he was experiencing while we were all cheering

him.

You have seen very small snippets of the man that I knew personally.

You think of the guy who's, you know, big and tough, but he'd tuck us in at

night so gently and read us our books.

And if there's something really sad or really rough, like, he'd leave it out.

And that was a beautiful thing for when we're little. But there's not that

privilege anymore.

You have to tell the full story.

And with the past seven years that's gone on, you don't want to censor

Like this is the story of the ultimate warrior.

Read the full book.

He was skinny. He was real skinny.

You know, I had a picture, I couldn't find it, of him in a football outfit.

Poor beanpole, skinny legs, cute as a button.

Jim Hellwig was the oldest of five siblings.

He had two brothers, two sisters.

This is a picture of the four kids before I had my last one.

Here is the place that I understood Jim to tell me he grew up in this mobile

home and said that he lifted weights on that front porch right there.

Crawfordsville seems like 18 ,000 people. Very rural.

Demographics of this area, blue collar.

Everybody knows or has an idea of everybody in the community.

No, I don't think he was real popular with the girls. Deep down, I think he

shy, insecure, insecure, yes.

He always worshipped his mom for her efforts and was always very

complimentary of his mom and loved her very much.

His father departing their family was a pivotal moment for him.

I just think, and it's not just Jim, but all three of my boys, they had such

shame that their dad could leave them.

He'd come back and go mushroom hunting. He'd come back and go to ball games and

never come to see his kids.

Jim's dad leaving seems to have been at least a beginning point of

major trust issues in his life.

He had a lot of insecurities due to the fact that he was 10 when his father

left. I think it devastated him.

I think, if I would be honest, having five kids and having to work

so much, that the kids didn't always get the reassurance they needed.

He didn't get all the attention he needed.

Growing up in a town like Jim Helwig did, there's sort of the haves and the

-nots. And when his dad left and wasn't contributing financially to the family,

suddenly Jim finds himself as one of the have -nots.

Jim felt that a lot of people in the community looked down on him.

He also very definitively said, I'm going to show these people. I'm going to

something with my life. Which you think about it, this is a 17 -year -old who

has embraced this, I'm going to conquer the world attitude because of the way he

feels that the people of his community had rejected him and his family.

He also then goes searching for an identity.

beyond his father. And that's what ends up leading him to sports.

And Jim ends up meeting Gary Pate. The first time I ever met Jim

would be at football practice back in 1975.

The first time I ever saw Jim was in this classroom right here. All the team

members were sitting in here.

Well, when you saw some of these kids, those guys were all about six foot two.

220, 225, and Jim looked to be about, at that time, 5 '10 and

125.

I'm sure he probably might have weighed more, but he didn't look like it.

As the year went on, he found out that I would be in the weight room when I had

time. He'd ask if he could come in with me, and I'd say, sure, yeah.

Come in and lift all you want. And we would lift, and he would be intense

his lifting.

You have Jim and Gary, who for about three years end up lifting together on

of a cruddy old lifting machine in their high school. This is how he learned to

bond with people, especially with paternal figures, working out with them

lifting with them.

By his senior year, Jim was utterly fascinated with bodybuilding, and he was

constantly trying to get his hands on bodybuilding magazines and materials.

He would apparently be looking at these magazines and say things like, I can't

wait till I'm this massive.

He had the Arnold Schwarzenegger poster in his room, you know. He'd have his

easy curl bar in there and would be pumping iron facing the Arnold

Schwarzenegger poster.

You know, and like, get it.

You know, he knew that he needed to seek his own ambitions.

So he wasn't stuck in that rural area because he needed to go on a farm or

in a factory. But he didn't have no desire to do either one of them for a

living.

Jim's pursuit of a bodybuilding career.

Deemed to have manifested in the early 1980s. But he makes a move over to

Georgia because he feels like there is a better opportunity for the professional

bodybuilding scene.

During that time in Georgia, he meets his future wife, Sherry. They get

You know, he gets married pretty young. He goes down to Atlanta to try to start

this career.

You know, he's sort of going through the stations of, like, what growing up and

entering adulthood looks like.

And by 1984, he's made the move to definitively try to get himself into

competition shape.

And he does so and manages to win a pretty significant competition in 1984.

He wins Mr.

Georgia. I knew that it would serve me well to make my body different from

everybody else. Like a comic book character, just walked off the pages.

He was dedicated, and he had a goal where he wanted to go with this lifting.

He never said, I'm going to be the world champion WWE, and I'm going to pick up

Andre the Giant and body slam him.

But he did say, I will, one of these days, be a person that people will

remember. He said, I'll guarantee you that people will remember me.

Today I'm boxing with my coach.

I love boxing. I feel like my dad. I feel strong and powerful when I do it.

I love the intensity that comes out, the release from it. It feels like him. I

would hear him screaming out in the gym.

I'm like, oh, I'm a little bit like him when I'm in the gym.

Coming from my background, growing up in a town of 600 people, I stumbled into

the weight room we had at our school in front of a kid, scared of my own shadow.

And I started gaining weight really quick.

And when I started gaining weight and putting size on my body, I thought to

myself, well, I can change my life another way.

Is it something that I can strive to get better at and I can look back at my

younger self and think, like, oh, I thought I was so good back then, and

you climb the wall and you get better and better?

Well, in terms of becoming a wrestler, never say never.

So I scheduled an appointment with the high school counselor.

Fifteen seconds after I started telling her what I wanted to do, she put her

hand up to my face about ten inches away from it, and she said, put that silly

stuff away, and let me tell you what you need to do.

This summer, you need to get a job at the factory, do a good job, come back

finish your senior year, and when you graduate, you should be able to get a

-time job.

Now what else can I help you with?

For any bodybuilder, when you build your body, it's like putting on your armor.

You know, you're building your muscle, which is your armor, to protect yourself

from who you are really inside. You could be this insecure person, but now

you're, you know, 240, 250 pounds, you know, muscle.

It totally makes sense that someone without a male role model who's in

what masculinity means to them, it makes sense that they would look at the world

of bodybuilding.

In the 80s, I mean, it's kind of hard to imagine if you weren't there, but

bodybuilding was a huge deal.

There was really only one person everyone was talking about, and that was

Schwarzenegger.

He was in the movie Pumping Iron, and those images became iconic.

