Vince McMahon offered Ultimate Warrior a huge contract to be a part of the Attitude Era in WWE
The Ultimate Warrior is a legend in WWE, and his stay in the company was short, yet explosive. Warrior was the epitome of 1980s wrestling, with his ridiculous gimmick and huge muscles making Hulk Hogan look decidedly normal in comparison.
His promos were the ranting of a madman, whilst his matches ranged from incredibly exciting to “oh god no, please stop, why is that hulking muscleman out of breathe so fast, this is awful”. A broad range that usual fell on the latter did not stop the fans at home from falling in love with The Ultimate Warrior.
Warrior, as he later changed his legal name to, later became the joint WWE and Intercontinental Champion when he defeated Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania VI. It seemed to be a “passing of the torch” moment, indicating the end of Hulkamania and the birth of the era of the Warrior.
However, as you may know, that didn’t work out too well. Warrior didn’t have much of an impact on WWE after that, and the ball was quickly passed back to Hogan, who held on to it with dear life until he left to sign for WCW in 1993.
Ultimate Warrior also left WWE in 1992, before a brief return in 1996. He came back just in time to squash Triple H at Wrestlemania X, in a match that was said to “piss off” WWE management.
He would move to WCW in 1998 with a brief but terrible run opposite Hulk Hogan. That was the end of his full time career and he was inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame in 2014, 3 days prior to his untimely death.
However, 1996 was not meant to be the end his WWE career. Recently, a leaked copy of the Ultimate Warrior’s WWE contract offer from 1997 came out and it was a surprisingly big offer compared to what you’d expect WWE to offer the former champion going into the Attitude Era.
Ultimate Warrior Contract Offer
In a recent leak from WWE, the contract offer for Ultimate Warrior to return to the WWE in 1997 has been revealed.
The offer, from Vince McMahon himself, offers Ultimate Warrior a five-year contract with a guarantee of $750,000 per year, including extra royalties. These royalties include merchandise (in which Warrior would get a 35% cut as oppose to everyone else’s 25%, and he would work 14 dates per month for the WWE.
This was a huge offer for WWE at the time, who had just lost Bret Hart to WCW because they couldn’t afford to pay his contract. With a dearth of stars in the company, WWE were desperate in their fight against WCW in the ratings war.
Ultimate Warrior was a proven main eventer and one of the few men who could boast a victory over Hulk Hogan (a clean win at that).
While it seemed like a great deal, Warrior turned it down and signed for WCW the next year, reportedly for less dates and more money (around $1 million a year, according to Dave Meltzer).
You can see the full contract below.
Had he signed the deal, Ultimate Warrior would have been a part of the WWE throughout the Attitude Era and beyond. He would have been around to face all the top stars of the day, including matches against stars like Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock and Kurt Angle, just to name a few.
He would also have been there through to the beginning of the Ruthless Aggression era, and could have battled it out with the stars of today like John Cena and Randy Orton. There are a whole host of dream matches he could have had had The Ultimate Warrior accepted the contract offer and signed the bumper five year deal with Vince McMahon and joined the WWE
However, knowing the Warrior, he would have walked out on his deal like he did in 1996.
