Original subtitles

What a powerful night.

When you talk about power, you talk about powerful men

and a powerful industry.

They were the greatest tag team in the history of this

business.

Nobody was tougher, nobody was stronger, nobody was more intimidating.

Our business is beating people up. In WWE, they were the Legion of Doom.

Prior to that, they were the Road Warriors.

Take on a warrior, we'll slap you right down.

In either case, they were ass -kicking machines.

They don't have any regard for themselves, they have no regard for

It was hardcore.

Every night.

You had Animal.

Anybody, anywhere, anytime.

And you had Hawk.

You did me.

It's almost like they were just tied together.

But behind the curtain, they were completely opposite.

The charms of James, like Daddy does in the ring.

He just was always there and just always so loving.

You know, I was Mr. Joe Straight and Narrow and Hawk was Mr. Whew.

Total excess, everything he did.

Three times he was rushed into an ER for drug overdoses. Could have died.

At that point, I was really pissed at him. Felt like I was being deserted by

partner.

It got to the point where he's like, I can't babysit anymore.

But they needed each other.

The beauty of them was together, not separate.

They were brothers.

He goes, Joe, I love you.

I said, brother, I love you too, Mike.

I didn't think I was going to get upset, but it was a very, it was very

emotional.

I never got to say goodbye.

The greatest team of our time, the greatest team of all time.

They were the best that there was.

Well, this is where it all began.

Six kids in the family, and Mike was number five.

Mike as a kid, mischievous, always in trouble for something.

A kid just running around and playing, but a little harder and a little heavier

than everyone else.

He wasn't a troubled kid, you know, growing up, but, I mean, he was.

For whatever reason, he liked to fight.

That was, you know, I mean, that was Mike's sport, you know, was kind of

fighting. He had a very short temper. I mean, if he felt you crossed him, he was

probably going to knock you out.

There was that fighting time in his life in high school and everything, and it

seemed like he was trying to prove something to himself or whatever.

Psychologists would have fun with it, I think.

And he used...

Alcohol and pot and things like that. I mean, it was peace, love, dope time in

the world. But he was just really a good guy.

If you were his friend, he would do anything for you.

And that's one thing that he valued and that he kept through his whole

career was his friends.

Check. One, two, three, four.

Hawk and I grew up in Minneapolis.

We went to two different high schools because we lived in two different parts

the city.

Here we are, a little bit of nostalgia.

This is Hawk's all neighborhood here.

My dad and Hawk lived fairly close.

Like, I think they could have ran into each other at, like, any moment in time.

It was just they hadn't yet.

My dad, of course, in his high school years, played football.

Joe was highlighted in the Minneapolis Star Tribune as an all -conference

football player out of Irondale High School.

At the time, I was at Golden Valley Lutheran College playing football.

I was part of the recruiting team.

I told him who I was, invited him over for a night to tour the campus and see

if he would entertain the idea of coming and playing football with us.

And he made a decision to come.

I met Joe Laranitis here in 1978 in the fall when school started.

And after that, it was love at first sight.

He was a very good football player, but that didn't quite work out.

Life went a different direction for him.

That's when he found out Nancy got pregnant.

So he was going to do the noble thing and drop out of college and marry Nancy.

That was just the right thing to do.

I found out that we were going to have a boy, and then we had Joey in February

of 1981.

It was like just a light switch. He just stopped doing whatever he was doing and

just became a dad, as simple as that.

I know that he and Joey's mom tried to be together and stay together and

everything, and I understand that that didn't work out, but they were able to

parents at such a young age, and I think they did a pretty good job.

We ended up getting divorced in 1982.

Now I think back, and I'm like, yeah, we were young.

Now you're a brand -new father.

You're 20 years old.

What was going to be his future?

Growing up, my dad was, he was more of the fatherly figure that was a provider.

My mom was probably a little bit more the one that gave the love, I guess.

Our mom died young, 57.

She was a sweetheart.

Yep, yep.

Yeah, she had a real heart.

And Mike was, you know, like, just out of high school.

I didn't know how much it affected him, but some of his friends told me that it

really had a hard time.

That was his time of transition. What am I going to do in life, you know? And

his direction was a little lost.

He also didn't like school. He didn't care for school.

And that's where he started in his whole workout regimen.

In Minneapolis.

There was a gym that became known as the Mecca of the Midwest called simply The

Gym. All right, here we are. We're at The Gym.

13 ,500 square feet of the toughest powerlifters, bodybuilders,

anything you want in the state of Minnesota is right here.

One day, I go to The Gym.

Mike happens to be there.

And I'm doing incline. I'm doing like 315 or 350 with my dad on the incline.

He looks at me and he goes, you're not right.

He goes, the young kid should not be doing that. He just opened hands and

whack!

You know, and from there, you know, we became real good friends.

You know, once they kind of met officially, then it just kind of became

they were just meant to be.

They met at the gym, but at the same time, they were bouncing at the bars.

I can't remember, was it Grandma Bee's or whatever he used to talk about all

time? Well, here we are at the infamous Grandma B's.

They loved it because they got to get paid to beat people up. That's what we

were known for. We were like old dogs backed up in a corner. We were vicious.

Also for my dad, I think he was honestly willing to do whatever he needed to do

to, you know, pay for diapers, pay for whatever, you know, whatever the little

baby Joey needed.

Here we are at the Baltimore Civic Center, Baltimore, Maryland, talking to

wrestling fans coming to see Georgia Championship Wrestling.

Meanwhile, Ole Anderson, a legendary wrestler and promoter in Georgia

Championship Wrestling, sees a movie, Mad Max, The Road Warrior.

It puts a light bulb over his head and gives him the idea for a tag team.

A guy named Eddie Sharkey is a trainer who's also working as a bartender at

Grandma B's.

And he knows Ole Anderson, the promoter. And Anderson one day calls Eddie

Sharkey and says, I'm looking for a couple of guys.

Ole comes to Minneapolis, meets with Eddie Sharkey at Grandma B's, and says,

hey, who you got?

