Hulk Hogan Tweeted This Morning That Another 80s Wrestling Icon Has Passed Away
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDV1z_gIx3I
So many of my wrestling heroes from my childhood are no longer with us. “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. “Macho Man” Randy Savage. “Ravishing” Rick Rude. They’ve all passed away from various causes, but it’s clear the 80s lifestyle took its toll on many of them.
From all I’ve read and heard in interviews, Joe Laurinaitis was one of the guys who did his best to stay clean and live a healthy life. He was best known as Road Warrior Animal. The Road Warriors were a tag team that became enormously popular here in the south before their run in the World Wrestling Federation. His tag team partner, “Hawk” Mike Hegstrand, succumbed to many of those 80s temptations and that caused a rift between the two in real life often throughout their career, according to wrestlers interviewed the documentary “Dark Side of the Ring.” Hegstrand died far too young here at his home in Indian Rocks Beach at just 46 years old about 15 years ago.
This morning, Hulk Hogan tweeted that Laurinaitis has died. Hogan referenced Hegstrand in the tweet, saying “RIP Animal,love you my brother, I know you and Hawk have a lot of unfinished business to take care of! God speed and blessings to your beautiful family, one love4Life.” Laurinaitis was only 60.
The Road Warriors in action…
Some of my WWF parking lot encounters from the ’80s…
Long before I was a voice you hear on Q105, I was the voice of pro wrestling in the northeast! In the 90’s I was a pro wrestling ring announcer and even had a nationally syndicated pro wrestling talk show. By that point, I wasn’t really a big fan of pro wrestling anymore. But it was fun to be an announcer. My wrestling fan days were in the 80s. I found these photos from my Kodak Disc (remember those?) photos from the parking lot behind the Cumberland County Civic Center World Wrestling Federation events.
