DaveyBoy's Wrestling Menu - DVD REVIEW: The Road Warriors
Submitted by DaveyBoy on Wednesday, May 31, 2006 at 9:22 AM EST






THE WRESTLING MENU #178

Welcome one and all to the 178th edition of The Wrestling Menu, the column that is sure to satisfy your taste buds when it comes to discussing all things wrestling.

Not much to chat about this week. I've been super busy returning to work after a week or so off. This is why there really wasn't a question concerning me posting a DVD Review this week. It was either that or nothing.

Oh, I did happen to officially be crowned the LOPForums English Premier League (Soccer) Predictions Contest Winner for this season. It's a bit sad when the winner is an Aussie & the 2nd place-getter is an American. Just goes to show you how well the British know their own game! Just kidding. It was an excellent competition perfectly run by one of the forums mainstays; Sheepster. So if you are interested come next season, keep it in mind in a couple of months time.

Sorry, not much else to say... So on with the show.....


ROAD WARRIORS DVD REVIEW

NOTE: The full (& mouthful of a) title of this 2 disc DVD set is “The Road Warriors: The Life & Death of the Most Dominant Tag-Team In History”. As with most WWE DVDs, there is a documentary portion, many matches & then some non-match extras.


APPETIZERS

Documentary Portion

NOTE: There are 32 chapters to the documentary portion of this DVD & it has a total running time of 101 minutes.

The beginning is a little bit different to most other WWE DVDs in that it skips their early childhood & pretty much goes straight to their latter teenage years. Animal (Joe Laurinaitis) just states that he & Hawk (Michael Hegstrand) grew up in Chicago & then both moved to Minneapolis. They grew apart for a few years, but met each other again at a gym in their late teens. They went on to bouncing jobs (with Barry Darsow, who played Smash in Demolition) & then talk about training for wrestling with Eddie Sharkey.

It was then Ole Anderson who brought them down to Georgia Championship Wrestling, an NWA affiliated promotion in Atlanta, and gave them the 'Road Warriors' name & biker gimmick. At first, they just wore the leathers, but it quickly was added to with mohawks, face paint & eventually shoulder pads. The Mad Max movie (Beyond Thunderdome) starring Mel Gibson was also a strong influence on the gimmick. Footage is then shown of their early to mid 80's matches where many veteran wrestlers comment on how they revolutionized tag-team wrestling to some extent, as they were young & strong, while excelling in the brawling smash-mouth style of professional wrestling. Stories are told of how jobbers were actually scared of them & how veterans (like Anderson & Darsow) hated being their opponents.

The stable called 'The Legion Of Doom' was then discussed, as it initially included the likes of Jake 'The Snake' Roberts, King Kong Bundy & The Spoiler. But when the other 3 wrestlers moved on, the stable became simply The Road Warriors & manager Paul Ellering. Ellering had been a talented wrestler who had to retire due to a bad knee injury. Ellering's managerial talent is then talked about & shown. A couple of interesting facts were that Ellering was a member of MENSA & that he actually did manage Hawk & Animal in real life.

In mid 1984, the Legion of Doom decided to head back to Minnesota & compete in the AWA. It didn't take long for Hawk & Animal to win the tag-team titles in Las Vegas from Baron Von Raschke & The Crusher. A funny little story is included here about a match against veterans Dick The Bruiser & The Crusher. A dominant victory in that bout practically saw the passing of the torch & a new force had well & truly hit tag-team wrestling, as the LOD picked up award after award.

Moving into 1985, we see some clips of the Road Warrior's feud with The Fabulous Freebirds, including a huge outdoor match a Kominsky Park. This is followed by a great story of how they were then supposed to lose their titles to 'The Fabulous Ones', but went against owner Verne Gagne's request & simply brought chairs into the ring resulting in a double disqualification. This earnt the LOD a bit of a reputation, but it was as much good, as it was bad!

