Believe Whatever You Like

Wrestling is unique.  I guess that might be putting it kind of lightly.  It definitely creates some unique characters.  You could argue that, in recent years, the average wrestler is a lot more civil and lacking the ‘larger than life’ personality of former years.  Daniel Bryan, the champion of current WWE, has based his entire campaign around being just like every person in the audience. 

The 80’s are known for excess, and nothing was more excessive than the WWF of those days.  Enormous men, extravagant celebrity-filled events, and ranting and raving so insane that it could perhaps have doubled around into genius; scholars are still deciphering.  It all seemed so other-worldly that, to a lot of children, it was nearly untouchable.  Which is why everyone wanted to touch it.

Growing up, I was always a Hogan kid.  Hogan was a man on the precipice of sanity.  He would widen his eyes and tell you faerie tales about slamming giants so hard that earthquakes destroy everyone except the Hulkamaniacs.  If Hogan was on that precipice, the Ultimate Warrior was driving a rocket ship right off of it.

The argument could be made that no human being could possibly know what Warrior was talking about except for Warrior.  Certainly, no children were sitting on their living room floor, nodding along to his points.  The mystery and the intensity were the appeal; the man’s clear insanity was amazing and confusing and enticing.  It was cool. 

We are no longer in the 80’s though.  The year 2000 has come and gone, heck even 2010 is gone!  The thing about acting insane now is that people can really tell if you’re insane or not.  Characters cannot strictly be characters, they are extensions of a regular human being.  Hulk Hogan is no longer the immortal Hulk Hogan, riding motorcycles and playing guitar, and headbutting the Russian flag.  He’s Hulk Hogan the dad, the actor, the jerk(?).  These are not my feelings on him, he’s been called many things by many people.  Heck, his whole 'life' was on display in a reality show.  His life, like all of our heroes has been opened up by this new age.  The Ultimate Warrior was also victim to this for many fans.

The fact that WWE put out an entire DVD mocking him should tell you a bit about either A) who he was or B) who he worked for or with.  For me, a lot of his post-wrestling antics were difficult to come to terms with.  There’s his famous ‘queerin’ don’t make the world go ‘round’ quote, for example.  I knew the man’s politics!  It wasn’t even on purpose, it’s just that everything is reported.  He also changed his name TO Warrior.  My prognosis?  The guy was just nuts.

When I heard he was being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, I and many other people thought “Here we go!  Crazy guy with a microphone!”.  I watched his speech and I was saddened a bit, not because he was quite sane and reasonable, which he was.  I was sad because a lot of his speech was arguing “Hey, I wasn’t really a bad guy!”.  And when he was talking, he didn’t seem like a bad guy. 

Do I think it’s a bit weird that his daughter was named Dakota North Warrior?  A bit, yeah.  I realize that, a lot of that crazy isn’t crazy as much as it is a very ADAMANT commitment to self-confidence.  He believed in himself.  A lot.  Some people find that to be egotistical, some people find it inspiring.  It was Warrior, though.  It’s what he is, and nowadays, you can judge a person (and moreso a celebrity) with a level of completeness you never could before.  Maybe this means you’ll hate more people, maybe it means you’ll be more accepting of their faults. 

Regardless of the ‘dirt’, I was happy to see a man who was thankful.  He seemed genuinely hurt by what had been said of him.  It was good to see him talking with the current generation and making amends with those people who tore him down.  He is a lucky man.  Many men like himself have died before their time and without any pomp.  His last minutes were in front of a crowd screaming for him, and he was screaming back.