When it comes to social awareness campaigns, WWE always takes initiatives to support the most of it. For the entire month of October, the middle rope of the WWE remained pink to support the breast cancer awareness campaign. For the past six years, there has been a partnership between WWE and Susan G Komen regarding this.
This year, the company has used the name of the legendary Ultimate Warrior in this campaign to inspire the women. They used the slogan of ‘Unleash the Warrior’ to promote it. The late superstar’s wife, Dana Warrior, was in the lead while inspiring the people with breast cancer.
It is not the first time that WWE has used the Ultimate Warrior’s name as an inspirational message. There’s already an award that is named after the veteran superstar. Each year, we see someone getting the honour of receiving the ‘Warrior Award’ during the Hall of Fame ceremony.
In a recent article from Vice.com, some negative impact was created with WWE using the former champion’s name in this noble campaigns. The main issue was that previously the Ultimate Warrior was related to some controversial things in his career.
These include thing like insensitive comments regarding homosexuality, wishing death upon the late, heat against legendary Bobby Heenan etc. Also, WWE had no contacts with the warrior until he came back in 2014 to get inducted into the Hall of Fame. So, the article from Vice.com stated that WWE is trying to whitewash the superstar’s past.
WWE has noticed this controversy going on around the social media for quite sometimes and addressed it with the following,
“WWE’s ‘Unleash Your Warrior’ breast cancer awareness campaign, and annual ‘Warrior Award’ recognize individuals that exhibit the strength and courage of WWE’s legendary character The Ultimate Warrior. Any attempt to distract from the mission of these initiatives and take the spotlight away from the honorees is unfortunately misguided.”
Dana Warrior also spoke out on this matter to defend his husband’s honour with these comments,
“I will not be disloyal to my husband’s memory or speak ill of a man who is not here to defend himself. I can, however, tell you his heart was changed by conversations with his two daughters. The true testament of the man behind the character is his ability to evolve. My husband did just that.”
It’s indeed a debatable matter, as some people genuinely think that WWE is using the Ultimate Warrior for their own purpose, whereas, in the past, they disassociated themselves from him. However, we should remain to stay on the positive side since WWE was campaigning for a noble cause, globally.