BUILDING THE LEGEND ACROSS THE WORLD

After more than a year of dominance in the United States, the young team of Hawk & Animal expanded their playground by heading to Japan in March 1985. Quickly establishing themselves as powerhouse Americans capable of matching power with any Japanese opponents, The Road Warriors quickly established themselves as premiere draws in Japan, primarily for Giant Baba’s All-Japan Pro Wrestling promotion.
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A rarity in these years, The Road Warriors toured in Japan whilst under or in between contracts with major promotions in the United States, such as Verne Gagne’s American Wrestling Association and Jim Crockett Promotions. Their popularity with Japanese fans served to fuel their stardom in the United States, and during the years of 1985 through 1988, it was difficult to find a wrestling magazine anywhere in the world that didn’t feature The Road Warriors.

CROSSING BOUNDARIES

In 1985, as Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation was well into its campaign to purchase regional promotions and procure their biggest stars to join the WWF roster, some promoters resisted McMahon’s efforts, and instead decided to band together in fighting the WWF’s campaign to go national.

Verne Gagne’s American Wrestling Association, where The Road Warriors called home and held the World Tag Team Championships, worked with Jim Crockett Promotions and other territory promoters to put on “super shows” where talent from each promotion would take part, offering dream matches that fans had never seen. As a result of these collaborative efforts, The Road Warriors would take their AWA World Tag Team Championships to Jim Crockett Promotions events and television programs, even defending those titles against The Russians (some combination of Ivan Koloff, Nikita Koloff, and Krusher Kruschev) throughout much of 1985.

A clear indicator of the immensity of The Road Warriors’ popularity was their ability to help bridge associations across wrestling promotions on different continents. So strong was their drawing power that, upon winning All-Japan Pro Wrestling’s International Tag Team Championships in 1987, Hawk & Animal were invited to bring those championships back to the United States and be recognized worldwide as the champions. In an era when many promotions chose to flatly ignore the existence of its competitors, Animal & Hawk’s popularity opened avenues of opportunity for wrestlers to work in both North America and Japan in the years that followed.