Road Warrior Animal

Michael Joseph Laurinaitis ( born September 12, 1960 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States), better known as The Road Warrior or Road Warrior Animal or animal, is a former American professional wrestler. He became known as part of the very successful Tag Teams The Road Warriors.

Laurinaitis brother is John Laurinaitis, a former wrestler and former Vice President of Talent Relations department of the WWE.

  • 2.1 Title
  • 2.2 Awards

Career

The beginnings

Laurinaitis, whose parents are of Lithuanian descent, moved with his family at the age of 15 years to Minneapolis. There he played baseball and football and finally got a football - Fellowship at Golden Valley Lutheran College. But when his first son was born, Laurinaitis was forced to find a job, rejected another football career and worked as a " bouncer ". While working he was discovered by Eddie Sharkey, a wrestling promoter and trainer who worked at that time as a bartender. This trained him, his future tag team partner Hawk, and also working there, Richard Rood (later " Ravishing " Rick Rude ) and Barry Darsow (later known as " Smash" a successful tag team wrestler ). Laurinaitis made ​​his debut in 1982 as "The Road Warrior" with a biker gimmick.

The Road Warriors

Paul Ellering, a wrestling manager, built for promotion Georgia Championship Wrestling on a stable of heels, which bore the name of The Legion of Doom. For this Stable Laurinaitis was brought together by Booker Ole Anderson with his friend Hegstrand as a tag team. To make them look more impressive Ellering developed with the two wrestlers a gimmick that leaned on the eschatological Rocker characters from the movie Mad Max II: The renamed the ring name " Animal" and " Hawk" wrestlers cut themselves Iroquois cuts and designed for their ring performances and face painting borrowed from American football shoulder pads to which were equipped with spikes.

The tag team Road Warriors was immediately successful with the public. Laurinaitis was with his partner quickly the " NWA National Tag Team " title until the autumn of 1984 a total of four times. After the first successes they changed to more promotions and were in addition to the American Wrestling Association. In August 1984, she also received the Tag Team belts this promotion. As of March 1985, she appeared in addition to for New Japan Pro Wrestling, as of April 1986, for Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. 1990 changed Laurinaitis and Hegstrand together to the World Wrestling Federation. There they were given within one year of the tag team belt promotion, they were allowed to keep eight months. After title loss, they disappeared shortly from the program, only to with Paul Ellering as the manager and return a wooden doll named " Rocco ". This supplement of the gimmicks found both Road Warriors silly, Hegstrand even announced his contract, which Laurinaitis was without a partner there. With Crush Laurinaitis was for a short time a new partner before the end of 1992 drew upon a back injury which meant his preliminary career end.

Laurinaitis had well insured with Lloyds and could thereby recovering from three years without appearances in the ring his injury. Only in 1996 he signed a contract with World Championship Wrestling, where Hegstrand was under contract. After six months there without a title win the reunified Road Warriors signed again with the World Wrestling Federation. After two successful years there, the alcohol problems Hegstrands became clearer; subsequently Laurinaitis came often to their own or with a substitute. 2000 changed the Road Warriors back to World Championship Wrestling, where Laurinaitis brother John in an influential position worked and was able to support the individual career of his brother. When Vince McMahon bought out WCW in 2001, Laurinaitis has not taken the contract. The Road Warriors rode nest in the next few years only a few matches. They performed a few times at the new main competitors of WWF, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, and denied on a successful title match in Japan.

In May 2003, she appeared at the WWE RAW format without notice and denied one days team title shot against reigning champions Kane and Rob Van Dam. After Hegstrands sudden death Laurinaitis rose temporarily out of the wrestling business and worked as an American football coach.

Since the death of Hawk

2005 ended Laurinaitis his break and returned to the WWE. With the help of a storyline allowed to save him Jon Heidenreich against attacks and brought together a new tag team that won the tag team title belt almost immediately. Subsequently, the promotion tried to bring Heidenreich in the Road Warrior gimmick, but this released in early 2006. Laurinaitis tried it then with Matt Hardy as a partner, then decided, however, that there can be no substitute for Hegstrand. In one of his last appearances for WWE Laurinaitis moved to heel, he passed by the road-warrior outfit and his former tag team partner belittled in utterances. This new gimmick was rarely used. The WWE released Laurinaitis on 6 June 2006.

Laurinaitis occurred since then once in TNA Wrestling as a replacement for the injured Scott Steiner and also had some gigs in Japan. There he joined with Kensuke Sasaki as a tag team partner, with Laurinaitis and Sasaki qualified by earlier performances with Michael Sasaki Hegstrand while Lauri Nati's three -year break.

In 2011, Laurinaitis was introduced along with his longtime partner Hegstrand and the manager Paul Ellering in the WWE Hall of Fame.

Achievements

Title

  • World Wrestling Entertainment 2x WWF Tag Team Champion ( with Road Warrior Hawk ) 1x WWE Tag Team Champion ( with Jon Heidenreich )
  • National Wrestling Alliance 4x NWA National Tag Team Champion ( with Road Warrior Hawk ) 3x NWA World Six -Man Tag Team Champion ( 2x with Road Warrior Hawk & Dusty Rhodes, 1x with Road Warrior Hawk & Genichiro Tenryu ) 1x NWA World Tag Team Champion ( with Road Warrior Hawk )
  • American Wrestling Association 1x AWA World Tag Team Champion ( with Road Warrior Hawk )
  • All Japan Pro Wrestling 1x AJPW International Tag Team Champion ( with Road Warrior Hawk )

Awards

  • WWE WWE Hall of Fame 2011
  • Pro Wrestling Illustrated 4x Tag Team of the Year (1983, 1984, 1985, 1988) with Road Warrior Hawk best tag team in the history of the journal (2003) with Road Warrior Hawk
  • Wrestling Observer Rookie of the Year 1983 ( with Road Warrior Hawk ) Tag Team of the Year 1984 ( with Road Warrior Hawk ) Hall of Fame 1996
Minnesota Chicago Illinois Glossary of professional wrestling terms#G Mohawk hairstyle Dusty Rhodes (wrestler) Dave Meltzer
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