[MEDIA] Minneapolis Star-Tribune 10.21.03 'Road Warrior Hawk,' wrestler, dies at 46

http://www.pwtorch.com/artman/publish/article_5753.shtml

'Road Warrior Hawk,' wrestler, dies at 46

Richard Meryhew, Star Tribune 
  
Published October 21, 2003 HAWK21 
  
For nearly a decade, Mike Hegstrand was part of the hottest act in all
of professional wrestling.

With his biker boots, spiked shoulder pads, face paint and sculpted
physique, the Minneapolis body builder teamed with friend and fellow
weightlifter Joe Laurinaitis to make up the Road Warriors, pro
wrestling's dominant tag team of the 1980s.

"I would say at their peak, they were the most popular tag team in the
history of wrestling," said Dave Meltzer, editor and publisher of the
Wrestling Observer Newsletter. "They had a certain look and ferocity
that really appealed to people."

Hegstrand, a Minneapolis native who wrestled under the nickname Road
Warrior Hawk, died in his sleep early Sunday at his home near
Clearwater, Fla.

He was 46.

The cause of death was not known. However, the 6-foot-3, 280-pound
wrestler had suffered from a heart ailment in recent years and had
other health problems, friends said.

"It's such a shock," said Jim Yungner, part owner of a gym in Plymouth
where Hegstrand and Laurinaitas, who wrestled under the name Road
Warrior Animal, often trained. The two helped Yungner finance the
business.

Yungner said he heard from friends Monday that Hegstrand and his wife
were moving from their home over the weekend when Hegstrand said he
wasn't feeling well. He went to bed and told his wife to wake him in a
few hours. When she tried to wake him, she couldn't, Yungner said.

Yungner said Hegstrand is the fourth wrestler from the Minneapolis
area to die in recent years.

In 1998, Dean Peters, who graduated from Robbinsdale High School in
1976 and wrestled under the name Brady Boone, died in a car accident
while driving to his home in Tampa. A year later, Peters' high school
classmate and fellow pro wrestler, Rick Rood, died of heart failure at
40.

Earlier this year, Curt Hennig, another Robbinsdale classmate, was
found dead in a hotel room in Tampa. Investigators said Hennig, 44,
died of a cocaine overdose.

Yungner said Hegstrand, who attended high school in Minneapolis, and
Laurinaitas, who attended high school in New Brighton, lifted weights
with the others at his gym.

"They were all good friends," Yungner said. "They were all guys we
grew up with. I told a couple of friends today, it's like, 'Gawd,
who's next in our group?' "

Came out of nowhere 

Yungner said he got to know Hegstrand and Laurinaitis about 1980 when
they began lifting weights and training in a gym he ran in Golden
Valley. At the time, the two were bouncers at a Minneapolis bar.

They got into wrestling after being approached by trainer Eddie
Sharkey. They later went out on their own, "but they didn't do very
good and came home," Yungner said.

Later, they were approached with the tag-team idea. Soon, the painted
mugs of "Hawk" and "Animal" were on millions of TV screens across
America.

"They came out of nowhere," said Verne Gagne, who promoted them for a
time when they were part of Gagne's American Wrestling Association.
"They weren't polished wrestlers. They pounded on guys more than they
did any scientific wrestling."

But notoriety had its price.

"It was more like a rock-'n'-roll-star lifestyle that they lived,"
Yungner said. "And Hawk lived it to the max. He had 20 years of hard
living. But in the last three or four years, he really settled down."

Several years ago, Hegstrand became ill while wrestling in Australia.
According to a 2001 article in the Orlando Sentinel, Hegstrand was
diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, a form of heart disease that
attacks the muscle fibers.

"I was no saint," Hegstrand told the Sentinel. "For years I put a lot
of stuff in my body that I shouldn't have. Now it's just the God-made
stuff. I'm eating healthy and feeling stronger."

He resumed wrestling, although not as seriously as before. Earlier
this summer, the Road Warriors were reunited with their former manager
at a show in Chicago to celebrate their years together.

"These guys who had really been such huge stars really weren't
anymore," Meltzer said. "People wanted them to be, but they weren't.
Physically, they couldn't do it anymore. One of the reasons for their
decline in recent years is that he just couldn't do anything because
he'd been so sick. He paid the price."