Fake Ultimate Warrior Causing Stir

File this one under "strange".

Independent wrestler Dominic Yaniero is gaining a lot of popularity wrestling as "The Warrior", a blatant rip off the Ultimate Warrior character. Yaniero comes out to Ultimate Warrior's WWF theme music and dresses, wrestles and speaks just like the original. He even signs 8x10 photographs of the real Ultimate Warrior.

The following is a short summary of the article from the Patriot Ledger:

WARRIOR’S CODE:
Wrestler adopts a classic persona
N.J. prison guard isn’t The Ultimate, but he still thrills fan.

QUINCY - From afar, he could pass for the genuine article. He sports the barrel chest, the bronze tan, the dirty blond mane and the tasseled ring costume that were hallmarks of The Ultimate Warrior, who blazed a trail through the national pro wrestling scene in the late 1980s and early ’90s.

But get closer, and behind the red, white, blue and black face paint you’ll see Dominic Yaniero. He’s a friendly 44-year-old prison guard from New Jersey who, this year, has adopted one of wrestling’s indelible ‘‘gimmicks,’’ or characters, on the independent wrestling circuit, which included a recent stop at the National Guard Armory in Quincy.

‘‘The people are starving for the gimmick,’’ said Yaniero, who started training for the ring in 1984. ‘‘Everybody wants the gimmick. Fresno, Richmond, Va., ... I had to turn down Delaware this morning because I just couldn’t do it.’’