There Were TWO Ultimate Warriors?! — Other Worlds Film Festival

The Ultimate Warrior was a professional wrestler, a muscle-bound, face paint-wearing maniac who cut incoherent promos and sprinted to the ring, shaking the ropes and making short work of his opponents. He possessed next to no in-ring skills, and his repertoire essentially consisted of clotheslines and shaking the ring ropes. But that’s really all he needed, and he became so popular in the late 1980s that he was pegged as the heir apparent to Hulk Hogan, who was giving thought to winding down his in-ring career to transition to Hollywood (I’ll allow you to figure out how that one turned out.) And so, on April 1st, 1990, he did the unthinkable and beat Hogan in the Toronto Skydome to become the (then) WWF champion. Hogan became an Oscar-winning movie star and Warrior became the wrestling star of the 90s, lifting the industry to previously unseen heights.

None of that happened. Business declined sharply during Warrior’s reign as champion and by the following year he was stagnant, forced to step aside for a humbled, non-Oscar-winning Hogan to return to right the ship. After a prolonged contract and financial dispute, he was fired, never to be seen again…

Until the following year, when business had plummeted even further and a star-power boost was needed. The Warrior returned, but something was different. He was much, much smaller in his physique. His face paint was different, covering more of his face. His hair was shorter and a different color. Was this THE Ultimate Warrior, or merely A Ultimate Warrior? The truth soon came out: the real Ultimate Warrior had died (which was why he vanished so suddenly) and this new one was being played by Texas wrestling star Kerry Von Erich, who himself had vanished from television shortly before this great conspiracy began. And we, the audience, were just supposed to unquestionably accept it.