RIP Animal of the Road Warriors

[fastfor40]

Just found this on AMM...


www.wwe.com/article/road-warrior-animal-passes-away

Years ago I trained at The Gym, and both Road Warriors - Joe and Mike Hegstrand - trained there, along with a few other guys who became pro wrestlers...Rick Rude was one of them.

Those guys were enormous and strong as heck; pharmaceutically assisted, yes, but it was amazing to see the weights these guys could move.  

Joe was a great guy, one of the nicest people I've ever met, and he was pretty humble, too.   I talked to him a few times, and when I told him I had also trained at Ventura's Muscle Junction (Jesse's gym) he shared a few stories that had me rolling.

He was only 60.  I think Mike Hegstrand was 46 when he died.

Wow; both Road Warriors gone...

[pierinifitness]

Thanks for sharing.  I always go through a surreal experience when reading about the passing of an old-school "rassler" which, for me, predates, modern WWE.  Remember when it was called Most of the wrestlers that I followed as a young boy, west coast legends, are long gone but Pat Patterson is still standing, the last time I check.  Dominic (Don) DeNucci is still alive and I believe so is Mark Lewin.   I've been known to periodically waste tremendous time on YouTube viewing old school vintage black and white video clips.  As a young boy, was fascinated with the sleeper hold.  Lots of the old school finishing moves are seldom seen nowadays - Indian deathlock, airplane spin, the bombs away by Ray Stevens, and abdominal stretch to name a few.

Wrote this piece about youthful relationship with the wrestlers of yesteryear and the relationship to my life currently:

pierini-fitness.blogspot.com/2017/01/good-guys-and-bad-guys.html

[Dave Reslo]

Sorry to hear the news, I had a look for videos and clips of Animal but it seems like Hawk was usually the one who got the attention.
I think Animal did a bit on a wrestling show one time where he pretended to bench 500? If so, perhaps we could spend the next year debating its legitimacy as a sort of tribute.

[brothersteve]

I started watching wrestling in 1977 in my area which was WWWF. Mr. Fuji and his family lived 3 blocks away from me. Tony Garea also lived in my town and I was in Junior High with his 3 kids during my 3 years there. I enjoyed watching and listening to my hero Bruno Sammartino - a powerlifting monster with a brute look, but a great role model in fairness and speech. My posting pic is of legendary wrestler Kola Kwariani who was a legit tough guy from the country of Georgia. Here is my favorite fight scene with him: He had a small territory and hired Bruno when Bruno was blackballed for a time around 1959. As time went on and the biz changed and the Road Warriors came in on TBS Superstation. They were the 80's. Hawk was my fav. Both men gone way too young. Currently says Animal died of natural causes, but at 60 it's not so natural. We will see what unfolds with that story in the future. I always wanted that Tazmanian Devil tat, but believed I needed 20 inch arms to 'earn' the right to wear it. In any event, R.I.P. Animal, and thanks for the memories

[jrmeatplow]

I was always an AWA and NWA fan. Never got into the WWF much as a kid, it seemed to cartoonish for me even at a young age. I started watching the wrestling out of Memphis Tn that was an AWA affiliate. The first match I ever watched was this one after Saturday morning cartoons, it was Jerry Lawler vs. Joe Leduc.


but I remember the first time I saw the Road Warrior's going against my two favorites, Jerry Lawler and Austin Idol. I was scared that they were going to kill them!