Basically, the original pitch for the Warrior series was that Guy owned and ran a hero-themed bar (a single bar, not the franchise it eventually became), and sometimes went on Indiana Jones-lite adventures with a small background cast of characters.
It was picked up, but decided that it needed a superhero slant of some sort. After not enough time to consider, it was decided "Wouldn't It Be Cool If" Guy Gardner had some alien DNA that allowed him to morph his body into weaponry. It was the 90s, little good came out of the 90s.