The Ultimate Warrior's 5 most epic matches

As the wrestling world continues to celebrate the career of WWE Hall of Famer The Ultimate Warrior after his untimely passing this week, we’ve been thinking back to all the moments that the Warrior’s classic matches gave us.  While many have pointed out that the Warrior was never a technical wrestler in the ring, the emotion created in his matches showed the ability he had to create epic moments that have and always will live on.  Below we share our top 5 Ultimate Warrior matches, but feel free to join in and share your own as well.

5. The Ultimate Warrior vs. “Ravishing” Rick Rude – Summerslam 90 WWF Title Cage Match

The Ultimate Warrior feuded with Rick Rude for the majority of 1989 over the Intercontinental title and after Warrior defeated Hulk Hogan for the then-WWF Championship at WrestleMania 6, Rude stepped up to the plate and was Warrior’s first PPV championship challenger.

Warrior’s matches with Rude at WrestleMania 5 (where Warrior lost the Intercontinental Championship due to outside interference from Bobby Heenan) or the previous year’s Summerslam in 1989 (where Warrior regained the IC title) could’ve both also easily made this list as well, but the fact that Rude came across at Summerslam 90 as refocused and combined with his new short hair look gave the vibe that Rude was a serious threat to the title.  To add a new element to their storied feud, this match would be held in a steel cage.  I remember this version of Rude being more serious than ever and felt he could walk away with the title.  It was not to be this night, as The Warrior successfully defended his title and Rick Rude left WWE just a few months later.