Scrapiron Says: 1st May Edition.

Hello Warrior's, welcome to the first "Scrapiron Says". An occasional article where I will put some of my thoughts and opinions about happenings in the world of Warrior out there.

Today is the first of May, the first day of Summer, which this year promises to be the Summer of Warrior. After ten long years Warrior has decided the time is right to don the face paint once more and unleash the Ultimate Warrior on a wrestling world that thought it was safe to step back in the ring. Many have speculated over the past decade about an Ultimate Warrior return to wrestling. Would he return? Where would he go? Who would he face? Does he still have IT? Well on June 25th in Barcalona, Spain all of those questions will be answered.

Until then we are left with a couple more burning questions... WHY NOW? And Why NWE? First I'll give my thoughts on the "Why NWE."

Undoubtedly Warrior has had opertunities in the past to make a wrestling return. Shortly after his release from WCW there were rumours that he might make an appearance in ECW. Paul Heyman was reported as saying "There's a chance Warrior will come to ECW. There's a bigger chance if he jobs to Taz." Warrior made a post on Warrior Web stating he had no problem doing the job but it would be better business to have a program with Taz leading up to the big payoff. Obviously it never came to pass and to be honest I'm glad it didn't. As much as I wanted to see Warrior back in wrestling, ECW was not big enough for a genuine wrestling superstar like the Ultimate Warrior. It was well beneath him and not worthy of his name on one of it's cards.

Shortly after WCW went out of business these was a bit of a shuffle in the wrestling world and several new promotions rose up. one of those was World Wrestling Allstars. They were in contact with Warrior in the very early stages of thier existance and initially Warrior was positive about making an appearance. However, WWA began advertising Warrior before any deal was signed and sealed and this led Warrior to lose interest in doing business with them.

A Jerry Jarrett owned TNA was the other major promotion to rise up in the wake of WCW. Ironically it was Jarrett who took a chance on a couple of green wrestlers by the names of Jim Hellwig and Steve Borden back in 1985 and gave them their start in the business. Would he now be the man to bring Warrior back into it? He might have been if he had respected Warrior in their phone conversations. Jarrett spoke to Warrior as if he was sitting by the phone with his wrestling gear packed just waiting to go. This was absolutely not the case and was enough to turn Warrior off appearing in TNA.

Years passed since then and while rumours of a Warrior return persisted none of them had very much, if any substance to them. Enter Italy's Nu Wrestling Evolution. Rumours began to circulate and were then confirmed by Warrior on Warrior Web that he would be accepting a career award from NWE in Madrid on April 19th. As we know now this was an angle to set up a confrontation with NWE Champion Orlando Jordan after which Warrior announced he would return to the ring and face Jordan in a title match on June 25th in Barcalona. Cue Scrapiron Bryan's jaw dropping to the floor. When I eventually regained control of my jaw muscles I was able to ask my self why NWE? And after a little web search or two the answer was simple. It's something Warrior has said time and again on Warrior Web. The wrestling business had become a smutty shadow of it's former self. It was no longer family oriented fun. T&A had replaced Good vs Evil. And that's where NWE differs from other wrestling promotions. NWE offers a good, clean, family oriented wrestling show and has been since it's inception. It took balls of steel for NWE to take the road less travelled and build their business on positive values rather than taking the easy route and doing what everybody else is doing. It has woked well for them. That's proven by the 15,000 sell out crowd that was in Madrid to witness the events of April 19th. What's really impressive is the show was sold out before it was announced Warrior would be there.

So Why Now? I remember Warrior saying afew (I'm thinking about three) years ago in either an interview or a post on Warrior Web that he had about five years where he felt he might be able to make a return to wrestling. With time running out on his self imposed expiry date and a solid offer from a serious promotion on the table, a promotion that genuinely wanted to do business with him both for him and for the business and not exploit him for the sake of business, maybe he simply felt now was the time. Warrior once said to me in an email about a business deal he was negotiating "It's about money, but it's about more than money." Warrior knows what the character he created is worth. But more than that he has high moral values that he will not sell out for any price. For Warrior to agree terms with NWE the conditions had to be perfect. You can be assured that this Warrior return will differ greatly from the last one. And while I'm on the subject of WCW 1998, if you've been reading Warrior's posts on Warrior Web over the past few years you will know the pride he has in the Ultimate Warrior Character. Maybe he didn't want WCW to be the final chapter in the book of Warrior. And maybe, just maybe he wanted to hear the roar of the crowds once more before bringing to a close for the final time the wrestling career of the most enduring persona ever to grace a wrestling arena.

Strap yourselves in and enjoy the ride little warriors, the stage is set for the Summer of Warrior. It's a show you do not want to miss.

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