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HOW ULTIMATE WARRIOR HELPED ME

By Michael Tavares on 4/9/2014 11:37 AM

Unbelievable.

The Ultimate Warrior, my favorite pro-wrestler, has passed away at the very young age of 54.

I had the opportunity to help The Ultimate Warrior with his first web site back in 1995. When the WWE aired a comeback video for him in December 1995, I reached out to him and was told it was premature as no deal was signed.

A month before he would return at WrestleMania 12 in 1996, I got the chance to help him get the word out on his comic book before the WWE marketing machine. I did not have a scanner so I went to Kinkos and got it done there. Kinkos would not allow me to scan the comic book picture that Warrior sent me via mail. So I called Warrior and Dana (his girlfriend at the time and today is his wife and mother to their two daughters) and Warrior immediately wrote a letter to fax to Kinkos giving me his permission to scan the comic book picture.

At that point I knew my dream of working with Warrior was real. I was actually working with my favorite pro-wrestler.

A few months later rumors spread like a wildfire online about him missing house shows so I called him about it. He picked up the phone and we talked about it. Then he left the WWE and would not return again until this past weekend for the Hall of Fame and WrestleMania 30.

I never had a chance to meet him in person but we did exchange many e-mails and he helped me with advice on working out in 1999. I went from 120 pounds to 160 pounds of muscle. He was very proud of me but always reminded me to work out the most important part of my body, which was my brain. Even though I had dropped out of college twice, I made my own ultimate return and graduated with a B.S. degree in criminal justice, a B.A. degree in journalism and an M.S. in counselor education. That was something he was most proud of.

Thanks to my connection to Warrior I was able to get my foot in the door with All Pro Wrestling along with Jim Cooley in 1997. That later led to a job with IGN writing articles and stories for their wrestling channel. I also got to write for WOW Magazine and met so many withing the pro-wrestling industry and made some very good friends and still keep in touch with to this very day.

Warrior was not exactly the most technical wrestler, but he found a way to make it work for him to be the legend that he is. He entertained the hell out of me when I was a kid. It's sad to hear the news as he leaves behind his wife and their two daughters.

Thank you for the wonderful memories and thank you for letting me be a part of the team from 1995-1999.

Always Believe #RIPUltimateWarrior