FanPost

A "new" fan's perspective of the death of Ultimate Warrior and the events of the past few days

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Cagesiders I'm not claiming this as fact, but to me as a "new" fan, this has been the most shocking news week in wrestling history. Jake Roberts, Scott Hall, and Ultimate Warrior inducted into the Hall of Fame, Undertaker's streak broken, and now the death of Ultimate Warrior. As these events have passed, I have a new respect for wrestling and its fans.

What do I mean by "new"? When I say new I mean I watched a little WWF in the late 1990's and early 2000's because of a friend, then took an 11 year hiatus, and now have been actively watching since just after WrestleMania 28.

I own up to the fact that I am not an expert on wrestling moves, wrestlers, or the history of any promotion on TV at this present time or in the past. Upon rejoining WWE the only past I know or I should say bothered to look up are Austin era promos and matches and the many "Best moments of DX, Rock, McMahon family feud, etc.." videos on YouTube.

Having said that, I will admit that it took me a little while to get into the product. I noticed its at times campy nature and ok storylines. But I grew into it and enjoyed it more especially during the John Laurinaitis Executive Vice President of Talent Relations and Interim RAW General Manager days. These were the days where I started to remember the old WWF boss is the bady guy days and I started going on YouTube. I would then find wrestling sites and learn even more about wrestling.

During the Hall of Fame ceremony Saturday as I watched Jake The Snake Roberts, Scott Hall, and Ultimate Warrior speeches I felt a disconnect as a new fan. Now don't get me wrong I pretty much cried during Jake The Snake's speech (and I admit it proudly) but I don't know anything about him or his wrestling ability, moveset, how the snake in the bag even became a thing. I know nothing about Scott Hall or his Razor Ramon character and I didn't even know who Ultimate Warrior was.

Then came Wrestlemania 30 and Daniel Bryan winning both his matches was awesome and all but that was something I could get behind as I have been a fan since his push in 2013 and have learned about who he is as a person outside the ring. It was an event that happened later on in the show where a streak was broken, and I looked like "Shocked Undertaker Guy" for about 5 minutes straight.

You can ask me who faced the Undertaker at Wrestlemanias 25-30 and I'll be able to tell you just from what I've watched on RAW since I came back to the product. Anytime before that, I have no clue. The Undertaker was immortal to me. I was a believer that the streak should not be broken and I was concerned in the weeks leading to Wrestlemania 30 that it would happen. But then as their match started I felt confident that it wouldn't happen. Oh if present self could go back to past self...

The streak for me was a throwback to the earlier days when a gimmick was treated the same as the titles were. For the past 2 years I enjoyed the show but never felt like a real fan because I didn't know much about anything. Undertaker's streak made me feel like I was that fan because it connected me personally to WWE's history. Staring at my tv with my mouth open in total disbelief of what I had seen and feeling stunned made me realize how much of a fan I was becoming, and I liked it. I liked that a loss in a wrestling match stunned me and felt heartbreaking. While I dislike that the streak was broken I idolize Paul Heyman and cannot be 100 percent angry... maybe 60 percent.

Then came Monday night RAW which was awesome for all 3 hours, something that generally never happens. Paul Heyman with Cesaro got me hyped for the future because I love that I can be a part of it. I love that I can now remain a fan and watch superstars introduced in the present and see their growth within the business like I did not get a chance to do before 2012. Of course then would come Warrior's promo and unfortunate death the next day.

I didn't know pretty much anything about the man so imagine how I felt after hearing both his induction speech and his RAW promo that he was not a nice person for a long time, mostly being prejudice, racist, and homophobic. I'm sitting here going wow what a wonderful guy full of happiness and love and then I hear these awful things about him. How do I now view him knowing his ugly past? How do you look at James Hellwig the man versus Ultimate Warrior the wrestling icon?

Well I can tell you personally as a gay man my answer is I can take into account that in his past he was a hurtful human being, but I appreciate everything he did for the business. I believe that towards the end of his life he was a good man. His family loved him dearly and he loved them back. The last 3 days of his life were filled with feeling joy and giving joy to others. He loved his family, he loved his fans, and he loved his fellow wrestlers. He was taking pictures with fans, signing autographs, and hugging Vince McMahon in a beautiful picture tweeted by Stephanie McMahon.

This is how he should be remembered. Warrior was human and humans make mistakes. Humans deserve forgiveness and new chances in life. There is ignorance, hatred, bigotry, racism, homophobia, and millions of angry people in this world. If we can embrace and forgive in life, we damn well can do so in death.

Warrior deserved his Hall of Fame induction while he was living and he deserved to tell the people how the Ultimate Warrior was tarnished by the WWE DVD. A one sided story is never a good story. WWE was able to forgive and give him their top honor.

He deserved it.

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Cageside Seats readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cageside Seats editors or staff.