Road Warrior Beast

While living in Chicago, ^[4] Laurinaitis met Michael Hegstrand, ^[4] later known as the Hawk on the Road Warriors team. They became two close friends. When Laurinaitis was eight years old, the Hegstrand and Laurinaitis families moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota. ^[5] Thus, Joe grew up in Minnesota, working from an early age to help his family. He studied at Irondale High School . ^[6] Due to his size and love of powerlifting , Joe was a fairly prominent and powerful figure. ^[1] Therefore, Joe worked as a bouncer in one of the cafes of the Grandma B network in Minneapolis, where he was spotted by the very famous wrestling trainer Eddie Sharkey. Sharkey thought that Joe, along with Michael Hegstrand, Richard Rood, and Barry Darsou, would be able to achieve great success in pro-wrestling. Eddie believed in them so much that he coached the whole four personally. ^[7]

Early career (1982-1983)

Joe made his debut in November 1982, participating as a Road Warrior in the biker gimmick. After a few singles, Joe’s career and whole life has changed forever, thanks to Paul Ellering.

The Formation of Road Warriors (1983-1986)

Joe Laurinaitis and Michael Hegstrand became the first to appear on the team at the Georgia Championship Wrestling promotion team - the heale team led by Paul Ellering, mentioned earlier. The team was named The Legion of Doom , and Joe and Mike were named "Animal" and "Hawk", respectively. Thus the Road Warriors were born. The start was given with a gimmick of bikers; in the Road Warrior DVD, Beast said he felt like one of the Village People, a popular 80s disco group. To look more impressive, the Beast and the Hawk made Iroquois hairstyles, wore spiked shoulders and collars, and painted their faces. Appearance and names were taken from the movie Mad Max 2 , which helped create the image of merciless monsters. Their “microphone work” was spiteful, but charismatic and somewhat humorous. ^[7]

The team was a real revolution in the team division - their powerful techniques, merciless behavior and innovative face painting - all this was new, and it was from this that a large number of images were taken in the future. ^[8]

In Georgia, they won the NWA National Team Titles four times. Later they visited such world-famous promotions as the American Wrestling Association and All Japan Pro Wrestling, where they also won team titles. ^[9]

By the way, at the talk show Right After Wrestling in March 2011, Joe Laurinaitis stated that he had never participated in feuds and matches against Hawk due to the fact that he never thought that there was any sense behind it. ^[10]

National Wrestling Alliance (1986-1990)

Style, behavior and paths to victory - all this made the Road Warriors the audience's favorites. Despite the fact that they were advancing just like healers, fans greeted them extremely friendly. ^[8] In 1986, Joe and Michael began working at once on two promotions - AWA and NWA. All this lasted until the NWA offered them a high-paying contract and the Warriors left AWA. The duet of monsters, in addition to the contract, received a big push. ^[7] Almost immediately, they got a major victory - in the team tournament in memory of Jim Crockett Sr. ( Eng. Jim Crockett, Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament ). Then their feuds began with the largest NWA stars - the legendary Four Horsemen and the Russian Team (among the trainers there was also the old coach of the Road Warriors - Barry Darsou). ^{[1] [11] [12] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20]} During their victorious invasion of the NWA, they helped popularize the WarGames match (variation of the match with the cage), Scaffold-match (match with scaffolding) and brought something special - Chicago Street Fight's own variation of the street fight. ^{[12] [19] [20]}

In 1988, Warriors began a bloodthirsty feud with Powers of Pain - Sion “The Barbarian” Wailahi and Terry “The Warlord” Zhopinsky, the first team to compete in power for the Road Warriors (no wonder that Powers of Pain, according to many, are clones of Warriors). The “Forces of Pain” sometimes went quite far — for example, seriously (in the story) injured the Beast’s eye during a weightlifting competition. Returning, the Beast began to wear a hockey goalie mask for protection. Unfortunately, the food was sharply curtailed - Powers of Pain left the NWA, afraid to participate in a dangerous match against the Warriors, where they were supposed to fall from the scaffolding. ^[7]

By the end of 1988, the Road Warriors had won the NWA World Team Titles, winning them in a short match against the Midnight Express. ^[9] Road Warriors, for a long time absolutely not winning the belt, and these titles were carried briefly. Teddy Long cheated and quickly counted out the retention against the Warriors, which stripped them of their titles. ^[9] Before leaving the NWA in the summer of 1990 (as a result of a conflict with Jim Heard), Joe and Michael mostly opposed the Varsity Club, The Samoan Swat Team, and The Skyscrapers. ^{[21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27]}

World Wrestling Federation (1990-1992)

The Road Warriors immediately signed contracts with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1990 and were involved in a feud with the most famous Warrior clone team, Demolition . With the team, which included one of the former Warrior trainers, Barry Darsou (in Demolition, he performed under the pseudonym Smash ). ^{[1] [28] [29]} Due to the deplorable state of the second member of the Demolition - Bill Idi, known under the pseudonym Ax - he was replaced by Brian Adams, speaking as Crush . However, the spirit of the original Demolition ran out, and the confrontation, much to the regret of the fans, was very quickly completed. ^[7]

A year after joining WWF, Legion of Doom won the WWF Team Titles and held them for just under eight months. ^[9] After losing the titles, the team briefly left WWF, returning only with Paul Ellering, who had been their manager for a very long time.

