[[quoteright:340:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/legion_of_doom11.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:340:[[Main/LargeHam "UHHHHHH. WHAT A RUSHHHHHHH!"]]]]

The Road Warriors (also known as The Legion of Doom or L.O.D.) were a ProfessionalWrestling TagTeam who competed in essentially every major promotion in the world (Wrestling/{{WWE}}, [[Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance NWA]], Wrestling/{{WCW}}, [[Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling AJPW]], [[Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling NJPW]], [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]], and [[Wrestling/AmericanWrestlingAssociation AWA]]). The team consisted of wrestlers Michael "Hawk" Hegstrand (September 12, 1957 – October 19, 2003) and Joseph "Animal" Laurinaitis (January 26, 1960 - September 23, 2020) with manager "Precious" Paul Ellering (born on August 22, 1953).

The Road Warriors were one of the biggest draws of TheEighties and TheNineties, comparable to Wrestling/HulkHogan and Wrestling/RicFlair. They introduced several things into wrestling still seen today, such as their tag team finisher, the Doomsday Device, and face paint, still used today by wrestlers such as Wrestling/JeffHardy. They also popularized the Zubaz workout pants within the industry, which they helped develop with bodybuilders Bob Truax and Dan Stock.

They are the only team to have ever held the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/awa/awa-t.html AWA World Tag Team Titles]], the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/midatlantic/nwa/ma-nwa-t.html NWA World Tag Team Titles]] and the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/ww/wwe-world-t.html WWE World Tag Team Titles]].

They attempted a comeback in mid-to-late 2003 but nothing came of it. Sadly, Road Warrior Hawk (the guy sticking his tongue out) died of a heart attack on October 19, 2003. Road Warrior Animal returned to WWE in 2005, teaming up with Heidenreich, but unfortunately, the new combination didn't take off, even with Wrestling/ChristyHemme as their valet.

They were inducted into the Wrestling/WWEHallOfFame in the Class of 2011 along with "Precious" Paul Ellering. On September 23, 2020, Road Warrior Animal died of natural causes.
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!! "WELLLLLLLL!, the following tropes are associated with the ROAD WARRIORS!"
* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: Spawned several, including Wrestling/ThePowersOfPain (The Warlord and Wrestling/TheBarbarian), (arguably) Wrestling/{{Demolition}} and the Blade Runners ([[Wrestling/{{Sting}} Flash]] and [[Wrestling/UltimateWarrior Rock]])
* AnnualTitle:
** Known as "L.O.D. 2000" when [[Wrestling/TammyLynnSytch Sunny]] reintroduced them at ''Wrestling/WrestleMania XIV'' (in 1998, oddly enough) with a new look.
** Animal's team-up with Heidenreich in 2005 tended to be called as "Legion of Doom 2005".
* ArchEnemy: The Four Horsemen, Wrestling/TheMidnightExpress, the Russians (Wrestling/IvanKoloff[=/=]Wrestling/NikitaKoloff[=/=]Krusher Khrushchev [Barry Darsow]), the Powers of Pain, Wrestling/{{Demolition}}, Wrestling/TheNastyBoys, Wrestling/TheNaturalDisasters ([[Wrestling/JohnTenta Earthquake]] and [[Wrestling/FredOttman Typhoon]]), Money Inc. ("The Million-Dollar Man" Wrestling/TedDiBiase and [[Wrestling/MikeRotunda Irwin R. Schyster]]), Wrestling/TheNationOfDomination, the Godwinns, Wrestling/DGenerationX.
* TheBandMinusTheFace: After Hawk died in October 2003, Animal tried doing the Road Warriors with Heidenreich and Wrestling/ChristyHemme but it didn't work. Comebacks in Japan with Power Warrior were more successful.
* BashBrothers: Hawk and Animal were this until 2003. Animal tried being this with Heidenrich but to no avail.
* {{Biography}}: Animal's autobiography ''The Road Warriors: Danger, Death and the Rush of Wrestling.''
