Road Warriors

The Road Warriors, also known as the Legion of Doom, were a professional wrestling tag team originally composed of Road Warrior Hawk (Michael Hegstrand) and Road Warrior Animal (Joseph Laurinaitis). They performed under the name "The Road Warriors" in the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), and World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and the name "Legion of Doom" (LOD) in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Under either name, their gimmick was the same – two imposing wrestlers in face paint. For brief periods, other wrestlers were added as stand-in partners for both men. In Japan in the 1990s, "Power Warrior" Kensuke Sasaki often teamed with Hawk and Animal, separately and together, while in WWE were joined by Droz in the 1990s and Heidenreich in the 2000s. The team also had three managers: Sunny in the 1990s, Christy Hemme in the 2000s, and Paul Ellering, the manager associated with the original team.

Hawk and Animal were known for their impressive physiques, as their physical size was larger than most wrestlers of the era. Their face paint and spiked armor were inspired by the Mad Max film The Road Warrior; they were one of the first wrestlers to bring a theme from a movie into the wrestling world. They also introduced a tandem maneuver known as the Doomsday Device. Both men used the move as a team finisher throughout their careers, even when teaming with other partners.

The duo headlined multiple events including Survivor Series in 1991 and In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede, and are regarded by many as the greatest tag team in professional wrestling history.

Joe Laurinaitis had briefly competed as the Road Warrior before Ole Anderson paired him up with Mike Hegstrand to form the Road Warriors in 1983. They were initially brought into "Precious" Paul Ellering's stable as a replacement for his team of Matt Borne and Arn Anderson after Borne was fired from the company. After a few months of rapid success, the Road Warriors dumped Ellering as manager, claiming that they did not need a manager. This was short-lived, as in early 1984, they and "Precious" Paul Ellering formed a stable called The Legion of Doom in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA)'s Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) territory. The group consisted of the Road Warriors, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, King Kong Bundy & The Spoiler. The stable was short-lived and the name "Legion of Doom" soon referred only to the Road Warriors and Ellering with either name used interchangeably throughout their career. Animal reveals in the Road Warriors: The Life and Death of the Most Dominant Tag-Team in Wrestling History DVD set that the name "Legion of Doom" was taken from the Super Friends cartoon.

The Road Warriors' high-impact powerhouse style and unique attire quickly got them noticed by fans and dreaded by opponents, so much so that some wrestlers would grab their bag and leave the arena when they saw they were scheduled to face the Road Warriors. In Georgia, the team quickly rose to the top despite being very young and having not undergone the traditional "paying dues" period simply because they were so believable in their role. They gained a reputation for being very stiff and not selling simply because they could, and most of their matches ended quickly as a result. They won the NWA National Tag Team Championship upon their debut, a title they would win two more times while in Georgia.

In 1984, the Road Warriors moved on to Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association (AWA) along with their manager Paul Ellering. On August 25, 1984, they defeated The Crusher and Baron von Raschke for the AWA World Tag Team Championship. The Road Warriors were brought in by Gagne to work as heels, but their squash matches soon won over fans. They became the AWA's top draw throughout 1984 and 1985, feuding primarily with The Fabulous Ones and later The Fabulous Freebirds. The Warriors then began splitting their time between the AWA and Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) where they started feuding with NWA World tag team champions The Russians, all while still holding the AWA belts (the AWA and various NWA members were co-promoting cards at the time, in an effort to compete with the World Wrestling Federation). Hawk and Animal eventually lost the AWA title to Jimmy Garvin and "Mr. Electricity" Steve Regal on September 29, 1985, due to the interference of the Freebirds. The Road Warriors' last appearance in the AWA was on April 20, 1986, at WrestleRock where they defeated the team of Garvin and Michael Hayes in a steel cage match.

During their AWA stint the team became well known for using a re-arranged version of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" titled "We are Iron Men" as their entrance theme.

In March 1985, the Road Warriors began touring Japan, mainly with All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) where they made an immediate impact squashing the monster team of Killer Khan and Animal Hamaguchi in under 4 minutes. This and subsequent dominant victories garnered the Road Warriors a lot of Japanese wrestling media headlines and front-page stories. Their tours with AJPW in 1985 and 1986 made the Road Warriors such legends in Japan that they toured the country whenever they were “between contracts” of the big three.