Hulk Hogan On Ultimate Warrior’s Death: Did WWE Know It Was Coming?

Hulk Hogan recently sat down with Grantland and did a shoot on how he found out the Ultimate Warrior had died shortly after WrestleMania 30.

In the video below, Hogan touches some on the tensions that existed between himself and Jim Helwig (aka The Ultimate Warrior). According to the Hulkster, WWE had said “don’t talk to Jim,” because they wanted him to “enjoy the weekend.”

Hogan added that Triple H told him they “didn’t want any craziness” between him and Warrior, to which Hogan replied that he “loved the guy” and that he wanted to tell him he was sorry for “anything I contributed” to the rift that existed between the two.

During the WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony, Hogan was seated directly behind the Warrior, a situation he called “awkward” until he finally broke orders and tracked his old nemesis/ally down after the event.

It was there, Hogan said, that they were able to mend fences, after which Warrior posed for a photograph with Hulk Hogan and Pat Patterson.

From there, it gets a bit emotional and disturbing for Warrior fans.

WrestlingRumors shared some of the details, which, again, you can watch in the video below if you’re somewhere where you can play it.

For those who can’t, this is from the WrestlingRumors report:

Hogan discusses WWE officials such as Triple H telling him not to talk to or come in contact with Warrior during WrestleMania weekend. He then talks about Warrior looking “off” and “not looking good” during those last days. He says,

“On “RAW,” he went out there and put on the little Warrior mask. He had a hard time getting it off. I don’t know if you noticed, when he tried to get it off, he had a hard time getting it off.”

Hogan was backstage watching Warrior’s in-ring promo during “Monday Night Raw,” where he urged WWE cameramen not to film Warrior upon returning to the backstage area.

“I don’t know if anyone heard me, I was afraid he was going to fall down the stairs. He came back, I gave him another big hug after “RAW,” kinda like a ‘na-na-na-boo-boo I talked to him’ type-deal. He took a picture with me and [Pat] Patterson.

Next night [at the April 8 SmackDown taping] I go in the ring with Daniel Bryan doing the “Yes!” thing, the ear thing and posing. I come out of the ring and Vince [McMahon] is standing over there. He was staring at me. What’s up with that?”

So Hogan signals for Vince to call him or something, but then tells Jimmy Hart that he never does that, something’s weird. So Hogan approached McMahon behind the curtain.

“I never do that and then I walked off. I told Jimmy Hart, “Jimmy, something’s weird. You know, Vince never just stands there and stares at me like that,” recalled Hogan.

“So I went back and I said, ‘Are you cool, are you okay?’ He goes, ‘Sit down for a minute, let me tell you something.’ I don’t know if another rib’s coming. I don’t know what he’s going to set me up with, ’cause you never know, he’s full of it. And he goes, ‘Nobody knows yet, but while you were in the ring, we got the word that Jim passed away.’ I said, ‘What?!?!’ Thank God I got to talk to him, ya know?”

http://youtu.be/wuh3GZxuQKA

According to the account given by Hulk Hogan — to “not talk to” Warrior because they wanted him to have a “good weekend” — it seems like the WWE knew a lot more about the Ultimate Warrior’s condition than the fans did.

That’s not to say that anyone at WWE expected Hellwig to die when he did, but from this account, and from the mending of fences given the long and tense history between Vince McMahon and Warrior, it does seem that the company expected Ultimate Warrior may not have had much time left.

What do you think, readers? Does the Hulk Hogan interview indicate WWE expected this to happen?