Insane Insights Dark Side of the Ring: The Road Warriors
One of the best parts of pro wrestling is tag team matches. So many amazing tag teams and matches have occurred throughout history. In a majority of fans' Mount Rushmore of tag teams in professional wrestling, one that always gets mentioned is The Road Warriors Animal and Hawk. They just looked so cool, had a fantastic yet dangerous finisher, and the gimmick worked for both of them. When looking beyond the ring the tag team has a dark side. Vice's Dark Side of the Ring crew made an episode on the tag team. The wrestling community learned a lot from this episode.
10. The First Time Hawk And Animal Met
Hawk and Animal's introduction to each other was really interesting. Both met while at Jesse "The Body" Ventura's gym in Minnesota. Minnesota is a hot spot where notable pro wrestlers come from that area. While both were lifting weights, Hawk randomly decided to slap Animal and said, "he should lift more weight". It's weird to do that in the middle of a rep lifting weights, but it's a form of motivation. Ever since that moment Hawk and Animal became close friends after this.
9. The Road Warriors Worked As Bouncers And Helped Their Boss In Drug Deals
Hawk and Animal's close friendship expanded further when both worked together. Before they became wrestlers both worked at a bar as bouncers. It makes sense they did that as both had a big reputation in wrestling to love beating people up. In fact, according to one of Hawk’s brothers, he only took the job as a bouncer just to beat people up.
One story Animal told was about their boss needing help with a drug deal. Their boss would sell drugs to his clients. Sometimes they would either be late on payments. He needed some muscle to show he means business when it comes to his payments. Their bosses, Hawk and Animal, were in charge of finding them and beating them up until they paid up. One severe beatdown got so severe that they brought one guy to a bridge and were threatening to throw him off it.
This was common knowledge to the bartenders, and they started gossiping about it to everyone. Probably not the smartest thing to gossip as it involves your boss and coworkers committing a crime. One of those workers was Eddie Sharkey who worked as a bartender. Sharkey is known as one of the top wrestling trainers in Minnesota and was about to open his wrestling school. Seeing how Hawk, along with Animal, beat up people, he thought they would be perfect in the ring.
8. Hawk And Animal Almost Quit Wrestling Their First Few Years
The early years of their wrestling career were brutal. The work was hard, and the pay was terrible. Animal, at the time, was starting a family and had a child on the way in 1981. He needed to make money with more mouths to feed. Animal admitted that he made more money bouncing at a bar than wrestling at the time.
Hawk was wrestling in Vancouver and he just did not like it there, so he moved back to Minnesota. Hawk thought about leaving the business all behind as well.
Luckily, that did not happen and the man that prevented that is Ole Anderson. Ole Anderson was one of the top bookers in the territory days. Anderson came to Minnesota and was speaking to Eddie Sharkey. In that conversation, Anderson saw a photo of Hawk and found out about Animal as well. One of the funniest parts of the documentary was when Anderson in that conversation saying “There’s two of these guys?!?!" There had to be dollar signs that popped out of his eyers when he discovered them.
7. The Story Behind Their Hairstyle
One thing that immediately stands out when looking at the Road Warriors for the first time is their hairstyle. Its backstory was revealed and it was the idea that came from Road Warrior Hawk. He wanted Animal to shave his head into a mohawk. Where Hawk would shave his head into a double mohawk, he thought it would be cool if they combined it it would form into one full head of hair, thus making them stand out and connected as a tag team. Hawk is a genius because that hairstyle made them stand out from the industry along with the Face-paint and shoulder pads.
6. They Would Apologize To Jobbers At The Beginning Of Their Matches
The Road Warriors were known to have a reputation for beating people up in real life - especially when it came to facing jobbers. A jobber is a performer who comes in a promotion to get defeated routinely by rising stars who are being elevated to the top of the card. They are only there to do a simple job and that is to lose.
When the Road Warriors would face jobbers, Hawk would apologize to them before the match began. He is this because they just loved to beat people up. They had a strict no-hitting-in-the-nuts-or-face-hard policy. Which is a positive as getting hit in the face or nuts is very painful. This was also a way for them to keep getting away with doing it and not get fined. Rewatching the clotheslines they gave during the match, they were very stiff. If a jobber was in the ring, it wasn't going to be an easy night for them.
5. Why they were Called The Legion of Doom In WWF
It was only a matter of time before the Road Warriors joined the WWF. In WWF they were commonly referred to as The Legion of Doom. A big reason why the change was made was due to Vince McMahon. He thought there would have been too many wrestlers that had the name Warrior. At the time they joined The Ultimate Warrior was a super success and the company also signed Kerry Von Erich. Kerry was once called The Modern Day Warrior until he was rebranded as "The Texas Tornado".
What wasn't mentioned is that Vince always wanted to have a different creative spin on talent. Especially on new signings and even call-ups from NXT. He always believed that they needed a twerk with his influence so he could be referred to as a genius. It's why NXT call-ups from the Black & Gold era were mostly missed.
Animal came up with the Legion of Doom name and he got it from the He-Man cartoons. Mainly because Hawk was a huge fan and would talk about them a lot while they were on the road. Since Vince wanted a new name they recommended The Legion of Doom and it worked.