Arnold Schwarzenegger becomes a huge star. I mean, arguably the biggest star

Hollywood.

How did he get there?

It wasn't just, hey, let me go to acting school and become this movie star. It

was, oh, he goes to the gym all the time, and he never quits. Jim says, I

that. If you really want to make it, you've got to move to California.

Gold's Gym Venice in the 80s became the Mecca.

Gold's Gym became the standard for anyone who wanted to become a

I contacted Jim and I invited him out to California to train for his next

contest because I thought he had a lot of potential.

Ed introduced me to Jim saying, here's a young guy who's trying to win the

nationals. My first house in Venice was just two blocks from the gym. So the

guys would stay at the house and they would learn from each other. We knew how

they trained or what they ate or what they took for supplements.

Ed one day came into the gym and he wanted me to let this big dude come in

train. The guy was a giant, you know. He wasn't just big, he was kind of freaky.

He had a freaky build, a freaky physique.

And when he walked through the room or through the gym or anywhere else, people

went... Performance enhancing drugs and steroids were

definitely in fashion when it came to the world of bodybuilding.

Steroids were part of the regimen of what you took to be...

a pro bodybuilder.

What it did is it gave you the ability to basically be in an anabolic state.

can train hours in the gym and not break down.

But the thing was, if they were legal back then, you can actually have access

go to a pharmacy and just buy them on your own.

I think if people were to open my refrigerator, they would have probably

shocked. You know, most of the steroids have to be refrigerated. So some of my

family members would visit. And so when they pulled out the fruit drawer, they

got something other than fruit.

So I'm going to take the time to talk to you about this.

Then you can get it done, right?

So I got up and couraged one day. I weighed about 175 pounds. I go up to

guy. He's leaving the gym. And I tapped him on the shoulder. I said...

Can I ask you about steroids? Before I even got the word steroid out of my

mouth, he turned around.

The guy just towered over me. He said, before I ever heard about steroids, I

number three in the whole world.

But when you get up there in that upper epsilon, there may be a different set of

rules. And what he was telling me as a young punk kid of only 18 years old, he

was saying, you get there, you do what it takes to get there, and then you

about making that decision. I weighed 295 pounds before I ever touched him.

That's the story about steroids.

And you better get that story right.

And the next competitor is Jim Helwig.

You know, guys like Jim, who I saw as this big guy, you would think he would

become a great pro bodybuilder.

Jim's goal back then was basically, I think, to make money and have a great

You only made money when you were a top pro.

But if you didn't place and win the nationals or you didn't win the Mr.

USAs, you really weren't going to make money.

On some level, he had to come to the realization that just being a great

bodybuilder in and of itself was not going to make him rich and famous.

I guess his path was to go more towards becoming a professional wrestler, you

know, where he saw money to be made.

In the early 80s, wrestling was a big deal. It was on TV a lot.

The wrestlers would train at Gold's Gym Venice.

So we actually formed our own then Gold's Gym team, which was composed of

tag teams.

Out of the four, we had, you know, a big monster that just disappeared one day.

And I said, hey, I remember meeting this guy, Jim Hellwig. He just won a

bodybuilding competition. He's huge.

We should call him. When I talked with Jim, I explained that we had lost the

member of our team, and he'd be perfect for it.

He said, what does it pay? And when I told him $100 a night, he said, well,

that's more money than I'm making now.

We sent out press kits. We got one phone call back.

It was about three days later, but we got a phone call back from Jerry

He said, yeah, I'm looking at a picture, and I got four guys in this picture,

but he says, I can only use two of you. Which two do you want? He goes, I want

the two guys to the far left in this picture I'm looking at. So we got in the

car, my 83 T -Bird, and we left California, and we drove out to

Tennessee.

And that's where it started.

Right now, we would like to welcome in a couple of brand -new faces to

championship wrestling, a couple of guys you're going to get to know and know

well, too. We're talking about the Freedom Fighters, Jim Helwig. Jim, glad

have you here, and Steve Borden. Steve, glad to have you guys here. This is your

first time out here. We want to get a little background on you.

Are you guys married, have families, or what? No, we're single. We're looking

forward to it. You're both single?

Yeah, we're single. You hear that? Girls are both single here. I want to get

that around.

My first reaction was, wow.

I saw two good -looking guys that were going to draw the girls into the

and that's what it was all about for us back then. Back in the day, we never

told anybody they were married or you were engaged or anything else because it

would hurt the girls from coming to the buildings.

They're young. They've still got a lot to learn in wrestling, but, boy, they

sure have got the physical attitude, David.

There was no sort of gracefulness. There was no...

slow and poetic storytelling it was just boom energy and i'm coming and i'm

hitting you as hard as i can and i'm leaving and it doesn't necessarily

with the audience like why are we cheering for these good guys just

snot out of these much smaller guys and so they had to make a shift because it

wasn't working our thought was yeah let's change let's go heal let's change

look and let's come up with something real you know kind of freaky looking

Before long, Steve Borden and Jim Helwig were repackaged into the Blade Runners.

I think that they realized that intensity was what they had to offer. So

promos that you would see were just guys working out. They weren't saying

anything, but it was just, we're super intense dudes, and we can lift super

heavy things, and sometimes we wear mascara.

The matches were horrible.

with those guys. And it was one of those situations where at the time we could

have taken them and maybe spent a lot of time and, you know, put them in opening

matches and tried to train them. But these guys already thought that they

ready for the big time just because of their look.

Jim

Hellwig has

sort of reached the peak of physical perfection, right? He goes to pro

wrestling. in search of fame and fortune. And then he sort of has to

right? He has to start paying his dues. He's not making any money. He's

traveling. He's on the road all the time. Ladies and gentlemen, the most

tag team in professional wrestling, the Blade Runners!

We were on, you know, the 4th of July, you know, a matinee show, evening show.

New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Easter

didn't matter. We were doing two shows a day.

This man is just so powerful.

Punishing kicks.

Things were so bad while he was driving used taxi cabs that had like 400 ,000 or

500 ,000 miles on them. It was just incredible.

Nice move by Brett.

Drop kick.

He was very much so, you know, opinionated kind of a guy, and he

was not shy about sharing his opinion.

Didn't matter what the topic was, you know. We actually walked away at one

We walked out on our main event.

