In 1986, Warrior debuted in World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) as the Dingo Warrior.
Initially, Warrior was a heel in the promotion, managed by Gary Hart, although he was cheered during a heel versus heel feud with Rick Rude after the two fell out during a tag match. After switching managers to Percival Pringle III, Warrior turned babyface permanently after a falling out with fellow Pringle proteges Buzz Sawyer and Matt Borne after a six-man tag match. Warrior formed a tag team with Lance Von Erich, and the duo began competing in tag matches. On November 17, 1986, Warrior and Von Erich defeated Master Gee (substituting for champion Buzz Sawyer) and Matt Borne. In 1987, Warrior lost to Bob Bradley in a tournament final on January 12.
Warrior joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in June 1987. First competing on house shows under his Dingo Warrior moniker, he defeated a series of jobbers, including Steve Lombardi, Barry Horowitz and Mike Sharpe. He made his television debut as The Ultimate Warrior on the October 25 episode of Wrestling Challenge, where he defeated another jobber, Terry Gibbs. The Ultimate Warrior became known for his high-energy ring entrances, which featured him racing into the arena at full speed, bursting into the ring, and violently shaking the ropes up and down. He was also known for his distinctive pattern of face paint. After several months of defeating jobbers, he was pinned for the first time in the WWF by fellow WWF rookie Rick Rude on December 28, 1987. In early 1988, Warrior entered into his first real WWF feud with fellow strongman Hercules Hernandez. The two faced off on the February 7, 1988 airing of Wrestling Challenge, where Hercules was disqualified for using his steel chain. Warrior then grabbed a hold of the chain and in the midst of a tug of war over it, the chain snapped. This led to a match at WrestleMania IV, where Warrior was victorious in his pay-per-view debut. Warrior lost twice by pinfall shortly thereafter: cleanly to André the Giant in April in Italy, and to Dino Bravo, who put his feet on the ropes for leverage, in Montreal in June. In the summer of 1988, he wrestled Bobby Heenan in a series of weasel suit matches, in which Warrior won by sleeper hold.
Less than a year after his WWF television debut, Warrior, a surprise substitute for the injured Brutus Beefcake, won the Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship, defeating The Honky Tonk Man in a 27-second squash match at the inaugural SummerSlam on August 29, 1988, and ending Honky Tonk's long reign at 454 days. As champion, he captained a team at Survivor Series '88, where he was the sole survivor, pinning Outlaw Ron Bass and Greg Valentine in succession to win the match for his team.
As 1989 began, Warrior entered a feud with Rick Rude over the Intercontinental title. The feud was sparked at the 1989 Royal Rumble, where the two met in a "super posedown". After Warrior drew the support of the live crowd in their judging of the contest, Rude attacked Warrior and choked him with a steel bar. This led to a championship match at WrestleMania V, where Rude pinned Warrior to win the title with the help of his manager Bobby Heenan, who held down Warrior's foot from outside the ring as he was being pinned. At SummerSlam, Warrior defeated Rude to regain the title and become a two-time Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion. Warrior then began a feud with André the Giant, leading to a number of house shows in which Warrior defeated Andre in short squash matches, establishing Warrior as a main event level talent. The feud culminated at Survivor Series where the two captained opposing teams. Warrior eliminated André by knocking him out of the ring, where he was counted out. Warrior was again the sole survivor, pinning Arn Anderson and Bobby Heenan to win the match.
The Warrior received a push as WWF's main event successor to Hulk Hogan, who had remained wrestling's biggest star throughout the 1980's. Following a few confrontations with Hogan, most notably at the 1990 Royal Rumble, the Warrior was written in as Hogan's opponent in the main event for WrestleMania VI at the SkyDome in Toronto. The match was billed as "The Ultimate Challenge", as both Hogan's WWF World Heavyweight Championship and Warrior's Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship were on the line. Warrior pinned Hogan after a Warrior Splash to become the only wrestler to hold both championships simultaneously. Warrior vacated the Intercontinental Championship (which Mr. Perfect then won in a tournament), as WWF rules prohibited a wrestler from holding both titles.
After WrestleMania, Warrior successfully defended the championship against Haku, Mr. Perfect and Ted DiBiase. At SummerSlam, he retained the title over Rick Rude in a steel cage match. "Macho Man" Randy Savage was also introduced as a potential rival after interfering in a The Main Event IV title match at the behest of DiBiase.
Warrior was inserted into the feud between The Legion of Doom and Demolition, leading to victories for the Warrior and LOD in six-man tag team matches in house shows as well as the October 13, 1990 airing of Saturday Night's Main Event XXVIII. The feud culminated at Survivor Series, where The Warriors (Ultimate Warrior, LOD and Kerry Von Erich) defeated The Perfect Team (Mr. Perfect and Demolition). For the third consecutive year, Warrior was the sole survivor for his team. He later survived the "Grand Finale Match of Survival" with Hulk Hogan.
In January 1991, Warrior faced Sgt. Slaughter at the Royal Rumble. Slaughter's gimmick at the time was a traitor who had betrayed America by aligning himself with an Iraqi (kayfabe) military general, General Adnan. After rejecting an earlier request to grant a title shot to Savage, Sensational Sherri interjected herself in the Warrior's championship match to distract him. Her interference eventually led to a Savage sneak attack, where he struck Warrior over the head with a metal scepter and allowed Slaughter to pin Warrior to win the title. Warrior went on to feud with Savage, and the rivalry culminated in a "Career-Ending" match at WrestleMania VII which Warrior won, forcing Savage to retire.