* TheCameo: [=Hawk=] made some appearances in [[Wrestling/{{ECW}} NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling]] in 1993-1994, even teaming with [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/ecw/ecw-h.html NWA ECW Heavyweight Champion]] Wrestling/{{Sabu}} in the main event of the first ''November to Remember'', where they successfully defeated [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/ecw/ecw-tv.html NWA ECW Television Champion]] Wrestling/TerryFunk and Wrestling/KingKongBundy, with Sabu pinning Funk to win the title, after Bundy turned on Funk.
* CaptainErsatz: Had them in ''Videogame/FireProWrestling'' since at least combination tag in 1989.
* CatchPhrase: "WHAT A RUSH!" Also, if Animal spoke first during a promo, he'd end his part by saying "Tell 'im, Hawk!" and Hawk would open by shouting "WELLLLLLLL!"
** They used to end interviews by saying, "We snack on danger and we dine on death!"
* CelebrityResemblance: When they debuted, Ellering bore one to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Sam Uncle Sam]].
* UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}: Specifically, they were {{invoked|trope}} the GangsterLand image of Chicago, though this was kind of lost by the Time The Road Warriors were the only members of the Legion Of Doom left, since it's hard to have a biker gang with only two members. All the same Hawk and Animal did have some resemblance to tough biker outlaws.
* CrowdChant: "L-O-D, L-O-D, L-O-D!"
* DistaffCounterpart: Legion Of Womb (Jetta and Skye) in Triple X Wrestling and Bellatrix. The Divas Of Doom (Wrestling/BethPhoenix and Wrestling/NatalyaNeidhart) in WWE.
* DoomsdayDevice: Well, duh. It was only the name of their ''FinishingMove'', a top-rope clothesline by Hawk to an opponent who is seated on Animal's shoulders.
* DoomyDoomsOfDoom: Their monikers, "The Legion of Doom," and "[=LOD=] 2000."
* EnemyMine: While they and the Midnight Express were usually intense enemies, at ''NWA The Great American Bash 89'', the LOD joined forces with the MX (Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane) and Wrestling/DrDeathSteveWilliams to defeat the Fabulous Freebirds (Terry Gordy, Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin) and [[Wrestling/TheHeadshrinkers The Samoan Swat Team]] ([[Wrestling/{{Rikishi}} Fatu [Rikishi]]] and Samu) in the [[GimmickMatches War Games]] match.
* [[EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether Everyone Went to Wrestling School Together]]: They, Wrestling/RickRude and Wrestling/BarryDarsow all trained with Eddie Sharkey together in Minneapolis.
* EyeScream: Spike in the eye of Wrestling/DustyRhodes!
* EvilCounterpart: The Powers Of Pain were put together to be this after The Road Warriors had a HeelFaceTurn.
* FacialMarkings: Hawk and Animal's face paint; Heidenreich when he joined animal too.
* HellBentForLeather: At the beginning.
* HypercompetentSidekick: Precious Paul Ellering. In RealLife, Ellering personally booked the Road Warriors/Legion of Doom's matches, scheduled their flights, set up hotel reservations, and kept track of expenses. He is a member of [[UsefulNotes/{{Mensa}} MENSA]] and was a wrestler himself, holding the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/tn/cwa/awa-s-h.html Southern (Memphis) Heavyweight Title]], the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/tn/cwa/awa-s-t.html Southern (Memphis) Tag Team Title]], and the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/japan/iwe/iwe-t.html IWE IWA (Japan) World Tag Team Title]], thus qualifying for the designation of GeniusBruiser.
* ImpliedDeathThreat: As the [[Quotes/TheRoadWarriors Quotes page]] demonstrates, they were famous for threatening to perform acts of violence on their opponents that would at times stretch the limits of what is humanly possible—or permissible. In a vignette to hype their [[GimmickMatches scaffold match]] against the Midnight Express ("Loverboy" Dennis Condrey and "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton, w[=/=]Wrestling/JimCornette) at ''[=NWA=] [=Starrcade=] 86'', they dropped a pumpkin off of a fire escape.
* ImprobableHairstyle: Not many guys purposefully draw attention to their bald spots, much less intentionally create them. Still it worked so long as they were together.