And the next day, I got a phone call. You need to come up to Little Rock

tonight. Bill's holding a couple of your paychecks. You'll never get them unless

you come and put a notice in and finish out.

So I said, OK.

You know, let me try to get a hold of Jim and see if we can make this happen.

couldn't get Jim anywhere.

So I went and did the show and came back. And the next day, Jim was pretty

You know, like, what'd you do?

What are you doing?

How could you do that to me? I said, Jim, what are you talking about?

He was real pissed.

And that ultimately ended up, you know, leading to, you know, us parting ways as

well.

Blade runners, no doubt about, are big, strong individuals.

But I don't think they've got what it takes inside.

And I'm speaking of intestinal fortitude.

I think he just wanted to kind of go off on his own. And it ended up he was

probably right.

Hellwig decides he's going to leave, and he has an opening with WCCW over in the

Dallas area.

Welcome to world -class championship wrestling, the major league of

wrestling seen around the world and across this great nation.

WCCW had really an international following of sorts because the Von

Eriks were like a first family of wrestling.

They had an audience that was very unique in the history of wrestling.

A large percentage of the audience was women, and it was all about really good

-looking guys with great bodies.

So Jim comes in, and I mean, Jim is like perfect for that specific audience.

I remember the first night I drove in there, they came up to me and said, he's

got a warrior thing about him or something like that. Then somebody came

had a little puppy, a new puppy.

And they were asking him what kind of dog it was. He says, a dingo. And

just, you know, somebody that was, you know, not quite sober yet said, dingo,

dingo warrior, that'll work. We'll do that tonight.

So that was the beginning of the dingo warrior thing. From Queens, New York,

pounds, the dingo warrior.

He was billed as being from Queens, New York.

So there's no dingoes in Queens.

Dingoes are Australian.

And the word dingo is just a ridiculous, silly word. It just sounds hilarious

and not intimidating.

Look at the awesome physical beauty of the dingo warrior.

I'll tell you, Brian, it's proud behind him to 100 percent.

So you bring any freaking nature you want to the world. But because believe

brother, I've looked in the eyes of darkness before.

And I'm not scared of it, and I never will be with the Warriors by my back.

As the Dingo Warrior, Jim Helwig gets a noticeable following in WCCW.

Listen to the crowd.

Round up for the Dingo Man.

It was very obvious to me that the business, it was...

going a direction where it wasn't so much like Dick the Bruiser and the

those kinds of wrestlers that I remembered as a kid growing up with in

and that something different was going on with it. You know, I was painting the

logo on my face.

Dingo Warrior, to me, was the poorer version of the Ultimate Warrior. I

really have much money to spend on that kind of stuff.

But it just grew, man. It really turned into something really fantastic.

And here's a man of awesome proportions.

who has to be counted on to be one of the major influences in professional

wrestling today.

So

Jim

returns to the Fountain Central 10 -year reunion. He has not only won Mr.

Georgia, but he has also become the Dingo Warrior.

He's enormous.

280 pounds, solid muscle.

This was not a coming back to sort of mend fences or to connect with people he

didn't connect with. His whole take was, if you had been his friend in his

youth, come sit with me, we're going to hang out. And for those people who tried

to be more chummy with him, that had not given him the time of day when his

youth, he had no interest.

He won a couple bottles of champagne for the person that had changed the most.

the person that drove the furthest. And I remember him opening the champagne and

having us all drink a little bit of it, you know, celebrating just our reunion

together as friends.

He didn't forget where he came from, okay?

Jim was a loyal friend. If you hung in there with him, he hung in there with

you.

Now with the pen, two, three, the Vivo Oil Sabu, Jack Pickering.

Jim Hellwig was a remarkably creative human being. Part of it is the look, and

think part of it as well is the fact that he's just different.

When Vince McMahon sees Jim Hellwig in 1987, he sees the picture -perfect mold

for what he's putting out there. He sees there's definitely something there, but

I'm going to make this thing my own.

In the territory days, the WWE was just the New York territory.

By the time people of

my age bracket were invested, the WWE had become the territory.

They were hitting cable TV, being seen all over the world.

Vince McMahon is as responsible for the success of the WWE as...

Anyone is for the success of anything.

This is this guy who took everything his father started and said, that's great,

I like what you're doing here, but what if we took over the world with it?

The Dingo is the winner!

So Jim Helwig as the Dingo Warrior is in WCCW, and Vince McMahon takes one look

at him and he says, okay, I'll give that guy a shot.

The ultimate!

The Ultimate Warrior was a Vince McMahon creation, his first attempt to

create a star once he already had all the eyeballs on his company.

There's something Vince told me at one time, and I'll always remember this,

he sat down with me, he said, you know, Jimmy, I'm looking for my next

attraction. Somebody bigger than life, somebody that can walk through any

airport in the world, and even a casual wrestling fan will go, oh my God, look

who it is.

He was the only person that would run, and I mean top speed,

all the way to the ring.

You had the Hulkamania

with the red and yellow, the bright colors, the tan, and all of a sudden you

a guy come in, but instead of red and yellow, he's got neon on him.

Except for Hulk Hogan, he was the most popular guy they had, very quickly.

The audience would react to him, they started reacting to him very well, and I

thought, hmm, okay then, maybe we do have something here.

You can see that he's on a clear trajectory, that Vince

is like writing the script that will put him following in the footsteps of Hulk

Hogan.

Ladies and gentlemen, this contest is for the Intercontinental Championship.

Honky Tonk Man's going to defend the Intercontinental Championship.

Get me somebody out here to wrestle. I don't care who it is.

Against an unnamed opponent.

And you're waiting to hear who it's going to be. And that music hits.

Wait a minute, wait a minute.

Somebody's music.

I mean, as Gorilla Monsoon says, pandemonium.

I

remember

what it felt like, man.

It was awesome, you know.

It was just nonstop energy for less than 30 seconds, and there was a new

Intercontinental Champion.

It just shocked the wrestling world. Nobody expected it, right? Because we'd

the belt for over a year. And I think that's what really gave him the little

rocket that he needed.

It was just another

critical step.

And him becoming the biggest wrestler in WWE.

Thanks a lot, man.

This is WWE letting the world know this is the

next guy.

This is the guy that you think might be a star. He is a superstar.

Please welcome the man known as the ultimate warrior.

I think the Ultimate Warrior was a great match for the late 80s, early 90s.