The next chapter of Warrior's career was an encounter with The Undertaker, after Undertaker and his manager, Paul Bearer, locked Warrior in a coffin on the set of Bearer's Funeral Parlor. WWF officials worked feverishly to break the casket open, finally revealing Warrior's seemingly lifeless body, and the torn fabric inside of the coffin indicating Warrior's desperate struggle to get out. Warrior was finally revived by the officials performing CPR. This led to Jake "The Snake" Roberts offering to give Warrior "the knowledge of the dark side" in order to prepare Warrior to take his revenge on the Undertaker. This involved Roberts giving Warrior three "tests" shown on WWF TV in consecutive weeks. For the first test, Roberts locked Warrior inside of a coffin for a second time.
For the second test, Warrior was "buried alive" by Roberts. For the third test, the Warrior entered a room full of snakes, to find "the answer" in a chest in the middle of the room. Waiting inside the chest was a Spitting Cobra, which bit Warrior in the face. As Warrior weakened from the effects of the cobra's strike, Roberts made a heel turn and was joined by the Undertaker and Paul Bearer, revealing the three were working together all along. Roberts then uttered, "Never trust a snake." The stage was now set for a feud between the Warrior and Roberts. The feud never took place however as Warrior took a hiatus.
With Hulk Hogan about to leave WWF between mid-1992 and early-1993, McMahon contacted Warrior about returning. He made his comeback at WrestleMania VIII (to rescue Hulk Hogan from a beat down at the hands of Sid Justice and Papa Shango). One storyline involved Papa Shango, a "witch doctor", casting a spell over Warrior, causing him to convulse and vomit in very odd colors. The Warrior was booked for a WWF World Heavyweight Championship match against then-champion, "Macho Man" Randy Savage at SummerSlam in August 1992. The Warrior won the match by count-out, but not the title. In November 1992, Warrior was scheduled to team with Savage (as The Ultimate Maniacs) to face Ric Flair and Razor Ramon at Survivor Series. Weeks before the event, Warrior was released for disputed reasons and replaced by Mr. Perfect.
Warrior returned to the WWF on March 31, 1996, defeating Hunter Hearst Helmsley at WrestleMania XII. He made his first appearance on Monday Night Raw on April 8, where he gave an in-ring interview and credited the "voices" of the "warriors" (his name for members of the WWF audience) for his return; he was then interrupted by Goldust. Warrior challenged for Goldust's Intercontinental Championship at In Your House 7; Warrior won the match by countout, but did not win the title. The following night on Monday Night Raw, Warrior defeated Isaac Yankem, DDS. A rematch with Intercontinental Champion Goldust, on the May 27 episode of the show, ended in a double countout, thus eliminating both men from the tournament and eventually giving Vader a bye into the semi-finals. Warrior defeated Jerry Lawler at King of the Ring, and defeated Owen Hart by disqualification on the July 8 episode of Monday Night Raw.
Warrior was scheduled to team with Shawn Michaels and Ahmed Johnson to face Owen Hart, Davey Boy Smith, and Vader at In Your House 9 later that month, but the WWF terminated Warrior's contract. He was replaced by Sycho Sid at in Your House 9.
WCW signed Warrior in May 1998. He formed a stable opposing Hollywood Hulk Hogan's New World Order (nWo): the "One Warrior Nation" using the initialism oWn as a play on the name nWo. Highlights of the storyline included Warrior kidnapping and "converting" The Disciple and frequent instances of "magic smoke" knocking out all of the nWo members except for Hollywood Hogan and covering Warrior's movement through a trapdoor in the ring.
Warrior only participated in three matches in WCW. The first was the WarGames match at Fall Brawl, where he competed as a member of Team WCW, competing against eight other wrestlers for a shot at Goldberg's WCW World Heavyweight Championship at Halloween Havoc. Diamond Dallas Page won the match by pinning Stevie Ray. On the October 12 edition of Monday Nitro, he teamed with Sting to defeat Hogan and Bret Hart by disqualification. The third was his loss to Hogan at Halloween Havoc. During the bout, an attempt to "blind" Warrior with a fireball backfired when Hogan faced complications igniting a piece of flash paper. The match came to an end when Horace Hogan hit Warrior in the back with a chair, allowing Hogan to score the pinfall.
Warrior's last appearance in WCW was on the November 9, 1998 episode of Monday Nitro, when he came to the rescue of The Disciple who was being attacked by members of the nWo. Warrior retired from wrestling that year.
On July 15, 2013, Warrior was featured in a WWE 2K14 game trailer and revealed he was in the roster as a pre-order bonus.
On April 5, 2014, The Ultimate Warrior was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2014. The next day, Warrior appeared at WrestleMania XXX, and the following night delivered a promo on Raw, his first appearance on the show since his final WWF TV match in 1996. During what turned out to be his final public appearance, Warrior gave a speech to the fans and wrestlers past and present.
The next day, on April 8, 2014, Warrior passed away.
WWE paid tribute to Warrior on the April 14 episode of Raw with a ten bell salute and a video. Warrior was awarded a posthumous Slammy Award for Return of the Year in December 2014.