You know, I need some talent.

Who do you have?

Oh, he sees Joe and Mike, and he thinks, there they are. Like, that's it.

And from then on there, you know, we went into the wrestling camp that Eddie

Sharkey had. We went there three months straight, five days a week, and we

really beat the heck out of each other.

So now they get called down south to Georgia Championship Wrestling as the

Warriors. We're too guy.

that just happened to be tough guys, to go directly from bouncing to maybe a

smidge of training, and then to Georgia Championship Wrestling, which was one of

the top professional wrestling territories in the country at that

totally unheard of.

They literally just took this chance and didn't even know what was going to come

of it.

Mike, at that point in his life, was still wandering.

You know, Joe from the get -go was this family guy.

So much harder for Joe than it would have been for Mike because Mike had

to lose.

But for my dad, you know, you're potentially leaving a job, leaving a

like, what are you doing?

It was kind of a weird spot for him where it just felt like it was like, now

what?

The Road Warriors.

Here they are at Georgia Championship Wrestling.

First things first, they needed a manager.

I want to take a moment, if I may, to talk to Precious Paul Ellering. Here's a

gentleman who has made... Oh, yes, rumors about... Oli pulled me aside with

and said, these are going to be your boys.

First, we molded the look.

It just started with face paint first.

Then Hawk said one day, Joe, you know, you should get a mohawk, and then I'll

get the double mohawk, and then our heads will be one.

Two make one.

Then we said, come up with names, and Uli points to Animal, and he says, you

look like an animal.

Hawk said, I think I'm a hawk.

Which one's which?

This is Hawk, this is Animal.

They were natural heels.

Bad guys.

They had the face paint. They had the hair.

They had the names.

The only thing they needed was the song.

Their music for the ring entrance, that song would set the tone.

The Road Warriors getting set to move into the ring.

A big, impressive pair of individuals.

You felt like two monsters from hell were coming out of the back of that

dangling dressing room and going to wreak havoc.

When they first came in, you see them, it's just, wow.

Look out.

These two guys were the coolest things that I'd ever seen.

Just badass.

Brother, you talk about vicious, bizarre individuals.

They were taking people's heads off.

It wasn't old school wrestling. Grab a hold, work the hold.

I mean, what happened to professional wrestling? These guys are just rough and

tough. Animal and Hawk completely turned the tables over. Now it was slam, bam,

in your face, man.

Y 'all better get used to this, because it's coming down, baby. They were

themselves.

That's who they were.

We did it all our life. We've always got our way. I was slapping people since I

was yea high to a grasshopper. They forgot.

This is not real. This is make -believe.

Ooh, brother. I have never seen anybody as completely vicious and as

overwhelming as a road boy.

They just rolled with it. Once the ball got rolling, it just picked up speed.

You're looking at one of the most dynamic, trend -setting courses in the

of wrestling today.

Where it's going to take us, I cannot tell you.

The Road Warriors were so successful early on that...

They were able to work successfully in Georgia Championship Wrestling, in Jim

Crockett Promotions, National Wrestling Alliance, and AWA. They were able to do

it all, and it just meant more exposure for the Road Warriors.

At that time, cable TV, that changed everything.

Coming up next, the Road Warriors, right here on ESPN.

And cable TV, when it started to spread across the United States, everybody

could see wrestling.

I'm here in Dallas at the Reunion Center. We've got the greatest talent in

world. I've got the Road Warriors, you name it, and they're here tonight.

So it made regular stars superstars.

Would you come here to see the Road Warriors?

I watch these guys get big fast.

I want to see the Road Warriors!

I was like, oh, my God. You know, these guys are monsters now.

And that's when I heard the roar.

The reaction from the fans, it was something

else every night.

They were bad apples, bad guys.

But fans loved it.

It was huge.

They had the look that gets the look.

They had the it fat.

And they just fed off of each other.

There's got to be a rumble tonight.

Because we're the warriors.

That's right.

They had chemistry.

Ying and yang.

Tell them, brother. Hey!

Hawk and I had a unique telepathy, man. We were two guys they found in the

wrestling business and put together.

We were two guys that were friends. We bounced.

We worked out together.

We'd known each other for years. So I think that gave us a little bit of an

edge. Notice how Hawk and the Animal tag in and tag out. Watch this.

Oh!

It's almost like, I don't know, they were just tied together.

Animal, Hawk, as a team, they were great. These men are the most

team I've seen in my career.

But behind the curtain, they were completely opposite.

Joey lived with his mother, but Joe would see him all the time.

He missed him when he was on the road. It was hard. It really was hard for him.

He was a very good father and always wanted to

be with him and see him. And as much as he traveled, he saw Joey as much as

possible. You see life different when you're a parent.

And Hawk didn't have children, so, you know, that was a difference.

I think Joe was more subdued.

Hawk was more of a fiery type of guy, you know.

He would go out at night.

At first it was just drinking.

And Hawk always had a good time.

But Animal was the one that the promotion always knew could reel him

make sure that they made their shows and did the things that they were going to

do. They were two drastically different

wired people.

Hawk really was able to jump right on that lightning bolt in the life of the

fast lane and turn it up about three more notches.

While in the short term, if one member of a tag team wants to have a certain

lifestyle and the other wants to live a completely opposite lifestyle,

That can be fine, but it's really not sustainable.

Eventually, something could give.

Russia and the United States have always been at it for years and years, and the

Cold War continued in 1985.

Now, for the business.

Immensum. Perfect time for the Russians to come.

Introducing first, from the Soviet Union, Ivan Koloff and

Krusher Grushin.

The Great American Bash in 1985 was a huge deal.

You had 27 ,000 Americans, all with one thing in common.

They hated Russia.

The Russians, in our culture, they were the bad guys.

And then when you have the road warriors, this

hard American, take no prisoners, and you Russians, you want to try something,

we're just going to knock the L .A.

People wanted...

The Russians, to really get beat up, they want the road warriors to beat them

up. The road warriors are our bad guys.

