Road Warrior Hawk

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Michael Hegstrand
Statistics
Ring name(s) Crusher von Haig
Road Warrior Hawk
Billed height 6 ft 3 in (191 cm)
Billed weight 275 lb (125 kg)
Born September 12, 1957
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Died October 19, 2003
Indian Rocks Beach, Florida
Billed from Chicago, Illinois
Trained by Eddie Sharkey
Debut June 6, 1983
This article is about the professional wrestler, for other uses see Road warrior

Michael Hegstrand (September 12, 1957 – October 19, 2003) was an American professional wrestler. Hegstrand was best known for his appearances as Road Warrior Hawk, one half of the tag team known as the Road Warriors, with Road Warrior Animal.

Contents

[edit] Career

For many years, he was half of arguably the most successful tag team in the history of pro wrestling the Road Warriors, with partner Joseph Laurinaitis, aka Road Warrior Animal. The muscular Road Warriors burst onto the wrestling scene in 1983 sporting mohawks, dog collars, spiked shoulder pads, and face paint. They took their name from the film Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, and their spiked shoulderpads were also modeled after the film. Their dominating style evoked the team of Dick the Bruiser and The Crusher, and they soon found themselves pitted against the legends in a series of matches. Their interview style was vicious, yet charismatic and a bit humorous.

The Road Warriors wrestled across the globe, capturing the All Japan Pro Wrestling tag team titles, as well as every existing American version of the world tag team titles in the (WWF, the NWA and the AWA). No other tag team ever captured all three championships.

When in 1992 Animal was injured and forced to retire temporarily, Hawk began a solo career. Though the WWE Road Warriors DVD also explains that Hawk disappeared from the WWE after the 1992 Summerslam took place, because of pressure. Although he won nearly every singles match in which he was put on, he was always seen (by North American and Japanese fans at least) as a tag team wrestler, and thus he always fought either mid-card opponents or made teams with better-known singles stars. When he joined New Japan Pro Wrestling he was immediately paired with Kensuke Sasaki, then simply known as a good mid-carder, as the Hell Raisers (Sasaki adopting the face paint and gimmick Power Warrior). The two dominated NJPW's tag team ranks for a while through their two wins of the IWGP World Tag Team Championship, but no North American promoter thought about bringing them as a team, due to Sasaki's affiliation with NJPW. As a singles wrestler, Hawk found success in Europe, winning the CWA World Heavyweight Championship.

In 1995 he reappeared in WCW. He helped Sting in a feud against Meng and Kurasawa, but a proposed singles feud with Kurasawa fell through due to an arm injury (to let Hawk rest, it was kayfabed that Kurasawa broke Hawk's arm using a cross armbreaker). Hawk returned the following year, but this time, he also brought Animal back. During that time, Sting and Lex Luger had won the WCW World Tag Team Championship and the Warriors challenged them, to no success. The rise of the nWo precluded further challenges, and they headed back to the WWF.

During his return to WWE in 1998, he competed in the Brawl For All tournament, but he lost in the first round to then-tag partner Droz.

Droz made his WWF debut on Monday Night RAW as an associate of the tag team. Dubbed "Puke", he was the unofficial third member of the group. He was involved in a storyline involving L.O.D. member Hawk's alcoholism. In this storyline, Hawk was seen by his partner Animal as unfit to wrestle and Droz was tapped to take Hawk's place in the tag team. The storyline ended with accusations that Droz had been the "enabler" of Hawk's problems and had dosed the L.O.D. member to take his place in the team. During this segment, Hawk infamously was shown to have fallen off the TitanTron. It was edgy and controversial segments like this that pushed the envelope of good taste that were a hallmark of the WWF's "Attitude" era.

In 2001 Hegstrand was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a heart condition that stopped him from wrestling for a short while. He was able to overcome its effects and returned to a regular working schedule. He became a born-again Christian in 2003 and appeared at many of the religious wrestling events run by Ted DiBiase and Nikita Koloff.

Road Warrior Animal and a fully-recovered Hawk made a surprise appearance on RAW on May 12, 2003 when they took on Kane & Rob Van Dam for the World Tag Team Championship. Although Hawk and Animal came up short in their attempt to become three-time champions, it was clear that Hawk had defeated the demons that had once kept him from competing, and the Road Warriors were complete once again. Although, Powerslam magazine has stated previously that WWE management were unhappy with Hawk not selling Rob Van Dam's Five Star Frog Splash.

Hegstrand died on October 19, 2003 in the early morning in his home in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida at the age of 46. His friends said that he and his wife Dale had recently bought a condominium near their current home and were packing their boxes the night before. Hegstrand said that he felt tired and went to take a nap. When his wife checked on him at about 1 A.M., he had died of an apparent heart attack. He had battles with alcohol and drugs throughout his career and was an admitted steroids user. At the time of his death, Hawk and Animal were working on a book entitled, "Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuaaaaaaah O Whhhhhat a Ruuuuuush." After the book was completed, Animal dedicated the book to his late partner and childhood friend.

[edit] In Wrestling

  • Finishing and signature moves
  • Managers

[edit] Championships and accomplishments

  • 1-Time AJPW International Tag Team Champion (with Animal)
  • Other Titles
  • 1-Time Catch Heavyweight Champion
  • 1-Time MTW Tag Team Champion (with Bobo Brazil, Jr.)
  • 1-Time Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Champion (with Doug Gibson)
  • 1-Time MEWF Tag Team Champion (with The Comet)
  • 3-Time Superstars of Wrestling Tag Team Champion (with Animal)
  • 1-Time IPW Tag Team Champion (with Animal)
  • 1-Time PCW World Tag Team Champion (with Animal)
  • 2-Time i-Generation Tag Team Champion (with Animal)
  • Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) ranked him # 47 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003. He was also ranked twice in the best tag teams of the "PWI Years". He was ranked # 1 with Animal and # 58 with Kensuke Sasaki.
  • Hawk won four PWI Tag Team of the Year Awards with Animal. They were in 1983,1984, 1985 and 1988. He was also involved in the 1987 Feud of the Year which was the Road Warriors & the Super Powers (Nikita Koloff and Dusty Rhodes) vs. the Four Horsemen.

[edit] Personal life

Hawk once dated Missy Hyatt. He also once dated Eleanor Mondale, the daughter of former Vice President Walter Mondale.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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