(09 Apr 2014, 12:43 pm)AdamY wrote In defence of The Warrior, most of the bad-blood between himself and the WWE stems from the fact that he legally pursued things which to which he was entitled. While Vince and his legal team have, in the past, strong-armed certain performers to waive their rights under threat of the lengthy (and costly) courtroom battle; the Warrior successfully defended himself and won the rights to his gimmick. That takes balls and I admire him for that.
However, I agree with what you say about his political and personal beliefs as I too find them repugnant and reprehensible. He did take pot-shots at his peers for no apparent reason but he seems to have mellowed out in later years - working with an openly bisexual Orlando Jordan (something which he probably wouldn't have done while making his 'motivational speeches' back in the late 90's/early 00's); and making amends/burying the hatchet with fellow performers.
Didn't he legally change his name to Warrior to stop McMahon slapping copyright on it...
One thing I hated him for was his opinions on dead wrestlers, fair enough he was saying what we all thought, but the dead cannot defend themselves...
I must admit though, when I first started watching wrestling I found him a bit of an enigma, could not quite figure it out at the time, but understanding it now, he was of course meant to be that enigma...
There is no doubting Jim Hellwig was one of the most popular performers of his day and will be remembered as such and it is sad that someone who I grew up watching suddenly passes away...
The timing of his unfortunate death is ultimately very sad, if you had told me 5 years ago he would inducted into the HOF, I would have ridiculed you and asked where you been for the better of 2 decades...
RIP