Both teams have been disqualified. A double disqualification.

Even though the match ended in a draw, the road warriors went from being bad

guys to now being good guys.

That entire interaction with the Russians ends up making the road

more beloved.

So now

they're more popular in a much better position when it comes to dealing with

guy who decides how much money they'll make, the man with the checkbook, Jim

Crockett. Let's bring in Mr. Jim Crockett, president of Jim Crockett

Animal and Hawk wanted guaranteed contracts.

So we talked to Jimmy, and he was going to come up with a deal.

And so before we did the deal, we got ahold of Vince. I got ahold of Vince.

You know they're going to meet with Vince.

Why not? I mean, you know, they're going to go back and forth to see what they

can get.

Well, you have to remember, the mid-'80s were gigantic for WWE.

The involvement with celebrities like Cyndi Lauper and Mr. T and the eventual

formation of this event called WrestleMania completely transformed WWE

wrestling business as we knew it. And this, of course, plays right into the

Warriors' hands.

They can now threaten Crockett with the idea that they could defect to WWE if

they want to.

We're going to be the ones walking out. You're the ones that are going to be

laying. And Vince, he said, I'd really like to have you, but I just can't give

out guarantees.

Nobody here has one. So we said, okay.

And then right before he leaves, he says, you know, I know you're

with Crockett.

If you want to use me, you can in the negotiations.

And we went back, and Jimmy came up with a very nice deal for us.

And it was guaranteed.

Mr. Crockett, you've been a very busy man with some very successful

negotiations. I'm a very happy man right now, Jim.

Animal and Hawk both got $500 ,000 per year for three

years. And that was money in the bank. You know, nobody was getting that kind

money back then.

Guaranteed.

How would you handle the success and the success they had?

There are ways of handling and coping with that success and your choice of how

you move forward with this.

You know, they just, a different way of going about doing things.

We actually lived two different lifestyles.

You know, I was Mr. Joe Straight and Narrow, and Hawk was Mr. Whew.

Hawk, you know, he enjoyed the nightlife.

He started to become full speed, man. He was searching for good timing most

of the time he followed it.

He made no secret about his reputation outside the ring in terms of, you know,

the party life.

I went to the ring and things were kind of hazy. Everything seemed a little bit

slowed down.

But I never saw it impede his performance in the ring.

during that point.

So no one knew

at the time that it was going to take on a life of its own and become this

growing issue.

Hawk was drinking a lot.

And then, you know, it progressed.

We started obviously doing a lot of substances and stuff.

You know, at the time, you don't look at it the way we reflect on it now.

There wasn't any real discussion of, hey, you think you should cut back or

whatever. Hawk was going to be Hawk, and that's how he rolled and the guys he

rolled with.

So we didn't.

really see the dangers and where it was headed.

Joe and I met at the gym.

A friend of mine from high school, we decided we wanted to lift weights, and

were at a club that the women lifted on one side and the men worked out on the

other side, and we would always go to the men's side, and they didn't like

But Joe kind of fought the fight for it, so that was the beginning there.

Very soon after he met her, I could tell he was smitten, as they say.

They were very happy together.

That would eventually lead to marriage. That would eventually lead to James and

Jessica, the two children they would have together.

And even when he married Julie,

he never really lost touch with Joey.

He still had a responsibility to raise him while starting a new family and

eventually raising James and Jessica.

He made sure that we knew that we were loved. Like, family was number

one out of anything that he was doing.

I think

the most important thing was just,

So when he came home, it was all about family, and Hawk did his own thing.

Oh, Mike is Mike. He's just crazy.

But a very caring, extremely caring, loving person.

He had an amazing heart.

Hawk was the best.

To know Hawk is to love Hawk.

One day, we were in midtown New York, and there was a guy.

In an alley in Hawk, he stops and he gives a guy $100.

That's the way Hawk was.

He would give you the shirt off his back.

I was in the NWA and I was making like $500, $600 a week. And I got a tax bill.

And it was like $500 for that old back tax.

And Hawk seen me sitting over there. He said, what's the matter? And I said,

well, it's Scott.

Stuff I got to take care of. I told him what was going on, and he said, man,

don't worry about it. Gave me 500 bucks for someone at the time whose character

was larger and bigger than life.

The guy, he had a heart.

He was a great guy, super nice guy.

But Hawk would go out two, three days at a time and not sleep and party nonstop

with some stimulants and things, yeah.

Three times he was rushed into an ER for drug overdoses. Three times.

O .D. could have died.

Drug overdoses.

A head -on collision with an 18 -wheeler, driving an old pickup truck

seatbelt, and rolled the truck six times and walked away without a scratch.

One time, him and a buddy, northern Minnesota, November, cold, snow, icy

lake, falls out of the boat, drunk as a skunk.

He's sinking, sinking, sinking.

Mike said he's looking up, and it's pitch dark, and he sees like a pin

And he's like, I don't know what that is, but whatever it is, if I don't make

to that pin light, I'm done. Like, I'm dead.

I'm done.

And he gives a last -ditch effort. Well, what it was was his buddy found a

flashlight in the boat and was shining the flashlight.

In the water.

And that's what saved Mike, was the flashlight.

In his effort to get to that pin light, his buddy grabbed him and pulled him in

the boat.

And that saved him that night, that flashlight.

At the time, Joe kind of started to get...

You know, frustrated with Mike.

It got to be a heavy load sometimes.

I wanted to live up to the respect that our name had in the business.

But Joe definitely had a loyalty to Mike, a loyalty to the business, and a

loyalty to the Road Warriors.

No matter.

How much Mike started to go off the rail, Joe was able to reel him back in

keep him focused and on track to what, you know, what the ultimate goal for the

two of them was.

A brother can talk to another brother. I mean, come on, we got this opportunity.

Let's, you know, get it and let's get it going.

I think Hawk accepted when there were some things said. You know, he knew what

the deal was and he got in line. But I think they...

They understood each other.

Hawk was there for the match.

Had to have a couple cups of coffee and go.

