Jim Ross On His Issues With The Ultimate Warrior

On the latest episode of “Grilling JR”, Jim Ross discussed how difficult it was to work with The Ultimate Warrior and how despite that, Vince McMahon was always fascinated with his character. Here are the highlights:

On Why He Didn’t Enjoy Working With The Ultimate Warrior:

I just remember that in general, Jim Hellwig was a giant, Andre the Giant-sized pain in the ass … he was a pain in the ass to deal with. High maintenance, didn’t trust anybody, I don’t know how much respect he had for a lot of people that were not like him. He was never high on my list of, I didn’t want to do business with him. He came in in the mid-90s there with that WrestleMania [XII] date. That was like an act of god to get that handled. It’s just too hard. For play fighting and being produced in a fictional segment, it’s just too god-damned hard. And he didn’t want to cooperate. He knew more about this than anybody else, seemingly.

On Vince Loving The Warrior’s Gimmick:

And Vince was always fascinated with the Ultimate Warrior character, and his look, and his charisma, his explosiveness. Vince and his production team got Warrior over. Warrior thought he got himself over. So what would it have been? Well, he had great pyro, he had great colors, he had all the artistry and his presentation was cool. He didn’t do that. And it sure as hell wasn’t his wrestling that got him over. He did two or three things, and some of those were half-assed.

So I’m going on this tirade about the Ultimate Warrior, I don’t mean to. But people need to know, he wasn’t a great guy. And I’m glad that he got to go in the Hall of Fame. I certainly believe he was worthy. And I’m sad that he passed away so quickly after that, but at least he got one more moment in the sun, which is good for a guy like that. He was an entertainer. He thrived on that attention, and it fed his ego like so many we see in sports and in entertainment today. The money’s one thing, but once you get the taste of the big money, you only can make so much in the standpoint of, you’re going to be okay tomorrow. But man, he was a classic pain in the ass. And again, I hate to talk bad about him, but I did and I apologize to those I may have offended.

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Credit: Grilling JR. H/T 411Mania.