* LargeHam
-->'''Animal''': TELL EM HAWK!
-->'''Hawk''': wwwWWWWELLLLLL...
* LegionOfDoom: Well, they started as one anyway, one that had ''both the Original Sheik and the Iron Sheik'', but were eventually reduced to just two members, Hawk and Animal, who would ''occasionally'' bring in someone else. On the 2005 ''Road Warriors: The Life And Death of the Most Dominant Tag Team in Wrestling History'' [=DVD=], Animal ''admits'' that they got the name "from the ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'' cartoon."
* {{Lightning Bruiser}}s: Big, strong, fast and practically unstoppable without massive heaps of interference a lot of the time. Compared to each other, Hawk was more of a StoneWall, being tougher in that he could take more physical punishment while Animal was more of a MightyGlacier, being the stronger of the two. Unless they were fighting someone of comparable size and strength, though, these differences were rarely noticed and they still tended to be faster and or more agile.
* MerchandiseDriven: Hawk and Animal would get a little money off of Zubaz pants sales, but would often give out "free samples" to other wrestlers anyway. They also made sure to put over Rivera Steakhouse jackets.
* MinnesotaNice: [[DefiedTrope Defied]]. Despite being natives of Minnesota, The Road Warriors always claimed to be from Chicago simply because "Minnesota Nice doesn't cut it in Professional Wrestling".
* MoodDissonance: On the ''Road Warriors'' [=DVD=], in their AWA run, Animal talks about the contrast between them rushing out to Music/BlackSabbath's "Iron Man" and Wrestling/DickTheBruiser and Wrestling/TheCrusher coming out to polka music.
* NoIndoorVoice: Hawk and Animal never spoke below a mezzo forte.
* NoSell
** A lot of times, it wasn't even an issue because they would win the match so quickly that their opponents wouldn't have had a chance to try any offense in the first place. Though it seemed they had to be ready for it, as the best way to get the Road Warriors to sell was usually a sneak attack before the match.
** This caused one [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E0KbHly7xE famous incident]] when Hawk and Animal began stiffing and no-selling ''Mean Mark Callous'' (who would go on to become Wrestling/TheUndertaker later on) in a TagTeam match. This caused the ire of Mark's TagTeam partner, Wrestling/DanSpivey, who broke kayfabe and proceeded to cave in the skulls of both Hawk and Animal [[note]] but specially Hawk [[/note]] with chair shots, basically '''forcing them''' to sell.
** Downplayed in that Hawk would sell some specific moves less rather than not at all. He could kick out of pins after a pile driver due to his trapezius muscles, instead of taking the move like a shotgun blast as most wrestlers did.
* OneSteveLimit:
** When the Road Warriors came to WWF, they already had [[Wrestling/UltimateWarrior The Ultimate Warrior]] and the [[Wrestling/VonErichFamily Modern-Day Warrior Kerry Von Erich]] on the roster. Thus their name was changed to the Legion of Doom.
** After the Animal[=/=]Heidenreich team broke up, Animal was reverted to his original straightforward biker gimmick of "The Road Warrior" because Wrestling/TripleH's buddy Wrestling/{{Batista}} was now using the RedBaron "The Animal."
* PowerStable: The Legion of Doom started this way, including Wrestling/TheIronSheik, Wrestling/ArnAnderson, King Kong Bundy, [[Wrestling/JakeRoberts Jake "The Snake" Roberts]], [[Wrestling/BuzzSawyer "Mad Dog" Buzz Sawyer]] and the Spoiler, before it was reduced to just Hawk, Animal and Ellering.
* PowerTrio: They won the NWA Mid-Atlantic Six Man Tag Team Title belts with Wrestling/DustyRhodes, as well as with Wrestling/GenichiroTenryu. And even outside of tag teams the Road Warriors were often shadowed by Paul Ellering. Ellering did win at least one six man match alongside them in WCW by pinning Jim Cornette.
* RealMenLoveJesus: Both of them became born-again Christians in 2003 and appeared at a number of Christian wrestling events run by Wrestling/TedDiBiase and Wrestling/NikitaKoloff.
