Road Warrior Animal, Joe Laurinaitis, part 3

The Road Warriors appeared in TNA Wrestling in late 2002-early 2003 as part of a group that opposed Vince Russo’s faction Sports Entertainment Xtreme but only wrestled one actual match for the federation.

Animal and Hawk made a surprise appearance on RAW on May 12, 2003 when they took on Kane & Rob Van Dam for the World Tag Team Championship. Although Hawk and Animal came up short in their attempt to become three-time champions, it was clear that Hawk had defeated the demons that had once kept him from competing, and the Road Warriors had hopes of returning to WWE. However, Road Warrior Hawk died on October 19, 2003.

Animal made a return to WWE on an episode of SmackDown! in 2005, where he was challenged by the then-WWE Tag Team Champions MNM to a title match at The Great American Bash. Finding a new tag team partner in Heidenreich, Animal went on to defeat MNM for the titles, dedicating the win to Hawk by saying, "Hawk, this one's for you, brother!" The two would team up for a few months in a new chapter of the Legion of Doom, with Heidenreich adopting the L.O.D.'s shoulder pads, face paint, and mohawk haircut. However, this came to an end with Heidenreich's release from WWE on January 17, 2006.

On the March 3, 2006 episode of SmackDown!, Animal teamed up with Matt Hardy to face MNM. After he and Hardy lost the match, Animal turned heel for the second time in his career by attacking and injuring Hardy's knee. Animal reasoned that he had realized that Hardy and Heidenreich were screw-ups and that Road Warrior Hawk was the only tag team legend for him. After the heel turn, Animal, once again known simply as The Road Warrior, would drop many aspects of the well-known Road Warrior gimmick, losing the face paint, and shoulder pads. Animal's look at this time was similar to his old Road Warrior gimmick in the early 1980s he had prior to teaming up with Hawk.

On the May 6, 2006 edition of Velocity (taped May 2), Animal defeated Paul Burchill. This was his final WWE television appearance. On June 26, 2006, Animal was released from his WWE contract.

On June 17, 2007, Road Warrior Animal returned to TNA on the Pay-Per-View, Slammiversary, with Rick Steiner; he replaced Scott Steiner, who was out with an injury. They ended up losing to Team 3D.

Road Warrior Animal and Kensuke Sasaki teamed up on September 1 for All Japan Pro Wrestling at the Differ Ariake and they defeated "brother" YASSHI and Shuji Kondo. Sasaki wore face paint as Power Warrior, the same name he used when teamed with Road Warrior Hawk in the 90's and both men were billed as the Hell Raisers, the team name used by Sasaki and Hawk while they teamed together in AJPW. Animal was billed as Animal Warrior in a similar move to Hawk being billed as Hawk Warrior when he teamed with Sasaki.


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Road Warrior Animal, Joe Laurinaitis, part 1

Joseph "Joe" Laurinaitis (born January 26, 1960) is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Road Warrior Animal. Along with Road Warrior Hawk, Laurinaitis was one-half of the tag team known as the Road Warriors

Joe Laurinaitis grew up in Minnesota, having to work for a living from a very early age. Because of his size and love of power lifting, Joe was an imposing figure and thus a very effective bouncer. He worked as a bouncer at Grandma B's in the Twin Cities where he caught the eye of Eddie Sharkey, a well known wrestling trainer. Sharkey thought that Joe along with Mike Hegstrand, Richard Rood, and Barry Darsow could make it big in professional wrestling. He believed in them so much that he trained all four of them personally.

Joe made his debut in November 1982, competing as The Road Warrior using a biker gimmick. After only a few matches as a singles competitor, Joe’s career and life would change forever thanks to an idea by Paul Ellering.

When Paul Ellering was looking to put together a stable of heels in Georgia Championship Wrestling called The Legion of Doom, it was decided to put Joe together with his good friend Mike Hegstrand and change their names to Animal and Hawk respectively. Thus, the Road Warriors were born. To look more intimidating, the two shaved their heads into Mohawks and started wearing studded dog collars, spiked shoulder pads, and face paint. The look and name was taken from Mad Max 2, helping to paint the two as no-mercy monsters. Their interview style was vicious, yet charismatic and a bit humorous.

The team was an instant hit, revolutionizing the tag-team scene with their power moves, no mercy attitudes, and innovative face paint that would spawn many future imitators in wrestling. In Georgia, they won the NWA National Tag Team Championship four times before moving on to bigger promotions, such as the American Wrestling Association in the US and All Japan Pro Wrestling in Japan, and winning more tag team titles.

Their hard hitting style, no nonsense attitude, and winning ways made the Road Warriors fan favorites. Even when they were booked as heels, the fans refused to boo them. They started to split their time between the AWA and the National Wrestling Alliance until finally leaving the AWA for big money contracts with the NWA and a huge push for the monster duo. The move paid off instantly as they won the inaugural Jim Crocket Sr. Memorial Cup Tag-Team Tournament and feuded with the top stars of the NWA such as The Four Horsemen and the Russian Team (which included the Road Warriors’ old training buddy Barry Darsow). During their initial run in the NWA, they helped popularize the WarGames match, the Scaffold match, and their trademark Chicago Street Fight.

In 1988, the Road Warriors engaged in a violent feud with The Powers of Pain (The Barbarian and The Warlord) the first team that could truly match the Road Warriors in power (and who were one of the most well known Road Warrior clones). The Powers of Pain even went so far as to injure Animal’s eye (kayfabe) during a weightlifting competition. When Animal returned, he initially wore a hockey goalie mask to protect his eye. The angle abruptly ended when the Powers of Pain left the NWA after finding out they were booked against the Road Warriors in a series of Scaffold Matches and they did not want to get hurt by falling off the scaffold.

Near the end of 1988, the Road Warriors captured the NWA World Tag Team Championship from The Midnight Express whom they mauled in short order to win the titles. After being the “Uncrowned champions” for a long time the Road Warriors’ run with the tag-team titles was short lived. Teddy Long used a fast count to cheat the Road Warriors out of their titles. In their last year with the NWA, the Warriors feuded mainly with The Varsity Club, The Samoan Swat Team, and The Skyscrapers before leaving the NWA in the summer of 1990.


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