Vince McMahon’s Secret War: The Truth Behind Demolition and The Road Warriors
Havah's Wrestling Documentary
7,002 views
In 1987, The Road Warriors were the most feared and most expensive tag team in wrestling. So Vince McMahon didn't hire them — he cloned them.
This is the untold corporate story of how Demolition (Ax & Smash) was created not as a tribute, but as a weapon to break Hawk & Animal's negotiating power and prove that in the WWF, no one was bigger than the brand.
From their god-like run in the AWA and NWA under Paul Ellering, to the closed-door contract war with Jim Crockett Promotions, to the day the Legion of Doom finally surrendered to Vince — and paid the price.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
01:06 Section 1: The gods of the Territories
03:14 Section 2: The Price Tag Vince Refused to Pay
05:24 Section 3: Inside the Clone Lab
07:36 Section 4: The WWF's Homegrown Monsters
09:35 Section 5: The Shadow War
11:14 Section 6: The Surrender
13:10 Section 7: The Clone vs. The Original
15:34 Conclusion: Aftermath: Who Really Won?
This is Havah's Wrestling Documentary — where we treat wrestling like the corporate thriller it always was.
#roadwarriors #demolition #vincemcmahon #wrestlingdocumentary #legionofdoom
20 Comments
And Demolition’s original concept came through Randy Colley, so the visual wasn’t “let’s copy the Road Warriors” so much as another wrestler looking at the same pop-culture source material and landing in a similar place.
I didn’t really learn about the road warriors until the invention of the internet. Gotta say hawk and animal had the total package and checked every box except for being extremely technical wrestlers but Bret Hart had that ability and could never really rise above being a top mid card guy so it was an afterthought.
Demolition may have been wildly successful but the road warriors were definitely the kings of the tag team wrestling.
Vince McMahon’s Secret War: The Truth Behind Demolition and The Road Warriors
Havah's Wrestling Documentary
7,002 views
In 1987, The Road Warriors were the most feared and most expensive tag team in wrestling. So Vince McMahon didn't hire them — he cloned them.
This is the untold corporate story of how Demolition (Ax & Smash) was created not as a tribute, but as a weapon to break Hawk & Animal's negotiating power and prove that in the WWF, no one was bigger than the brand.
From their god-like run in the AWA and NWA under Paul Ellering, to the closed-door contract war with Jim Crockett Promotions, to the day the Legion of Doom finally surrendered to Vince — and paid the price.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
01:06 Section 1: The gods of the Territories
03:14 Section 2: The Price Tag Vince Refused to Pay
05:24 Section 3: Inside the Clone Lab
07:36 Section 4: The WWF's Homegrown Monsters
09:35 Section 5: The Shadow War
11:14 Section 6: The Surrender
13:10 Section 7: The Clone vs. The Original
15:34 Conclusion: Aftermath: Who Really Won?
This is Havah's Wrestling Documentary — where we treat wrestling like the corporate thriller it always was.
#roadwarriors #demolition #vincemcmahon #wrestlingdocumentary #legionofdoom