This event is for the world's tag team championship.

My God, look at this.

Their career continued to really just blossom.

They were still hot, real hot.

Hey,

Road Warriors, now you guys are invited to my party Saturday too, you know. We

don't mingle, we mangle.

They were able to take this meteor rise to the top and stay on top.

The number one team in wrestling, of course, the incomparable Road Warriors.

The early Road Warrior days, you know, first they didn't have the shoulder

but then they really dialed it in, right? They got those shoulder pads.

Spikes on him.

It was amazing.

I loved it. It was hardcore, Dad.

And then I think Mike's wit came out on the interviews.

We live life on the edge.

What a rush.

Oh, what a rush.

Hawk came up with it. It was in a movie.

It was great. Fans loved it.

By this point, the Road Warriors are just that tag team. They're clicking on

cylinders, hot as can be.

Road Warriors!

They're number one! They're the champs! The Warriors!

You know, they had conquered the AWA.

You know, there was the NWA and then WCW and the WWE.

I think it's something that they always wanted.

There's only one.

to measure your success and tag team wrestling and that to go up against the

best so you know how you rate.

At that particular time, we needed to take the next step and go to the Big

Daddy, which everybody was calling the WWE, the Big Daddy, and make our

there.

The guys wanted to leave for WWE because pride has to drive you and you're proud

that you are the best.

You're proud that nobody else can do what you do.

And I said, you guys go, but I'm going to finish out my contract.

Because I've always been a man of my word.

So it was time to go separate ways.

It was tough.

Because I'm the dad.

And they're my boys.

And that's what started the ball rolling to move on.

I love Vince McMahon. Welcome to the superstars of wrestling.

Vince McMahon wanted to get the Road Warriors up to the WWE, but they had

such a good deal and the money they were making that the WWE couldn't match

because Vince did not guarantee money.

but the Road Warriors had already hit the ceiling at WCW, so they decided at

that point to make the move to WWE so that they could be more than what they

were. They call themselves the Legion of

Doom! The Road Warriors was a name that was associated with the movie, so

it was...

difficult to clear legally, and since WWE being a global company, you want to

have a name that you can clear, and Legion of Doom was something that we

get cleared.

When

they did

arrive, they...

took the place by storm they

just

went out there and just ran through people they beat the hell out of

they got in the ring with the only reason they beat the hell out of

was they didn't know what else to do

Both, Joe and Mike, they were intense as hell. But when you get them out of the

ring, they were also wonderful people.

How's the food here, Joe?

Any limitations?

Mike enjoyed being around fans.

He had a heart of gold.

That's just the kind of guy he was. He had a heart that was bigger than

He could light up a room when he came in there, I don't know, for whatever

reason.

Great guy, but Mike had demons that would prevent him from making good

choices.

It just got to the point where in the 90s, it was total excess, everything he

did, you know.

If we'd go out drinking, it would just, he would drink to the point where, you

know, he would just not stop.

It was tough to watch sometimes.

Luke the Bushwalker had a beach house.

The pool was behind the townhouses.

and people would put lawn chairs on this side of the pool, and the beach was out

there. So they had their bags to the pool, and they were hooking out on the

beach. And so when my wife and I pulled up, I see Hawk crawling towards the deep

end of the pool.

I think he's just screwing around, you know, having fun.

I saw him, like, go in the deep end of the pool and slither and slide down the

pool like a snake.

I was getting my bags out of the car, and as I walked by, he's on the bottom

the pool.

there, like, sleeping on the bottom of the pool.

So my wife said, oh, my God, is he playing around? She goes, no, go get

So I went, I got him and pulled him out of the pool, and I guess he'd eaten a

bunch of things that were putting him to sleep, you know.

And that was a real close call that time. But I got him out of the pool, and

they resuscitated him and got him going. And that was the beginning of I knew we

had a problem on our hands.

Even though Mike had his vices and his challenges, still at that point, Joe was

incredibly loyal to Mike.

Joe developed a real love in his heart for Mike. You know, he certainly wasn't

happy with his choices, but that love for Mike and not giving up on him or

throwing in the towel and saying, you know what, dude.

I'm tired of your antics. I'm tired of your life. I'm done.

I'm out of here. You go your way. I'll go my way. But that wasn't Joe.

It was the bond that's built and forged in those early

years when they didn't have all the money and building their relationship

together.

Joe wasn't willing to throw in the towel.

Saw.

An opportunity of hope that Mike could make a lifestyle change.

And it was thought with Hawk hitting a couple speed bumps, he'd straighten out.

But he really didn't. It kind of kept getting worse.

At the time, Mike failed the test, and the test was for illegal

drugs.

He needs help.

We need to get him out of here, and we'll do whatever it takes to help him

get him on the road back.

We tried rehab, but he just didn't do it.

After Hawk failed a drug test, the WWE had to suspend him.

They tried to send him to rehab, but Hawk would not go. He had become a full

-blown addict.

and the only one who didn't realize it was Hawk.

Okay, does everybody understand why we're here today?

That's right, we're here to talk about drugs.

Drugs are going to get you nowhere.

All drugs do is ruin you.

They make life real hard.

And instead of going forward, you end up going backwards.

We did an intervention at one point in time.

We sat down with him and just told him how much we love him and are concerned

for him and his health.

We were hoping that he would listen and get some help, that this was not

something he could do on his own and get some help, and he

didn't.

He was not ready.

I think that with Hawk, the way they used to do interventions was not going

work from the beginning because he's stubborn, and I think when they said you

can't or you need to or you should, he went, oh, yeah, I'll show you, because

that was how he was. And so I think he would run the other direction.

Hawk, at that particular time, he was making money. One of the top...

Tag teams, if not the top in the world.

Everything you want, you've got, that you've worked for your whole life.

So who knows what's really going on with somebody's mind or what's happening

inside of you.

I don't know why it turned out the way I did.

His personality was just, and I think that is a trait probably in the Higgs

family, there's a bit of it, of addictions.

And then you had money and you had fame and you had an image to be the wild guy.

