For many wrestling fans in the 1980s, one of the must-see tag teams of the decade was certainly The Road Warriors. Inspired by the classic post-apocalyptic action film The Road Warrior, Hawk and Animal were giant, fierce combatants with spiked shoulder pads known for absolutely wrecking most of their opponents — and crowds loved them for it.
In 1990, the duo would move to WWE and become rebranded as The Legion of Doom, but before that, Hawk and Animal wrestled pretty much everywhere else, including in the promotion later known as World Championship Wrestling. Let’s take a look at what The Road Warriors were up to in the 1980s.
10 Co-Workers Who Got Paired Up By Ole Anderson
Because Michael Hegstrand (Hawk) and Joe Laurinaitis (Animal) both grew up in Minnesota, the future Road Warriors didn’t meet as pro wrestlers, but rather as fellow bouncers working at a bar in Minneapolis called Gramma B’s. Alongside a number of future wrestlers, Hegstrand and Laurinaitis also worked with an established veteran Eddie Sharkey, who also trained many of the bouncers in the business. Eventually, Georgia Championship Wrestling booker Ole Anderson was looking to put together a new tag team, and enlisted Hegstrand and Laurinaitis, pairing them together as The Road Warriors.
9 Three-Time NWA National Tag Team Champions
When the legendary tag team The Wild Samoans left GCW for WWE, Afa and Sika vacated the NWA National Tag Team Championship in the process. Ole Anderson had flagged his kayfabe brother Arn Anderson and Matt Borne to succeed the Samoans, but Borne got fired from the company, so Ole sought a new team to hold the gold. As a result, The Road Warriors — managed by Paul Ellering — arrived in GCW in 1983, winning the belts in a fictional tournament, and ended up holding them a total of three times over the course of their time in Georgia.
8 Run In AWA
After tearing it up in Georgia, the year 1984 brought Hawk and Animal over to the region of their upbringing when they debuted for Minnesota-based American Wrestling Association. There, they proved to be a popular tag team as they feuded with teams like The Fabulous Freebirds and The Fabulous Ones.
Naturally, The Road Warriors held tag team gold in the AWA as well, defeating Baron Von Raschke and The Crusher to capture the AWA World Tag Team Championship. The duo held the belts for 400 days before dropping them to the team of Jimmy Garvin and Steve Regal (not to be confused with Lord Steven Regal).
7 Tag Team Champions In Japan
By the mid-1980s, Hawk and Animal made their way overseas and began wrestling in Japan for the legendary All Japan Pro Wrestling. In AJPW, The Road Warriors’ in-ring dominance made them huge draws in Japan, with tag team gold soon to follow. It was in 1987 that the team captured the NWA International Tag Team Title, which they held for 456 days. Their reign came to an end in a unification bout with the PWF World Tag Team Championship, with Jumbo Tsuruta and Yoshiaki Yatsu emerging as the inaugural AJPW World Tag Team Champions.
In 1986, The Road Warriors moved on to Jim Crockett Promotions, which by this point had basically become the main hub of the National Wrestling Alliance, taking part in the Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament, beating the Midnight Express in the quarterfinals and then defeating the team of Magnum TA and Ron Garvin in the final round. From there, Hawk and Animal began feuding with The Russians as well as the Midnight Express, taking on the latter in numerous unsuccessful challenges for the NWA World Tag Team Championship.
5 Two-Time NWA Six-Man Tag Team Champions
While The Road Warriors weren’t initially able to capture the NWA World Tag Team Championship, they were able to enjoy two reigns with the World Six-Man Tag Team Title. Their first reign began in May of 1986 when Hawk, Animal, and Dusty Rhodes dethroned Ivan Koloff and Nikita Koloff of The Russians along with Baron Von Raschke, holding the belts for 636 days before dropping them to Ivan Koloff and The Powers of Pain. In July of 1988, Dusty and The Road Warriors defeated the Four Horsemen team of Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, and Arn Anderson to recapture the titles after they’d become vacant.
4 Wrestled In The First Ever War Games Match
In the late 1980s, the Four Horsemen were the most dominant group in JCP, so it’s only natural that they’d take on one of the most popular acts in The Road Warriors. As a result, Hawk and Animal took part in a landmark match, joining Dusty Rhodes and Nikita Koloff as well as their own manager Paul Ellering against the Horsemen and their manager JJ Dillon in the first-ever War Games match in July of 1987 for The Great American Bash.
From 1987 to 1989, The Road Warriors were a staple of War Games matches at both house shows and pay-per-view events. For the 1989 edition of The Great American Bash, Hawk and Animal teamed up with Steve Williams and The Midnight Express to defeat The Samoan SWat Team and all three members of The Fabulous Freebirds.
3 Turned Heel On Sting
While The Road Warriors were a dominant, aggressive tag team, they were also beloved by fans, so they often worked babyface. That changed, however, in October of 1988 when Sting filled in for Dusty Rhodes in a NWA Six-Man Tag Team Championship defense against The Varsity Club. However, over the course of the match, Hawk and Animal ended up turning on their own tag team partner, beating down the Stinger and taking him out with their signature Doomsday Device maneuver.
2 Part Of A Controversial Segment That Got Dusty Rhodes Fired
The Road Warriors’ hostility wasn’t just limited to Sting — it also extended to their actual tag team partner, Dusty Rhodes. In one infamous 1988 television segment, Hawk and Animal attacked and bloodied Dusty, using the spikes of their shoulder pads to injure The American Dream’s eye. This attack proved controversial, as TBS had banned bloodshed on television at the time, so Dusty Rhodes — who was also WCW’s booker — was fired from the company for the segment, but not before Animal defeated Rhodes in a match for full ownership of the Six-Man Tag Belts, with the Road Warriors adopting Japanese star Genichiro Tenryu as their partner.
1 Didn’t Win The NWA World Tag Team Championship Until 1988
Given how massively popular The Road Warriors were in the 1980s, it may come as a surprise that they didn’t capture the NWA’s top tag team championship until the decade was nearly over. It was at an October 1988 house show in New Orleans that the Warriors finally dethroned The Midnight Express to become the NWA World Tag Team Champions for the very first time. This reign — their only one with the belts — lasted 155 days and ended at the hands of The Varsity Club in April 1989. Hawk and Animal left for WWE the following year.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
