Great-ing Gimmicks of the Past: Hawk’s an addict – WWF, 1998
History
Hawk and Animal. The Legion of Doom. One of the greatest and most respected tag teams in the history of professional wrestling. They rose to prominence in the AWA, jumped to the NWA, headed to the WWF, went to WCW, and then returned to the WWF.
Their first WWF run was not a good one – mainly due to the end of it. Vince McMahon decided that the LOD and their manager Paul Ellering needed something – a puppet named Rocco. A puppet that would give them advice on wrestling. By the end of this angle, they’d be wishing that Rocco was still around.
In 1998, the LOD was at a particularly low point. They’d been given Sunny as a manager and redebuted as LOD2000 at Wrestlemania, which had failed. Then they’d lost Sunny when she left the WWF and were put with their returning manager Paul Ellering – who’d promptly jumped ship and begun managing the Disciples of Apocalypse (Skull and 8-Ball, the ever-popular Harris Brothers). Clearly Creative needed to do something. This is what they came up with.
Something was definitely wrong on the July 27th episode of Raw. The LOD (or LOD2000 to be technical) was being interviewed by Michael Cole, but only Animal talked while Hawk just stood there.
From there the LOD headed out to take on Mark Henry and the Godfather. Everything was going well until Animal reached for a tag… and Hawk was asleep on the outside. The LOD finally got the Godfather in position for the Doomsday Device, and Hawk fell off the top. Animal was easy prey for the Godfather.
The next week, we were treated to an apology from Hawk about what had happened the previous week. He promised it would never happen again.
Hawk went out to the ring and easily defeated Jeff Jarrett. After the match, Southern Justice (Mark Canterbury and Dennis Knight) headed out to the ring to attack the LOD. That brought Droz (Darren Drosdov) out to even the odds and send the Southern boys packing.
The problems continued next week as the LOD was scheduled to take on Southern Justice. Unfortunately, Hawk got distracted by the pyro and stumbled around the stage until Southern Justice showed up. They brawled and finally WWF officials dragged Hawk to the back as Jim Ross explained that Hawk was in no condition to perform. That brought Droz out to even things up again. Everything was going well until Jeff Jarrett snuck out of the back with his trusty guitar. Droz took a shot from the acoustic equalizer and then got his ponytail shaved off by Jarrett.
It took two weeks for Hawk to show up again. This time he joined Jim Ross for some drunken commentary as Southern Justice took on the New Age Outlaws. That was just angle advancement as a barefoot Jeff Jarrett stormed out to challenge X-Pac (as Pac had used Jarrett’s boots as a urinal).
A week later on a special Saturday edition of Raw, we had LOD & Droz vs. Silva, Kurgan, and Golga of the Oddities. Hawk started out by dancing with the Oddities. Hawk wound up getting powerbombed and pinned by Silva, but still wanted to try and dance some more.
The next night on Heat, we had Animal and Droz taking on Undertaker and Kane. We heard from Hawk via the telephone, as he told everyone that he was checking into rehab. It didn’t help, however, as Animal and Droz were no match for Taker and Kane.
Hawk (and Animal) returned to TV on October 12th. Tonight it was Animal and Droz (now wearing LOD gear) who took on the New Age Outlaws. Hawk joined the commentary team and explained that, although he had been addicted to pain pills, he had kicked the habit. However, Animal had asked that he work as an alternate for the time being. Sunday, however, it would be all three members of LOD taking on DOA and Paul Ellering in a six-man tag. Suddenly Hawk was jumped by Ellering and DOA, and then they went after Droz. While Animal headed out to help, the Headbangers hit the ring and then hit Road Dogg in the head with a boom box.
That brought us to Judgment Day. The match ended when Hawk and Animal hit the Doomsday Device on one of the twins and Droz covered for the 3.
The following night on Raw it was the Headbangers against Droz and Animal. The LOD was holding its own until Droz turned to get advice from Hawk. Thrasher rolled him up and got the win. After the match Droz and Hawk argued over whose fault the loss was.
On the 26th’s Raw, Droz took on the Rock in the World Title Tournament. The Rock won, and Animal and Hawk came out. Droz shoved Hawk’s arm off his shoulder, which started an argument. Animal calmed things down and then left with Droz, with Hawk still standing in the ring.
