The Ultimate Warrior died today (yesterday). To many people this means nothing (sadly for anyone personally close to the man himself). Warrior was an icon of icons in professional wrestling. Anyone who is around my age and grew up watching WWF (before it was WWE) knew the Warrior for his general amazingness. I can still remember Wrestlemania VI when he fought Hulk Hogan in the most epic wrestling match of all time. I was like 8 years old and basically mimicked the entire match with my younger brother and our Hogan and Warrior wrestling buddies. My parents actually bought us wrestling mats to put in the basement because before then we just beat the hell out of each other in our room and knocked the light fixtures out of the ceiling when my Mom was making dinner on multiple occasions.
Like many legends of the professional wrestling culture, especially the 80s and 90s, Warrior had a bit of a sad demise after his meteoric rise to fame. He did his share of illegal supplements which caused a good mount of health problems, surely contributing to his untimely death at the age of 54. He had a few comeback stints, lawsuits against the Federation itself, a run as a conservative motivational speaker, and eventually faded into a sort of sad obscurity, a shell of the monstrous physical specimen he was as shown in pictures like above.
What I always remember about what I remember about Warrior (wrap your head around that for a second) was how passionate he was. We all know pro wrestling was and is scripted. Now that I don’t follow it anymore it sort of baffles me how it has the following it still does, with grown people with fully developed brains following the story lines like the hottest new TV drama, when it’s actually all fake. But what was so interesting about the Ultimate Warrior was his takes and his general being was so passionately real. The show that is the WWE means that everything about it is over the top. The men and women that become these characters literally become the characters, keeping their persona in and out of the ring. It’s almost bizarre, and to most people (I think and maybe hope) it grows old because at some age we eventually want something real.
The Warrior was about as real as it gets in that fake world, and this isn’t just the kid in me reminiscing about Gorilla Press Slams with my bro before we begged Mom to let us stay up past bedtime for Monday Night Raw. I’ll always remember when he showed up as a guest on Regis and Kathy Lee. While his eventual complete destruction of the set, and his showing up in ring attire with full man package showing, was clearly part of the act he still was genuine and real pretty much the whole appearance. The guy was just a complete maniac, and I loved it.
I still love it. I get fired up listening to his intro music and watching old footage of him sprinting full speed into the ring, fist pumping, shaking the ropes, and completely losing his mind. This probably is just nostalgia but what was so cool about him was this was him 24/7. Passion. While many could argue that his passion was worthless or misplaced, it was pure, raw, honest passion. Insane, but honest passion. I know a good many people who would (and should) kill to be as passionate about anything as this:
httpv://youtu.be/ffXJodvm66E
It was this passion that made him the icon he was. It takes something so crazy, so over the top to cement a place in history with such little time on your side. It’s like Guns N’ Roses. Barely 6 years (the ones that count) and 3 albums and they were gone, but you can’t turn a rock station on without hearing a song and they made the Rock Hall of Fame 2 years ago. There is something to be said for unbridled passion, unchecked fervor for what you do. While I certainly don’t envy the outcome of Warrior’s life or promote the lifestyle he lead, his short professional wrestling life is something of legend so much so that 30 year olds write blogs about them 20 years after his peak as an athlete. Passion like this, where just your existence and being can leave a mark on history for generations, is something I envy. Not only from the standpoint of living my life to such an extent but being able to instill such passion in others.
While 54 is certainly too young to die I can only hope that the 24 years I have left (if I were to go the same way) can have an affect on the world that makes someone write a blog about me. I’m sure it ain’t easy, but we surely can all try right? Maybe tomorrow when we wake up we can all try tossing on this theme music and shaking the ropes a few times to get the day going.
RIP Warrior. Shake the ropes 2014.
THURSDAY
Super sore from the week so far? This is actually a great day to make it in. Classes are going to be reduced on Friday due to the Attitude Nation Camp, very limited on Saturday or possibly canceled, and limited on Sunday. Get your classes on tomorrow and Friday. Tomorrow will be a great day to get the soreness out and have a great WOD on Friday too. Still plenty to get the most out of the week.
Strength: Press
6 sets of 3 reps, strict (same weight) across
WOD: 3 Rounds
Row 500m
Run 400m
25 Unbroken KB Swings 53/35
12 Burpees
Rest 2:00
