It’s still referred to as “The Road Warrior pop” when the entire crowd erupts as a performer walks out to the ring. It owes its name to who many consider the greatest tag team and one of the top box office draws in all of pro wrestling history… two guys from Minneapolis named Joe and Mike.
Joseph Laurinaitis loved to lift weights. So much so, in fact, that he was doing his sets and reps for incline bench press with 315lbs… as a teenager. Michael Hegstrand was known in every high school in Minneapolis for being the tough kid from Robbinsdale High who knocked out their school’s tough kid just to fight someone new. Among the odd jobs they worked after high school was bouncing at a bar called Gramma B’s with their pals. Dark Side has some of those pals, Nikita Koloff, Barry Darsow, and Scott Norton, reminiscing about the duo’s size, power, and contrasting personalities.
When lifelong wrestling personality and part time Gramma B’s bartender, Eddie Sharkey, trained the two, it wasn’t long before their size and muscular appearance got them jobs. After a few appearances in Canada for Mike and Georgia for Joe, they were ready to give up when Ole Anderson got the idea to put them together.
Dressed in biker gear more reminiscent of The Village People than Mad Max, The Road Warriors were handed a set of tag team title belts on their first day and set about finding themselves. First was their style: powerful and inexperienced, they would batter their fellow wrestlers in quick order to create a dominant persona. Second was the look: face paint and spiked shoulder pads gave them a bizarre and terrifying visage. Joe was renamed “Animal” and Mike became “Hawk.” Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” became their entrance theme.
They went everywhere there was and usually in the main event. Even though they were often brought in to play the heels, everyone loves a winner and they’d leave for another company before they got too stale either way. Little is said about their time in Verne Gagne’s AWA and stories of them choosing not to lose matches if they didn’t feel like doing so but the moment of Hawk’s downward spiral was revealed. A broken leg in Japan was ignored during The Road Warriors’ run in Jim Crockett’s NWA promotions and self-medication with muscle relaxers, pain killers, and cocaine became Hawk’s norm as illustrated by the use of a now-famous video clip of him partaking in a locker room.
Animal and their longtime manager, Paul Ellering, go on to describe their time in the WWF. There had been attempts to emulate The Road Warriors there but even the popular Demolition didn’t get the same reaction. Rechristened “The Legion of Doom” (attributed by Ellering to He-Man rather than Super Friends,) they added more dates to their schedule, more money to their bank accounts, and more miles on the road and their bodies. That last one was important as Hawk’s drug use became too much. SummerSlam 1992 took place in front of 80,000 fans at Wembley Stadium and Hawk was in no condition to perform. They still rode motorcycles to the ring but, for safety’s sake, they didn’t face their planned opponents of The Natural Disasters (at a combined weight of over 900lbs.) Instead, they worked the opening match against Mike Rotunda and Ted Dibiase. Their stock dropped further when Hawk went dark in London and missed the flight home.
Animal had had enough of playing caretaker from Hawk’s heavy drinking to his buddying up to Yakuza in Japan. He worked out the rest of their WWF dates to keep on good terms while Hawk went off to Japan and began working as the Road Warriors with Kensuke Sasaki as “Power Warrior” complete with spiked shoulder pads and motorcycles. This was unsanctioned by Animal but the episode doesn’t go far into the feelings surrounding it or how they reconciled.
But reconcile they did. Hawk battled his addictions and a Hep C infection that he beat back easier than the substance abuse. They went back to WWF but, after a still-maligned storyline that involved Hawk’s real-life addiction, his on-screen replacement with Darren “Droz” Drozdov, and a noteworthy story by Charles “The Godfather” Wright, and they were out again.
A near death experience in Australia from cardiomyopathy was the wakeup call Hawk needed. Animal watched the evangelist strongmen, The Power Team, and figured it to be the place to start. Ellering, Animal, and Hawk became born again Christians. The drugs and alcohol were replaced by prayer and a new fiancée. Hawk had finally gotten himself right. Unfortunately, he died after moving into his new home in Florida at the age of 46. Ellering drove their old rusty black van to Tampa for the funeral to deliver the eulogy.
It’s been said that the candle that burns twice as bright burns only half as long. As the more charismatic half of the greatest tag team of all time, Michael “Hawk” Hegstrand, burned brightly in front of the throngs of fans around the world. As a sentimentalist, I’d like to think that the wild kid looking for fights and parties found peace in the man’s last days.
