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Legendary wrestling booker and manager Dutch Mantell recently recalled how The Ultimate Warrior did not get along with many WWE stars in real life.
Warrior was one of wrestling's biggest names in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The biggest moment of his career came in 1990 when he defeated Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 6 to capture the WWE Championship.
On Story Time with Dutch Mantell, the 73-year-old gave his brutally honest thoughts on Warrior as an in-ring performer:
"He was horrible, he never improved at all, and he was toxic," Mantell said. "He'd go in the dressing room, and I guess he'd dress by himself. He had no friends, he had nobody traveling with him, anything, and he would talk to Vince [WWE Executive Chairman Vince McMahon] and some of the agents and the referee, and that's it." [2:39 – 2:58]
It is well known that The Ultimate Warrior could be difficult to work with backstage. In 1991, he famously threatened to no-show SummerSlam if Vince McMahon did not increase his pay.
Dutch Mantell worked with The Ultimate Warrior before he joined WWE
Before becoming major stars in the wrestling business, Sting and The Ultimate Warrior wrestled in Memphis with Dutch Mantell as their manager.
Mantell believes Sting and Warrior were fortunate to receive huge opportunities in WCW and WWE, respectively, early on in their careers:
"Those guys were probably two of the luckiest guys, I'll say [especially] Warrior, with the least bit of talent available, and they made millions. Sting was about 10 times better than Warrior, but Sting only did a certain move set anyway. Sting relied on just the gimmick Sting, beating his chest, to get over, and he did get over, and Warrior got over, but they were lucky in a way that they came along at just the right time." [3:46 – 4:22]
Almost four decades on, Sting still wrestles at the age of 64 for AEW. In 2014, Warrior passed away at the age of 54 after suffering a heart attack.
What are your thoughts on The Ultimate Warrior? Let us know in the comments section below.
Please credit Story Time with Dutch Mantell and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.