And, you know, a lot of us will have the thing, the little voice that goes off

that says stop. And Mike didn't. And a lot of that was

fueled by being Hawk.

He probably had been fine if he'd stayed in North Minneapolis and had been more

grounded. But I think Road Warrior Hawk kind of took over.

And he locked himself in there somewhere.

You know, there were times when he would come home and he was high and you just,

you didn't really want to be around him.

So it was a sad time because you just knew this wasn't going in a good

direction.

At the time, Legion of Doom, they were popular.

They were very popular.

Legion of Doom with the opportunity of a lifetime tonight as they meet the nasty

boys for the World Wrestling Federation tag team titles.

They were attractions.

They drew money.

And they delivered when they got into the

ring.

That SummerSlam of 1991 really was the pinnacle of everything that those two

accomplished.

That was the peak.

What a moment for Legion of Doom!

Legion of Doom getting those tag titles in WWE, that's a big deal.

At that point, Legion of Doom were it.

Here we are at Toys R Us and it's the Legion of Doom!

Oh yeah, dude!

You know, they had other business going. They had, like, their own clothing

line. This company not only has a good product, it has a great gimmick. They're

partners in a company called Zubaz.

Those pants were one of the most popular pieces of apparel, like, in the world.

Their company grossed about $20 million last year.

They were kind of like pioneers, you know, parlaying their fame into other

ventures. They were in it together with everything.

As for Hawk and Animal, they've learned how to succeed inside the ring and out,

and they have no intention of losing in either one.

At the time, Hawk was still struggling with his demons, and I

think his lifestyle was taking a toll on him for sure, mentally and physically.

Joe, what's his babysitter?

You know, he would try really hard, but it got to the point where he's like, I

can't babysit anymore.

Paul Ellery, welcome to WrestleMania.

I have returned!

Animal felt that Hawk was better when I was around.

They said, well, it sure would be nice to have you back, and next thing you

know, I got a phone call.

Paul was also a great role model for them, and so I think with Hawk, I think

that they were kind of hoping that maybe the two of them together could kind of,

you know, hone him in a little bit.

At that time, Paul Ellering had a brilliant idea.

He brought out a dummy, Rocco, who was supposedly their long

-lost... childhood doll.

What is this?

Animal. Hey, what is this? That's Rocko. And now Rocko the dummy was

supposedly going to inspire Hawk and Animal, take them to higher heights.

All this rubble, we got one piece of memory left.

By then, their biggest positive, money -wise, was their merchandise sales.

Well, I wanted something that would help sell a lot of merchandise.

And I thought we could do that with Rocco dolls.

Remember the Rocco thing? We didn't even talk about that, right?

Oh, man.

Can I take him? I want to take him to the ring.

He can be our mascot. Let's take him everywhere.

I can't believe an animal after all these years.

I remember talking to Joe at the time how much he couldn't stand that dummy.

Both Hawk and Animal hated that dummy.

Hey, check out the haircut.

I would like to point out, I had absolutely nothing to do with Rocco.

Oh, you guys have sure changed.

I gotta tell you, I thought it was rotten.

I'm sorry, it was rotten.

Rocco did not belong with the Legion of Doom.

You got these two badasses.

Hi,

I'm Rocco. I'm your friend from when you were a little kid.

It just made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.

The development wasn't there.

It didn't get what it needed from creatives.

We are the merchants of destruction.

I would have fought to the death to not do that.

Eventually, Rocco somehow disappeared.

Trevor.

SummerSlam 92 was gigantic for the WWE because it was truly an international

event. This was the beginning of the WWE going worldwide.

82 ,000 people in Wembley Stadium in England.

I mean, that's a WrestleMania crowd.

If you mess up the WWE, they don't look at you the same way.

They're sticking millions of dollars of investment money in you.

And we built up to it so much, months and months of interviews and time spent,

because you want it to be nothing but the best.

It's just going to be the big thing.

Money, Inc. against Hawk and Animal in the Road Wars. It's going to be a big

night for us, and we're all excited.

It's SummerSlam! It's SummerSlam! And I can't wait, baby! Legion of Doom, don't

think this is a chance for you to get even with Money Incorporated and IRS.

These are two of our major tag teams, you know?

Two of the biggest tag teams we've ever had up there.

But then we get ready to go, and Ellering comes to me and he goes, Oh, my

said, What's wrong? He goes, It's Hawk.

He was not in good shape.

How much do you want me to tell you about that night?

He was really unhappy with that little puppet thing that they had going at that

time and seemed to be in a very self -destructive mood.

Hawk was by the sink and he just took about four or five Placidyls and threw

them in his mouth.

I've never taken a Placidyl, but for sedating a horse or elephant or

You take enough of them, I'm sure they'll kill you.

I remember he stuck them out on his tongue.

They were all stuck to his tongue, and then he just downed it with a drink.

That's like suicide. Like, what are you doing?

What was terrifying was riding the motorcycle out, because he was in no

do that.

It wasn't good.

Hawk was just a train wreck that day.

I'm not sure Hawk ever knows where he's at right now.

With Hawk, you never knew what you were going to get. So we dealt with that as

best we could, and that's all I can say about it.

It doesn't look much like Hawk. To me, it looks more like an old dirty pigeon.

I felt so bad for Joe.

Imagine how frustrating that is for an animal who's looking on. Sometimes Hawk,

as a partner, really failed him. Ring the bell!

When you're a team, it's so important that one half of that team doesn't let

other half down.

Everything with your career is tied in with his.

With Hawk, everybody really jumped in to try to cover up what was going through

and happening with him.

So we kind of pulled it

out.

You know, I wish it could have been a lot better looking back if we could have

done it over again.

Animal, Joe, he was very disappointed.

Joe was a very proud man.

He lived the road warrior gimmick. He was proud of that.

And now for it to be tarnished, that did not sit good with him.

After the match, Joe and I met at the airport.

Hawk's not here.

We flew back.

At the next TV taping, which was shortly after that event,

Joe Laurinaitis is there.

