Mario Mancini recently recalled how The Ultimate Warrior learned a valuable lesson about no-selling other wrestlers’ offense.
In 1987, the Hall of Famer was known as The Dingo Warrior at the start of his WWE career. The eccentric performer made his name by defeating several enhancement talents, aka jobbers. At the time, top WWE Superstars were told not to acknowledge their lesser-known opponents’ moves during short matches.
Mancini, a WWE wrestler between 1984 and 1992, revealed on the Cheap Heat Productions Podcast that he gave Warrior some advice before his first match:
“I shake his hand, I go, ‘Wow, you’re built like a brick s***house. Listen, when you go out there, don’t sell anything. Don’t sell nothing. It’ll be like a flea on you. Don’t register. Forget about selling. Don’t even register it.’ He goes out there, whoever he was working with, the jobber hits him in the stomach and he registers it.” [7:33 – 8:01]
The Dingo Warrior recorded wins over the likes of Barry Horowitz and Steve Lombardi in untelevised matches before changing his name to The Ultimate Warrior. Within three years, he defeated Hulk Hogan in the WrestleMania 6 main event to capture the WWE Championship.
Backstage reaction to The Ultimate Warrior’s first WWE match
Pat Patterson was Vince McMahon’s right-hand man behind the scenes when The Ultimate Warrior’s WWE career began.
Mario Mancini added that Patterson gave Warrior the same advice about no-selling his opponents’ moves:
“He [Warrior] comes back and I look to the left and Pat Patterson’s running down toward him, like he’s got a blue suit and red cape on. I stand back and Jimmy [Jim Hellwig, Warrior’s real name] turns around and Pat goes, ‘Hey, hey, hey, don’t sell anything. Don’t sell nothing. Don’t sell a thing.’ Pat walked away and Jimmy went [turned his head], and he looked at me. I went, ‘Don’t sell anything…'” [8:03 – 8:40]
In 1996, Warrior famously no-sold Triple H’s Pedigree when he defeated the WWE Chief Content Officer in a 99-second match at WrestleMania 12.
What are your thoughts on The Ultimate Warrior as a wrestler? Let us know in the comments section below.
Please credit the Cheap Heat Productions Podcast and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.
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