Road Warriors
The Road Warriors was the stage name used collectively by the professional wrestling tag team of Michael Hegstrand (Hawk) and Joseph Laurinaitis (Animal) when they competed in the AWA, WCW. They also used the name Legion of Doom (or LOD) in WWF (now the WWE).
History
The Road Warriors started teaming together in 1983. They wrestled for the NWA, AWA, AJPW, NJPW, WCW and the WWF.
In the early 1980s, in the NWA's Jim Crockett Promotions, Paul Ellering had a stable called "The Legion of Doom" that included the Road Warriors, Jake Roberts, The Spoiler, Matt Borne, King Kong Bundy and Arn Anderson. It did not last long and the Road Warriors and himself were then called the Legion of Doom.
They won titles all over the world and are the only tag team in history to win the World Tag Team titles in all three of the big promotions, AWA, WWF and NWA. Near the end of their career, they wrestled as LOD 2000 with Sunny as their manager.
Some of their biggest feuds were against The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy and Buddy Roberts), Ivan and Nikita Koloff, The Four Horsemen, Ron and Don Harris as the DOA, Buzz and Brett Sawyer and The Powers of Pain (The Barbarian and The Warlord).
They both became born-again Christians and appeared on Ted DiBiase's religion and wrestling shows in 2003.
Their last television appearance was jobbing to Rob Van Dam and Kane on Monday Night Raw on May 12, 2003. Hawk passed away just months later.
Animal later returned to the WWE in 2005, teaming up with Heidenreich in a feud against the tag team MNM. At The Great American Bash on 24 July,2005, Animal and Heidenreich defeated MNM to win the WWE Tag Team Championship. After winning the titles Heidenreich began to change his appereance to look suited to the Legion of Doom image; then on the August 18, 2005, Heidenreich was officialy made part of the "L.O.D" when he was presented with his own Road Warrior spikes.
Championships and accomplishments
Heidenreich and Animal
- 1-Time WWE Tag Team Champions
Hawk and Animal
- 2-Time WWF World Tag Team Champions
- 1-Time NWA World Tag Team Champions
- 1-Time AWA World Tag Team Champions
- 4-Time NWA National Tag Team Champions
- 3-Time NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Champions (with Dusty Rhodes twice & Genichiro Tenryu once)
- 1-Time AJPW International Tag Team Champions
- 1-Time IPW Tag Team Champions
- 3-Time Superstars of Wrestling Tag Team Champions
- 1986 NWA Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Winners
- 1989 NWA Iron Team Tournament Winners
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) ranked them # 1 of the 100 best tag teams during the "PWI Years" in 2003. They also won the PWI Tag Team of the Year Award in 1982, 1984, 1985 and 1988. They were also part of the 1987 PWI Feud of the Year (Road Warriors & Super Powers vs. The Four Horsemen).