Mike Hegstrand

Michael James Hegstrand was an American professional wrestler. He is best remembered as Road Warrior Hawk, one half of the tag team known as The Road Warriors (WCW) or The Legion of Doom (WWE), with Road Warrior Animal. ) was an American professional wrestler. He was best known as Road Warrior Hawk, one half of the tag team known as The Road Warriors (The Legion of Doom in WWE), with Road Warrior Animal. Outside 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 1993 edition of ECW's premier annual event, November to Remember While the Road Warriors never officially broke up, Animal started making an increasing number of solo appearances after they left WWE as Hegstrand struggled with drug and alcohol addiction and generally did not appear at many wrestling shows during this time. 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 later on.

On June 22, 2002 International Wrestling Superstars, Road Warriors Animal & Hawk defeated The Headshrinkers for the World Tag-Team Championship. That victory also led to Team USA winning the Animal and Hawk made a surprise appearance on Raw on May 12, 2003 when they took on Kane and 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 had hopes of returning to WWE.

Later in 2003, Hawk made an appearance with the All World Wrestling League, a take-off of the 'original' Big Time Wrestling that was owned by The Original Sheik who died earlier that year; it was run by the sons of The Sheik, Eddie and Tom Farhat. They decided to book Hawk for an event in Holt, Michigan; that event was the second to last time Hawk wrestled. Two weeks before he died he wrestled his final match with Ted DiBiase in Oshawa, Ontario against Greg "The Hammer" Valentine and Marcus "Buff" Bagwell.

Death and legacy

Hegstrand died on October 19, 2003 in the early morning in his home in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida. He was 46 years old. 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 a sudden heart attack. At the time of his death, Hawk and Animal were working on a book about their careers.

Animal returned to WWE in mid-2005 and decided to dedicate his entire run to Hegstrand, including his tag team title victory with Heidenreich at The Great American Bash.

On the March 28, 2011 episode of Raw, it was announced that the Road Warriors would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2011. On April 2, 2011, the night before WrestleMania XXVII they, along with Paul Ellering were inducted into the Hall Of Fame by Dusty Rhodes.

Road Warrior Hawk was included, along with his tag team partner, Road Warrior Animal, in the Attitude Era, in the game WWE '13.

Raw

6.8

Hitman Hart: Wrestling With Shadows

7.4

Dark Side of the Ring

8.3

WWE WrestleMania 13

7.4

WWE Royal Rumble 1998

6.7

WWE WrestleMania VII

7.3

WWE WrestleMania XIV

7.6

WWE WrestleMania VIII

8.1

The Monday Night War - WWE Raw vs. WCW Nitro

7.9

WWE Judgment Day: In Your House

8.7

WWE No Way Out of Texas: In Your House

7.1

WWE Royal Rumble 1992

7.2

WWE Survivor Series 1990

8.2

WWE SummerSlam 1992

8.1

WWE Survivor Series 1997

8.8

WWE Heat

5.1

WWE SummerSlam 1997

8.0

The Very Best of WCW Monday Nitro Vol.1

7.9

WWE Royal Rumble 1991

7.8

WWE SummerSlam 1991

7.8

NWA The Great American Bash '89: The Glory Days

8.5

WCW SuperBrawl VI

8.0

Road Warriors: The Life & Death of the Most Dominant Tag-Team in Wrestling History

8.3

WWE SummerSlam 1990

6.3

WCW Halloween Havoc '89

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WWE D-Generation X: In Your House

7.8

WWE Survivor Series 1991

7.8

WWE SuperTape vol. 3

10.0

WWE Badd Blood: In Your House

7.1

WCW War Games: WCW's Most Notorious Matches

10.0

WCW Starrcade '89: Future Shock

7.4

WCW Capital Combat: The Return of RoboCop

5.9

AWA Super Clash

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WWF Wrestling Challenge

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NWA Starrcade '86: The Night of The Sky-Walkers

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NWA Starrcade '87: Chi-Town Heat!