* RedOniBlueOni: In real life, Hawk was red and Animal was blue. Not that one know that if they only saw them wrestling. Wrestling/GenichiroTenryu was a blue to Animal and even more obviously to both when Hawk and Animal were together, as he cared very little for posing and posturing, before the bell, usually just stretching in the corner.
* [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Screw This, We're Outta Here!]]: Hawk eventually left the WWF due to their gimmick where they brought around a ventriloquist dummy named Rocco. Animal attempted to fulfill their commitments, teaming with Demolition [[Wrestling/BrianAdams Crush]], but left due to injury.
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: In the second interview mentioned on the [[Quotes/TheRoadWarriors Quotes page]], Ellering said, "Wrestling/KevinSullivan, you are an unctuous miscreant. You have been reduced to the lowest common denominator of life."
* ShouldersOfDoom: Not that they were needed, or even used that often. An shoulder block from Animal without gear would still floor the opponent, more often than not, and a successful ''diving'' shoulder block of Animals often had mean contemplating quitting altogether.
* ShoutOut: Other than the obvious ''Superfriends'' and ''Mad Max'' references, on the October 3, 1987 episode of ''NWA World Championship Wrestling'', Hawk offered up an unlikely one during their post-match interview.
-->'''HAWK''': "'''WELL''', Tony Schiavone, {{There are two kinds of people|intheworld}}, as far as me and Animal are concerned. Clamheads and [[Film/TheBreakfastClub Neo-Maxi Zoom Dweebies]]."[[note]]Here, the LOD were the Neo-Maxi Zoom Dweebies and the Clamheads were the [=Four Horsemen=].[[/note]]
* SpikesOfDoom: They were mainly for show, but not just for show as they were occasionally weaponized and could still be dangerous even after being broken off.
* SquashMatch
** This was how they ''got over,'' running in and splattering their opponents all over the mat usually in less than five minutes.
** They once had one on ''[[{{BShow}} WWF Shotgun Saturday Night]]'' that was so fast that the sound guy barely had time to stop and restart their music.
* StartMyOwn: Helped start the Zubaz company, which produced athletic pants for wrestlers.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute - Power Warrior (Wrestling/KensukeSasaki), who filled in for Animal when he was injured (New Japan; 92-95) and for Hawk when he passed away (All Japan; 2007). In 1996, he was more of a {{Sidekick}}, as all three were together by that time.
* TagTeam
** As Wrestling/JimRoss once said, "They are the Legion of Doom and they have defined tag team wrestling. They '''are''' tag team wrestling."
** Although the Road Warriors are the best known team, being the top drawing tag team out of the United States during their run and one of the top drawing teams to ever come from the country, Hawk also held the IWGP Tag Team Title belts with Power Warrior, the Midwest Territorial Wrestling Tag Team Title belts with Bobo Brazil Jr. and Mid Eastern Wrestling Federation title belts with Ultimate Comet. Animal also won the UWA Tag Team Title belts of the defunct Lucha Libre Internacional with Power Warrior after they were acquired by Wrestling/{{Toryumon}} Mexico.
* TheRival: Hawk had a personal rival in the German based Catch Wrestling Association with the Canadian wrestler Rambo, which lead to Hawk winning the CWA Heavyweight Title belt.
* TieredByName: At one point, they were repackaged in 1998 as LOD [[AnnualTitle 2000]], with little changing except more colorful shoulderpads and the addition of [[Wrestling/TammyLynnSytch Sunny]] as their manager. This lasted for about six months.
* WrestlingFamily: Road Warrior Animal is the older brother of Wrestling/JohnLaurinaitis and of Marc Laurinaitis, aka Fury of the Wrecking Crew (WCW[=/=]CWA [Catch Wrestling Association in Austria/Germany][=/=]AJPW) or the Terminator. Other than those three promotions, he also competed in "Cowboy" Bill Watts's Universal Wrestling Federation (Louisiana/Oklahoma) and in Florida independents.
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-->'''"We snack on danger, and we dine on death, and dead men don't make money!"'''