Not long after, the LOD decided to move to NWA (Crockett Promotions). Up until this point in time, they had played heels. But when they were forced to wrestle the NWA's best tag-team, The Koloffs, they automatically became faces, despite not changing their wrestling styles or microphone antics. In an era of Hulk Hogan & Ricky Steamboat, the LOD sort of revolutionized heel/face characters at the time. A look at their promos & interviews are shown & discussed next. They had a definitive style & the 3 men played off of each other very well.

A look at the infamous feud against The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton, Dennis Condrey & Jim Cornette) is featured next, including the Starrcade 'Scaffold Match' in late 1986 (where Hawk wrestled with a broken leg). This was at the time that pro-wrestling was getting really successful & some mentions of after-hours partying is briefly discussed here. Hawk was very much the loud & proud party man at this stage of his career.

The Legion Of Doom's next major feud was against The 4 Horsemen. Their different styles meshed extremely well & The Road Warriors finally looked beatable. This could actually have been the feud that solidified Hawk & Animal as the greatest tag-team ever. Next up was a planned heel turn in late 1988 where The Road Warriors attacked Dusty Rhodes, but if anything they were cheered for it!

At this stage (mid 1990), they felt as if they had almost done all they could do in NWA / WCW & decided to make the big move to the one promotion they had never wrestled in; The WWF. The Road Warriors arguably became a more complete team here as they became much more entertaining, in typical WWE fashion. Their first major feud was an obvious one, as the tag-team division of the WWE was then ruled by (arguably Road Warrior imitators) Demoltion.

After costing Demolition the tag-team titles (via interference to The Hart Foundation) & completing that feud, The Road Warriors eventually targetted the new champs; The Nasty Boys. One of Animal's most memorable moments ever was when they won those titles in August of 1991 at Madison Square Garden. We then hear discussions about their entrance music, the return of Paul Ellering (with puppet Rocco) as their manager & the amazing SummerSlam in 1992 that emanated from Wembley Stadium in England. Hawk disappeared after that match & this is where the discussion leads to his problems with alcohol & drugs.

Animal lost control of his partner & friend at this time, as Hawk started a personal feud with Vince McMahon, joined London's Hells Angles & quit the WWE. While Animal did remain in the WWE, he got injured & took some time off. Meanwhile, Hawk returned to wrestling in Japan. But both men's singles careers weren't very successful. After a 4 year hiatus, The Road Warriors eventually teamed up again in January of 1996 in WCW. However, it didn't last too long as they had a falling out over a promised contract with Eric Bischoff.

Back to the WWE The Road Warriors went, as they returned as a mystery team at WrestleMania 14 in 1998, under the management of Sunny. We see the return of Paul Ellering, but this time he turned on Hawk & Animal, and managed DOA (aka Skull & 8 Ball... aka The Harris Brothers). Not long after, the WWE noticed that Hawk was starting to struggle again & put in a back-up plan by adding a 3rd Road Warrior; Darren 'Puke' Drozdov. Then the WWE instigated the extremely controversial angle of playing up on Hawk's alcoholism on WWE programming!

Not long after, Hawk finally got his life together & became a born-again Christian. This resulted in a few last appearances as The Road Warriors in the WWE during May of 2003. Footage of a match against Kane & Rob Van Dam is shown. However, any possible chance of a last run was ended when Hawk passed away in late 2003. This portion of the DVD fittingly ends with words from WWE employees about The Road Warrior legacy.


ENTREE - Non-Match Extras

NWA Georgia Championship Wrestling (August-27, 1983): 1 minute backstage interview where Hawk & Animal run down some future opponents.

AWA All-Star Wrestling July-28, 1984): 2 minute backstage interview where Hawk, Animal & Ellering run down Baron Von Raschke & The Crusher. This was 4 weeks before their big AWA tag-team titles match.

AWA ESPN Championship Wrestling (October-15, 1985): In-ring interview segment which is pretty much more of the same.

NWA World Championship Wrestling (October-3, 1987): Tony Schiavone interviews The Legion Of Doom as they run down The 4 Horsemen. I'm unsure what Hawk was saying at one stage, but Ex-Lax Luger gets a giggle out of me!

NWA World Championship Wrestling (January-28, 1989): Jim Ross hosts this backstage interview where the LOD run down future opponents (Kevin Sullivan & 'Dr Death' Steve Williams). Hawk is almost undecipherable once more.

