Blame Extreme Championship Wrestling for that punderful title, as they gave us the original event of the same name in 1995. WWE pretty much destroyed the relaunched ECW with a pay-per-view of the same name a decade later. (It was a whole lot of not good.)
It's been a tough few weeks. Health issues kicked my depressive tendencies into high gear and familial situations ramped up my own need to retreat from a lot of the world. I've focused a bit more time into a few games instead of putting a lot of it into writing, either here on the blog or on books.
But I am continuing progress on Lightweight. I hoped to finish the last two chapters before the end of the month so that the first drafts would all be prepped for the January launch of all new stories on the Patreon. While I still have months and months to get them done before they would actually debut, that doesn't mean I don't want to make sure readers can know they will see everything come out in a timely manner with work done months in advance.
My plans for the final two weeks of the month consist mostly of getting the last few rewards for December sent out on Patreon, then to make sure everything is up and ready for January and February on the Patreon. From there, I plan to wrap up the fourth book of Lightweight, then move on to completing the first full year of Quadrant and Shockwave. After that, I'm in the free and clear to start on 2020's slate of stories for the site!
Not much news otherwise as I ramp up for the Christmas holidays. Next week's posts will likely be light on content, so you can expect to see your next WIP Wednesday after the first of the year!
I have an incredibly tiny desk space in the corner of the bedroom where about 90% of my writing gets done. It isn't the ideal writing spot, but it is an effective area to work. But sometimes I need inspiration or just a bit of a distraction from the regular grind of trying to figure out the next plot point of my current story. And that's where the handy shelf of action figures behind my desk comes in handy.
As part of this week's Pop Culture League, I'm going to take a look at my ten favorite toys on those shelves. And since my current at home camera sucks, I'll use handy stock or review photos for my convenience!
Honorable Mention: WWE Figures I don't buy many wrestling toys, but a few have a treasured place on my shelves. My currently unopened Samoa Joe will certainly join these four shortly. (Images all from Ringside Collectibles if you didn't figure that out.)
10. Otho
I've seen a lot more love for the Four Horsemen's Mythic Legions line than I've actually felt for the figures. They are pretty solid overall, but I can't help but feel the line is overly expansive without enough variety. Still, I see a few gems in the line and Otho here is one of them.
What's Up is a simple post where I give you links to the books, comics, movies, games and/or music I have been enjoying as of late. Feel free to check them out if you would like to enjoy them as well or give your opinions of these works in the comments below (though do try to keep it spoiler free.)
When I originally wrote this post, Wrestlemania XXX was just days away with a future for Ultimate Warrior and WWE that looked bright. He was back working with Vince, a new DVD reliving his legacy was out and I was watching clips left and right on the very new WWE Network. I hadn't paid this much attention to the Ultimate Warrior in a decade.
Sadly, less than 48 hours after his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame, the Ultimate Warrior was dead. But this article isn’t about Jim Hellwig, Jim Warrior or whatever name he used outside the ring. He was just a man. But the Ultimate Warrior was a legend. This is an article about the character he created inside the squared circle.
The Ultimate Warrior is all about character. Or more accurately for this column, being the best character ever.
He started out much in the same way as current NXT star Mojo Rawley, a guy that blasts to the ring and never stops for a second in his victories. And the then-WWF used television for months to make it clear why we should love him. He ran to the ring for months to completely destroy jobbers in ultrashort matches that made him look like a million bucks.
By the time he got his first loss to Rick Rude, it didn’t matter. He started to cut long winded promos about his ability and power, often adding new and interesting words that didn’t exist until that moment.
But it was his victory over the Honky Tonk Man, the wrestler that had held a stranglehold over the Intercontinental title for 14 months, longer than any star before or since. The Warrior made short work of HTM.
This happened to Rick Rude a lot.
The title win was the start of Ultimate Warrior’s rise to the top of the card. His impressive victories, great look and amazing—albeit crazed—promos cemented him as a fan favorite of the WWF’s young fans. Discussions over who the greatest WWF star began among young fans. Was it WWF champion Hulk Hogan or the new Intercontinental champion?
That answer came in 1990 at WrestleMania VI. In the main event of that show it was title versus title. The Intercontinental champion beat the World champ and Ultimate Warrior rose to the top of the heap.
Unfortunately, the Warrior’s story didn’t really work once he was the king of the heap. He always worked best in weird psychological battles with the likes of Rick Rude and Jake the Snake. Standing at the top of the heap as the guy with the belt only exposed his weaknesses as a talent. After nine months as the top guy, he lost the title to the turncoat Sgt. Slaughter.
In the year after his loss, he once again entered some great feuds, starting with a battle with Randy Savage that gave him his finest match at Wrestlemania VII. But after his exposure as the champ, the Warrior’s shine had faded. And with steroids becoming an issue for WWF, the most obvious roid user on the roster became more of a liability than a moneymaker.
The Warrior left in late 1991 and outside brief runs in ‘92, ‘96 and ‘98, his career was basically at an end.
Of course, those long absences were sometimes just fine with me. Post-1992, he dropped the Ultimate from his name and started writing in an insane but great comic series starring himself simply called Warrior.
Huh?
The comic is probably best remembered for the issue he tortured Santa Claus. Yes, really.
Looking back now, it is clear that the Ultimate Warrior was all about personality and look without the needed skills to truly work as a great wrestler. But not even Hulk Hogan was able to so aptly and easily catch the young wrestling fan’s joy. Everything about the Warrior is worthy of study, simply to show the ability of great booking and an amazing personality to make a star. And because of that he truly is the best character of that era of pro wrestling.
The Warrior is one of the few characters out there that directly inspired a work of fiction by me. I will talk a bit more about American Arsenal later today, but his pattern of speech is based directly on the Ultimate Warrior’s often strange promos.
Rob Schamberger's Warrior painting.
Image credit: RobSchamberger.com.
Here are a few of the things I have been up to in the last week, in handy link form. Of course, it doesn’t include my usual Lucha Underground viewing nor does it cover the excellent SCW I went to on Friday night. But it is a nice cross section of several quality products that I think are worth checking out.
[caption id="attachment_192" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Rowan even looks epic in family pictures.[/caption]
The first forty slots of The Wrestling Blog Top 100 Wrestlers are now up at the site with the remaining 60 stars left to be revealed in picks through the end of the month. But my contributions in the Top 100 focus on three talents, the pictured Erick Rowan, Chikara Grand Champion Icarus and my top pick revealed so far: ROH standout Tommaso Ciampa.
and 
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