"The Self Destruction of The Ultimate Warrior" was released in 2005. The Ultimate Warrior was portrayed by a mass of muscle named Jim Hellwig. It was released, in part, as an inside joke on the Ultimate Warrior. During his days with the WWE, the colorful superstar was known to be a tad eccentric.
The DVD features several current wrestling personalities such as Chris Jericho, Jim Ross and Christian. In addition, distinguished wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan and Sgt. Slaughter are also interviewed for the DVD. Though the DVD is largely considered a knock at the Ultimate Warrior, I found the first ten minutes of the DVD to be very complimentary. The producers chronicled his rise from the Memphis territory to Texas and eventually to the World Wrestling Federation (now the WWE). Jerry Lawler, who added minimal details about the Memphis territory that he promoted, stated that Warrior was inexperienced but Lawler felt he would be a big star one day. And Lawler was right. Not long after Warrior left the Memphis area, he found his way to Vince McMahon.
The DVD does mock the Ultimate Warrior, but it's not in a slanderous way. Wrestlers like Chris Jericho and Christian goof about the Ultimate Warrior's insane promos. But its all in good fun. Looking back on the 80s wrestling scene, goofy over the top promos were the norm. Warrior was not the only one who did them. If you watch a televised event from that period, it seems as if all the wrestlers are competing to see who can out-weird the next. Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper and Randy Savage are considered top promo guys from that era. But Ultimate Warrior was right up there with them. He was very intense, imaginative and charismatic.
The DVD is very a very entertaining and humorous look at a pro wrestler who was a comic book character come to life. Some wrestling fans describe the story as a hatchet job on the career of the Warrior. Rather, it was a light-hearted poke at the over the top character. If the WWE was truly trying to slander the Ultimate Warrior, they would not have featured some of his greatest matches as extras. These matches include a classic against Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania 6, as well as against Randy Savage and Rick Rude. It was a great reminder of all the fun and entertainment the Ultimate Warrior brought to the early 90s wrestling product.
At worst, this is a fun jaunt through wrestling history, with some humor thrown at it's subject. It's quite entertaining, and could be likened to a cult classic of the 80s. It may not be good for the right reasons, but its great for all the wrong reasons.
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