Everything was about being as big and strong and bombastic as a character as

possible. He was a cartoon character come to life. So my earliest memories of

the Ultimate Warrior are of this madman covered in tassels and of a doll that I

wanted to cuddle and take to bed with me.

Now because he is successful, now he's got that target on his back.

This guy's only been in the business for five years. I've been in this business

for 20 years. What dues did he pay? There's all that going on in the locker

room. I got the sense that he really was a loner.

Warrior was very much at times an overgrown kid. Having known a lot of his

personal life, he never really got to be a kid.

You know, came from a broken home, had to grow up and mature quickly.

So I do think that the warrior character, that's why he fell in love

much, because it was an extension of him. And he got to escape and do those

things and live probably a lot of things he never got to do.

We were in town. I mean, it only made sense today. Look, you know.

Come home and let's have dinner, you know, and my wife would fix dinner.

And it was a breath of fresh air to have him there. It was so different, you

know, and he really wanted that environment.

You could tell he was attracted to that environment.

There was very few people that were invited to come over to my parents'

Would he help do the dishes?

You know what?

If he was asked, he would have.

He would definitely do the dishes. He was just that type of guy.

My dad was a father figure to many and definitely was to Warrior.

And I think it was just that family dynamic that Jim always aspired to have.

They end up...

having Warrior feud with Andre the Giant, who had previously been the most

beloved wrestler maybe on the planet.

You see, the ultimate maniac has felt these large hands around his neck.

He is feeling right now the Intercontinental Championship slipping

waist. One of the big values of Andre the Giant was that if somebody beats him

or somebody can slam him, They're a household name. And Hulk Hogan body

Andre the Giant at WrestleMania 3 is the thing that set Hulkamania in motion.

Look at this!

He slammed him!

And you, Andre the Giant, will realize that the power will become the eighth

in the world as we eat you alive!

Andre never did anything he didn't want to do.

It was frightening the first time he told me to slam him.

I knew what it meant to the character Ultimate Warrior and how much over that

character would be by being allowed to do that.

So now you're able to really think of like Ultimate

Warrior. He's on the same level as Hulk Hogan.

Because up until that moment, the greatest thing Hulk Hogan had ever

was beating Andre the Giant.

Well, now Ultimate Warrior's beating Andre the Giant.

You slammed Andre.

I slammed Andre.

You can beat everybody else on the roster, but after you slam Andre the

there's only one place left to go, and that's Hulk Hogan.

didn't cry for santa you're too little it's been seven years since we lost

warrior and now we're actually able to look at the memories and enjoy them and

revel in them and laugh warrior's role at christmas time was like the biggest

elf you've ever met and he negotiated negotiate he would negotiate a lot of

negotiation on christmas absolutely about what you guys deserve yes Every

morning on Christmas, we'd wake up with a note about what we should improve on

for the next year. Because next year it might be Cole. And it was detailed. It

was scary.

But then you had to get over it and you'd get pregnant. And I was like,

this is dad's hair.

For me and the girls, it's about his

legacy as a father. But for millions of fans, it will always be about what he

did in the ring with Hulk Hogan.

I think it's pretty incredible to imagine he only had five years in the

business, and he was tasked with the job of replacing a veritable legend.

Hulk Hogan in the 80s literally was wrestling.

And just remember, Hulkamania has run wild.

Crazy. Thank you, Hulk.

He ushered in a new, larger -than -life, almost cartoonish era of

professional wrestling.

Hulk Hogan, over the six years leading to WrestleMania VI, had turned

into a phenomenon.

Remember what's going on in the ring. Hulk is posing, we're in a celebration

mood. We want the opposite of that, okay?

Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior at the time, they're your top good guys in

the WWE.

So when they start to flirt with this idea...

that there may be some animosity between Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior.

You're going, wait a minute.

B 'Leah and Ho -Wig had a rivalry with one another, and they had a mutual

professional jealousy, which made sense.

How could there not be professional envy and jealousy between Hulk Hogan and the

Ultimate Warrior?

The Ultimate Warrior was designed to replace Hulk Hogan. How could Hulk Hogan

not resent that?

How could

Warrior

not resent Hulk Hogan?

If you're going to compete with somebody for the number one spot, By design, you

have to think, here's why I'm better than that person.

Very nature of that competition between the two is going to breed

envy and jealousy between the two of them. Both champions, Hulk Hogan and the

Ultimate Warrior, want to be sure the other is healthy for Sunday afternoon,

April 1st. The World Wrestling Federation champion against the

champion.

This was a big topic of conversation among 11 -year -olds.

Who's going to win Ultimate Warrior to Hulk Hogan? I mean, for us, this was

like, you know, magic versus bird.

At the end of WrestleMania, it'll be the Hulkster and God they still trust.

The official signing of the match at WrestleMania.

Look into my eyes, Hulk Hogan!

You see nothingness!

Jim, always give me a little pause there when you finish off. Okay. You know,

count to two before you... Warrior not only has to step into the ring with

Hogan, has to carry the main event with Hogan, has to live up to the box office

expectations with Hogan.

You're going to beat Hogan?

The pressure on Warrior to deliver, it's mind -boggling to

think. That pressure didn't crush him.

You

can't

build to a match like this and then go for five minutes.

So this became a test of, okay, now that we've got Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate

Warrior together, can we have these guys do it?

25 -minute match. Can we do a match where a real story is being told?

Warrior learned

a lot from Hulk. But there's always that little piece, we want to be the top

dog. And Warrior was hungry for it.

They both get their time to shine.

And they both get that moment where, as a fan, you're like, well, this is the

moment where Hulk went.

That moment that we've all seen before.

Hulk Hogan is hitting the ropes.

He's dropping a leg.

Hulk Hogan was still hot in 90, okay?

When he takes that warrior pin right in the middle of the ring, no funny

business, and loses outright to the warrior and makes warrior king.

This is not the same as doing that for someone when you are clearly on the way

down. Oh, look at this.

Hulk presented the belt and raised the hand of the warrior.

That was...

Both Hogan and the company anointing somebody new.

And it was a major deal to be able to beat Hulk Hogan.

I think Jim was idolized.

That filled something up inside of him that he needed.

Other people, you know, that have said, you know, Warrior never respected the

business. You know, he just wanted to get in, make a paycheck, get out. That

not true.

