Before They Were Stars (2-for-1 Special): The Ultimate Warrior and Sting as The Freedom Fighters

2014 has been a pretty shocking year for celebrity deaths, but I have to say that I was blindsided by the recent passing of one of the most famous wrestlers of all time, The Ultimate Warrior. Unfortunately, it’s not all that surprising any more to learn that a pro wrestler has died at a young age, but the Warrior’s death was particularly shocking because this past weekend, he was inducted into the World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame before making appearances at their Wrestlemania 30 pay-per-view and their flagship television program, WWE Raw. The Warrior literally died less than 24 hours after appearing on live television to make what can now be construed as a farewell speech to his fans. Anyway, in the early 1990s, when Warrior’s stardom was its peak, he was often compared to Sting, who was his face-painted doppelganger in the rival promotion, World Championship Wrestling. In fact, the two wrestlers broke into the business together in the mid-1980s. Here’s some ultra-rare footage of the future Ultimate Warrior and Sting (under their real names, Jim Hellwig and Steve Borden) wrestling together in a Memphis as a tag team called The Freedom Fighters. At this point, they are both very green in the ring and on the microphone and if you thought the Warrior was muscular now, he was friggin’ HUGE in 1985! R.I.P.