One-half of one the most legendary tag teams in the history of professional wrestling reveals how the duo got their name.
Road Warrior Animal is forever edged in the history of professional wrestling along with his tag team partner Hawk who is unfortunately no longer here with us. The duo, also known as 'The Legion Of Doom' racked up a number of dominating tag team victories and title reigns throughout their tenure as a team. Their names are still highly spoken of when the topic of tag team wrestling comes up and while appearing on "The Ride With JMV" podcast, Animal revealed how he and Hawk came into the name 'The Road Warriors'.
"You know, there was a guy who owned Georgia Championship wrestling called Ole Anderson. One of the famous Anderson brothers of the Anderson tag team. And he and a guy named “Cowboy” Bill Watts who owned the UWF in New Orleans; wrestling organization and they came together and said ‘Listen man, we’re gonna call you guys the ‘Road Warriors’’ and you... Hawk and I already had, kinda had the nicknames Animal and Hawk already, as kids you know, as younger kids." He stated. "So he goes: ‘You look like an animal’. I say ‘Oh that’s kind of funny you say. People used to call me The Animal and Hawk [says] ‘I’ll be the Hawk’. It stuck with us and the face-paint was gonna be like the guy in the very first ‘Road Warrior’ movie just a little bit, couple lines. And we did it man. I said ‘Man, I look too much like an Indian, I’m not an Indian whatsoever’. Yeah I said ‘What if we experiment around and come up with our own look’ and we did. Hawk came up with a face. He called it the ‘Joker face’ and I came up with the spider, like saying ‘Hey man, don’t get caught in the web of the warriors’ you know; type of deal and it just stuck with us through time."
Although the former 3-time WWE Tag Team Champion Animal is praised by fans his peers often, it is still amazing to him that the work he and Hawk did all those years ago still have an impact on the business to this day.
"Well you know, I think the thing that’s really amazing is that now, I see, how popular our gimmick was. You know what I mean its like… crazy this many years after Hawk’s been dead. You know Hawk’s been dead almost fourteen years. To see that the, the respect, and everything that the people have for us and they wanna still come see me, get autographs, take photos. You know, we were so far ahead of our time, that you know, it would fit in perfect with today’s wrestlers." He expressed. "Its good man, I like giving back. My way of giving back to the fans and you know, every time I see them I have a conversation with them. You know so many times over the years fans weren’t able to talk to me and now they can."
If you are going to use any of the quotes above, credit "The Ride With JMV" podcast, with an H/T to Fightful.com for the transcriptions.