Warrior came back through the curtain after that match with Hogan and

broke down, you know, emotionally. He was finally at the very pinnacle of the

business that he worked so hard to get to.

The fact that I took the belt from Hulk in the way that I did with the clean

finish, I mean, the weight of that.

You know, that saying about it's not the destination, it's the journey, it's

true for me.

I was so emotional after it happened, but within a day or two, I was thinking,

what's next?

At WrestleMania, Warrior, you lived up to the ultimate challenge, and then

But now, you face a challenge of a different kind.

The Ultimate Warrior title reign as world champion was in some ways actually

beginning of the end.

I can feel it!

I can feel that I have been chosen.

He was pure kinetic energy, right? And the story that they told was a missile

being shot into space. The climb is exhilarating.

But once you get there, the story just sort of fizzles.

They didn't set up the right guys for him, and it did not get him off on the

right foot. The first thing they do is they brought in Rick Rude. He was a

retread. Warrior had already beaten him before.

He had matches with The Undertaker. You're scared, and you're going to be

scared.

You're going to be scared.

It's not in there, not in the casket.

And it ends up going into Jake the Snake Roberts.

What do you think about that, Warrior?

Just a few friends of mine, huh?

Warriors walking around in that locker room with eyes in the back of his head.

You got guys that are jealous of him in front of the cameras, in front of the

fans. That was Warriors safe haven. That was never the issue. But when he had to

walk back into that locker room.

He knew exactly what he was dealing with. That's where the pressure came.

Hang on, hang on.

Keep his attention, folks. Keep his attention.

There you go. We see him now.

I don't think you really know if somebody's up to the job until they get

right? I don't know what expectations Vince had set and what the ultimate

warrior wasn't living up to.

Something had to be telling Vince McMahon that this project wasn't

the degree that he had hoped that it would.

It was like, OK, the decision is to get the belt back on Hogan because Warrior

didn't draw good enough. But at the time, I, you know, I think everybody

that Warrior was going to be champion for three or four years. And it was, you

know, less than a full year before they took it away from him.

Warrior is not going to fall into line.

This is not somebody you are going to control. And they have to know this.

Jim Hellwig went to the beat of his own drum.

Whatever that beat was telling him, whether it was good for him or

to him, he went and walked to the beat of his own drum. There were times where

he was completely isolated. Sometimes he was just really on edge.

So there's a story that a kid approaches Ultimate Warrior at an airport, as most

people do. You know, that's half the reason Vince grabs these guys, because

they walk through an airport, you can't look away from them. He's got his

sunglasses on.

The kid comes up to him, and he'd ask, you know, he's the Ultimate Warrior.

And, like, he snaps on this little kid.

I was like, whoa.

This kid's parents were pretty connected to the WWE.

That posed a problem for Jim when Vince heard about this.

So Vince is so upset that he makes Jim actually record a video apology to the

kid. It's Vince's apology.

But not in the warrior's character. I mean, I'm humbly apologizing, but I'm

saying what I'm humbly apologizing for.

That's right. I know what the gimmick's for, but I mean, what's it for?

In three, two... I understand that there comes times in everyone's life

when they may regret certain things...

Regret certain things that they should.

Yeah,

I know. I don't know what the fuck to say. I didn't say nothing to the goddamn

kid. I understand that.

Well, no, you don't because I'm making a videotape to some kid. It's a fucking

work. It's a work.

That's all it is. It's a work. We're working here. That's it.

I'm working here. There's two matches left. I'm fucking working here making an

apology for something I didn't fucking do.

This guy's really, whatever I should have, whatever I was supposed to have

to the guy, I wish I had said to the guy.

Me too.

Three, two... There shall never come a time that any one of the WWF...

Go again. That I shall take revenge upon that person and vanquish them from

this universe and shoot me.

No one that walks within the World Wrestling Federation shall ever, never

you without answering to the power of the ultimate warrior.

It was excellent.

Thank you.

But then the very next day, he sits down and he writes Vince a letter.

It's as if years of frustration and anger have just boiled over and

he can't take it anymore.

1991 was a definitive moment in Jim Hellwig's life.

Around January of 1991, he and his wife filed divorce papers.

At the same time, the WWE decided that they were going to go in a different

direction. And so that same month that he's filing divorce papers, he also

his status as champion.

Going through the divorce, needing the money, all of those things sort of work

together to reignite some of that.

financial anxiety that he had as a child, a lot of the scars throughout Jim

Helwig's life are definitely coming to the surface now.

You realize that, sure, Ultimate Warrior looked like he had never been better,

but Jim is going through a divorce. And Jim is having arguments with Vince. And

he's blowing up on fans at the airport.

And you realize that there's more to it than that.

Ultimate Warrior seemed like he was just sort of at a wit's end with Vince,

right? He's like, I've tried to talk to you. I've tried to bring this stuff up.

Let me try something else.

I'm going to write a letter.

Vince, writing this is a different approach.

I have been from day one different from the others. I have sacrificed myself

enough both in my personal life and physical well -being.

What Hellwig says to McMahon is, I know what Hogan has gotten, and that's what I

want.

I have sacrificed more than $500 ,000, more than a million dollars even, in

monies that I should have been paid to me in receiving equal treatment as Hulk.

And he proceeds to give a list of demands about the things that he wants,

equal pay for Hogan, equal royalties for Hogan. He wants all of the same

benefits that Hulk Hogan gets.

The videotaped apology was the icing on the cake.

You see it as a business, so whether I like it or not, I must do the same.

Whatever your decision, I can and will live with it. Till then, I remain at

with one who cares.

Hellwig appears to be saying to Vince, I'm not going to show up until you meet

these demands.

That's a cardinal sin in the world of professional wrestling.

WWE have not only, in the micro sense, spent all this time marketing

but in the macro sense, all this time marketing the Ultimate Warrior

Like, they can't just say, all right, we'll go home. We'll just do it without

you.

No one would take kindly to that. But of all the people in the world who would

not take kindly to essentially being bullied, it would be Vince McMahon.

When I get this letter, it's a shock. It's like, oh, it's kicking the guts.

like I was burned, so to speak.

I told Jim we would work it out, indicating that we might do this deal,

was looking for, oh, okay, we'll talk at the garden.

And I couldn't wait to fire him.

What an ovation for the ultimate warrior!

