James Hellwig

He was married to Shari Lynn Tyree from October 2, 1982 to March 22, 1991. On January 31, 1999 he married Dana Viale with whom he had two daughters Indiana born in 2000 and Mattigan born in 2002.

He changed his name legally to Warrior in 1993 and his children use it as their legal surname.

On April 8, 2014, he succumbed to a heart attack in Scottsdale, Arizona. On April 14 episode of Raw, WWE paid him a tribute with a ten bell salute and a video. A lineup named ‘Warrior Week’ was aired by the WWE Network in his memory. On December 8, that year, he was awarded a posthumous Slammy Award for Surprise Return of the Year.

James Brian Hellwig was born on June 16, 1959, in Crawfordsville, Indiana, US as oldest child of his parents among five children. At age 11, he began training with weights. When he was 12 years old, his father left the family following which his mother raised him, first single-handedly and later along with his step-father.

He relocated with his family to Indiana later where he completed his graduation from Veedersburg's Fountain Central High School. He also studied for a year at the Indiana State University.

He got inspired to get into bodybuilding after seeing bodybuilder Robby Robinson. After taking up the sport, he participated in different contests including in several NPC contests.

He became winner of the Junior Atlanta contest while studying at Life University in Marietta, Georgia and finished 5th at the 1981 AAU Collegiate Mr. America. He won the AAU Coastal USA in 1983 and NPC Mr. Georgia crown in 1984.

Although initially he planned to become a chiropractor, following his six weeks training in California in 1985 for a bodybuilding contest, Hellwig accepted an invitation to join a group of bodybuilders to form a pro-wrestling team, marking commencement of his career in the sport.

Hellwig became part of the group of bodybuilders who forayed into professional wrestling as Powerteam USA. Eventually he formed a tag team called ‘The Blade Runners’ with Steve Borden, who later became popular as ‘Sting’. The tag team debuted with wrestling promotion Continental Wrestling Association (CWA) and then became part of Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) before disbanding in 1986.

Hellwig joined WCCW in 1986 where he adopted the ring name ‘Dingo Warrior’. He along with Lance Von Erich formed a tag team and won the WCWA World Tag Team Championship on November 17, 1986. They lost the title to Al Madril and Brian Adias on December 1 same year.

His other feat with WCCW was winning the WCWA Texas Heavyweight Championship title beating Bob Bradley on February 2, 1987. He vacated the title and resigned from the promotion and joined World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in June 1987. In WWF he adopted the ring name ‘The Ultimate Warrior’.

For the first few months in WWF, he competed as Dingo Warrior on house shows and later on October 25, 1987, he made his TV debut in a Wrestling Challenge episode as ‘The Ultimate Warrior’. With time he garnered decent attention for his distinctive pattern of face paint, high-energy ring entrances and quasi-mystical interview style.

He featured in different television commercials of Westway Ford during 1987-89 and was many a times seen interacting with Westway's wacky character, ‘Mean Joe Greed’.