Animal's ready to go.

Here is Animal of Legion of Doom!

Hawk's nowhere to be found.

After SummerSlam, Hawk, he just walked away.

Where's Hawk? I don't know.

Where is he?

After that show, Hawk went.

He met up with some bikers in England, and he disappeared for, I don't know,

or three weeks.

He disappeared, and there was all kinds of rumors that he had taken off with the

Hells Angels, and it was just nobody knew.

No one had heard from him.

The last known place that he had landed was in Amsterdam.

Well, Hawk, he was a cat who had 13 lives.

I knew he'd be alive.

I just didn't know where, and I was hoping he wouldn't get hurt.

Then, finally, he had his lawyer drop something where he wasn't coming back to

WWE.

Hawk had called and talked to Vince, the secretary at the time, and said, this

is Hawk.

I've had enough. I quit.

And that was it.

It's hard to say why Hawk would just walk out on WWE at that time.

Despite whatever at SummerSlam 92, despite Rocco the dummy, the Legion of

were on top of the world.

But when you have this side of you that is just... desperate to rebel, it

becomes real hard to silence that side.

Now, everything they built up is gone.

Joel, he was disappointed.

He was hurt.

He was angry.

He was devastated.

He was mad.

Hey, I've got a family.

You know, I have kids.

Animal said, I'm so disappointed. I am so hurt. We got a great tag team. We're

the biggest company in the world. And now he goes and pulls this.

He said, that hurts not only him, but it hurts me. It hurts my family. It hurts

everybody.

Felt like I was being deserted by my partner.

He forgot that we're a team, and he made a personal decision which affected a

team. And you can't do that when you're a member of a team. There's no I in

team.

So now...

Hulk's gone, and all of a sudden this partner's dangling out there by himself,

and they had to put him with other members and single matches.

Joe never really made it as a solo performer.

I think people looked at it as a lesser -than version.

It just didn't work, because people wanted the original Road Warriors, the

original Legion of Doom.

You separate them.

They're just not as good as the sum of both parts.

So, Animal needed Hawk.

Joe, on his own, didn't have as much success.

That's just the way it was.

It just wasn't as important to Hawk.

Hawk didn't need Joe as much as Joe needed Hawk.

I ain't saying that on camera because, like, you know.

He was going to try to make it work.

But I can't imagine him not being with Hawk.

At that point, Hawk decides to go to Japan and tag with Japanese wrestler Ken

Sasaki.

When Hawk went to Japan with Sasaki, they did a road warrior clone.

Joe was very, very upset about it. Kind of like a stab in the back, you know.

I wasn't sure at that point that they would ever, you know, would ever be back

to normal.

You know, you can make that right.

It kind of had maybe taken a little bit too far.

Hawk being heavy in his addiction at the time, instead of saying, hey, I screwed

up and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, he just went, oh, I didn't do

anything wrong.

At that point, I was really pissed at him.

I wasn't so much against him doing it. I was against him going without asking me

to go with him.

He should know after all those years that anybody that was going to have his

back was going to be me.

At the time Joe had injured his back, that one was pretty bad.

You know, it's one of those where you're like, do I keep going or should I maybe

take some time off?

And I think...

With the situation that was going on with Hawk and with him having to do

singles, and it was just kind of a perfect storm for a perfect time off.

Put your arms up, James.

Hey, like Daddy does in the ring.

At that time, he was away from wrestling.

Every game, every practice, any school event, anything that we were doing, he

was just always there.

I just think it's...

A true testament as to who he was.

He was a dad.

As far as Joe and Mike go, I would say that it was probably over a year

that they did not speak to one another because of that stab in the back, you

know. Joe was very hurt by it, very upset by it.

So we talked a lot about, you know, quitting.

We talked about, you know, getting a normal job.

That pull, I think, of being Road Warrior Animal and the business was just

strong.

Mike realized that the beauty of them was together, not separate.

It's almost like they got divorced, but they needed to reunite.

to get back together again because they were meant to be kind of a thing.

But I think they were just drawn, drawn to the business, drawn to each other.

It's like, you know, having a fight with your brother, you know.

You're mad at each other for a while, and you make up because you love each

other, you know.

So they loved each other.

They were brothers.

No matter what happens, you're brothers.

It was a blood thing with them.

It took Hoff to learn for a while who his true best friend in the wrestling

business was, and it was me all along.

Because I stuck with him through thick and thin. I stuck with him because I

believed in him. And he was my partner, and I loved him, and I grew up with him.

I grew in the business with him. My family learned to love him and grew with

and loved him.

So I said, let's just try it again and see what happens.

In 1996, we met with both of them, and Animal and Hawk seemed

like they were in a really good place, and they expressed to us the desire that

they really did want to come back.

Coming up next, we have a huge surprise right here on Raw.

It was one of those, look, we're going to try this. If it works, great.

If it doesn't work, then we're going to cut bait.

It's cool when you've established yourself to a point that you can go away

be missed.

And then when you come back, people are super hyped to see, oh my God, these are

my guys, they're bad.

And that energy carries, and they still have the same energy, just like they

never left.

For me, it was even cooler because I just hadn't seen them in a while.

LOD had some great moments when they came back in 1997.

Winning the tag titles.

To see them in the ring together was fun.

And their charisma was so good with each other and the wrestling, good

wrestling. But for me, I think it was more about the trust.

Can we trust him?

Are we going to be able to trust that he's going to show up or that he's going

to be sober?

Animal gave Hawk another shot because they were so closely bonded together.

But Animal sort of was...

waiting for the next meltdown for Hawk.

You know, it's like nobody could stop it. He was going to self -destruct, he

going to self -destruct, and it didn't matter what the consequences were.

It didn't matter how it affected everything else that maybe Joe had on

Like, whatever happens to Hawk affects him.

That was kind of the sad part about it.

Hawk was really, like, he was going through a rough spell then.

It just made you sad, you know, and you try to look out for him because he was

the kind that would look out for you.

It's Hawk, man. He deserves our respect, and we need to look out for him.

