[WWW] Slam 10.19.03 Road Warrior Hawk dead at 45

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2003/10/19/230771.html

Road Warrior Hawk dead at 45

By GREG OLIVER -- Co-Producer, SLAM! Wrestling

Road Warrior Hawk, one half of The Road Warriors, the most dominant
tag team of all time, died early this morning in his sleep. Hawk,
whose real name was Michael Hegstrand, was 45 years old.

He had been in the process of packing up and moving out of his condo
with his wife, Dale. At about 8:30 pm, he complained about feeling
extremely tired, and went to lay down. Believing that his exhaustion
was due to the move and the excitement of the impeding move to Tampa,
Florida, she didn't think anything of it and found him dead hours
later.

The Road Warriors, Hawk and Animal (Joseph Laurinaitis), burst onto
the wrestling scene in June 1983, claiming Georgia's National tag team
titles in a tournament.

Hegstrand and Laurinaitis grew up in Chicago, meeting originally at
age eight and becoming fast friends. At age 15, Laurinaitis' family
moved to Minneapolis for work, and a short while later, Hegstrand's
family did too.

The pair used to lift weights together in a Minneapolis gym. They were
discovered by wrestler/trainer Eddie Sharkey in a restaurant, and
Sharkey agreed to run a training camp. Laurinaitis, 6-foot-2, 285
pounds, debuted first as The Road Warrior in Georgia, a name and image
derived from the Mel Gibson film of the same name. The 6-foot-3,
245-pound Hegstrand's first matches were actually in Vancouver for the
All-Star Wrestling promotion, working under the name Crusher Von Haig.
He drove to British Columbia from Minnesota with fellow Sharkey
trainee 'Ravishing' Rick Rude, and left because he was homesick.

"I originally had my first three matches in Vancouver and puked after
each one. I was not in wrestling shape," Hawk told Mike Parker of
WrestlingEye.com in September 2001.

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The pair reunited in Georgia as a tag team, and booker Ole Anderson
decided to set them loose. The Road Warriors decimated opponents and
had no equals. It was partially to hide their inexperience, but the
domination made for a memorable run.

The team was initially managed by "Precious" Paul Ellering as a part
of his stable called The Legion of Doom, which also included the
Spoiler, and Jake Roberts. The moniker, Legion of Doom, later became
synomous with the Road Warriors team itself.

"I have never seen wrestlers as completely vicious and overwhelming as
these two men," Gordon Solie is quoted as saying in The Pictorial
History of Wrestling. "Besides being tremendous athletes and
incredible specimens, they have developed a bent and twisted attitude,
rolling roughshod over everybody."

According to an interview in 1992 that he did with Wade Keller of the
Pro Wrestling Torch, Hawk and Animal didn't know that they were going
to be a major force in pro wrestling. "It took two years before we
realized it," said Hawk. "We were hot from the beginning. It would
have never happened without the guidance of Paul Ellering."

Unlike most wrestling managers, Ellering was a legitimate manager for
the Road Warriors, booking their matches, lining up their flights,
setting up hotel reservations and keeping track of their expenses.

>>From there, the Road Warriors hit the road and never looked back,
winning the AWA, NWA and WWF tag titles during their career, along
with the NWA World Six-Man titles with Dusty Rhodes on two occasions,
and once with Genichiro Tenryu, and the NWA International tag title.

In 1992, Hawk abrupted left the WWF, unhappy with his pay, the time on
the road and his treament. He lessened his schedule and took more
Japan bookings, including a stint as The Hell Raisers with The Power
Warrior (Kensuke Sasaki), which resulted in two IWGP Tag Team Titles.

The Road Warriors later re-teamed in 1996, and agreed to re-join the
WWF in 1997. The team was re-launched a year later at WrestleMania XIV
in Boston as LOD 2000, managed by Sunny. Up next was a new member of
LOD in Darren Drozdov, and Hawk was booked as 'high and intoxicated',
leading to an 80-fall from the TitanTron.

On December 18, 2002, the Road Warriors made an unexpected appearance
on a NWA-TNA PPV. In May 2003, the Road Warriors made one last swing
through the WWE, losing a match to Rob Van Dam and Kane.

Funeral arrangements for Hegstrand are not known at this time.