Is he ready?

Yes. Yes, but can he be trusted?

Vince McMahon came into my locker room, and he said, well, the ultimate warrior

is holding me up for $500 ,000, and he wants to be paid before he

wrestles.

Then through the locker room door comes Hulk Hogan. And he said, Sarge, you

throw the warrior out on the floor and I'll come into the ring and I'll jump on

you and you and I'll head off to the corner.

And while we're doing that, Cheeky, you jump down and you break his leg.

And Vince went, no, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

I don't need a lawsuit on top of all this.

There's a spot at the end of the match where Hellwig grabs a chair.

and chases Mustafa and Adnan out of the ring and backstage.

Warner's got a chance!

As he comes back through, he's told Vince wants to see him, at which point

gives him a several -page letter talking about how Hulk Hogan is a living

legend.

He is more popular than you.

has more years in the ring than you, is in greater demand than you. And then he

hits Jim very personally. He says, you have become a living legend in your own

mind.

Probably everything that Jim Helwig would not have wanted to hear.

He then details the fact that, Jim, you are suspended for no fewer than

90 days.

I think that Vince wrote something that cutting, because I think Vince felt...

It was so outrageous that the man was, and just so far overreached, it told me,

obviously, he really didn't understand.

Often, our performers will start believing in themselves more than they

and can't separate Jim Elwig from the Ultimate Warrior, and that happens to a

lot of our performers.

A lot of superstars want his approval, and they want to please him, and they

want to be... his guy the way you want your father to accept you.

That's what I feel, I guess, with Vince McMahon.

It's like when he tells you you did a good job, it's the greatest feeling in

world.

Jim and I had this unusual relationship, you know, personally. And we both were

on the same wavelength. He was nuts. I was at the time. I'm not now.

But there was this great relationship. No one really knew that.

I'm sure he was out there looking for acceptance, and he might have looked at

him as a mother and a father figure, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Did you think of him as a son?

Not as a son.

I have only one son.

I can see how someone would look at me as a father figure, but I don't look at

him as a son.

I've never done that.

But I've looked at them as a relationship that would be sort of

somewhat of father -son.

If you look at somebody like the warrior that maybe was missing some male role

models early in his life, I think Vince McMahon could have easily filled that

role for him.

And I don't know if Vince realized when he wrote that that the ultimate warrior

would not take that as his... Boss being mad at him, he may take that as a

paternal figure being disappointed in him.

Your boss being mad at you, you get over.

Somebody that you look at like a father saying, I like him more than I like you,

you don't get over that.

Good morning, guys.

The entire world of wrestling changed in 1992.

The federal government has leveled charges against the leader of the WWF,

McMahon.

Steroid use, steroid distribution is now deemed not only illegal, but is being

presented as inauthentic and immoral.

A hulk of a hero named Hogan is the biggest to take a fall.

First you up.

This is take one.

It makes a certain sort of sense that when Hulk Hogan has to take some time

you go back in the well and find the guy who used to be the next Hulk Hogan.

There have been those that have stood up on many a throne and promised to rule

the entire universe, the entire world.

McMahon decides to bring the ultimate warrior back into the WWE, and

they begin the process of trying to mend the fences.

And when that music hit, you

can hear that stadium full of people going nuts for it. They couldn't believe

it.

It was still a moment, and you're still like, oh, my God, Warrior's back.

But when he comes back, right in the midst of the steroid scandal, he looks

noticeably smaller.

He's still jacked. I mean, he's still, by normal standards, he's like, I'm

going to get a body like 1992 Ultimate Warrior.

But 1992 Ultimate Warrior does not have a body like 1990 Ultimate Warrior.

who had not been quite as dedicated as he was to the gym, probably because he's

coping with an extraordinary amount of loss, and going through a divorce.

And I remember thinking, man, you've got to get your shit together real

quick here.

Let's try one more with more intensity. Okay. In 1992, a package is intercepted,

addressed to the Ultimate Warrior's driver, and it contains HGH, human

hormone.

Explosiveness that can never, ever be recreated.

A chemical combustion that forms a bond forever and ever.

It did fail some tests in 1992.

Hellwig did fail tests, and Hellwig also admitted to it.

to taking steroids.

I think it was more than anything in his head that if I don't have this, I'll

never be the same guy.

Every time he takes a drug test, he has to list the kinds of medications that

he's taking already.

And at the beginning of this process in May, he writes Motrin.

Pretty simple.

The next test is Tylenol with codeine in a nasal spray.

By the time we get to late October, he's taking multiple medicines for anxiety,

for depression, for insomnia.

In November of that year, the WWE will fire him again on the grounds that he

violated the drug policy.

Shit, I don't know.

It just sort of unraveled in a way where I remember having a conversation with

Vince and he was afraid of certain things that were going to happen to him.

It just got so bad that he needed a couple of scapegoats.

Was it implied that you should use steroids to make yourself?

No, never to me. I think the whole thing is weak. It was a bad optic to have

huge muscle -bound guys on top as you're fighting off these accusations of

steroid use. People like Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior faded to the

background.

And Bret Hartz and Shawn Michaels and other guys sort of stepped in to the

spotlight because their look.

didn't sort of remind people of what was going on behind the scenes.

He arrived in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Hellwig will legally change his name to Warrior.

He lived the ultimate warrior, he breathed the ultimate warrior, so he

he owned the ultimate warrior.

So all you can really do is try to come up with ways to stick it to your former

employer.

He launched a gym and wrestling school called Warrior University.

He wanted to do workout videos and warrior workout kits.

And I saw a new gym was coming to town and it was owned by the ultimate

I had a pink resume before Elle Woods ever did. And when I walked in the door.

All I could see was the eye line to this huge, giant man.

And I walked with purpose straight up to him. I put the resume down, and I said,

I need to run your aerobics program. And he said, you need to marry me.

And I said, I won't even date you.

And that man followed me around like a puppy until I finally broke down, and I

dated him, and then, you know, I married him. So it worked out okay.

I had my own demons from a difficult childhood. And so my husband used to

say to me, like, you tamed the beast.

I met my counterpart. I met the person that I was able to do that for, and he

was able to do it for me.

I look back at the innocence of who we were when we first met.

And what my husband really wanted was to be successful.

He

had

all these goals and aspirations.

And what success was, was in his mind.

what Vince McMahon had created.

