WWE: Road Warrior Animal’s Cause of Death Revealed

On Wednesday, WWE announced, Joe Laurinaitis, also known as Road Warrior Animal died at the age of 60. The cause of death was not revealed, but TMZ was able to obtain more information on what led to his passing. The outlet reported that Laurinaitis died on Tuesday night due to natural causes. Law enforcement told TMZ the WWE Hall of Famer died at Tan-Tar-A Resort in Osage Beach, Missouri.

Police received a call around 11:49 p.m. local time from Laurinaitis’s wife. However, when deputies arrived on the scene, Laurinaitis was declared dead. When WWE made the announcement, a number of current and for wrestlers paid tribute to Laurinaitis, including Hulk Hogan.

“RIP Animal, love you, my brother,” Hogan said in a statement Wednesday morning. “I know you and Hawk have a lot of unfinished business to take care of! God speed and blessings to your beautiful family, one love4Life.” Laurinaitis was one half of the famous tag team The Road Warriors, who also went by Legion of Doom in WWE. Along with his tag-team partner, Road Warrior Hawk, who died of a heart attack in 2003, The Road Warriors won multiple titles in different promotions. In WWE, the team won the WWF Tag Team Championship twice.

“With their intimidating face paint, outfits covered in metal spikes and an impressive array of power moves, the duo captured titles and destroyed opponents wherever they roamed,” WWE said in a statement when talking about the Hall of Fame tag team. “Their dominance made them so popular that the phrase ‘Road Warrior pop’ has been used in locker rooms to describe particularly deafening reactions from the crowd ever since.”

Recently, Laurinaitis was making appearances in Sportskeeda’s Legion on Raw podcast and shared his thoughts on today’s WWE. In August, right before it was reported Brock Lesnar was no longer part of WWE, Laurinaitis explained why the former WWE champion hasn’t been seen on TV.

“Brock doesn’t want to go back there because of the COVID thing… coming down from Canada, he can’t,” he said. “He lives in Canada, so there’s no traveling allowed. I know people see that, and they go ‘Brock Lesnar should be here.’ No, he’s living in Canada. He has dual citizenship. You can’t cross the border right now. So that’s why he’s not on TV.”