''He’s a head case''- Jim Ross on why former WWE Champion had to lose to The Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania
WWE legend Jim Ross talked about The Ultimate Warrior in WWE. Ross revealed that the reason Triple H was chosen to lose to The Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania 12 was because of how reliable Triple H was as a worker. He also said that Warrior was unreliable and a 'head case'.
The Ultimate Warrior returned to WWE after a hiatus in 1996. In order for him to get over, WWE wanted him to beat a superstar of high calibre at WrestleMania 12. It was Triple H who was finally selected as The Ultimate Warrior's opponent. Hunter lost to Warrior in a squash match which lasted around 2 minutes.
Speaking on his podcast Grilling JR, Jim Ross talked about how good Triple H is in the ring. He revealed that they chose him to face Warrior in a WrestleMania match because they knew he wouldn't let the fans see any rust or cracks in Warrior's game, considering he had been out of action for so long.
“We’ve talked about the Warrior, he’s a head case. He’s always worried about things, he was hard to do business with at times. What we wanted to try to accomplish there was to put him with somebody that he could trust and that he knew would make Warrior look good and we trusted Triple H to get that done. It wasn’t a great booking for him I guess, he’s going to work with one of the previously known stars of the business, he is going to do the honors. He also knew what his real job was there. It was to protect the image of the Ultimate Warrior because we didn’t know at the time that Warrior didn’t have plenty of gas in the tank if he was going to become this red hot box office attraction that he used to be,'' said Ross
''We had great trust in Triple H'' - Jim Ross on his match against The Ultimate Warrior
Jim Ross said that WWE had hoped that The Ultimate Warrior would become a box office sensation again. Warrior had been one of the biggest superstars before he quit WWE. His return was seen as underwhelming and did not last very long either.
''That was really the deal, it was more that we had great trust in Triple H, we knew his skill set was conducive to covering up Warrior's inconsistencies and I talked to Paul about that over the years,'' said Ross
Ross commended Triple H for understanding his role in the match. He said that Triple H realized that he would move up the ladder in his WWE career and would have to face many opponents who were not at the same level as him.