Sometimes it's a good thing to work in.

real -life situations into the creative because you can feel it and it

is real.

In this particular case, we took Hawk's real -life

addiction and real -life issues that he was dealing with on a daily basis and

put it on screen.

He's walking drunk, it looks like.

Not only falling off the wagon, but the wagon is running over.

I hate it.

I hate it when they use this addiction and storyline stuff.

It was

painful. You know, it was painful.

It didn't help him with any issues.

It was just like, what are you doing?

Look at you!

Look at you! I didn't like it.

And I know Animal didn't like it.

Things he had them doing on live on TV.

He said, this is too close to home, man. This is opening up some old wounds

we're trying to put away.

I don't think Hawk can even defend himself here. And if Hawk would have

don't like it, well, that would have been perfect.

But he said, I'll do it.

So we did it.

In addition to that, we introduced another character in Draws where the

if Hawk can't work, because Hawk was dealing with issues, well, you've got

Draws that can now be a part of the Legion of Doom with Animal.

Nice teamwork there by Draws and Animal.

Remember Hawk from his problem with painkillers is now an alternate.

Anytime you do that, it doesn't work. The audience doesn't accept it. They

the original.

Well, let's just say that dwelling on the past is something the old LOD would

do. They want their guys, man.

Draws and Animal were not the Legion of Doom.

Oh, what a rush.

Hawk, you know, like, he wasn't happy.

He was trying to be a pro.

There's Hawk right there. What is he doing? I thought he was going to come

He's climbing up on the Titan Tron. The storyline culminated when Hawk is now

threatening to jump off the Titan Tron.

Hawk has threatened to jump.

Droz climbs up to help Hawk to get him down. Get up!

And then they do this thing where Droz puts his hands on Hawk.

Don't touch it! Don't touch it!

Get his shirt! Oh!

Every

fan

hated it, I think, and as a family, it bothered me, you know, but I guess I

thought there might have been a better ending to it than how it ended.

The audience didn't believe it.

And the audience didn't want it. And as far as Hawk went, the

audience just felt sad for Hawk.

This character who was once just this invincible force of

pure and utter destruction is now almost pathetic.

It was another negative to be brought up.

And when you lose your respect,

And your pride, that's a lot in this business.

Maybe a look at reality is the end here.

If it isn't, it's close.

The sad fact was,

Legion of Doom wasn't the Legion of Doom anymore.

Father Time does no jobs.

And Father Time, it hit them.

And during that time period, the Attitude Era is exploding.

There's new massive stars that are popping up every single week on Monday

Raw. So the Legion of Doom...

I think they were more looked at as kind of a washed -up old team because this

is now a young man's time.

They would have made a nice little year or two run and retire as champs, you

know, in a fairytale world.

But unfortunately, you know, we don't live in a fairytale world and that's not

going to happen.

So, unfortunately, we left WWE.

When their contracts weren't renewed, they were not quite ready to hang up the

boots. They hit the independents.

In 2000, Hawk and Animal are bouncing around the independent circuit in

Australia.

And one night, Hawk collapses with a medical emergency, a heart issue.

It was the toll of all the drugs.

that he had done over the years and not taking care of himself the way he should

have.

Animal got him to the hospital.

They wanted to keep him. They wouldn't let him out.

And Animal took him out because Hawk said, I can't stay here. I just can't. I

don't want to die here.

And he lived in Florida now.

So Animal flew him back to Tampa, and Animal went back to Minneapolis.

And that was it.

Mike was looking at life after wrestling and trying to figure out what to do.

Announcing or doing something and trying to figure out next steps.

He was working out with me every morning.

One of the girls there that did aerobics was this gorgeous, dark -haired lady

named Dale.

And Hawk, well, Hawk, get over there.

So I introduced him, you know.

I said, Dale, I don't know if you remember Hawk or not, but he wants to

out. So they ended up going out.

And they ended up marrying her.

She was a great influence on him in a huge part of his life.

He loved her a lot. She loved him a lot. And they were, I think, good for each

other.

At the time, Joe, he did a lot of independent wrestling.

But he never really liked it.

You know, when you don't have that person in the corner that you've kind of

always relied on, whether he's reliable or not, he was, you know, they had gone

through a lot together.

You can't have Rotary Animal without Hawk.

You couldn't have one without the other.

One day...

I invited Joe to a conference out in Phoenix, Arizona. It's called AIM,

International Ministries for College and Professional Christian Athletes.

Joe immediately said, can I invite Mike? I want to invite Mike.

I'm like, Joe, you know it's like a Christian conference, right? And he

know, but I just feel like I'm supposed to invite him.

I'm like, well, by all means, invite him then.

And he called me back, and he said, man, he wants to come.

That first night, Mike's whole personality, attitude, everything

changed.

Oh, my gosh, like there's a genuine change in this man.

There was a sense of genuineness about him, a sense of joy.

that he maybe didn't have prior to that, and a change, not just a change of

attitude, but a heart change.

After that, he was just trying to straighten up all

around. And here we are.

Finally, he was ready for that, and Paul got clean and

sober.

which is a great story on Hawk Whip. Nobody thought Hawk would ever pull it

It was like night and day.

It was just a wonderful thing to see. It was a miracle.

It took us all by surprise, and obviously in a good way.

He just seemed really happy.

Life will be good. You have Dale, you have your place in Florida, everything.

It seemed like it was falling into place, knowing that, okay, you don't

worry so much about Mike anymore.

The road he was on is no longer the road he is on.

Now he's on a new road. On this road, he will fulfill his life and his

destiny in life.

September 2003, I got to spend time with Hawk.

We just sat there and soaked up some sun and talked about the

old days and where we can go from here.

It was Saturday morning.

He was getting ready to move.

He calls me up and goes, I got to get right in here. I got to go help Dale

and help her move. He goes, I'll call you back later tonight. He goes, Joe.

I said, what? He goes, I love you.

He goes, you know that, don't you? I said, yeah, man, I know that.