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WWE Unforgiven: In Your House

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WWE Fully Loaded: In Your House

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WWE: Falls Count Anywhere: The Greatest Street Fights and Other Out of Control Matches

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WWE: Attitude Era: Vol. 2

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Jeff Jarrett: King of the Mountain

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NWA Clash of The Champions VIII: Fall Brawl '89

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WWF Superstars Of Wrestling

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NWA The Great American Bash '87: War Games

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NWA The Great American Bash '88: The Price for Freedom

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NWA Bunkhouse Stampede

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NWA Chi-Town Rumble

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WWE Over the Edge: In Your House

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The Best of WCW Clash of the Champions

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WWE: Road Warriors - The Life & Death of the Most Dominant Tag-Team in Wrestling History

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NWA Battle of the Belts

8.0

WWE: The Best Of In Your House

9.0

WWE: 150 Best Pay-Per-View Matches, Vol 1

10.0

NWA Superstars on The SuperStation

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AWA StarCage

8.5

NWA Clash of the Champions

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NWA WrestleWar '90: Wild Thing

7.8

2nd Annual Battle of the WWE Superstars

10.0

NWA Starrcade '88: True Gritt

7.0

WWE In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede

9.0

WCW Halloween Havoc 1995

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WWE Hall of Fame 2011

10.0

SMW Night of The Legends

6.0

The Very Best of Monday Nitro: Volume 2

10.0

TNA: The 50 Greatest Moments

10.0

WWE United We Slam: The Best of The Great American Bash

10.0

NWA Super Towns on The SuperStation

10.0

AWA: WrestleRock '86

10.0

NWA Clash of The Champions V: St. Valentine's Massacre

4.0

WWE Survivor Series Showdown '90

4.0

The First Annual NWA Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament

10.0

WCW Clash of The Champions XXXI

5.0

WWE Battle Royal at the Albert Hall

6.0

WWE U.K. Rampage 1992

5.0

WWE Ground Zero: In Your House

10.0

WWE One Night Only

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WWE This Is Awesome

10.0

AWA/NWA Night of Champions II

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NWA Grandslam

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WWE WrestleFest '91

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WWE WrestleFest '92

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WWE SuperTape vol. 4

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WWF SuperTape '92

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WWE Invasion '92

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WWE Rampage '92

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NWA The Great American Bash 1985

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NWA The Great American Bash '86: Livin' in the Promise Land

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WWE In Your House 14: Revenge of the Taker

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WWE King of the Ring 1997

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WWE Mayhem in Manchester

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WCW Starrcade 1993

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WCW Slamboree 1995

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WCW Uncensored 1996

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WCW Slamboree 1996

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Best Of Raw • Volume Four

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PWUSA Star Wars

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Pro Wrestling USA Star Wars: December 1984

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GCW at The Omni (December '83)

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NWA Live: March 18, 1989

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PNW Owen Family Super Extravaganza

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PNW 60th Anniversary Wrestling Extravaganza

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WCW'S Greatest Pay-Per-View Matches Volume 1

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WWE: Attitude Era: Vol. 3 Unreleased

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WWE: Starrcade - The Essential Collection

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Legends Never Die

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Battlarts Battle Fiction

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NJPW Wrestling Dontaku 1995

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NJPW Wrestling Dontaku 1993

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NJPW Battle Zone Space II

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NWA The Last Battle of Atlanta

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The Third Annual NWA Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament

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NWA Clash of The Champions IV: Season's Beatings

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NWA Clash of The Champions VI: Ragin' Cajun

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NWA Clash of The Champions IX: New York Knockout

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NWA Clash of The Champions X: Texas Shootout

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AWA Wrestling For a Cure

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NWA WrestleWar '89: The Music City Showdown

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NWA Night of Champions

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NWA Lords of The Ring

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NJPW Battle Formation '96

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NWA Great American Bash '86 Tour: Charlotte

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NWA Great American Bash '86 Tour: Greensboro

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The Second Annual NWA Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament

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NWA Battle of The Belts II

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NWA Battle of the Belts III

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WWE The Main Event V

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WCW World War 3 1995

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WWE SummerSlam Spectacular '91

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WWE Survivor Series Showdown 1991

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WCW Clash of the Champions XXIV

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WCW Clash of The Champions XXV

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ECW November to Remember 1993

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WCW Battle Bowl

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WWE U.K. Rampage Tour '92: Munich

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NJPW & WCW Collision In Korea

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NJPW Hyper Battle 1993 - Day 11

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SWS WrestleFest

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AWF Warriors of Wrestling

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