Long before the “Spider-Man Pointing at Spider-Man” meme came along, pro wrestling’s answer to that was the 1988 feud between the Road Warriors and their much larger doppelgängers, the Powers of Pain.
Comprised of the Warlord and Barbarian, they were nearly mirror images of Hawk and Animal — if the Warriors were each 30 pounds heavier and a few inches taller. Just before they were to begin a series of scaffold matches against the Warriors, the Powers of Pain bolted from Jim Crockett Promotions. Considering
how an encounter with Hawk and Animal on a scaffold went for manager Jim Cornette in 1986, it was probably a wise decision.
In the summer of ’88, Warlord and Barbarian came to WWE, where they seemed destined to displace Demolition as the tag team champions. But that never happened. By 1990, the two behemoths were split up and repackaged as singles wrestlers, though the reason was never fully revealed to Warlord.
“The only reason that they told us is they wanted one to work with Ultimate Warrior and one to break off and work with Hulk Hogan. That’s what they wanted,” Warlord said in a 2023 interview with WSI. “I had matches with the Hulkster, which went really well, and the places were packed. But I really don’t know a lot of things that happened behind the scenes at that time.”
And so each man received a gimmick refresh. The Barbarian was reinvented in the mold of Conan the Barbarian. Meanwhile, the Warlord, now managed by Slick, was made to look like the Phantom of the Opera on steroids.
Thanks to his new look, which showed off his legs for the first time, the 6’5″ Warlord looked like an absolute monster. He had Sequoia-sized thighs, a brick wall for a chest and back, a powder keg of a belly, and two Civil War cannons for arms.
In short: to call him massive doesn’t even begin to describe how ginormous he actually was.
As titles go, his biggest accomplishment was winning the NWA Six-Man Titles with the Barbarian and former WWE Champion Ivan Koloff. In WWE, he was a perennial contender for Bret Hart’s Intercontinental Title.
Despite having the look of a prototypical WWE superstar at the time, the Warlord never won gold. In the 1989 Royal Rumble match, he was eliminated in just two seconds. During his singles run, his most memorable feud was against fellow powerhouse the British Bulldog. His biggest win on pay-per-view was over former Intercontinental champ Tito Santana at SummerSlam in 1990.
By 1992, he was gone.
Indeed, his championship resume was light and his run as a solo star was brief. But titles and longevity aren’t the only measures of impact. As a character on a Saturday afternoon wrestling show, the Warlord commanded attention every time he stepped into the ring. A towering force with a sinister laugh, he made tossing jobbers look like an Olympic sport.
In appreciation of his awesomeness, we salute you, oh mighty Warlord.