WCW WrestleWar (February-25, 1990): More of the same. This time it's aimed at Teddy Long & The SkyScrapers.

Brutus 'The Barber' Beefcake's Barber Shop (September-28, 1991): This is from the 'Wrestling Challenge' television show & is a 3 minute segment directed towards The Natural Disasters (Typhoon & Earthquake).

Royal Rumble (January-21, 1992): Pre-match backstage interview before their title match against The Natural Disasters.

In Your House - DeGeneration X (December-7, 1997): Backstage interview hosted by Michael Cole & directed at The New Age Outlawz. Hawk compares them to a booger!

Hawk Tribute (Part 1): This is from the 'Confidential' tv show & is just as much a tribute to the tag-team as much as to Hawk alone. Many WWE employees speak & the most poignant words come from The Dudley Boyz, who later paid tribute to Hawk in a televised bout. 5 minutes in length.

Hawk Tribute (Part 2): Continuation of the previous segment, but this concentrates on Hawk & his transformation after becoming a born-again Christian. Great segment as Animal & Shawn Michaels reveal incidents about his past. Also includes words from Animal's 2 children. 8 minutes in length.

Trophy Room: A look at the amazing array of merchandise & costumes from the full career of The Road Warriors. 4 minutes in length.

Paul Ellering - "Go For It": Ellering provides a short motivational speech to us... Everyone!

Michael Hayes - "A Lesson On Striving For Success": Hayes states that this DVD is a blueprint for any aspiring tag-team.

Road Warriors Music Video: Sad & Corny in so many ways! Yes, Hawk & Animal do the singing (for want of a better word) here! Thank goodness that there are some wrestling clips to watch while listening to this!


MAIN - Matches

DISC-1

vs JOE YOUNG & RANDY BARBER (Georgia Championship Wrestling. June-11, 1983): This is apparently an ‘Australian tag-team match’, but despite the fact that I am an Australian, I have no idea what that means. And nothing seemed too different about the bout. While this is a very early match in their career, The Road Warriors were already the National tag-team champions by this stage. A 2 minute squash by the leather-wearing bikers. Their opponents, especially Young, didn’t even look like wrestlers, let alone wrestle like wrestlers! Match Rating...1

vs ARN ANDERSON & PAUL JONES (GCW. August-7, 1983): One minute squash. Although Hawk & Animal did look destructive during that minute. And at least their opponents were wrestlers this time! Match Rating...2

vs THE BRISCO BROTHERS (World Championship Wrestling. August-28, 1983): This is a No Disqualification Texas Tornado match & was a battle of the champions, as The Briscos were the current NWA World tag-team champions. The commentary here is actually a voiceover by Jim Ross & Animal, and is a weird mix of information, play by play & kayfabe announcing. The bout starts off as a rather boring encounter with both teams’ style struggling to mesh successfully. But it eventually does become a decent clash of styles, until The Briscos bring chairs into the ring & deliver some weak looking chairshots. This results in a countout victory to them at the 9 minute mark. Match Rating...5

vs MIKE JACKSON & TRACEY STARR (GCW. December-3, 1983): Another 2 minute squash. A very young Nick Patrick is the referee here. Match Rating...2

vs BARON VON RASCHKE & THE CRUSHER (American Wrestling Association. August-25, 1984): This match is where The Road Warriors win the AWA Tag-Team Championship & can be viewed with no commentary or voiceover commentary by Jim Ross & Animal. Nicely structured bout as the heel challengers begin slowly, as they try to avoid the Baron’s feared claw-hold. But Hawk & Animal eventually wear the big man down, control the tempo & cut the ring in half. The champs predictably make their comeback, but it’s all for nothing as the LOD get the victory at the 12 minute mark after some nice double-teaming. Good old-fashioned tag-team match, although it has aged a little. Match Rating...6

