Dana Warrior Talks About Ultimate Warrior’s Death With Chris Jericho

Dana Warrior, widow of Ultimate Warrior, appears on Talk Is Jericho this week to remember her late husband and share stories from his last weekend, and last day, on earth.

“On that final weekend, it was so special. He came home, he was finally home, where he belonged. After we flew out and remembering the weekend while flying back, we just thought that everything that happened was so special. When he died, he died like a Warrior,” Dana said of his death on April 8 2014, at the age of 54 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Over the preceding three days he had been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, appeared at WrestleMania 30, and made his final public appearance on Raw. Soon after arriving to their home state, Warrior clutched his chest and collapsed while walking to his car with his wife outside of a hotel. He was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

She continued, “He fought, he didn’t crumble. He went out strong. I hate that it happened, I hate it every day, but he went out like a warrior. I couldn’t have asked for more from WWE for doing what they did for my husband.”

Jericho then asked Dana if Warrior had any health issues prior to his death.

“No, it was a real shocker,” she responded. “The weird thing is that his grandfather and his father both passed away at that same age. It’s obviously some kind of genetic heart condition and I’m scared for my children. He lived such a clean diet, you should’ve seen the way that man ate. He was living a clean diet until he died. I’m a cook, so I always cooked. He had his chicken breasts, his lean steak, his salmon, and I loved making all of that for him. He would exercise so much, his body was in great shape. He had abs until the day he died. His body was his temple and that’s something I would tell everyone that if you have heart conditions in your family then you need to be on top of that. We had no idea about that. We were all tired at the end, but I didn’t think anything bad. I just thought we were all tired.

“When it all happened, I was trying to get him up, but I couldn’t because I’m too small and that was all I was thinking when trying to get him up. When I was in the ER, I was blaming myself for not getting him up. When he died, the doctor told me that his heart attack was so massive that nothing could’ve been done to save him. He left just as fast as he ran down to the ring.”

You can listen to the interview here. You’ll hear how Warrior’s rift with WWE and Vince McMahon was finally mended, his initial reaction to his WWE Hall of Fame induction, and who were among his favorite in-ring opponents. Dana also shares stories from Warrior’s life outside the ring — what he was really like as a husband and father, why living in a small, rural town suited him so well, the reason he cut his trademark long hair, and the true story behind the “cookie sniffing.”