He wanted to make The Ultimate Warrior into a full -blown comic book venture to

launch The Warrior mainstream.

But he seems to realize that it's not going to happen without a bigger

And because of that, once again, Vince McMahon and Jim Hellwig somehow find

their way back to one another.

When you look back now, the Warriors' career is sort of more about, like,

returns than it is about the matches.

Around June of 1996, Helwig's father, Thomas, died.

The two had not had much of a relationship at all, but it seems to

hard.

In this period of time, He doesn't attend a few shows.

But of course, with the WWE, you don't miss shows.

As I recall, he had not seen his dad in over 10 years and could care less about

him. And that was like, wait a minute.

You're going to use this as an excuse?

That's the straw that breaks the camel's back with me. I can't deal with anybody

like that.

He was terminated.

An audience that was 5, 10, 15 years old when Warrior was at his hottest had

moved on to be obsessed with other things besides the ultimate warrior.

So when that love and that adulation wasn't there, he went back to

being an 11 -year -old boy in the trailer in Indiana whose father just

He starts traveling around to college campuses.

One that really stood out, it made major headlines at the time, was a speech he

gave at the University of Connecticut.

I knew something

was wrong.

And I said, what did you say?

We'll talk when you get home.

You know, young kids, they get their philosophy of life from people that are

older than them.

And today that's just not happening in any place.

He's accepted the fact that the ultimate warrior is not going to be mainstream,

but it's almost like he needed something to fill the void. What's up?

I just wanted to show you what they're passing out outside.

Just so you're prepared. Oh, good.

They're all prepared with the racism.

He finds this new identity in conservative

ideology.

And he becomes a conservative blogger.

I would argue for the warrior and his career, his persona, his business, it

not good that we got to see behind the curtain.

Every few weeks or whatever, it's like another thing that Warrior's saying that

is offensive.

Where do you think his strong political views came from around that time?

Most people think I'm heavy metal or something.

On the radio, typically, I do talk radio.

That's it.

Turn on talk radio was a really big thing at the time.

And you know something?

Rush Limbaugh is a great showman. So my husband was like, we get each other.

So the talk radio thing became a big thing in our house.

And certain news channels were on all the time.

I think he was just looking for a new brotherhood.

It's never been the vision that people have in their head that it's just

ultimate warrior as an identity. A painted face pro wrestler with strings

his arms and colorful characters and physique and the body and stuff. It's

it represents more on a fundamental level, something or somebody that's

to stand up and fight for what they believe in, even if they die doing so.

And when he came back from that speech.

I knew something was wrong.

And I said, what did you say?

Now I'm a conservative.

Liberals believe in a utopian society where everything is equal.

That Kwanzaa is just as legitimate as Santa Claus and Christmas.

That a terrorist is just as legitimate as one of this country's revolution

freedom fighters.

That we are as legitimate as heterosexuals. How are they not?

That the anarchists because doesn't make the world work.

And from this moment, the speech has just

become a straight dog fight.

As an Ultimate Warrior fan, you're like, bro, like, I didn't sign up for that.

Like, you're starting to make me think that the warrior might believe in some

stuff that I don't necessarily believe in.

There's all people of all different types of races and colors that look up

you. Because I, you know, I grew up, my dad wasn't there.

What's the warrior telling me? Just don't worry about things. Just be that

little warrior that you are inside.

So when you are acting that way and you believe that in your heart, it can do a

lot of damage to those people that looked up for you.

Has anything like Yukon ever happened before?

No.

I was really disappointed.

I was really disappointed.

And I let him know that.

And he knew it was different, and he knew he'd messed up.

And I don't even think he didn't understand the breadth of it until later

But he knew it was bad.

The self -destruction of the ultimate warrior.

So WWE puts out this DVD, the self -destruction of the ultimate warrior.

And this, I think, was kind of a self -serving mission.

We're done making money off this guy or from this guy, and he's off hurting

himself, his own brand, and by extension, our brand. If we can limit

importance in our legacy, that's a win for us. If we can charge $30 for it and

put a cool title on it and essentially make as much money as we would off of a

WrestleMania, off of Jim without even having his consent, even better. And

wants these two kind of to be shoot deals, right?

He wants to tell the truth. He wants everybody to know.

A little controversy.

Felt Destruction of Ultimate Warrior was not so much a documentary. It was more

of a hit piece.

You watched it and thought, at the very least, this guy is not beloved by his

peers. I don't know that he was really born to be in this business.

To me, the man had no idea about wrestling. Do I think Del Moro was Mary

in the pan?

Enough said.

I knew when the Ultimate Warrior won the match, 68 ,000 people watched me leave

the building instead of watching the new champ in the ring.

I knew that, okay, you know, I don't want to be the one to say I told you so.

I never watched that DVD.

People would not be alive if I'd watched that DVD.

My husband wanted to watch it, and I said, you shouldn't. He doesn't trust

anyone in life.

And look, if you don't enjoy coming to work, then you're going to bound to self

-destruct somewhere along the line.

He watched that DVD, and...

That broke a part of my husband that I was never able to fix.

Nobody is going to hand you the fulfillment of the

dream you have in your mind about a great life you want to live.

In later years, it's almost as if he will be frustrated with himself, but he

will project out onto others the frustration he feels with his own life.

I think you're pathetic.

Don't fail.

Take back yourself.

And don't take any back talk from yourself.

I think he was trying to reinvigorate his own identity. Because when we

fall down a hole, nobody can really get you back out. You have to climb rung by

rung yourself.

And he did that.

so inspiring because he wasn't perfect. Other people in the world aren't

perfect. We all mess up and sometimes we're ignorant, but ignorance is

educable and we can change and we can grow and we can evolve.

I was very oblivious to his life before he was a father. He was my dad, I was

daddy's little girl, and he doted on my sister and I like any other dad that I

knew.

He was so gentle with his warrior babies, that's what he'd call us.

You know that his father wasn't incredibly involved in his life, and so

didn't really have that figure there.

But you don't necessarily need a role model to become the man you want to

become.

Very few people can overcome what they lived through and not feel victimized by

it, but instead chart a new course.

And that's what we did with our family. We charted a new course.

What you saw in his character used to translate a lot into his workout.

But most of the time here, we got to know a different character.

We got to know Warrior.

And Warrior was a complete...

a different personality.

