When June 1990 rolled around, The Road Warriors made their long-awaited jump to WWE as the rebranded Legion of Doom. Almost instantly, the chatter surrounding Road Warriors vs. Demolition picked up steam. Unfortunately for wrestling fans, neither the rivalry nor the matches lived up to the hype. 

Smash believes McMahon made the wrong creative decision by introducing Animal and Hawk as babyfaces against the heel trio of himself, Ax, and Crush. 

“I thought that was the biggest mistake ever,” Smash said of LOD debuting as good guys. “They put us together — it didn’t mean anything. These two top teams are going against each other, and it just felt like a regular tag match. 

“If they would have kept us apart and kept us as babyfaces, and let those guys be whoever the crowd wanted them to be, and eventually put us against each other, it would have been a huge match and would have worked better.”

Smash then proceeded to compare McMahon’s handling of LOD vs. Demolition to Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan — another dream match that never lived up to the billing, and was also scrapped from the WrestleMania 8 card. Smash said he was excited when he heard Animal and Hawk were joining WWE, but everything that followed was “a huge letdown.”

“It was a letdown for those guys, too,” Smash argued. “The issue is — they were trying to kill us off, and the fans were not letting that happen. They wanted Road Warriors over as babyfaces, but those guys were heels. That [rivalry] could have taken us to a whole new level. Instead, things went the other way, and it made us worse.”