On the November 1st Heat, it was Droz and Animal against the Hardy Boyz. As Droz left the ring to argue with Hawk, Animal got double-teamed and pinned.
The next night it was going to be Droz vs. Hawk, when Hawk staggered out. Jim Ross instantly brought up that Hawk had fallen off the wagon. The referee refused to start the match, so Droz just attacked Hawk. That brought Animal out, who got Droz off him, and then yelled at Hawk and the two of them left.
The following week it was scheduled to be Droz and Animal taking on Gangrel and Edge when Hawk came out and climbed the Titantron. Droz and Animal headed up the ramp to see what was going on and got counted out. We came back from commercial and Hawk was threatening to jump. Animal tried to talk him down, and, in a nice touch, so did Paul Ellering. Meanwhile, Droz climbed the Titantron to help Hawk down, and Hawk fell off the back – or did Droz push him? All we saw was the ambulance leaving as the DOA tried to comfort Ellering.
The December 6th Heat saw Droz & Animal taking on Too Much. Droz won the match by slapping a submission hold on Scott Taylor that left him a whimpering mess.
Droz took on Mark Henry the next night. Droz was doing well and Chyna came out. Droz held up Henry for Chyna to slap him, but she couldn’t. Droz tried to find out what was wrong and got pinned for his trouble.
Finally the truth came out on December 21st. Hawk came out to the ring and revealed that while he was now clean, that Droz had been his pusher and had planned to take his spot in LOD. Droz didn’t even bother trying to deny anything – he just attacked. Animal pulled him off. Droz cleared out as Animal and Hawk just looked at each other.
And that was the reunion of the Road Warriors.
Analysis
Where to begin? Granted, the LOD needed a new direction to go in, but this wasn’t it. At this time period in 1998, the WWF’s tag division was preparing to bloom with young talent such as the Hardys, Too Much, the Acolytes, and Edge & Christian (who hadn’t officially started teaming yet, but it was on the way). Also, we had another veteran team in Southern Justice. Sadly, however, Southern Justice would quickly vanish due to a career-ending neck injury to Mark Canterbury, and Dennis Knight would become the Ministry’s Mideon.
One of the biggest mistakes was trying to rebuild a classic team. We’ve seen it over the years with groups such as the Horsemen and the Midnight Express, and it has rarely (if ever) worked. The replacements are usually inferior and wind up trying to leech off the original group’s popularity. Compare the classic Horsemen of Flair, Ole Anderson, Arn Anderson, and Tully Blanchard with the 1993 version: Flair, Arn, Ole, and Paul Roma (although, admittedly, the Horsemen did have some strong lineups, all the way to the end of the group. It must still be noted, however, that the final grouping did still include Mongo McMichael).
Sadly, the mistake of replacing classics is one that Vince McMahon still hasn’t learned, as we recently saw (again with the Legion of Doom), with Heidenreich replacing Hawk in the team. And again, it did not work.
Where are they now?
After the LOD left the WWF, Animal made his way to WCW in the promotion’s dying days in an enforcer role. In 2002, the Legion of Doom made several appearances in NWA-TNA. In 2003, the LOD made a brief return to the WWE. Animal began working with the Minnesota Lumberjacks football team as a defensive coordinator. In July of 2005, Animal returned to the WWE and was paired with Heidenreich as a new Legion of Doom. After Heidenreich’s release, Animal began reportedly teaming with Matt Hardy.
Sadly, Hawk passed away in his sleep on October 18, 2003 of an apparent heart attack. He and his wife had been preparing to move to a new condominium.
Droz wound up forming a faction of his own which included Prince Albert (A-Train) – his body-piercing artist, and Key (Vic Grimes) – his drug dealer. Those plans fell apart when it was seen how awful Key’s first match was (which Grimes blamed on the shoes he wore). Key was released and went to ECW, while Droz continued allying himself with Albert. On October 5, 1999, at a Smackdown taping, D’Lo Brown slipped while preparing to deliver a running powerbomb to Droz, and Droz’s neck was severely injured – which left him a paraplegic. Today Droz does still work backstage with the WWE, contributing to a weekly column on wwe.com and also regularly calls in to their internet show Byte This.
Next Week
GGOTP launches its second year with a look back at one of the most innovative stables in professional wrestling.