He made everybody feel special. He made me feel special.

I think that Warrior found himself in Santa Fe. I think he found a calmer

setting for him to really think, to paint.

Art became a really big part of his life when he wasn't putting on his face

paint every day. You know, the face paint became the paint on the canvas

instead.

He had his daughters. He had Dana.

Our friendship was about just

enjoying life. Have fun. You are who you are.

I think that my husband needed hyper -masculinity in order to feel safe.

But with the friends that he made in our town of Santa Fe, he was able to

experience grown adult men who had no vendetta against him. And so I think

my husband was finally ready to be inducted in the Hall of Fame, he was

somebody that was actually worthy of that honor in his own mind, but also for

the fans.

Ladies and gentlemen, accompanied to the ring by two young ladies who were so

special in his life, may I present Warrior.

For several years, the WWE had tried to find ways of getting

Warrior into the Hall of Fame.

And he had repeatedly said no.

This particular year, for whatever reason, Warrior was able to trust.

And I said, I apologize for anything I've ever said, anything I've ever done.

That was then, let's just bury the hatchet and move on.

So you just can't believe it's been...

As long as it has been.

He enters into an agreement with the WWE to become an ambassador for a period of

several years.

Obviously, there was a tension with the relationship with WWE throughout the

years. You know what I mean? What does it mean to kind of get back into the

and kind of repair things?

Well, it means a lot.

Well,

it means a lot. You know, it was purposeful that they put the DVD out.

It hurt my feelings a lot, man. It hurt me that they did that.

You know, I have a lot of emotion about coming back.

It's well known that the Hellwig men had a short lifespan.

His grandfather died in his 50s.

His father died in his 50s. And knowing that...

Most of the Hell Week boys die at a young age. Definitely has to color how

live your life. You either face it or you live in fear of it.

Great. Let me get that down.

Bring that for... I think it was calculated on his part because he knew

that by reigniting this relationship with the WWE, he can be the man that his

father never was for him.

This was his moment to set aside the hurt, the ego, the pride,

all of the things that had kept him estranged, and to say, I'm going to do

for my family.

You built a brand. These are the graphics that support the brand.

There are a few legitimately tough guys in our business.

Most of us aren't.

So we get to go out there and we get to act like tough guys.

And people look up to you and you're larger than life.

And there's responsibility that comes with that.

Responsibility is that if you get to do that, you get that opportunity to do

that, then you should be able to go out into the real world and handle a simple

thing like life.

You know, it's hard for me because when you get disrespected like that, you

know, I got kids and I got family and it just was so wrong in so many

ways. I love you very much. I want you to know that. Thanks a lot, man. I've

been dying to see you and I really do. I really do.

No matter what.

I think he was just really excited to go home.

And absolutely he wanted that reconciliation with Vince because Vince,

to him.

But he also wanted to show Vince, I have family now, too.

And now you're part of it. I don't need you to be all of it.

Ladies and gentlemen, accompanied to the ring by two young ladies who were so

special in his life, may I present Warrior.

In 1991, Vince wrote me a letter. He said, you think you're a legend in your

mind.

But I didn't think that I was a legend in my mind. But I will tell you this,

Vince. The Ultimate Warrior is a legend today.

And he will continue to run into the hearts and minds of fans throughout

generations to come. And I'm proud of that.

I'm proud of you for supporting me in fighting for the Ultimate Warrior to be

inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Regardless of personal stuff, regardless of what you see on the internet or

anything, we're now all grown -ups. We're nostalgically looking at this guy

like, yes, this is when I was six. This is the guy I was watching. I'm so happy

he's back.

From the moment he ran onto WWE television until he, you know...

Took the belt from Hogan.

Hold that up against any wrestler in the history of wrestling. That's what we

were celebrating.

I mean, I was there on Monday Night Raw when he came out, and I've never been in

a crowd that felt like that.

One day beats its final beat.

His lungs breathe their final breath.

And if what that man did in his life makes the blood pulse through the body

others and makes them bleed deeper in something than larger than life, then

essence, his spirit will be immortalized.

You, you, you, you are.

The legend makers of Ultimate Warrior.

Finally, Jim, he understood how it all worked then. And that may be, as far as

know, about the only time he's ever been at peace with himself. He so

appreciated the honor and what have you. And unfortunately, a

couple of days later, he died.

Everything felt so good.

My kids are so proud of their dad.

We were going to go to Arizona and have spring break.

And we got on a plane to go to Phoenix, and we get to the hotel, and

he said, I don't feel good.

I said, I know, babe, neither do I. Like, it's been hectic. It's going to be

fine. You just rest.

What do you need? I'll go get it for you. Like, he's like, no, I don't feel

good. And he said, I think I need to go to the hospital. And that's where I was

like, oh, no.

And I didn't want the girls to come because I didn't want them to be scared.

So they were old enough to lock the door.

It was one second before we were out the door.

and catch him.

And we get to the hospital and they wheel him back there.

And they said he didn't make it.

And I also knew, like, I was going to have to tell my kids.

And I left them at the hotel at the last...

Thinking I was protecting them, but then did I rob them of the last moment with

their dad?

What he built at home was far greater than anything the ultimate

warrior achieved in front of the television cameras.

That's the tragedy of the man's life. When he finally found the love that he

couldn't find as a child, and he had nothing left to hate, that's when his

gave up.

You know, I mean, I can remember back when I was a young kid, being the kid in

the wrong place at the wrong time, my dad leaving when I was 12, 13 years old,

having self -doubts about myself like any young kid does.

You create your own sort of fantasy.

protector, in a sense. You know, the thing that you connect with to make you

strong, to get you through the self -doubts that you have.

His daughters are definitely his lasting legacy.

He was never more proud of anything in his life than his girls.

And he wanted both of them, which they do, to have that warrior spirit.

There's nothing simple about Jim Helwig.

He was a flawed and complicated human being who made some serious mistakes in

his life.

But it's a human story.

Having done Ultimate Warrior as a sports entertainment identity, why I think the

way I do, it's built into us. It's a part of our nature. It's a part of our

human nature to grow.

I think redemption is a heavy burden to place on any one human being because

we're all on a journey to find out who it is that we are.

I don't believe that my husband's story ends with his passing.

I believe that that spirit of the warrior lives on in each and every one

who decides to do better.