The Ultimate Warriors vs. The Heenan Family
Survivor Series '89
After winning the Intercontinental Championship back from Rick Rude at SummerSlam, The Ultimate Warrior entered into a program with Andre the Giant. The two worked several matches around the country, at Madison Square Garden and in dark matches following Superstars of Wrestling tapings.
Their feud culminated in a main event match at Survivor Series, where Warrior captained a team against The Heenan Family. Besides Warrior, the match included Shawn Michaels, Marty Jannetty, and Jim Neidhart against the team of Andre the Giant, Haku, Arn Anderson and Bobby Heenan himself!
In one of the more shocking moments in Survivor Series history, Warrior hit the ring like a bat out of hell, knocking Andre over the top rope as soon as the bell rung. The Giant would then get counted out, not 15 seconds into the match, taking the Heenan Family's biggest weapon out of the picture. Of course, the contest came down to The Ultimate Warrior and the weaselly Bobby Heenan, with the Intercontinental Champion splashing his way to victory as the sole survivor.
"Every day he would take his kids to school. Personally, he would drive them. He wouldn't let them take the bus. He would drive them because he wanted that extra time with them. That, to him, was precious … He loved going to Disney Land, and just observing people. He would sit on a bench, and his kids would run around the park, and he would just take it all in. He loved Walt Disney and the empire he built, and the vision he had, and the creativity it took to do it … He did a lot of oil painting. He'd only use a short knife and thick slab of wood; a method he picked up from a French artist in Texas. The majority of his artwork was Southwestern in style. He got so good that his art was in high-demand in Santa Fe. He got so good they were doing shows just featuring his art."
-Court Bauer, former WWE writer*
*Taken from 4/9 podcast on MLW.com.