4. Hawk Lived His Life On The Edge
One thing clear is how different Hawk and Animal were from each other. Road Warrior Animal was the guy who wanted to relax, chill, and provide for his family. In the case of Hawk, he was the polar opposite and was a big partier.
Hawk partied almost every night and was hanging out with the wrong crew. When he was in Japan there were stories where he kept hanging out with the Yakuza (Japanese mafia) and would come home with stacks of bills. Hawk loved to drink alcohol Vodka on the rocks and take muscle relaxers at the same time.
Something crazy was that Hawk was doing so much in regards to partying and drug usage, that he got Hepatitis C. Hawk was even rushed to the emergency room many times due to drug overdoses. Hawk also had a very bad head-on collision with an 18-wheeler. The crash was so bad that the truck rolled 6 times and he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. Here is another insane fact, Hawk legit just walked away from that wreck the moment it happened.
3. Hawk Was Under The Influence During Their SummerSlam 1992 Match
Hawks's drug addictions were getting worse and he was failing multiple different drug tests with the WWF. That annoyed both Animal and Vince, but the moment where it all blew up was at SummerSlam 1992.
SummerSlam 1992 is one of if not the best SummerSlam in WWE history. It was the first time a major PPV took place in London, England too. The Road Warriors were super over, especially in the international market. At one point they were originally booked to compete for the Tag Team Championships and win them. That did not happen as Hawk showed up to the arena heavily intoxicated and heavily annoyed Vince by constantly interrupting him. That is never a good idea to do that with any boss.
Hawk took a lot of placidly which made him hallucinogenic and he could barely stand or walk. It was obvious to everyone in their match with Money Inc. (Million Dollar Man and Irwin R. Schyster). Hawk was in no shape to perform and it's a miracle that Hawk didn't crash when making their entrance on motorcycles. The whole match had to be changed, including the finish of that match. The Road Warriors could not do their finisher due to fear Hawk would fall off the top rope.
Once the match was over Animal was angry as he knew yet another suspension was coming. Hawk would eventually quit the company soon after the event on bad terms. Hawk would go to Japan and steal the gimmick, whereas Animal would stay in WWE and part ways properly. Animal left on good terms with WWE which helped when they returned to the company during the Attitude Era.
2. Hawk Almost Died in Australia in 2000
Once their second tenure in the WWE was over, The Road Warriors went back on the independent scene. The tag team wrestled all around the world including Australia.
Animal admitted it was a bad idea to go there as it was easy to get drugs over the counter. Even the hardcore drugs as the laws were unstrict there. Hawk at that time was doing so many drugs it kept him up for 2 days and his heart was about to explode. Hawk was found passed out in the locker room and was immediately taken straight to the hospital as it was life or death.
Hawk, while in the Hospital, called Animal and wanted to get him to check him out and bring him back to America. Hawk did not want to die in the country of Australia and wanted to go back home. Animal checked him out, brought him to America, and cut ties saying that he was on his own. Animal had enough of Hawk and decided to part ways with him for a bit.
1. Hawk Turned His Life Around In His Final Years
With all of his issues with drugs it was looking unlikely he was going to clean his life up. Well during his final years, Hawk was on the right path.
It started when Animal saw a group called The Christian Power Team which impressed him and he along with Nikita Koloff invited Hawk. Hawk was the first one to walk to the altar and wanted to give himself to the lord after meeting them. Hawk later that week got baptized and cleaned himself up.
Hawk even eventually got married and they played a clip on how his motivation in wrestling is different now. One of Hawk's quotes is where he told many “God has nine lives, but he gave me ten to give my life to Jesus”. Hawk changed for the better, unfortunately, due to years of substance abuse issues he passed away on October 19, 2003, at the age of 46.
His cause of death was due to a sudden heart attack. In the wrestling business, a lot of wrestlers die at a younger age. A lot of the contributing factors is the substance abuse issues. Hawk was just another statistic as his heart had just given out due to many years of substance abuse.
My Thoughts On The Documentary
This was a pretty good documentary about The Road Warriors. It mainly focused on the fall of Road Warrior Hawk, which wasn't a shock. Road Warrior Hawk lived life on the edge and it's a surprise that he didn't die in 2000. It seemed like he was in a great place in his final years and was getting his life together. It's just a shame he didn't have a longer life.
There is one person who was missing in this documentary and that is Johnny Ace aka John Lauranitis. John Laurentis is the brother of Road Warrior Animal and he would have been a nice talking head. Then again at the time he was working with WWE. It probably was impossible to get him.
Then again, Johnny Ace should get covered in Dark Side of the Ring in the future. Especially, in his involvement in the Vince McMahon Harassment and Trafficking lawsuit. Get those divorce lawyers ready Mr. Laurentis and Mr McMahon, you're going to need them once that investigation concludes.
As for the MVP of this documentary, I have to go with Road Warrior Animal. Animal provided a great insight into Hawk as of course, he spent a large portion of his life with him. Sadly this would be the last time Animal would be interviewed. Road Warrior Animal passed away a few months after this documentary. Road Warrior Animals died on September 22nd, 2020. Rest in Peace Road Warrior Animal and Hawk.
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