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AN ENCOUNTER WITH ROAD WARRIOR ANIMAL

All college football fans know what occurs on January 8, 2007.  The mighty Ohio State Buckeyes attempt to win their second national championship this millennium as they take on the Florida Gators.  One of the OSU standouts this season has been a sophomore linebacker named James Laurinitis, winner of this year’s college defensive player of the year award.

To help kick off the week-plus of anticipation for the big game, Joe Laurinitis, James’ father, spent all day Saturday, December 30, traveling to several places in Ohio to sign autographs.  To the casual wrestling fan, or complete stranger to the business, as well as to most football fans, this means virtually nothing.  To all true aficionados of the wrestling business, this is a tremendous event, as Joe Laurinitis is better known as one half of the greatest tag team of all time—he is Road Warrior Animal.

To say I am an Animal fan would be an understatement.  I was twelve when the Road Warriors hit the scene and they will forever go down as my all-time favorite wrestlers.  The chance to meet Animal and get his autograph was already exciting to me, but my six year old son, Nathan, added to that excitement twenty-fold.

My son is a big Road Warriors fan.  Keep in mind he does not watch wrestling, nor has he ever seen the Warriors in a match.  He found my old ‘Legends of Wrestling’ video game for Gamecube several months ago, and his favorite wrestlers on the game are the Warriors.  It just so happened, I had an old Warriors tee-shirt for early 1990’s WCW that I gave him.  He wears it every night to bed.

When I told Nathan this past Tuesday we were going to meet Animal, he was thrilled.  He dug up his Animal action figure and has been talking about it all week.  Saturday morning, however, Nathan woke up vomiting.  He vomited several times Saturday morning and did not get to go meet Animal at noon.

I and his sister went.  I took his old tee-shirt, as well as two old wrestling magazines from 1984, to bring back autographs.  Nathan was crushed, as was I.  The thrill of meeting Animal would not be the same without Nate.

Animal arrived on time at the Cardboard Heroes in the Dayton , Ohio , mall, wearing his face paint and shoulder pads.  There were about thirty to forty people in line waiting, mostly due to the fact Cardboard Heroes has never been very good about publicizing autograph signings.  When we got to Animal, he was very nice, allowed my thirty-one year old brother to put the shoulder pads on, took pictures with us, and signed my son’s tee-shirt, “To Nathan”.  He was very cool.

After we got our autographs, our families went to the food court to eat.  At 12:45, I realized Animal would be leaving at 1:00 p.m., and I also realized, from years of taking my son to get Bengal autographs, that there would be no line towards the end of the session.  We went back to the store, and Animal was still there.  We walked up to him, I explained my sick son’s situation and how he was going to hate missing meeting Animal.  I went out on a limb and asked him to talk to Nathan on my cell phone.  Without hesitation, Animal said no problem.

I called home and had my wife wake Nathan up.  Animal talked to him for about two minutes, telling him to get better, that he was sending some cool pictures to him, and that he would pray for him.  The last item was a request my son had made earlier because he knew Animal, like us, is a saved, spiritual person.

When I came home from the mall, my son was still sick, but very excited he got to talk to Animal.  Animal didn’t have to do that.  He certainly didn’t have to do it for free.  But he did.  It was quite an experience, and Animal is a tremendous guy.  For all the Road Warrior matches I have watched since 1983, and I remember Animal’s solo debut in the Village People denim S&M get-up on WTBS, the thing I will remember Animal for most is taking a few minutes to make a sick child’s day.

Contact Greg Stephens at gstep77507@aol.com