The Road Warriors: Danger, Death, and the Rush of Wrestling by Joe Laurinaitis Read Free Book Online Page A

typical, cliché gimmick that paralleled Baron von Raschke, a well-known wrestler in the AWA and NWA territories.
    After only wrestling three matches, and vomiting after each of them, Mike had had enough. With Rood in tow, Mike fled Canada and came back to Minnesota. He couldn’t get there fast enough. They drove the entire 1800 miles all day and all night until they made it, almost killing themselves several times by falling asleep at the wheel.
    Now that the three of us had been reunited, we all picked up bouncing shifts again back at Gramma B’s. There we were, working on a typical night, and who was there talking to Eddie again? Ole. Eddie had invited him back to take a better look at the pictures of all of us.
    I said a quick hello but kept it short.
    As Ole and Eddie were chatting and flipping through the pictures, one of them caught Ole’s eye. “Hey, where did you get this shot of Joe?” he said. “I haven’t seen this one before.”
    Only it wasn’t me. It was Mike.
    “Where was this guy the first time I was here?” He kept holding the pictures of Mike and me side by side. You could tell his wheels were turning. He saw something in us.
    “Would the two of you be interested in coming down together? We could make you into a team,” Ole said. “I’ll make you my Road Warriors.”
    I was hesitant to have a big conversation about the idea until I talked to Mike.
    When I did, we both decided that if Ole agreed to treat us right, we’d do it.
    Ole and I spoke on the phone, and I made it clear that this was not going to be a repeat of my first trip down to Georgia. “Are you going to take care of me this time?” I asked.
    “You two come down here, and I’m gonna make you my champions.”
    Champions? That was all I needed to hear to give wrestling another chance. After all, the main priority was to be successful and make good money. Becoming champions would ensure both.
    So Mike and I packed, said our brief good-byes, and hauled off to the airport. You can imagine the crazy déjà vu I was experiencing.
    As soon as we got to Atlanta, Ole made his intentions clear. “You guys are my tag champions. Get ready. Your first match is coming up on TV, and you’ll already have the belts.”
    It was a sudden and shocking revelation. When Ole had told us on the phone that he was going to make us champions, I’d thought he’d meant a little further down the road after we had more experience. Mike and I had to scramble to get ready. I went out and bought us matching outfits that were an upgraded extension of my Road Warrior outfit before. Now we had black leather chaps with long black wrestling tights underneath, matching leather gloves, vests, and hats, black motorcycle boots, and sunglasses (black for me, red for Mike). The image, like us, was raw and in an early stage but much closer to what we wanted to portray: two bad, mean monsters from the streets.
    After I got all of our stuff, we went back to see Ole.
    “What do you want us to be?” I said. “How do you want us to act and look? Who are we?”
    Ole thought about it for a minute, then smiled. “After what I saw you do to Randy Barber last year, you’re going to be Animal.”
    I liked it, but then we both looked at Mike and wondered what we’d call him.
    As I continued to think, Mike shouted it out. “Well, I fly around like a hawk.”
    I answered right back, “There it is, bro. You’ll be Hawk.”
    And that’s how it happened. Right then and there, we would forever be known to each other and the public as Animal and Hawk, the Road Warriors. In and out of the ring, as per kayfabe, we pretty much became our alter egos full-time, and the people never doubted it for a second. It was pretty crazy to be given license to walk around looking and acting like the Road Warriors.
    Because we were so green in the business, Ole paired us up with someone who would become an integral part of our lives and career for years to come: “Precious” Paul Ellering. Paul