Back Road Warriors German Ρόουντ Γουόριορς Greek The Road Warriors Spanish Road Warriors French The Road Warriors Italian ロード・ウォリアーズ Japanese Road Warriors Dutch Road Warriors Portuguese Дорожные воины Russian The Road Warriors SIMPLE
| Road Warriors | |
|---|---|
 The Road Warriors, c. 1986 | |
| Stable | |
| Members | Road Warrior Hawk Road Warrior Animal Power Warrior Droz Heidenreich Paul Ellering (manager) Sunny (valet) Christy Hemme (valet) |
| Name(s) | Road Warriors Legion of Doom[1] Hell Raisers Triple Warriors LOD 2000 LOD 2005 Hell Warriors |
| Combined billed weight | 575 lb (261 kg; 41.1 st)[2] |
| Billed from | Chicago, Illinois[1] |
| Debut | 1983[1] |
| Disbanded | 2014 |
| Years active | 1983–2014 |
The Road Warriors, also known as the Legion of Doom, were a professional wrestling tag team originally composed of Road Warrior Hawk (Michael Hegstrand) and Road Warrior Animal (Joseph Laurinaitis).[1] They performed under the name "The Road Warriors" in the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), and World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and the name "Legion of Doom" (LOD) in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Under either name, their gimmick was the same – two imposing wrestlers in face paint. For brief periods, other wrestlers were added as stand-in partners for both men. In Japan in the 1990s, Kensuke "Power Warrior" Sasaki often teamed with Hawk and Animal, separately and together, while in WWE were joined by Ahmed Johnson and Droz in the 1990s and Heidenreich in the 2000s. The team also had three managers: Sunny in the 1990s, Christy Hemme in the 2000s, and Paul Ellering, the manager associated with the original team.
Hawk and Animal were known for their impressive physiques, as their physical size was larger than most wrestlers of the era. Their face paint and spiked armor were inspired by the Mad Max film The Road Warrior; they were the first wrestlers to bring a theme from a movie into the wrestling world.[3] They also introduced a tandem maneuver known as the Doomsday Device.[4] Both men used the move as a team finisher throughout their careers, even when teaming with other partners.
The duo headlined multiple events including Survivor Series in 1991 and In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede, and are regarded by many as the greatest tag team in professional wrestling history.[4][5] The Road Warriors became the subject of the second season of the Canadian docuseries, Dark Side of the Ring.
- ^ a b c d "Road Warriors profile". Online World of Wrestling. Archived from the original on January 6, 2012. Retrieved March 29, 2011..
- ^ Shields, Brian; Sullivan, Kevin (2009). WWE Encyclopedia. Dorling Kindersley. p. 221. ISBN 978-0-7566-4190-0.
- ^ Laurinaitis, Joe "Animal"; Wright, Andrew William (2011). The Road Warriors: Danger, Death and the Rush of Wrestling. Medallion Media Group. p. 369. ISBN 9781605421537. Archived from the original on October 1, 2021. Retrieved December 10, 2018.
- ^ a b Diaz, Angel (May 25, 2011). "Dynamic Duos! The Most Memorable Tag Teams in Wrestling History". Complex. Archived from the original on March 8, 2016. Retrieved March 3, 2016.
- ^ "Wrestling History: 2003". Pro Wrestling Illustrated. Archived from the original on September 10, 2012. Retrieved September 12, 2016.