Joseph Laurinaitis

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Joseph Laurinaitis
Road Warrior Animal.jpg
Data
birth Philadelphia , Pennsylvania September 12, 1960
death Osage Beach , Missouri September 23, 2020
Ring name (s) Road Warrior Animal
The Road Warrior
height 185 cm
Fighting weight 129 kg
Announced from Chicago , Illinois
Trained by Eddie Sharkey
debut 1982
retirement 2008

Joseph Michael "Joe" Laurinaitis (born September 12, 1960 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , † September 23, 2020 in Osage Beach , Missouri ), better known as The Road Warrior , Road Warrior Animal or Animal , was an American wrestler . He became known as part of the very successful tag team The Road Warriors .

Joseph's son James Laurinaitis is a retired American football professional who played for the St. Louis Rams and the New Orleans Saints in the NFL . Laurinaitis' brother is John Laurinaitis , a former wrestler and former vice president of talent relations at WWE .

Career

The beginnings

Joseph Laurinaitis, whose parents are of Lithuanian descent, moved his family to Minneapolis when he was 15 years old. There he played baseball and football and eventually received a football scholarship from Golden Valley Lutheran College. However, when his first son was born, Laurinaitis was forced to find a job, abandoned another football career and worked as a "bouncer". While at work, he was discovered by Eddie Sharkey, a wrestling promoter and coach who was bartending at the time. This trained him, his future tag team partner Hawk and Richard Rood (later "Ravishing" Rick Rude) and Barry Darsow (later known as "Smash" a successful tag team wrestler) who also worked there. Laurinaitis debuted in 1982 as "The Road Warrior" with a biker - gimmick .

The Road Warriors

Paul Ellering, a wrestling manager, built a stable of heels called The Legion of Doom for the Georgia Championship Wrestling promotion . For this stable Laurinaitis was brought together as a tag team by booker Ole Anderson and his friend Michael Hegstrand . To make them appear more impressive, Ellering developed a gimmick with the two wrestlers that was based on the eschatological rocker characters from the film Mad Max II : The wrestlers, renamed to the ring names "Animal" and "Hawk", cut each other's mohawks and laid for theirs Ring appearances, face-paints and shoulder pads borrowed from American football and studded with spikes.

The Road Warriors tag team was immediately well received by the audience. Laurinaitis and his partner quickly received the "NWA National Tag Team" title, up to autumn 1984 a total of four times. After the first successes, they switched to major promotions and also appeared in the American Wrestling Association . In August 1984 they also received the tag team belt for this promotion. From March 1985 they also competed for New Japan Pro Wrestling , from April 1986 also for Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling . In 1990 Laurinaitis and Hegstrand moved together to the World Wrestling Federation . There they received the PhD tag team belt within a year, which they were allowed to keep for eight months. After losing the title, they briefly disappeared from the shows, only to return with Paul Ellering as manager and a wooden doll called "Rocco". Both Road Warriors found this addition to the gimmick silly, Hegstrand even canceled his contract, leaving Laurinaitis without a partner. In Crush , Laurinaitis found a new partner for a short time before sustaining a back injury at the end of 1992, which meant the end of his career for the time being.

Laurinaitis was well insured with Lloyds and was able to cure his injury for three years without appearing in the ring. It wasn't until 1996 that he signed a contract with World Championship Wrestling , where Hegstrand was also under contract. After six months there without a title win, the reunited Roadwarriors signed again with the World Wrestling Federation. After two successful years there, Hegstrand's alcohol problems became more apparent; as a result, Laurinaitis often appeared alone or with a substitute. In 2000 the Road Warriors switched back to World Championship Wrestling, where Laurinaiti's brother John was active in an influential position and was able to promote his brother's individual career. When Vince McMahon bought WCW in 2001, Laurinaiti's contract was not taken over. The Road Warriors only played a few matches over the next few years. They appeared a couple of times with the new main competitor of the WWF, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling , and contested a successful title match in Japan.

In May 2003 they appeared in the WWE format RAW without prior notice and contested a tag team title fight against the reigning titleholders Kane & Rob van Dam . After Hegstrand's sudden death, Laurinaitis temporarily left the wrestling business and worked as an American football coach.

After Hawk's death

In 2005 Laurinaitis ended his hiatus and returned to the WWE . With the help of a storyline , Jon Heidenreich was saved from attacks and a new tag team was brought together, which almost immediately received the tag team title belt . Subsequently, the doctorate tried to bring Heidenreich into the Road Warrior gimmick, but dismissed it in early 2006. Laurinaitis then tried it with Matt Hardy as a partner, but then decided that there could be no replacement for Hegstrand. In one of his last appearances for WWE, Laurinaitis switched to heel , ditching the road warrior outfit and belittling his former tag team partners. This new gimmick was hardly used. WWE released Laurinaitis on June 6, 2006.

Laurinaitis has since appeared once at TNA Wrestling as a replacement for the injured Scott Steiner and has also made a few appearances in Japan. There he appeared with Kensuke Sasaki as a tag team partner, with Laurinaitis and Sasaki following on from previous appearances Sasaki with Michael Hegstrand during Laurinaitis three-year break.

In 2011 Laurinaitis was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame along with his long-time partner Hegstrand and manager Paul Ellering .

Joseph Laurinaitis died shortly after his 60th birthday on September 23, 2020 in Osage Beach , Missouri .

successes

title

Awards

  • WWE
    WWE Hall of Fame 2011
    Wrestlemania 14 (15-Team Battle Royal Winner)
  • Pro Wrestling Illustrated
    4 × Tag Team of the Year (1983, 1984, 1985, 1988) with Road Warrior Hawk
    best tag team since the magazine was founded (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

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Road Warriors: Danger, Death, and the Rush of Westling Preview on Google Books
  2. ↑ Simo H .: WWE legend Road Warrior Animal died at the age of 60. In: Promiflash . September 23, 2020, accessed on September 23, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Laurinaitis, Joseph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Laurinaitis, Joseph Michael (full name); Road Warrior Animal (ring name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American wrestler
DATE OF BIRTH September 12, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH 23 September 2020
Place of death Osage Beach , Missouri