DISC-2

vs LARRY ’THE AXE’ HENNIG & CURT HENNIG (AWA. April-21, 1985): Hawk & Animal successfully defend their tag-team titles here in this very good 12 minute match. The Road Warriors have all sorts of trouble handling the strength & experience of Larry ‘The Axe’ at the beginning of the bout, and then Curt continues the offense of the challengers with a great mix of technical & fast-paced action. It’s actually a pleasant change of pace finally & makes The Road Warriors look better in the ring. Hawk & Animal eventually get on top of the youngster though & quickly cut the ring in half, while starting to dominate. The hot tag to ‘The Axe’ finally does come, but the match breaks down from there & disappointingly ends in a DQ win to the champs. A good story was told here & it was sufficiently entertaining. Match Rating...7.5

vs THE FABULOUS FREEBIRDS [Michael Hayes & Terry Gordy] (AWA SuperClash. September-28, 1985): This is the infamous match held outdoors at Kominsky Park, where The Freebirds decided to mock their opponents by wearing facepaint! Very successful in getting the crowd involved, as The Road Warriors were very over faces, while The Freebirds were very hated at the time. Truthfully though, it wasn’t a great wrestling match, although it did have some good back & forth action. The Freebirds appear to cause an upset & win the titles after 10 minutes, but that decision is reversed by Verne Gagne via instant replay, when it can be seen that Hayes used a foreign object to get the win! Match Rating...6.5

vs MAGNUM TA & RONNIE GARVIN (Jim Crockett Sr Memorial Tag-Team Tournament Cup. April-19, 1986): This was the final of a tournament & voiceover commentary is provided by Jim Ross & Animal. Very similar to the previous match, except that this was a bout involving 2 face teams & the crowd (which was large) just couldn’t get involved in it. Neither could I to be honest, although once more, there was some decent back & forth action. The Road Warriors win the tournament at the 10 minute mark of this bout when Garvin re-injures his broken hand & gets pinned. Match Rating...6

vs IVAN & NIKITA KOLOFF (National Wrestling Alliance 'Great American Bash'. July-5, 1986): This was a Double Russian Chain Match where each man was chained (via a 10 foot chain) to one of their opponents! This was also another bout that was held outdoors in front of a very large crowd. For some reason, there is also no commentary whatsoever during this match & I have to wonder why JR & Animal couldn’t have also provided voiceovers here. 6 minutes in length (with a 1 minute aftermath), this brutal match is always on the move & never really has a dull moment. It’s also a fairly even bout, which helps it’s quality. Nothing too spectacular occurs, but it’s pretty solid. Match Rating...7

vs THE MIDNIGHT EXPRESS [Bobby Eaton & Dennis Condrey] (NWA Starrcade. November-27, 1986): This is the infamous ‘Scaffold Match’ where a scaffold was built above the ring & the winners would be the first to throw both of their opponents off the scaffold & to the ring. Eaton & Condrey predictably take a few minutes to climb the scaffold & then we see all 4 men struggling with their footing on the rather weak (in parts) scaffold. Placed here for it’s novelty factor, this can hardly be called a match. The main offense of The Midnight Express is a bag of powder to the eyes! Seems to just go on & on, but actually only lasts 8 minutes & ends in a game of monkey-bars that The Road Warriors win. The aftermath sees The LOD get Jim Cornette up on the scaffold to the pleasure of the fans. Silly, but mildly entertaining in a strange sort of way. Can’t do much more than just pass it though. Match Rating...5

vs TULLY BLANCHARD & ARN ANDERSON (NWA Starrcade. November-29, 1987): This was a highly anticipated match where Hawk & Animal tried to win the World Tag-Team Titles from 2 members of The 4 Horsemen. This is what I miss about strong tag-team divisions. This bout could have genuinely main-evented any card & the crowd were just super hot for this showdown. The heels expertly used many classic cheating tactics with some clever double-team maneuvers. While The Road Warriors possibly were at their very best here, mixing their usual lashings of strength, with some fast-paced & even high-flying action. Anderson & Blanchard eventually isolate Hawk & work over his knee, while cutting the ring in half. But when the hot tag is made to Animal, the bout is as good as over at the 13 minute mark. However, in an annoying decision, the result is later reversed as The Road Warriors were disqualified for throwing an opponent over the top-rope. Match Rating...8.5