The gap in the team caused the "partner" Ellering - a wooden puppet "Rocco". Both team members thought this was nonsense, and this led to Hegstrand leaving WWF immediately after 1992's SummerSlam. This was the first time in 9 years that Laurinaitis was left without his team partner. ^[30] Being a good businessman, the Beast did not endure this for long - he broke off his contractual relationship with WWF, only occasionally speaking in a team with a former member of the Demolition - Crush .

During a handicap match in Japan against the Beverly Brothers in September 1992, Laurinaitis severely injured his back as a result of an unsuccessful double suplex, as a result of which he had to take a long break. ^[8]

World Championship Wrestling (1993)

Laurinaitis made several appearances in WCW in 1993. On August 18, at Clash of the Champions, The Beast announced that his partner Hawk was Dustin Rhodes ' secret team partner in a match against Rick Ruck and Bill "Equalizer" Dannenhauer. On September 19, at Fall Brawl, Laurinaitis was a mentor on Sting 's WarGames team, which included Sting himself, Davy Boy Smith , Dustin Rhodes, and Fred Shockmaster Ottman. The Beast Team defeated Vader , Sid Vicious and Haarlem Heath. On January 4, 1995, the Beast accompanied Hawk in his match against Scott Norton at the annual Japan Pro Wrestling show in Tokyo Dome .

World Championship Wrestling (1996)

Over the next few years, Laurinaitis stepped aside from wrestling, receiving an insurance policy at Lloyd's of London , while Hegstrand performed all over the world. Toward the end of 1995, Laurinaitis finally healed all injuries, which allowed him to return to active performances. For three years, people thought the Road Warrior era was over, but Beast and Hawk reunited and signed with the World Championship Wrestling . ^[7] After returning in January 1996, the Warriors began a feud with the Steiner brothers, who returned in March, and the team Harlem Heat, and then challenged WCW team champions Sting and Lex Luger . ^{[31] [32] [33]} However, for half a year in the company the Road Warriors were not able to win team titles, losing in all title matches. The Steiner brothers, who returned a little later than the Warriors, found out in the feud with the Beast and the Hawk, who is the best team of all time. The Steiners prevailed in this confrontation, and the Warriors left WCW in June 1996.

World Wrestling Federation (1997-1998)

After leaving WCW, the Warriors returned to WWF, where, speaking under their second name - the Legion of Hell - invaded the Steve Austin and Hart Foundations, where they sided with Austin. ^{[34] [35] The} Ada Legion became two-time team champions, defeating the Goodwinns on October 7, 1997. ^[9] In November of that year, the Beast and the Hawk lost the titles to the newly formed team, “ New Age Outlaws ” ( Eng. New Age Outlaws ) - Road Dog and Billy Gann . ^[9]

After several unsuccessful undertakings, the Legion of Hell was “repacked” to the team of the Legion of Hell 2000 . Sunny joined the team, who was there as a manager, although not for a very long time. Around the same time, Paul Ellering returned to WWF, joining the Harris brothers with whom the Legion of Hell 2000 had been feeding for some time; Ellering and the Beast in an interview for the DVD about Road Warriors commented that it was difficult for Ellering to work with another team, while driving the previous team in promos and segments.

In 1998, the Ada Legion fell into perhaps the most difficult situation in the history of the team, which began in connection with Hegstrand's problems with drugs and alcohol. The hawk began appearing on TV shows drunk or “unable to perform.” As the Hawk became increasingly unpredictable in behavior, a third party, Darren Drozdov, was added to the Legion of Hell. He spoke with the Beast while the Hawk was solving his personal problems. The plot was later outplayed in such a way that it was Drozdov who caused Hawk's problems, only to take Hegstrand's place in the Legion of Hell. During the segment, it was shown how the Hawk falls from the titantron. Neither Hegstrand nor Laurinaitis could explain to WWF the reasons for Hawk's personal problems, which caused them to leave WWF. ^[thirty]

Even though the Road Warriors did not officially break up, the Beast made several appearances in single matches after leaving WWF with Hegstrand. ^[36]

• The final tricks
  • Scoop powerslam ^{[37] [38] [39]}

• Crown tricks
  • Leaping shoulder block ^{[37] [38]}
  • Military press slam ^[38]
  • Scoop slam ^[37]

• With Road Warrior Hawk, Darren "Droz" Drozdov, John Heidenreich, Christy Hemme or Kensuke "Power Warrior" Sasaki
  • Doomsday Device / Double Impact ^[40]

• Managers
  • Paul Ellering
  • Tammy Lynn Sitch
  • Christy Hemme

• theroadwarrioranimal.com - official site of the Road Beast Warrior
• Road Warrior Profile at WWE .com
• Profile on the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame website
• Interview of the Beast about the death of Hawk, WWE, etc.
• Interview at Genickbruch.com