Michael James "Mike" Hegstrand (January 26, 1957 – October 19, 2003) was an American professional wrestler. He was best known as Road Warrior Hawk, one half of the tag team known as the Road Warriors (or the "Legion of Doom"), with Road Warrior Animal. Outside of the Road Warriors, Hawk was a sporadic challenger for world heavyweight championships on pay-per-view from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s. He headlined the inaugural 1993 edition of Extreme Championship Wrestling's premier annual event, November to Remember.
As a member of the Road Warriors Hawk and Animal were voted the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Rookies of the Year in 1983, and were voted Pro Wrestling Illustrated Tag Team of the Year five times (1983, 1984, 1985, 1988). During their tenure the pair were two time WWF Tag Team Champions, one time AWA World Tag Team Championships and the NWA International Tag Team Championships. They also were two time NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship with Dusty Rhodes. He also was a two time IWGP Tag Team Champion with Power Warrior. Individually he was a one time CWA World Heavyweight Championship.
He was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 1996. In 2011 he and Animal were inducted into both the WWE Hall of Fame and the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum.
Michael Hegstrand was born on January 26, 1957, to his parents Marge and Art Hegstrand. He grew up in North, Minneapolis alongside his four brothers and sister. Hegstrand attended Patrick Henry High School where he graduated in 1976. After high school, he had various odd jobs to make ends meet such as a butcher. It was while working as a bouncer at Gramma B's in the Twin Cities that he caught the eye of Eddie Sharkey, a well-known wrestling trainer. Sharkey thought that Hegstrand, along with Joe Laurinaitis, Rick Rood and Barry Darsow could make it big in professional wrestling.
Hegstrand started his career as part of the Traveling All-Stars. He was billed as "Crusher Von Haig" and wrestled in Vancouver. Soon growing weary of the road and becoming homesick. Hegstrand traveled back home with Rood. Later in 1983, fate struck again when Laurinaitis's partner for the night found himself in legal trouble. Needing a quick replacement, Ole Anderson gave Hegstrand a call, and he accepted the booking to team with Laurinaitis. Neither man knew at the time that they would make wrestling history that day. When Paul Ellering was looking to put together a stable of heels in Georgia Championship Wrestling called The Legion of Doom it was decided to pair Laurinaitis with Hegstrand and change their names to "Animal" and "Hawk" respectively; thus, the Road Warriors were born. To look more intimidating the two shaved their heads into Mohawks and started wearing studded dog collars, leather chaps, and face paint. The look and name was taken from Mad Max 2: the Road Warrior, helping to paint the two as no-mercy monsters. Their interview style was vicious, yet charismatic and a bit humorous. Hawk was known for often beginning his promos with his trademark yell of "Wellllllllllllll!..." and ending with his catch phrase of "Oooooooooh, what a ruuuuuuuuuuuush!" The team was an instant hit, revolutionizing the tag-team scene with their power moves, no mercy attitudes, and innovative face paint that would spawn many future imitators in wrestling. In Georgia, they won the NWA National Tag Team Championship four times before moving on to bigger promotions such as the American Wrestling Association in the US and All Japan Pro Wrestling in Japan, winning tag-team titles wherever they went.
National Wrestling Alliance / World Championship Wrestling (1986–1990)
Their hard hitting style, no nonsense attitude, and winning ways made the Road Warriors fan favorites wherever they went; even when they were booked as heels, the fans refused to boo them. They were so in demand that they started to split their time between the AWA and the National Wrestling Alliance until finally leaving the AWA for big money contracts with the NWA and a huge push for the monster duo. The move paid off instantly as they won the inaugural Jim Crockett, Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament and feuded with the top stars of the NWA such as The Four Horsemen and The Russian Team (which included the Road Warriors’ old training buddy Barry Darsow, then wrestling as Krusher Khrushchev). During their initial run in the Mid-Atlantic region of the NWA, they helped popularize the WarGames match, the Scaffold match, and their trademark Chicago Street Fight.
In 1988, the Road Warriors engaged in a violent feud with the Powers of Pain (The Barbarian and The Warlord), the first team that could truly match the Road Warriors in power (and who were one of the most well known Road Warrior clones). The Powers of Pain even went so far as to injure Animal's eye (kayfabe) during a weightlifting competition. When Animal returned, he initially wore a hockey goalie mask to protect his eye. The angle abruptly ended when the Powers of Pain left the NWA after finding out they were booked against the Road Warriors in a series of Scaffold Matches and they did not want to get hurt by falling off the scaffold. Near the end of 1988, the Road Warriors captured the NWA World Tag Team Championship from The Midnight Express whom they mauled in short order to win the titles in New Orleans. Despite being heels at the time and using brutal tactics against Stan Lane and "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton, once again they were cheered by the crowd. After being the "Uncrowned champions" for a long time, the Road Warriors’ run with the tag-team titles was short-lived. Crooked referee Teddy Long used a fast count to cheat the Road Warriors out of their titles. In their last year with the NWA, the Warriors feuded mainly with The Varsity Club, The Samoan Swat Team, and The Skyscrapers before leaving the NWA in the summer of 1990.
World Wrestling Federation (1990–1992)
The Road Warriors immediately signed with the World Wrestling Federation and were pushed into a feud with Demolition (which once again included their old training partner Barry Darsow). Due to his health, Ax was replaced by a new member of Demolition, Crush. (Popular rumor at the time cited a heart condition on Bill Eadie's part, but this has been discredited in recent years. An allergic reaction to shellfish while in Japan after WrestleMania VI was the real cause of Eadie's temporary health problem. He confirmed this in a shoot interview in 2007.) However, fans did not react as strongly to this new Demolition team as they had to the original configuration, and the feud was considered a disappointment. During the early part of the feud, Legion of Doom often teamed with WWF World Heavyweight Champion Ultimate Warrior in six-man tag matches against all three members of Demolition. Just over a year after signing with the WWF, the Legion of Doom won the WWF World Tag Team Titles from The Nasty Boys at SummerSlam 1991 and held them for about six months. When they lost the titles in February 1992 they were briefly taken off television, only to return with long-time manager Paul Ellering by their side, as well as a wooden dummy called "Rocco". Both members of the Legion of Doom thought the gimmick was stupid, as did most of the fans and it led to Hawk quitting the WWF, leaving Animal on his own for the first time in nine years. When Animal suffered a severe back injury a short while later, everyone thought it was the end of the legendary team.
Japan, ECW and Independents (1992–1995)
Hawk competed as a singles wrestler in Europe, Australia, and Japan and although he won nearly every singles match he competed in, he was usually seen (by North American and Japanese fans at least) as a tag team wrestler. 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 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. Hawk also competed in NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling, the progenitor of Extreme Championship Wrestling, in 1993. Hawk left ECW in 1994. Hawk competed in the independent circuit for Pro Wrestling America, Mid Eastern Wrestling Federation, Smokey Mountain Wrestling and Midwest Territorial Wrestling.