vs THE MIDNIGHT EXPRESS [Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane] (NWA. October-29, 1988): This match appears to be annoyingly shot with one of those unsteady handicams (or whatever you call them). Because of this, it’s really hard not to get lost with all the double-team action taking place. Eaton is practically knocked out of the match immediately, resulting in most of this bout being a 2 on 1. Of course, a bloodied Eaton does eventually make a comeback, but it results in him getting pinned & The Road Warriors winning the World Tag-Team Titles (for the first time???). Only 5 minutes in length & more a storyline match than anything else. Match Rating...6

vs DEMOLITION (World Wrestling Federation 'Wrestling Challenge'. February-9, 1991): This was another much-anticipated showdown as the originals took on the imitators (arguably). But it must be noted that Demolition was Smash & Crush (not Ax) here. Disappointing 4 minute match which was by no means the end of the feud. Pretty ho-hum action regularly interspersed with interference from Mr Fuji, which eventually leads to the DQ win to The Road Warriors. Disappointing. Match Rating...5

vs THE HART FOUNDATION (WWF WrestleFest. March-12, 1991): It should be noted that both teams were faces at the time of this bout. Solid, if unspectacular, tag-team match which is prototypical of Hart Foundation matches. 12 minutes in length, a good 8 minutes of that sees Bret & Jim ‘The Anvil’ isolate Hawk & wear him totally down. During this time, The Hart Foundation show some absolutely terrific double-team moves. Animal eventually does get the hot tag & things very much even up. This leads to a nice sequence which results in a Road Warriors win when Animal reverses a double-team move into a power-slam. Good stuff. Match Rating...7.5

vs HULK HOGAN & GENICHIRO TENRYU (March-30, 1991): This match is from the Tokyo Dome in front of more than 60,000 people. You can view it with the original Japanese commentary or with voiceover commentary by Jim Ross & Animal. Yet another solid match. The action was well-paced & entertaining for it’s entire 14 minute duration. Nothing super special, but there is a nice feeling of equality between the immortal Hogan, the Japanese legend Tenryu & the legendary tag-team. And The Road Warriors actually get the win, albeit by countout. Nicely booked, well-performed & quite an occasion. Match Rating...7.5

vs THE NASTY BOYS (WWF SummerSlam. August-26, 1991): This is the No Disqualification & No Countout match where The Road Warriors win their first WWF Tag-Team Titles. I was never a big fan of The Nasty Boys (Jerry Saggs & Brian Knobbs) & they pretty much remind me why here, as their main offense comes via foreign objects. As with a lot of Road Warrior matches, Hawk gets isolated, until the hot tag to Animal which eventually results in the Doomsday Device & new champions at the 8 minute mark. Quite historic, but not the greatest of bouts. Not too bad either though. Match Rating...6

vs MONEY INC. [Ted Dibiase & Irwin R Schyster] (WWF SummerSlam. August-29, 1992): It was great watching this match (or any match for that matter) from the 1992 SummerSlam event held at Wembley Stadium in London. Outdoors, this was the opener & was wrestled while there was still daylight & it provides for an interesting difference. Once more, Hawk got isolated by the veteran heels, who used every dirty tactic in the book. And once more, Animal gets the hot tag & the match doesn’t last all that much longer after that. Formulaic, but effective & entertaining enough. The LOD gets the win at the 11 minute mark to a huge pop. Match Rating...6.5

vs STING & LEX LUGER (WCW SuperBrawl. February-11, 1996): Relatively boring, and at times messy, tag-team title match which just seems like your standard everyday television bout (even though it’s a ppv match). There was hardly any heat in the bout & everyone from the crowd to the commentators struggled to get into it. The 14 minute duration felt like an eternity & then the match disappointingly ended in a double countout. Nothing too terrible, but oh so ordinary. Match Rating...5

vs THE GODWINNS (WWE Raw. October-13, 1997): The Legion Of Doom put their careers on the line in this television match. 9 minutes in length, it was a little overbooked due to interference, double-teams & referee bumps, but still came off as entertaining. Fairly even & included some good back & forth action, the bout sufficiently got the crowd involved & didn’t go on for too long. Still nothing special though. Match Rating...6.5


DESSERT - Conclusion

Before I get into my conclusion on this 2 disc DVD set, I should state that I believe there to be no Easter Eggs included here. I did look for them & came up empty.

