Pro Wrestler Memoirs: The Road Warriors

While this blog often features predictions and future outlooks for the series, this time I would like to change things up and look back at the past, specifically at the wrestlers I used to love.

This is a story from when I was a boy, back when "World Pro Wrestling" and "All Japan Pro Wrestling Broadcasts" were aired during prime time, and because of that influence, pro wrestling was a common topic of conversation at school.
It was a pro wrestling boom to an extent that is unimaginable today.
It was an era where there weren't many organizations like there are now; there were basically only two in the country: New Japan and All Japan.
It was in such an era that "World Pro Wrestling" began on the TV Tokyo network.
Back then, without satellite broadcasting or the internet, you couldn't see major foreign wrestlers unless they came to New Japan or All Japan.
You could watch matches of those foreign wrestlers from their home turf in America with Japanese commentary.
That is what "World Pro Wrestling" was.

Come to think of it, I didn't have what you would call a "favorite" wrestler back then.
That said, it's not that I wasn't interested in pro wrestling; I enjoyed watching matches featuring Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki, and I simply loved pro wrestling.
It's just that when it came to having a "favorite," it felt a bit different.

It was during that time that The Road Warriors were introduced on "World Pro Wrestling".
They were wrestlers I had never seen on Japanese pro wrestling broadcasts.
They had painted faces and wore intimidating armor.
They had a mysterious background, claiming to have lived in the slums eating rats.
And they had magnificently pumped-up physiques.
They looked like heels (villains) in every way, but in the American AWA circuit at the time, they were superheroes who transcended the heel category.
By the way, in the header photo, Hawk is on the left and Animal is on the right.

Their rival at the time was Baron von Raschke.
I believe his partner was Crusher Lisowski...?
Since this was quite a long time ago and the impact of the Warriors and Raschke was so strong, to be honest, I don't remember much.

He was a heel, just as he looked.
With a shaved head and a fierce face, he used the Brain Claw as his finishing move, as his pose indicated.
However, while Raschke was likely a good wrestler, as far as I can remember, this feud was a complete blowout for the Warriors.

The greatness of the Warriors was, above all, their power.
I remember it being introduced at the time that Hawk could bench press 250kg and Animal could lift 300kg.
Their matches also followed a style where they would dash into the ring from the moment they entered and use full power from the start to finish off their opponents in seconds. (Of course, the term "second-kill" didn't exist back then...)
And their lariats were incredibly intense.
They also had a tag-team move called the Double Impact, where Animal would lift the opponent up and Hawk would deliver a flying lariat from the top rope; the impact of that was truly convincing.
I have a very strong memory of how Raschke would get beaten up, and there were many matches that were truly satisfying, like good triumphing over evil.
I was completely hooked on this feud!
I think they were the first wrestlers I ever considered my favorites.

The Warriors, who made such an impact on Japanese fans through "World Pro Wrestling," later came to Japan as well.
In All Japan, they even overwhelmed the strongest Japanese tag team at the time, the Tsuru-Ryu combination (Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu), with their power.

What makes the Warriors even more amazing is that they held the three major American world tag team titles: not only the AWA, but also the NWA and the WWF (now WWE).
During their time in the WWF, they also appeared in the SWS ring, which was in a partnership at the time.
The "reverse-imported" card against the Natural Disasters (Earthquake & Typhoon) was already incredibly exciting the moment it was announced.
The combined weight of the two Natural Disasters was probably over 400kg.
I thought, "Do you have to be this big to beat the Warriors!"
The match was beyond intense; it was truly overwhelming!

Unfortunately, the feud with Raschke is hard to find these days, but you can watch the matches against the Tsuru-Ryu combination and the Natural Disasters if you search on YouTube.
For those interested, I highly recommend watching them.

I think I probably lack the fixed idea that "pro wrestling should be this way."
Whether it was because their appearance was cool or their characters were mysterious, the reasons I was captivated by the Warriors were probably just as vague.
There wasn't a shred of deep thought about the Warriors' wrestling technique or anything like that.
But I think that's fine.

Come to think of it, we used to talk about who the strongest tag team was.

"Well, it has to be the Warriors!"
"No way, it's definitely Hansen and Brody!"

There is no answer to that conversation, but the Warriors were the team that let me dream such dreams.