I said, brother, I love you too, Mike.

I said, I'll talk to you tonight.

Yeah.

I always get this way.

Mike and Dale,

they were moving, you know, and they were moving a lot of

furniture and boxes and stuff. And from what I understand, he wasn't feeling

well, you know.

He said, I'm tired, I don't feel real good or something, and laid down.

And, you know, yeah.

I think an hour later, Dale went in and he had passed.

The guy with the big heart dies.

What a heart attack.

Yeah, the hardest part was just, you

know, didn't expect him to die.

All the times that he could have died in his life, it was unexpected, which

sounds crazy.

Joe's phone rang.

It was Dale.

He just, like, like, collapsed. He, like, just, like, fell to the ground.

Joe told me when he got that phone call that Mike had passed away, he said he

sat down and he just cried like a baby.

Animal called me up, said,

Hawk is gone.

And I cried and cried.

It was hard.

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. We're live here on Raw this past Sunday

morning. Road Warrior Hawk passed away unexpected at the age of 46.

Even though he had gotten clean, I think, as we all know, that kind of

was strained on his heart. It caught up with him at a time when he had gotten

clean. So that was kind of sad.

We definitely lost him way too early.

Hawk was a nice guy.

So it was just a really, really tough one.

Growing up in the 60s, I don't remember my

dad ever giving me a hug.

And Mike brought that back.

He got our dad to hug us, and we hugged our dad.

And we hugged each other.

That's the way I remember it.

My brother Hawk, man, I'm telling you, there's not a day that goes by that I do

not think about that man.

I knew Hawk better than anybody. If I could explain the connection that Hawk

I had, I would, but I can't explain it. And Hawk, we fed off

each other, man. It was one mind, one team, one body.

And I will forever miss him and be dead.

that time we were in Missouri we lived in Missouri for a long time my brother

was playing for the St. Louis Rams and then we were down there for quite some

time that St. Louis really became our home my dad he you know he did wrestling

appearances here and there you can tell he definitely missed it but he continued

to be a family man and he was just a grandpa to you know all of his little

grandkids and just loved that I mean he wished he could have been living near

everybody in his family and just we all could have just lived on a compound

together and he would have been happy when i had my son

jacob which was april 19 2011 my dad ended up like

not being able to breathe like very well so he ended up going into the hospital

and he got diagnosed with congestive heart failure but after that

He definitely was, like, hyper -focused on his health and just trying to make

sure that he was as healthy as he could be.

It was his family, 100%. You know.

Sorry.

She told me that he wanted to watch Jacob grow up as his grandpa.

And he wanted to watch him play high school sports and go to college and all

that stuff.

So at that moment, he wanted to be there for him and for everybody else in the

family. And that was definitely what was driving him.

There were times that I know he wasn't feeling okay, but I know that he

pushed through it.

like every day, you know, just to be there for us and whoever else needed

He was just determined to be there.

I knew Joe had some heart issues, but I didn't know just how serious they

were.

It was September 22, 2020.

She ended up going into...

The hospital, he was having a heart attack.

I remember at one point, they told me that they had been, like, trying to

him for, like, 30 minutes.

And I knew at that point he wasn't going to make it.

I just knew.

You know, it's just that feeling.

Seeing him laying there on that table, just knowing he wasn't coming back.

I just like fell to the floor. My whole world just,

just stopped.

I didn't think I was going to get upset, but it was a very, she was very

emotional.

The Minnesota professional wrestler known as Animal has died.

Joe Laurinaitis died at the age of 60.

TMZ is reporting his death was from natural causes.

To get that call of his passing was heart -wrenching.

I saw Hawk a month before he died, and I saw Joe a month before he died.

I never got to say goodbye.

Well, we're going to the hockey rink to go meet my son and play a little hockey.

I've got to still try to school him a little bit, you know, because I still

him I'm better than him, but I don't know, he's pretty good.

The

way

that my dad raised us was just to love each other.

You know, and of course, everybody's parents.

I think, a little differently than, like, how they were raised. But I catch

myself. I'm the same way with Jacob.

Let's pass around a little, huh?

Oh, yeah.

That love for family.

I just don't know anything different than that. That's literally all I was

to.

My dad, he's just in the back of my mind, you know, all the time. Just what

would he do or what would he say?

Can you rip it?

And, of course...

The dedication, the hard work, like just teaching the work ethic, I've

definitely kind of instilled that in Jacob. And I do explain it to him like,

hey, Papa would have done this. You know what I mean? I kind of use that because

there's a lot of stuff that my dad and, of course, my mom taught us that it's

like you need to keep going. You need to try to be the best. You need to try to

do this. And I definitely will have to kind of throw Papa's name around a

bit just to get Jacob to listen to me.

Go back to the early days at the gym and Grandma B's and them crossing paths

with one another, whether it be fate or whatever else it is that brought the two

of them together to go on to have this legendary tag team career.

It's pretty amazing to think about it and look back on.

For the Road Warriors.

Brother, you talk about vicious, bizarre individuals.

I think the legacy would probably be... And, brother, they are carnage

unlimited. Oh, wow!

Nobody was tougher, nobody was stronger, nobody was more intimidating.

You want a piece of the Warriors?

Hop in the ring.

They made their own destiny.

What a moment for Legion of Doom!

They wrote the book.

Oh, look at this!

Forget about it!

Then they lived the book.

They were the best of their time.

They were the best of all time.

But the best things in life are not things.

They're relationships.

Outside of being known as Animal and Hawk, they were Joe and Mike.

And they developed the loyalty to one another.

and stayed together through the highs and lows, the thick and the thin.

And it led to a long -lasting love for one another.

Joe Laurinaitis and Mike Hegstrand were true brothers.

They would have never found the success they had in life without each other. The

road that they traveled was together.

They may have drifted apart at times, but they always came back together.

They never really left each other. They were really always there for each other

right to the end.

It's a lot of destiny.

The next thing you know, you're making memories.

Of all the things in the world, it's the memories that

matter.

The boys are smiling.