This 2 disc DVD set is very up & down in my opinion. The documentary portion of the DVD is excellent. I may be exaggerating only a little here when I say that it actually could be the best career summary of any WWE DVD. That's especially the case if you do not consider the documentary portions of the ECW & Monday Night War DVDs, which don't highlight a specific career of a wrestler or tag-team.

100 minutes is almost the perfect length & it takes a good look at almost every stage of there careers, especially their early wrestling days in GCW & AWA. If I had to be critical, there were 2 things that were missing from the documentary portion of the DVD which annoyed me a little. Firstly, there was no talk of their legendary finisher; The Doomsday Device. It only needed 2 or 3 minutes to be added on how that move originated.

Secondly, Vince McMahon was absent. I really thought he could have had a few things to say here, especially when the documentary looked at Hawk's troubles with him & the WWE. It's almost not fair that Vince pops up at least to say a few words on all other WWE DVDs, but does not show his face here. Surely, that could have been possible & I am bemused & curious as to why he was excluded.

So apart from 2 minor criticisms, the documentary portion of the DVD is excellent. However, where WWE DVDs usually live or die is their extras. And in this case, this DVD just doesn't pass the test. It may be harsh, but they could have almost kept this DVD as a 1 discer, despite the documentary portion lasting 100 minutes! More realistically, only about 1 hour of the 2nd DVD was required.

The non-match extras are predominantly useless & repetitive. It would have been better if 2 or 3 of these would have been chosen & used as Easter Eggs. Meanwhile, the matches just show too much repetition. Unfortunately, watching tag-team matches over & over again can get stale. While The Road Warriors' matches are all fairly similar to each other. Only the few matches I rated a 7 or above, plus their big title wins, were worthy of inclusion.

So what's the bottom line...??? It's a tough one, as I really liked the career summary of The Road Warriors in the documentary portion. It was detailed, yet concise. It had some great clips, while also including some topical discussion. But the extras just don't live up to what comes before it & I cannot recommend purchasing this DVD because of that. Only Road Warrior and/or old-school wrestling fans should purchase this 2 disc DVD set. Otherwise though, if you can somehow rent this, it would be recommended in order to view the documentary portion.


Ok, that's another one in the books. And a fairly long one at that. I thought it was worth it, as I always presume that my DVD reviews may help someone decide on whether or not they will purchase it or not. Please don’t hesitate to ask me any questions about the 2 Disc Set. I will endeavor to answer them as best I can. Also, let me know if you liked the review & ratings, whether you have seen the DVD or not. As always, I will reply to all feedback. My e-mail address is DaveyBoy123@bigpond.com

Or alternately, if you are an LOPForums member, you may also leave feedback by clicking on the following link: http://www.lopforums.com/showthread.php?t=4889

Next Wednesday in 'The Wrestling Menu', I think that I will write about a topic concerning wrestling & the mainstream. My entrance theme poll from last week got me thinking about it & I'm unsure if us loyal fans fully consider the positives to the WWE of the topic in general. As per usual, I will also have my predictions for the 'One Night Stand' pay-per-view. While if I am in the mood, I may elaborate on my thoughts concerning the man we know as "R.....V.....D". Don't hold me to any of that though as the landscape in the WWE seems to be changing with every week right now. So look out for that column same Wednesday time & same LOP channel next week. Until then, this is DaveyBoy signing off & asking you to remember that dinner is best served in 3 courses.


DaveyBoy's Wrestling Menu. 2002-2006

Exclusive To LordsOfPain.net / WrestlingHeadlines.com











***DIRECT LINK*** Over 14 Total HIGH QUALITY Maria 2008 PB Photos! MUST SEE!

• Quick Links -
  [Back to LOP] [News Archives] [Results] [Columns] [Forums]