Arda Ocal of The Score Television Network had a chance to speak to Joe ‘Road Warrior Animal‘ Laurinaitis. Here are some highlights:
On how the Road Warriors gained the reputation as a tag team that “refused” to do jobs in the 80s:
“I think the whole thing [not jobbing] is kinda blown out of proportion. If you look back on our career, we lost to Ronny Garvin – the belts to them in Georgia, that was in year one. In the AWA, we lost against Greg and Jim Brunzel . Doing the job wasn’t the problem, it’s when the job got ridiculous and they wanted us to look foolish. I think we were one of the guys that stood up for ourselves and said, ‘listen man, we want this business to grow as a whole’- the business was on a growing trend. Don’t make us look foolish when we’re helping you grow… Hawk and I never refused to do jobs, we did jobs for a whole year straight for WWF… this is a business and we all give and take.”
On his son, NFL player James Laurinaitis, possibly following in his father’s footsteps one day:
“James loves the wrestling business. I got pictures in my book that I wrote that he was power bombing his sister in the trampoline. I’d come home off 50 days on the road tired and he’s got his buddies in the pool and trying to suplex the guy off the diving board saying, “come on daddy let’s do the finish’… He’s got a future, he’s a natural add it. James is good on the mic, I’ve told him always be comfortable and say how you feel on the mic. He’s a good athlete- you never know what could happen.”
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Interview link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyDpq1x2nLU&feature=plcp