Brooklyn Brawler Looks Back On Working With WWE Legend The Ultimate Warrior

The Ultimate Warrior was one of the most charismatic performers to ever step foot inside a wrestling ring and became one of the most popular stars of one of WWE's hottest periods. However, many didn't know the man behind the character, aside from a few people like Steve Lombardi, better known as The Brooklyn Brawler.

Lombardi was recently a guest on Chris Van Vliet's "Insight" podcast where he talked about being Warrior's first opponent in WWE in 1987 when Hellwig was still known as The Dingo Warrior. Lombardi opened up about working with Warrior and how he came to know the man behind the character.

"I wrestled him about 47 days, and one day during our tenure they came to me and they said, 'We're going to ask Warrior to have you win today to test his attitude,'" Lombardi said. "He liked me and I took him in a room and I said, 'Jim, I shouldn't ... I don't know if I should do this or shouldn't do this, but you're my friend and I care about you. They're going to ask you to do a job for me, what I want you to do, and this is your choice, is to say, 'Anything for the business. I will do anything,' and he did it. I beat The Ultimate Warrior."

A small moment like that led to the two men becoming good friends behind the scenes, with Hellwig even namedropping Lombardi in his 2014 WWE Hall of Fame induction speech. Knowing the man behind the character is the reason why Lombardi went on to say that the talk of Warrior having a bad attitude is nonsense, and said people didn't bother to understand him.

Please credit "Insight" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.