Road Warrior Hawk
Michael James Hegstrand, better known as Road Warrior Hawk ( born September 12, 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota; † 19 October 2003 in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida ) was an American professional wrestler and the son of German immigrants. He was known as one half of the highly successful Tag Teams The Road Warriors or Legion of Doom.
Life
Hegstrand grew up in Minneapolis, where in 1976 he graduated from high school. He ran powerlifting and bodybuilding and he had his first job as a bouncer. Here he discovered the wrestling trainer Eddie Sharkey. But also working with him there Joseph Laurinaitis, Richard Rood, and Barry Darsow, should come into the wrestling business and therefore all four of Sharkey were trained.
The Road Warriors
The wrestlers Paul Ellering introduced a new heel in the organization Georgia Championship Wrestling - grouping together called the Legion of Doom. So you trained Laurinaitis and Hegstrand a tag team and renamed it to Animal and Hawk. They were modeled after the film Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior makeover and acted as merciless warrior.
The team was a great success and soon they were in several large organization, such as the AWA and the NWA. In 1988 they were involved in a feud with the Powers of Pain, which were the first style technical imitators of the Road Warriors, as well as the now emerged in the WWF team Demolition.
In 1990, Hegstrand and Laurinaitis for WWF and called themselves now The Legion of Doom. They were embroiled in a feud with Demolition, the team where her old training partner Barry Darsow was a smash. However, the feud could not meet all the high expectations, since the original Demolition Ax had to be replaced for health reasons by Crush. On August 26, 1991, she received the WWF Tag Team title after a victory against the Nasty Boys and felt it would be until February 7, 1992, when Money Inc. new champions were. After the title loss she paused a moment and then returned with Paul Ellering as the manager back. However, this is now the gimmick with a wooden puppet named got to have to talk " Rocco ". Hegstrand disliked this so much that he resigned and Laurinaitis thus for the first time let alone. A subsequent back injury threatened by the latter now at the end of the team.
Hegstrand now entered alone in Europe and Japan, but as a single wrestler he was, despite winning the CWA Heavyweight title, less accepted by the fans. He eventually went to New Japan Pro Wrestling and got in Kensuke Sasaki a new partner. The team was called The Hell Raisers, won the IWGP Tag Team titles and dominated the tag team scene in the league.
Then he went in 1993 as a single wrestler for WCW, where he after a pause again finally returned in 1995 with Laurinaitis as part of the Road Warriors and immediately to the Tag Team titles took. Through the storyline about the nWo, however, it did not come to win the title and the two went back to the WWF.
In the WWF they were first on Austin's side in the feud Bret Hart - drawn Steve Austin. On October 7, 1997, she again won the WWF Tag Team Championship, but lost it on the 24th of November to the new team New Age Outlaws. To refresh their style to give them the manager Sunny was put aside and the team is now called LOD 2000th Sunny left the team but soon again.
The so-called Attitude Era of WWF was known for partially coated and taste the border-crossing storylines. So also for the L.O.D. It took Hegstrands real alcohol problem and dealt with it in front of the camera, as Hegstrand had to play as drunk and a replacement wrestler named Puke his place in the LOD occupied. Puke was played by Darren Drozdov and stood at the end of the storyline as the cause of Hegstrands alcohol problem out. Hegstrands real problems, however, took him to actually and heart disease was also diagnosed in 2001, which forced him to take a break.
2002 and early 2003 made the Road Warriors a few guest appearances on TNA, but denied only one real match. Also in 2003, he joined the Church of born-again Christians and appeared in some of those events.
On 12 May 2003, the Road Warriors returned surprisingly back on RAW and denied equal to a title match against Kane & Rob Van Dam, subject to limited and a comeback seemed possible. 2011 were included in the WWE Hall of Fame.
Death
Hegstrand died on the morning of October 19, 2003 in his home in Indian Rocks Beach (Florida ) to a heart attack. A book with the title Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuaaaaaaah O Whhhhhat a Ruuuuuush ( Hawks battle cry ), where the two worked, was completed by Laurinaitis and dedicated Hegstrand.
Achievements
- World Wrestling Entertainment
- 2x World Tag Team Champion ( with Animal )
- WWE Hall of Fame 2011 ( with Animal as The Road Warriors )
- World Championship Wrestling
- All Japan Pro Wrestling
- New Japan Pro Wrestling
- 2x IWGP World Tag Team Champion ( with Kensuke Sasaki ) as The Hellraisers
- Other Titles
- Wrestlers
- Americans
- Born in 1958
- Died in 2003
- Man